Match Report – 11 April 2010 – Match Day 11
Dinamo Red Star (Pratt PK x2, Campos) | 3 – 3 | Wilshire Athletic
After the come from behind, grudge match victory over Overworld, we were prime for a bit of a let down. What an understatement. Wilshire Athletic currently sits in last place and feeling overly gracious, we gifted them 2 goals in the first half, played down to their level and then gave them another goal at the start of the 2nd half. To be fair, we were horribly flat from the start and their midfielder beat 3 of our guys before sending in an absolute laser. Probably the goal of his life time as he did absolutely nothing for the remainder of the game.
Struggling to field eleven, even after adding 4 new players to the roster, there is no wonder as to why we have a mediocre record this season. I’m even detailing the other team’s goals as they are more exciting. Yikes.
Okay, looking at the positive, our new additions (Ari, Austin, Marcus & Matt) add further quality and have had an immediate, positive impact. Welcome Matt Speiser. Another lefty, Matt’s work rate was excellent and he thus worked over the left side. With only ten expected players, Alex was more than a welcome and unexpected sight on Sunday. He was cleared to play a half and came out barely skipping a beat, even after missing 5 games.
We gave them two thirds of the game, but in the final 30 minutes we finally switched on. We had chances, but failed to finish. They grew tired, frustrated and realized they were outmatched. Relying on cheap fouls and dirty hacks to stop our attacks…resulting in two penalties. Sean stepped up both times and easily beat their keeper both times. Both penalties resulted in red cards, the second was so nasty that you could see the stud and sole imprints on Billy’s knee from their keeper. Billy recovered and scored the tying goal. Unfortunately, we switched on too late and could only manage a draw.
Our roster is too deep with talent for us to play as we have been prior to this weekend. Show up in numbers, prepared and with desire and we will finish top three this season. By now we should all have a chip on our shoulder. We are the reigning champions and we’ve allowed other teams to slap us around. That ends now.
