September 30, 2012

Today's Moon Festival match against Scunners was an enjoyable one (to watch, at least) that not only was a warm-up for next weekend's tourney, but also gave an almost entirely-new squad the chance to work together--thanks to the fact that we were missing about 60% of our usual starting line-up.

The squad was a mix of regulars like Laurent, Chris, Artem, Eugene, Gary, Seth and Oscar, guys who had been away for a while like Cathal, Cesar and Jose, recent additions like Derek and HK, and one new arrival--defender Casey, who I'd like to welcome to Compass.

Scunners showed up with one of the best teams I've seen them field (assisted by Tubbies Rashid and Mikey as well), all kitted out in their new uniforms with about 6 subs, whereas we started the first half with just the 11 on the pitch (later joined by a couple more, including a birthday-partied-out Artem). Nevertheless, Compass scored first, when Cesar put in an emphatic goal about 6 minutes in. Unfortunately, a nice bicycle kick by Cesar a few minutes later didn't also go in. Despite relatively strong, controlled play from our side with some good short passing and lots of possession, things didn't go our way for most of the remaining 39 minutes. At the 13-minute mark Scunners put a ball around our wall on an indirect to score their first, followed by another goal at the 21-minute mark, and a PK in the 28th.

Despite the 1-3 score at half, there wasn't too much hand-wringing on our side, as I think most of us understood we could get things done in the second half. That we did, with the defense--anchored by Chris--keeping Scunners out of our net despite some scary close-calls. On the offensive line, our Irish midfielder Cathal--playing as a forward in this case--gets my vote for Man of the Match after he put in 2 goals in the 60th and 77th minutes to leave us tied with Scunners 3-3 at the final whistle. Cathal's first was a nice header into the left corner on a corner kick by Seth. On the second, Cesar worked his way past 2-3 defenders in the box and handed the ball off the Cathal for the final finish.

Given the strong showing by Scunners and our mixed-up side that had virtually no experience playing together, I was very pleased with the final outcome. Incidentally, we will meet Scunners again next weekend in our group play, when I'm certain they won't get off as easy as they did today.

In the next couple days, please reply to me or Hans and let us know if you can this Saturday and/or Sunday in Taipei at the Taiwan Autumn Cup tournament this weekend. I hope most of you can make it and think it will be a very fun, great weekend of football.

Once again, good job today, men! GO COMPASS!

Doug