Traveled with the women to play Manchester on their Senior Day. Lovely day and a lovely field to play on; Manchester head coach Dave Good also runs the grounds department at the college and it shows---a beautiful campus and playing fields. We're missing top scorer Ameer Yusuf to card accumulation so we're playing with former right back Tamru Taye as striker.
We start brightly (as usual), dominant in possession and territory and Evan Elko gets down the right and plays a super ball across that Irhad Stika somehow plays against the post and then wide on the rebound. Tamru has a chance from an angle that goes wide. The opposing coaches are yelling at their team for being 'too casual' which usually mean they're trying to play soccer against us and losing the battle. Half ends 0-0.
At halftime I warned that Manchester would come out and try to deal with us directly and physically, which has been the normal response of our opponents all year. We're caught napping by a long ball over the top in the 47th minute to their #10, Dion Radev, who finishes. Less than a minute later we're still stunned when they run a ball through our backs and finish for 2-0. We do recover and resume playing until Mike Carroll gets a second yellow for a bad challenge and we're down to 10 men. Still, we play and Alex Ferreira finds Tamru with a ball over the top which Tamru finishes with an impressive left foot volley lob for 2-1with 12 minutes left. We get some more pressure on them and Tamru has a chance in the 89th minute which goes just wide. Half chances for Irhad and David Jones follow but the game ends 2-1. Stats show the teams level on shots with us having the edge in shots on target despite playing a man down for 25 minutes-
but another frustrating result.
We're still alone in 4th in the HCAC and in control of our destiny but we face 2nd place Rose Hulman this Wednesday with conference leading scorer Clint Vaterrodt who stands 6'8' tall. Both our central defenders are a foot shorter. Wins in our 2 remaining games will see us into the conference tournament but less than that ?
When I sum up the season in this space and with the guys I will certainly discuss the problem we've had with cards this year. Far too many important games missed. We get Ameer back this week but we lose Mike Carroll for both remaining regular season games. Improvisation will be the word this week.
We start brightly (as usual), dominant in possession and territory and Evan Elko gets down the right and plays a super ball across that Irhad Stika somehow plays against the post and then wide on the rebound. Tamru has a chance from an angle that goes wide. The opposing coaches are yelling at their team for being 'too casual' which usually mean they're trying to play soccer against us and losing the battle. Half ends 0-0.
At halftime I warned that Manchester would come out and try to deal with us directly and physically, which has been the normal response of our opponents all year. We're caught napping by a long ball over the top in the 47th minute to their #10, Dion Radev, who finishes. Less than a minute later we're still stunned when they run a ball through our backs and finish for 2-0. We do recover and resume playing until Mike Carroll gets a second yellow for a bad challenge and we're down to 10 men. Still, we play and Alex Ferreira finds Tamru with a ball over the top which Tamru finishes with an impressive left foot volley lob for 2-1with 12 minutes left. We get some more pressure on them and Tamru has a chance in the 89th minute which goes just wide. Half chances for Irhad and David Jones follow but the game ends 2-1. Stats show the teams level on shots with us having the edge in shots on target despite playing a man down for 25 minutes-
but another frustrating result.
We're still alone in 4th in the HCAC and in control of our destiny but we face 2nd place Rose Hulman this Wednesday with conference leading scorer Clint Vaterrodt who stands 6'8' tall. Both our central defenders are a foot shorter. Wins in our 2 remaining games will see us into the conference tournament but less than that ?
When I sum up the season in this space and with the guys I will certainly discuss the problem we've had with cards this year. Far too many important games missed. We get Ameer back this week but we lose Mike Carroll for both remaining regular season games. Improvisation will be the word this week.
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