Date
June 28, 2008
Participants
John Carroll, Edgar Flores, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Kevin Nieman, Ian Sayer, Wayne Smith, Cameron Tucker, Rob Tucker, Steve Tucker
Winners
Open
- Winner: Wayne Smith
- Runner up: Rob Tucker
Mary Jane
- Winner: Ian Sayer
- Runner up: Kevin Nieman
Report by Wayne Smith
After a one week delay, the June ASA Open in Northridge finally got underway at 10 AM on June 28th…sort of. The start time was 10 AM, but two players thought that the start time was 1 PM and a third had to be informed late the day before. In addition, the 12 predicted to show up and play had dropped to 10. Things continued to go wrong…the host had created a spreadsheet with all the fixtures, but with two players 90 minutes late and a printer that wouldn’t spit out the spreadsheet, the tournament was off to a sputter. The 10 players were formed into two groups of five. Group A was headed by seeded Wayne Smith. The four others were drawn at random and were Simon Hutchinson, Kevin Nieman, Munir Merchant and nine-year-old Cameron Tucker. Group B was headed by seeded John Carroll. Drawn into this group were Rob Tucker, Steve Tucker, Ian Sayer and Ed Flores.
Because of the miscommunication of the start time, the scheduled last set of games was played first. In addition, most other games were played as the players became available, so there wasn’t a strict order in the games. Simon Hutchinson and Kevin Nieman battled to a 0:0 tie. While both would continue with their defensive success, they would also see continued frustration in attack. In Group A’s other match, Munir Merchant beat Cameron Tucker 3:0. This was the first of four 0:3 losses for Cameron. In almost a magical way, Cameron gave up three goals fairly quickly, and then stopped his opponent cold. This pattern was repeated in every 1st round game he played. In Group B there was only one game played at this time, and it turned out to determine the winner of the group. Steve Tucker faced his brother, Rob. Rob got off to an early lead and held it until half-time. Steve scored in the second half, but couldn’t hold as Rob scored late to take the game 2:1. A bit later, Ian beat Ed 3:1. Ed took a 1:0 lead, but couldn’t hold on. Ed scored a goal early in his first game, and then, unfortunately, went into a drought that Ed hasn’t seen in ages, if ever: four straight games without scoring.
The next set played, in some fashion, saw Group A games Wayne vs. Munir and Kevin vs. Cameron. Wayne had more success against Munir than normal and won 3:0. Just the night before the two played to a very close 2:1 score. The two also had a 0:0 tie about two weeks earlier. In the other game, Cameron was again on the short end of a 0:3 score. Again, his opponent scored 3 quick goals only to be thwarted thereafter. Group B’s games were a tight 1:1 between Steve and John, and a 6:0 whitewash by Rob against Ed. Ed’s style is to attack and attack. If he gets behind he throws even more players forward. The result is usually lots of goals. Unfortunately for Ed, those goals belonged to Rob.
Set 3-ish saw Munir take the inside lane on the way to take second place in the group with a 1:0 win over Kevin. Munir shut out four opponents in his six games, only giving up goals against the two eventual finalists. Wayne’s scoring run continued as he beat Simon 3:0. In group B, John played to another 1:1 tie, this time with Ian and Steve beat Ed 3:0.
In the following set Group A’s games saw Cameron with another amazing 0:3 loss. Again he gave up 3 first half goals and then had another 2nd half clean sheet. This time it was Simon that was shut out in the second half. In the other Group A game, Wayne continued his scoring touch with a 5:1 win against Kevin. Kevin’s goal was the only one conceded by Wayne the entire day. Group B’s games saw Rob sneak by Ian 1:0 to clinch the group and John beat Ed 5:0. It just wasn’t Ed’s day. He unveiled his brand new UNAM Pumas team, scored early in his first game and then had no luck the rest of the day.
The final set of the first round saw a thriller 0:0 tie between Munir and Simon. Munir needed only a tie to end up in 2nd place, so it was up to Simon to attack. Attack he did and he managed to hit the woodwork six times in the 2nd half alone. Unfortunately for Simon, all six bounced away from the goal instead of inside it. In the other Group A game Wayne was the fourth straight player to be shut out in the second half against Cameron after scoring three early goals. Going into the final set in Group B, Steve was one point behind John. He needed help and a win to get into 2nd place. Fortunately for Steve Rob finished the first round undefeated and untied with a 3:1 win over John. Steve got what he needed with a 2:0 win over Ian.
The second round consisted of the second place finisher of Group A vs. the third place finisher of Group B and vice-versa. Steve beat Simon 2:0 and Munir squeaked out a 1:0 win over John. Sadly, Simon had a really rough day-his only goals came against Cameron. John had a bit more success on the day, with a big win over Ed and ties against Steve and Ian.
Steve then had to face Wayne and Munir had to play Rob. Rob ended Munir’s brilliant day with a 2:0 win and Wayne beat Steve by the same score. Munir ended the day with wins against long-time players Kevin and John, with a hard fought tie against Simon. The effort was good enough for a final-four finish. Steve ended up losing only to the eventual finalists, but he was probably at least slightly disappointed with his showing.
The final saw the winner of Group A play the winner of Group B. Wayne went through his group 4-0-0 with a +13 goal differential. Rob also went through his group 4-0-0, but with a +10 goal differential. The game was tight, with each side having only two really good chances for the whole game. Wayne managed to finish one of his chances. Rob wasn’t as lucky. Rob waltzed through to the final with four straight wins. Rob’s game seemed much stronger this day than last time he played in Southern California, despite his not playing with the Maryland group in about a year.
The first round of the Mary Jane competition saw Kevin beat Ed 1:0 with a golden goal. Ian topped Cameron 2:0 in the other game. Ed had a rough day with only one goal. Hopefully he won’t take it out on his Pumas team and he keeps playing with them until his luck turns. I suspect that this was Cameron’s first ASA tournament, and probably won’t be his last. It was a bit tough for him-not scoring a goal-but he’ll continue with the game, playing his father and little brother.
The Mary Jane final was a bit of an upset. Ian is new to our group, Kevin has several years of experience. But it was Ian that came away with a 1:0 win. Kevin had a rough time scoring on the day. Kevin was shut out four games in regular time (his 1:0 win against Ed was in extra time). Interestingly, he was the only one on the day to score on Wayne. Ian benched his Germany team to use his Borussia Mönchengladback team. They look suspiciously like Celtic 2nd-black and green stripes-but this was also a kit worn by ‘Gladbach in the early 1990’s.
Congrats to all the participants. The SCSC has never gotten more than 10 for a tournament. This was the 3rd time that 10 players showed up. With luck, the SCSC will get more than 10 players for a tournament some day.
Group A
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Wayne Smith os | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 13 | 12 |
| 2 | Munir Merchant oq | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| 3 | Simon Hutchinson oq | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | Kevin Nieman m | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 4 |
| 5 | Cameron Tucker m | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 12 | -12 | 0 |
os Player advancing to the Open
semi finals
oq Players advancing to the Open quarter finals
m Player advancing to the Mary Jane
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Kevin Nieman | 3 | v | 0 | Cameron Tucker |
| Simon Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Cameron Tucker |
| Wayne Smith | 5 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Cameron Tucker |
| Simon Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Munir Merchant | 3 | v | 0 | Cameron Tucker |
Group B
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Rob Tucker os | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 10 | 12 |
| 2 | Steve Tucker oq | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| 3 | John Carroll oq | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 4 | Ian Sayer m | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 4 |
| 5 | Edgar Flores m | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 17 | -16 | 0 |
os Player advancing to the Open
semi finals
oq Players advancing to the Open quarter finals
m Player advancing to the Mary Jane
| John Carroll | 1 | v | 1 | Ian Sayer |
| Steve Tucker | 3 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| John Carroll | 1 | v | 1 | Steve Tucker |
| Rob Tucker | 6 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Rob Tucker | 3 | v | 1 | John Carroll |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Rob Tucker | 1 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| John Carroll | 5 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Rob Tucker | 2 | v | 1 | Steve Tucker |
| Ian Sayer | 3 | v | 1 | Edgar Flores |
Open knock out rounds
Quarter finals
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | John Carroll |
Semi finals
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Steve Tucker |
| Rob Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
Final
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Rob Tucker |
Mary Jane knock out rounds
Semi finals
| Ian Sayer | 2 | v | 0 | Cameron Tucker |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 1 | Edgar Flores |
| AET, FT 1-1 | ||||
Third place play off
| Edgar Flores | 2 | v | 0 | Cameron Tucker |
Final
| Ian Sayer | 1 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
Other games
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 1 | John Carroll |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |