April 28, 2013

Hi Guys,

I think I was almost as surprised as the Tubbies were by our performance today, which was an amazing demonstration of Compass Spirit.

With the match moved to the small pitch because of standing water on the bigger one, we showed up with what can only be described as a skeleton squad--14 guys, minus players like Arnaud, Lukas, David, Ross and Laurent (who did show up for the final quarter). Tubbies, by contrast, had 99% of their "A" Team, with Darren the only starter out of action.

To my pleasant surprise, Compass played effectively against Tubbies from the first whistle, getting offensive chances while keeping the Tubbies threat to a minimum. However, an unlucky break in the second quarter saw Tubbies put one in our net, leaving the half-time score 0-1 against Compass.

Tubbies may have come out in the second half thinking that they could carry on from there, but it wasn't to be. With some extra urging from Ben, Compass came out hard and quickly got results. Just shy of 2 minutes into the half, Oto took a brilliant indirect kick from outside the box that sailed over the Tubbies wall and into the net. Less than 3 minutes later, Oto scored again with another rocket from over 20 yards out to give Compass the lead. Around the 54-minute mark, Cesar directed a very nice header into the net off a cross by Oto.

By this time, Compass had settled into a good short-passing game, working the ball effectively through the Tubbies defense. However, throughout the half Tubbies were determined to fight back and Rory, Sal, Teppei and Jose put some very powerful, accurate shots onto our goal, which led to several excellent saves by Gary, who deflected at least 2-3 good shots up and over our crossbar. At the 79th minute, Oto hammered the final nail in the Tubbies coffin with yet another screaming shot from over 20 yards out that Tubbies keeper Jon couldn't get his hands on.

Although Oto's hat trick and assist certainly makes him the Man of the Match, this was a strong team effort by all of the contributing Compass players, who fought aggressively for balls, repeatedly shut down Tubbies offensive drives, and created many scoring opportunities for us.

We can certainly use this as an encouraging preparation for this coming weekend's Taichung Spring Cup Tournament. I'll send out a separate email tomorrow, checking to see who can make it. This is it guys: We're ready and we're playing on our home pitch.

Let's bring home the Cup!!

Doug