October 14, 2012

Hi Guys,

Perhaps it was the shiny trophy sitting on the bench while we played, or the cheering skills of injured Robert watching from the sidelines, or the beautiful weather, or perhaps it was just the fact we showed up with a great squad, but Sunday's game against what was supposed to be the Huiwen first team turned into a 8-1 demolition of our opponents that surprised us all.

Undoubtedly, we did turn up with one of the strongest sides in many months. This included DJ, back in Taiwan for a visit to help us out; DJ's outstanding Oregon-based coworker Tom, who played for us once before; and three brand-new Compass arrivals that were all tremendous--Slovakian center midfielder Oto Zahumensky, Japanese strker Atsushi Nishiwaki, and French keeper Eric. A big WELCOME to all of you to the Compass Family! All five of these guys played key roles in Sunday's victory and quickly fit in on the pitch with their fellow Compass players.

Huiwen played aggressively but seemed a bit off from their level in previous encounters. This quickly became evident when Ben started off the scoring only 3:41 into the match after he scored off an assist by DJ, who put a hard header into the box. The next goal--Huiwen's only point for the match--arrived at 21 minutes when they scored off an indirect kick that was deflected and then shot into our net. This tied score only lasted 3 minutes, until Cesar scored on a nice long diagonal long pass by Tom. At this point, Atsushi came on as a forward and became the first Compass player to score on his first-ever touch on the ball, once again fed to him by Tom who out-hustled a swarm of defenders in the box. Six minutes later Atsushi scored another beautiful goal after he chipped the keeper.

The second half got even worse for Huiwen. Cesar got his second goal at the 62-minute mark on a nice through pass by Oto. Just 2 minutes later, Cesar scored again after Lukas made a hard drive down the end line from the right corner and handed it off. Lukas himself then got a goal at 75 minutes with a little header that popped over the keeper and under the bar. A minute later, Cesar scored his fourth goal, leading to fears on the sideline that we were working Huiwen over a little too much.

This thumping of a team that has given us much closer games in the past left everyone on a high. Everyone played very well with Compass not only outdoing Huiwen with its passing and control of the ball but, significantly, also out-muscling our opponents physically. A big congratulations to Cesar, whose four goals gives him an amazing total of nine scored over two weekends. Praise also goes to all our players on defense, midfield and offense, to the point where it's hard to single anyone out. In particular, I think we are extremely pleased with what our newest players bring to the team: Oto melded seamlessly into a center-midfield role with Arnaud and Laurent, physically dominated the area and distributed very well; Eric will be a good addition to Gary's services in the net; and Atsushi's back-to-back goals speak for themselves. DJ and Tom, we wish you were with us all the time, too.

Both HK and Chris unfortunately went off today with injuries and we hope they recover soon, in addition to Robert and Gary's sidelining injuries from last weekend. Keiron played a good chunk of the game with injuries from the tourney and still looked great.

It was said several times during the big post-game 7-11 beerfest but I'll state it again--this Compass team has the potential to do great things, perhaps things we've never done before. From what I'm observing right now, I'd like to see us set the record straight with our cross-town rivals and take on PE College in November, if scheduling permits. In addition, I'd still like to pursue a match with semi-pro side Taipower later, as I think this is the right group of guys to do that with.

I'm excited, guys! Let me know if you're IN or OUT for next Sunday's 3 p.m. home game against Tunghai University.

GO COMPASS!

Doug