Assembled to play were a couple of new faces but here was the line up…
Bryan in goal (First half)
Golden sweeping
New guy on right fullback
Eric (New guy Brit) left full back
Cris right halfback
Mo in central midfield
Tedd in central midfield
Gene a left halfback
Bernie up top
Karl M up top
Mooch
Q ‘s friend
Peter Z
and Steve Harris started on the bench.
It was clear we had a great defensive line up and could control the ball. All through the first half we were pressing and Bryan rarely had an opportunity to touch the ball. Kendall, who was playing Keeper for Braddock, on the other hand, had his work cut out for him. Bernie pulled the trigger on a couple of shots that went high...and we had others…
With four subs Mooch had to make a few changes to the line-up to get everyone on the pitch. He pulled Gene and sent in Q’s friend. Then he added Peter Z up top for Karl, and worked Steve in as right back. Later, Mooch would join the side for Mo.
We were dominating the half, it wasn’t clear why we were not stretching the net. Kendall was making a few saves...but they were soft...he just wasn’t being challenged by the shots. On a breakaway, Bryan was challenged once and make a great blocking save from point blank range while back peddling.
Mooch came on and began playing in the right halfback position and Cris slid into the center with Tedd. It was clear he wasn’t being heavily defended on the right so a few passes came through to him. He was feeding it forward into space...and on three separate occasions the strikers were called for offsides… Very close calls, wish we has some line judges or instant replay to see them again. All of them looked good to Mooch.
The opening score came when we were in the box, the cross came in from the left, Mooch was running onto it from the right. Peter was close and with those long legs had a play on the ball. Mooch yelled for him to leave...and was surprised when he did. Mooch hit it cleanly and lifted it up and toward the left corner. Kendall had taken a step off his line and immediately recognized his mistake. He back peddled and reach for it..but it was too high and dropped under the crossbar. The Orangemen had scored. 1 to 0. Just before the break, some would say after time had elapsed, Braddock had a break… With our sweeper out of position, it was a one on one with Bryan. Bryan had defended two similar breaks early on...but this one he was back peddling and the striker got a soft shot off to the far right post. It carried in. The half ended and to start the second half we continued our dominance. Bryan started up top...and along with Bernie and a few more chances…
In the end both teams held...but the Orangemen had far more chances… Mooch can’t complain about the passing and the control because we dominated. It’s hard to say why we didn’t score a few more. But...as always...a tie is better than a loss and had we not been out there playing well...Braddock would have easily done damage to us. Great game Orangemen.
Oh...I forgot to mention the Red Card. This year the ref is going to give a Yellow card for dissent to try to keep the game under control early on. A yellow card for dissent is one thing...but if you keep up the dissent and earn a Red Card there is no real excuse. Players who can’t keep their mouth shut, can’t keep their emotions under control. Hot heads are who the league is looking to suppress. A lot of changes coming this year...including more liability safeguards up to and including insurance...which will definitely increase game costs…
So...our last Red Card was Feb 2015 (I believe that was our Bolivian Rancher). Now we’ve dropped our consecutive days without a Red to zero. I have to report to the league what happened...and then assess where to go from there...in the past a Red Card for two yellows might not result in a two game suspension. Two yellow cards for dissent...absent any violence is a new one on me. I will have to consult with the team elders before I pass judgement.
