Orangemen Play Total Futball vs Internazonale

Last night at the Stadia de Arrowbrook, the Orangemen took on Internazionale in what would be an exciting end to end exhibition of soccer. The referee commented at the end of the match that it was one of the highest quality matches he has refereed in our division.  I can’t put my finger on it exactly what was happening last night but I might say the Orangemen were playing total futbal.  Meaning although we had positions assigned, the players were really playing wide open and were moving about the field where they needed to be.  The only two players who were staying at home were Karl and Greg, at right and left fullback respectively.  Greg Z was certainly a candidate for player of the match, several players who have not appeared in a while noticed his skills having improved considerably throughout the summer months.

The other thing that was a bit different about last night is we had two Olivera’s show up to play.  Those of us familiar with the Orangemen know that Jose the elder has been a significant fixture on the Orangemen in years past, but has chosen to spend more time overseas in Afghanistan than picking up the Orangemen level of play.  He’s got his priorities in order.  Many of you probably don’t know that Jose the Elder probably had a career in Pro Sports had his priorities not been in order after he graduated from West Point and decided to serve his country with distinction.  All was not for naught athletically because Jose Sr. was recognized for his athleticism in 2008 by being inducted into the West Point Hall of Fame for his contributions to the West Point Lacrosse team  

http://www.goarmysports.com/genrel/082808aaa.html

He’s a real athlete and an American hero and it’s always an honor when he steps onto the pitch with us.  

But I’m not done, Jose the elder brought his son Jose the younger with him last night.  The younger has played with us a few times throughout the years when he wasn’t in France, or Mexico, or the Dominican Republic playing pro-basketball.  That’s right, not soccer, but pro-hoops.  You can check out his stats at this link and some news footage at the second link.

http://www.eliteprohoops.com/jose-olivero.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFb69aChdZg

Regardless, even though we were playing soccer, the presence of a pro-athlete on the pitch could not be mistaken, nor could the presence of his Hall of Famer Dad.

Between the two Olivera’s, with the speed of Ben, John H, and B, with Tedd’s fineness on the ball, the rest of us Orangemen only had to fill in the holes.

Our defense rocked including the contributions from Gene playing  between the posts.  The first goal they scored was a fantastic shot, perhaps unstoppable, but their second goal game off a well played ball over the top that caught Gene way off his line.  Easily stoppable had Gene stayed at home, but it was a tremendous take because no one on the pitch though the attacker was evening thinking about going over the top at that point in his run.  He showed great skill, but it was definitely a soft goal.  Internazionale had plenty of opportunities though, but Gene was up to the task and made some really good saves by being exactly in the right position. 

And speaking of opportunities we had plenty.  Most of those came off of crosses from the right and some frequent corner kicks.  Johnny H was using his speed to get to the ball but was unable to direct the ball true.  We also had headers coming in from both Ben and Jose the Younger as they streaked into the box and lept into the air.  We just needed a bit of luck and a few more goals would have dropped for us.

Choosing a man of the match this evening is hard, but I think I will split the honors between Ben’s-in-Ben and Johnny Rocket who could outrun just about everyone on the pitch in the defensive third.  Both of them tirelessly ran end to end, getting up on the attack and then racing back, sometimes deep into our defensive corners to thwart an attack.

I am not ready to change our game philosophy to total football yet...but don’t think I haven't considered it seriously.  Those of you played with my indoor squad, BoB FC, know we played total football.  No positions, everybody just went for it.  And it produced some extremely competitive and exciting matches.   What I believed we needed last night was one more thing.  And that thing was one more final pass in the final third.  Not two, but one more pass.

By my count we created five opportunities to score when that one final pass to the open player occurred up top.  Whether that was a touch back to the 18 or a cross in.  Of those five, B finally got on the end of one and was able to finish, not without a heroic last sliding touch of individual effort, but it opened up for him based on the pass.    On the other side of the coin we had over ten additional opportunities where the final pass was not offered and the defense shut down the person who thought they would go it alone.  This was producing frustration within our ranks when the Orange Attacker went it alone as the defense massed leaving as many as three unmarked Orangemen standing alone on the opposite side of the box.  What happens then is the attackers simply give up.  Why anyone would think Mooch would try to go it alone, however, is beyond me.  However, after a full game of attackers making the run into the box and the cross never coming over or out to  them, when Mooch was on the break and played a perfect ball into the top of the box, literally no one made the run. That’s the tell-tale sign of frustration.  Some might argue that Mooch was simply too fast on that run and beat everyone up the field to the box,  yeah, right.

So Internazionale was fast, very fast.  The only way to beat them was to keep the ball moving.  When we kept it moving we dominated position...except, again, for the final attack.  One more pass would have outdone them, I’m convinced of it.  My motto going forward is going to be, "One More Pass".  Remember it, you're going to hearing a lot of it.

I want to give some credit to Ernesto who played with us for the first time.  And Will H was taking our free kicks for us and doing a fine job.  Alfredo also had a fine game, making tackles and helping with our position game.

There was a little criticism of Internazionale being a team that fouls a lot.  I remember them from our last game... a physical team and there did seem to be a lot of body contact prior to the ball arriving.    However, they seemed to be distracted with scoring another goal and were just playing good soccer.  Don’t know what would have happened in we would have scored a second or even went up on them...their frustrations only surfaced once or twice...and they really started yelling at each other...but for the most part they didn’t take it out on us.  I think, however, free kicks were about even on the match.

Overall it was a great game, final score was 1 to 2.  A frustrating loss since it was a winnable game for us.

The Kill Chain - Orangemen vs Mt. Vernon

It was another epic Orangemen match-up with Mt Vernon, and although the result was not entirely satisfactory, it was fun game with excellent contribution by all.  Only minor breakdowns and each end of the field held us from victory.

The ref started us promptly at 9, which was a pleasant surprise, and was an indication of a match that was about to be very well refereed.  We drew first blood, but they drew more (literally and figuratively – four stitched for those who were making odds).  

In the military, we have a doctrinal approach to training our weapons on target, that we describe as “the kill chain”.  Loosely, this is the steps that need to be taken to destroy the objective (search, identify, track, target, engage, check – in all these steps speed is highly valued).  Last night, our first goal had a chain of its own, that should prove the model for our future attacks.  The chain consisted of at least five deft Orangemen passes from our defending end into the Mt Vernon eighteen.  Forgive me if I miss a pass or two, but the right back (Matt at the time) advanced the ball on the right outside to Dave who was nicely dropping back to “show” and one-timed it to Ben, who in classic Ben style controlled the ball through a challenging Mt Vernon player or two and fed the ball to Tedd as he approached our right side of their eighteen.  After shifting the ball left (any surprise?), Tedd was thinking shot, but, out of the corner of his eye saw Kendal, who slipped inside the Mt Vernon right back.  So Tedd made the easy play and nudged him the ball.  After a quick move further left, Kendal blasted the ball past a helpless keeper.  It was early, it was fast, and we were on top 1-0.

After that, Mt Vernon responded with two goals of their own.  Three of the Mt Vernon goals were top-notch, skilled control, from inside to out, smart passes across our six (one in the air), with unstoppable finishes. The other two, were preceded by our failure to rapidly/aggressively clear the ball.  Second first-half goal was similar to the first culminating with an easy pass to Alfredo, who on our right side of the Mt Vernon eighteen, made a skilled move to his right, then beat the keeper low far post.  At halftime we were down 3-2.

Our shortcomings at the offensive end were characterized by poor execution and on occasion pressing an attack that was not developing in a controlled fashion (e.g., Tedd’s mediocre shot near the keeper when just inside the eighteen, the ball shifted to his left foot, and the defenders momentum right; and repeated forced passes through).  However, those were balanced by solid play exemplified by another classic “kill chain” and by a set piece play.  In the former, John Herbert (who after stymieing us in the first half, was back on our side) fed Tedd the ball in our defensive right towards the touch line.  Meanwhile, John Hamner, exploiting the open field on the left, called for the ball, received a cross from Tedd, and advanced through the midfield unopposed.  Once challenged, he made a sharp pass to Matt, who had nicely showed inside and one timed it back outside to John, who was streaking into our left outside of their eighteen.  John collected the ball, shifted left, and blasted one of the hardest Orangemen shots seen in quite a while into the upper left ninety.  Because the ball kept rising until well passed the fence, was so fast (light speed time-warp phenomenon), and the net was poorly hung letting the ball through, there was some confusion (on the part of some players) if it was a goal or not.  But there was no doubt on the part the ref, keeper, John, and those who saw the net ripple from being nicked as the ball shot through.  3-3.

The set piece was a gorgeous direct-kick cross from just inside their half on our right side by Ben to Tedd, who was just outside our left of their six.  He deflected the ball down to beat the keeper low, nearside.  We were up 4-3.  A while later, they knotted the score with a direct kick initially vectoring wide, when in an effort to get out of its way, Peter (who was now augmenting the Mt Vernon side), turned his back and the ball smacked off him and spun into the upper left corner – nothing Jean could do.  4-4.

Their final goal in the waning moments was skilled, and frustrated a stellar defense by Jan, Mikey, John Herbert, and Greg.  Special thanks to John Herbert and Peter for helping Mt Vernon field 11, special mention to Matt for being a utility player with strong showings at both ends of the field, and a shout-out to the dozen young kids who graced the field during half-time!  In summation, it was an excellent game which could have easily gone our way, but we should be proud of strong Orangemen play.

Finally, Tedd is extremely grateful for the care and kind attendance to his cut by Cori Ann, the Aldykiewiczes, Kendal, and everyone!

(Oh – lest Mooch have visions of Tedd subbing as scribe, it will only be on rainy Sunday afternoons when Tedd is kept from the pool by stitches in his eyebrow resulting from last minute Mt Vernon inadvertent elbows)

Orangemen vs Alianza on an Otakon Weekend

Was it summer vacation, the new field in Herndon, or perhaps everybody was up in Baltimore attending Otakon 20. Whatever the reason, at 7:56 last night, four minutes before kickoff, only 6 Orangemen and 3 Alianza had materialized for the game. Mooch, who spent 14 hours at Otakon yesterday, and had been back to Baltimore already today, and was due back to pick up his Otaku and her friend up at 10pm was at the pitch early, at 7:30pm, and found the referee was already there looking for ways to canx the game. He was the ref that called the game on account of the Thunderstorm being 30 miles away three weeks ago, meanwhile we had sustained the worst injuries of year on in that first half of play. Just a general rule, the refs seem to be tightening things up, we’ve had several ask that we take off or tape our rings and I’ve seen more shin pad inquires than I’ve ever seen before.

Eventually we had enough to field a team but only 7 Alianza showed up. So we offered them 3 players to even out the sides. Mooch called on Maurico and Gooch 1 (Mike) and Gooch 2 ( Anne) to bring total team strength to 10 on both sides...with no subs. However kickoff didn’t happen until 8:18. The ref was in good spirits and didn’t deduct any time for such a late start and one positive aspect of his super risk aversion was his policy not to allow the other team to pick-up ringers on the sidelines. And the Arrowbrook field is full of ringers...so it was a good policy.

All in all it was a fun game...but Alianza with Mauricio and the Gooches still crushed us 3 to 7, although I thought we scored a 4th. And we stayed with them until a few questionable calls and one horrendous missed handball in their penalty box, broke our spirit...it just wasn’t going to be our night.

However, no matter how fun the game was, there was still a lot of frustration on the pitch last night....meaning the Orangemen had room for improvement. I’ll start at the top and try to get through the match as best I can remember.

First...let's get this out of the way...if you show up late you don’t get a chance to warm up and you get no touches on the ball you can't be frustrated when things don't go your way.  I’ll tell you three players who showed up early and had plenty of practice and warm-up touches. The Gooches and Maurico. They were the first to arrive, pay, dress, and start practicing. Gooch 2 even gave Dave N a hug, while she was handing me cash.  Gooch 1 wondered why he didn’t get in on any of that action.  But Anne was in great sprits and it showed on the pitch...ven after Mooch stomped on her foot early in the first half.  Not only did she get 13 hours of sleep the night before, she had a good warm-up.  And it was probably a mistake on Mooch’s part to hand Alianza the players with the most warm-up, however, I do my best to rotate those folks I ask to play for the opposition and and their numbers came up.

So we had a few players show up so late they got no warm-up, none, zero, zilch, nada, zippy touches on the ball before playing. Kendall, John H, and Matt were among the guiltiest but we had a few other’s sauntering up to the field at well past kickoff, and only the late whistle afforded them any warm-up whatsoever. But at kickoff, the 10 who took the field for Orange were the 10 who walked off the field 90 minutes later. There would be no substitutes tonight. The weather was in our favor however, in the mid-70’s and dry, it was a perfect evening to play.  Slides were permitted and we would not be taking water breaks on the quarter. There are no quarters in Soccer...just ask Coach Lasso (Jason Sudeikis).  This is a must view video if you haven't seen the SNL skit.

Gene, Steve, John H, Matt, Jermaine, Jose, Mooch, Tommy, Dave N, Kendall comprised the team for Orange last night.

It wasn’t a bad side at all, and for the first half we were pretty evenly matched. Both sides had chances and we scored first of a ball floated in from the right with Jermaine getting on the end of it and floating it back across goal and over the keeper into the top corner. But Alianza had two terrific forwards with great ball control, speed, and really hard shots. It wasn’t long before they would equalize. Tommy scored the second goal on a ball he picked up at the top of the box on a feed from John, that Mooch let run between his legs (intentional or not), drawing the defenders to him. Tommy had a wicked strike curling the unstoppable ball into the top left corner of the net. Our third goal was came from a run Jose made on the left and he placed a hard and low cross in and Kendall got on the end of it scoring our third goal. It seemed however, that we scored more. We had plenty of shots. Matt got in the action, John H had one go high and one ring the post, Jermaine had shots, Kendall had opportunities, Jose had some opportunities, as did Tommy. Even with this many opportunities, we could have had more as our passing broke down in the final third with too many decision of our strikers to go it alone rather than making one more give and go to improve their field position. When the short pass came in the final third, and was played back to the striker, it always split the defense and created a shot on goal. This happened numerous times and could have happened a lot more. 

So criticism one...get to the field early and take some shots on goal. Criticism two, more passing in the final third makes soccer an easy game. And three, way too much sniping at each other for missing a pass or screwing up a play. Everyone made mistakes last night. No one should be critical of other Orangemen particularly when frustration sets in. Everyone is frustrated and the sniping only makes it worse.

Since we lost 3 to 7, I’m not awarding a man-of-the-match last night, unless I give it to Gooch for being involved in a number of the Alianza goals and scoring one himself. On the Orangemen I would almost give honorable mention to the player (Dave Strider) who was limping with two bad feet but still managed to feed six or more runs on the Alianza goal, that all, alas, went wanting...but they could have been magnificence ...and then he got in his car and drove back to Otakon...I hope everyone else went to Bertuccis.  Oh, and special thanks to the Adam's Family for bringing post-game watermelon!

Green Turtles Turned Blue are Really Orange

At 5 pm on Friday Tony, the Turtles manager. called me with the bad news. He had two players confirmed and was going to have to cancel the game. I asked him to give me an hour to find enough players to boost his side so we could continue with the match. At a minimum we would take the field without a ref and have a pickup game. 

It didn’t take long for the Orangemen to respond. With Peter coming from Baltimore with of few of his team to augment the Turtles, it would only take another five Orangemen to round out both teams. By six we had 4 of the necessary 5. By 8 pm we had another 9 committed to play. Luckily by game time on Saturday, a few of the 9 had backed down so on balance the total showing to make up the two sides was 26 players. Which is picture perfect on a perfect pitch for the first game of the fall season.

I’ll try to list out the sides to give everyone credit for showing to the match.

Orangemen playing in Orange

Mooch

Gene

Dave N

John Ham

Kendall

J (the Gazelle) Orangemen Guest

Mauricio

Steve H

Jose

Tedd O

Scott R

Tommy

Doug

Kurt

Orangemen Playing in Blue for the Green Turtles

Greg Z

John Herb

Will H

Peter

Orangemen Affiliates playing on the Turtles

John Herb’s friend Troy

Ceasar

Bernie

I would like to thank Tony for not canceling the game. As it was a Turtles home game they were responsible for paying for the ref and Tony took his responsibility seriously. But first we had to work out the colors for the game. Turtles could go either green or white, but there wasn’t more than 3 whites or green to be had. Mooch brought a box of blue practice jerseys but the ref was wearing blue and didn’t want to change. Finally the ref conceded and pulled on his yellow and black and the Turtles were all handed the blue practice tops. It finally looked like the game was going to happen.

Now onto the action.

The final score was 3 to 3. Anyone who has played any soccer at all doesn’t need to know much more. Any game that goes 3 to 3 was bound to be a fantastic match. And it was definitely a great game. We were evenly matched with both a combination of youthful players with some seniors sprinkled throughout both sides.

It was a nice cool night...foreshadowing cool fall evenings yet to come...and some cool rain fell late in the game further given us a taste of a magnificent fall evening.  Here are the highlights I can remember. Kendall had a great one v one with the keeper and scored a goal with outside of his left foot as the keeper charged out. Tommy had a header to score our second goal. But I’m going to split men of the match honors between Jose and John H for alternating between Stopper and Striker.

From the Turtles perspective, they had two questionable offsides calls that brought at least one but maybe two goals that perhaps should have been decided in their favor. However without the help of the ref Gene had a magnificent 1 v 1 save with his face that kept the game tied at 3 apiece.  John Herb played goal for the Turtles in the second half and we learned that even with two bum knees he can really punt a ball...also, he brought his buddy Troy to the match who is a fantastic player and was a significant factor in the Turtles attack. We are going to keep our eye on Troy for a future Orangemen signing. However, the highlight of the Turtles attack came from Casear who somehow got on the end of a cross at speed, and got his left foot up in time so sweep a rocketed cross into the net past Gene.

Tony stayed for the entire match...he said to keep the piece...but later conceded the game was so friendly and well mannered it wasn’t necessary. Again, a special thanks to the Turtles for hosting and letting us have a blast.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

It was my contention that spending the weekend playing in a soccer tournament will make you stronger.  Last weekend, whilst the Orangemen were having their match cut short due to the phantom thunderstorm, the Pentagon Team (coached by our very own Tedd the “Ogre” Ogren) and the Belvoir team (coached by our very own Judge “I can play with a separated shoulder” the Dredd Aldykiewicz), were playing in the first Wounded Warrior Soccer Tournament in Arlington.  Aside from the coaching, both teams are comprised of large segments of the Orangemen squad as we traditionally have drawn players from both sources.  Whereas both teams played three games over the weekend, the Pentagon Team advanced to the playoffs and played a fourth game.  Those who played soccer in that intense heat and stress live by the words of Kelly Clarkson, in that, "what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger".  It appears that at least one player didn’t die, but in fact, emerged stronger, much stronger than ever before. 

Our good friend Dave Nanney played in the soccer tournament.  He braved both days of heat and four soccer matches and even stayed to watch his other friends continue to play.  Dave love’s our beautiful game and the beautiful family that surrounds it.   Dave played for the Pentagon accumulated considerable field time in all four matches.  Many of those playing in the tournament could hardly walk on Monday morning...but did it kill Dave or make him stronger?  Fast forward a week and to our game against UnReal Fairfax.

During the week the game was always a bit touch and go.  The unReal Fairfax was having trouble getting to their numbers.  Mooch promised unReal we would produce extra numbers so they shouldn’t cancel by any means.  At game time on Saturday two things were clear.  unReal couldn’t produce a team and Mooch’s promise was about to be broken as the Orangemen couldn’t even get to 11 players either.  However thanks to the arrival of Peter and Ceasar the Orangemen pushed to 12 except that only permitted us the ability to provide unReal with a single player.  unReal had 4 regulars show for the game.  Mooch had to look the other way as they invited a few of the players who had gather for pickup onto the pitch.  Oddly, they unknowingly invited a player who had received a Red Card in a previous unrelated match.  The referee, who had been standing around wondering if there was going to be a game, and wondering if he was going to get paid, flagged the individual and was asked to leave the pitch.  With sufficient players now on the field the game started with the Orangemen giving unReal Steve to help balance the sides. 

I must also mention that before we assembled for the game five of the Orangemen showed up to help the Adam’s Family move into their new home in Fairfax.  With all those hands it took us less than an hour to empty the 26 foot truck...so with all the spare time on their hands, Alfredo and Mauricio when to the field early and played pick-up for an hour ahead of our game.

So at kickoff we had Peter, Dave, Tedd, Alfredo and Maurico, Matt, John H, Kendall, Ceasar, Mooch, and Gene rounded out the side. Steve played for unReal in his signature fullback position.

Once the game got rolling it was a lot of fun and fairly evenly matched.  The play was wide open and the ball was moving back and forth equally.  Highlights from the match include Matt having a spectacular run with a fantastic give-and-go to Tedd who pivoted on the ball as Matt continued his run into the box. Tedd played it back to him.  Matt controlled the ball at speed and entered the box easily breaking free of any defenders and wound up for what was sure to be a certain goal.  He connected well but the keeper anticipated the direction of the shot and moved to his right and making an impossible and miraculous saving.

Fortunately, Tedd was on and opened the scoring with a well placed left footed shot low and well away from the keeper into the bottom corner of the the net.  The game, however, can be evaluated on the number of missed shots the Orangemen had.

Mooch had a great shot opportunity but was unwilling to kick through the ball with his injured left hoof and pulled the shot well wide by trying to place it with is instep.  Instead he struck the ball with his heel...it didn’t hurt but it was a lame shot.  No pun intended.

When Johnny H was forward he had a great shot that went high and wide. Kendall missed several opportunities as did Ceasar.  Screams went out to Ceasar to pass the ball instead of trying to finish himself.  Late in the match we had scored three with twice that many going wanting.  We, however, were still losing 3 to 4.

As we only had eleven players there were no substitutes.  Everybody was playing despite their fitness or level of injury.  Mooch’s doctor told him not to play with his injured foot, but he ended up playing the full 90 minutes.  By the end of the match Mauricio and Alfredo were nearing 180 minutes of continuous play.  And of course Dave Nanney was at the full 90 playing the entire time up front as a striker.

In the closing minutes of the game we pressed forward.  The ball was played out wide on the right and Caesar used his speed on the break away to collect the ball and bring in an attack from the flank.  Everyone raced forward.  Caesar had the option to try to beat the keeper on the inside, like he had tried and failed to do previously, or pass the ball through the box and across the face of the goal.  He chose the second option. The ball came across the box screaming for an Orangemen player, any Orangemen who had legs left, to finish the ball past the keeper.

And there he was...arriving before anyone else.  The longest serving Orangemen on the pitch.  Dave Nanney arrived in the center of the box and turned Caesars cross straight into the net.  It was a spectacular goal for every reason.  Caesar made the right choice, Dave put himself in position to score in the last minute of the game.  Dave had the fitness and skill after a long 90 minutes to finish with style.  Dave had scored the tying goal of the match I contend last weeks tournament certainly did not kill him,  it made him stronger.  Dave is unanimously awarded Man of the Match Honors!