Friday July 10
Most of this evening's games were played on the new futsal style blue pitch, using the Southern California Subbuteo Club's new futsal rules. All futsal games were made up of two halves of five minutes. If the score was tied at the end of the game the winner was decided by a shoot out, taking shots from the second penalty spot.
As it is so new the surface is "fluffy/hairy" which caused the ball to make some "interesting" moves.
Adam Carlson 1 v Dominic Hutchinson 0 (HT 1-0)
Goal:
First half
2:53 1-0 Adam.
Pitch : Blue futsal, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Adam: It was not too different but definitely a different way to play, but it was fun. I think my goal was a good goal.
Dominic: For playing the first ever futsal game we did admirably well. We need more practice [on the pitch].
Simon Hutchinson 2 v Jason Mitchell 1 (HT 1-0)
Goal:
First half
3:21 1-0 Simon.
Second half
2:28 1-1 Jason
2:51 2-1 Simon.
Pitch : Blue futsal, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Jason: A great idea. It would be good to incorporate this into a cup competition.
Simon: The nap [surface] of the pitch makes it a bit hard to predict where the ball will go. It was fun to play a different version of Subbuteo.
Dominic Hutchinson 2 v Jason Mitchell 1 (HT 2-1)
Goal:
Second half
2:00 1-0 Dominic
2:28 1-1 Jason
2:51 2-1 Dominic.
Pitch : Blue futsal, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Jason: In the first half I total dominated. In the second Dominic scored a good goal. I equalized right from the kick off, and Dominic scored the winner straight from his kick off.
Adam Carlson 1 v Simon Hutchinson 1 (HT 1-1) shoot out 5-4
Goal:
First half
1:08 1-0 Adam
3:24 1-1 Simon.
| Shoot out | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Adam | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Simon | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | X | 4 |
Pitch : Blue futsal, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Adam: A good game. Different play than on a normal pitch. Simon would have had a better chance to beat me on a larger pitch.
Simon: The shoot out was very tense as it is so hard to save with the little goalkeeper from such close range. I think we were more afraid of missing the goal than of our opponent saving [with his goalkeeper].
Wayne Smith 1 v Adam Carlson 1 (HT 2-1) shoot out 3-1
Goal:
First half
3:32 1-0 Wayne.
Second half
0:48 1-1 Adam.
| Shoot out | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| Adam | X | X | 1 | X | 1 | |
| Wayne | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Pitch : Blue futsal, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Adam: I don't think I tried as hard as I did in the others [games].
Wayne: Kind of fun, kinda random. Where you hit the ball and where it ends up is only slightly relative to where you expect it to go. Amazingly it is possible to chip this ball.
The futsal ball is smaller than the regular ball.
Wayne Smith 3 v Adam Carlson 1 (HT 2-0)
Pitch : Blue futsal, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Wayne: I got the lay of the game better than the last time. The rolling of the ball is a lot better than the last ball.
Adam: I did not do so well this time.
And now to games on the regular sized pitches,,,
Simon Hutchinson 2 v Jason Mitchell 0 (HT 1-0)
Pitch : Rookery, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Simon scored an early goal in the first half when Jason stranded his spare goalkeeper. A long pass from defense, three "1-2s" between two figures on Jason's shooting line to push the ball into a shootable position, and a shot from the right over Jason's goalkeeper was enough to guarantee Simon's victory.
Jason: Up until the second goal I created a lot of chances it was my best game for a long time. Without silly errors I would have had a clean sheet. I had chances on three occasions. The second goal killed the game.
Simon Hutchinson 1 v Wayne Smith 1 (HT 0-1)
Pitch : Drey, Maricopa, Simi Valley
Wayne scored an early goal. Simon defended in numbers to prevents his opponent from increasing his lead. Early in the second half Simon went around Wayne's defense and shot. The ball hit the crossbar, dropped striking the post, struck the back of the goalkeeper and into the goal.
Wayne: Playing on the indoor [futsal] pitch put me off my touch. And the air conditioning blowing for five minutes really wiped me out. But I had my chance to win it, but missed the goal.
Simon: It was not the usual game of Wayne besieging my goal. "He did have most of the attack, but I massed my defense and frustrated him. I am happy to get the draw.
Friday July 24
Dominic Hutchinson 1 v Nick Lindgren 0 (HT 1-0)
Nick used Maricopa newcomer rules.
Pitch : Fast pitch, Porter Ranch
Nick: I greatly enjoyed this game because I played better than I usually do. I felt as though even though my opponent was better than I am I was lucky to lose 1-0. I now feel well prepared for a second game.
Dominic: I feel that this was a great warm up for him. The game was slowed down so it was harder to score goals. Nick should be able to play a game without assistance now.
Wayne Smith 3 v David Jensen 0 (HT 2-0)
Pitch : Mawra, Porter Ranch
Wayne: I had good play early but David's defense stifled me in the second half. My second goal was from a stranded goalkeeper. David has one shot off my crossbar.
David: Having not played in months, I felt good about the game. I generated some chances and made a couple of good saves.
Simon Hutchinson 1 v Kevin Nieman 0 (HT 1-0)
Pitch : Middle pitch, Porter Ranch
Simon: A surprisingly open game. Kevin had two shots that struck the posts early on, either side of my goal. My goal was a good medium length flick to strike the ball beyond the reach of the goalkeeper. All in all a good game where we both has lots of possession. Although I think I had more shots than he did.
Kevin: I felt my play was controlled and calm in the first half. Two shots hit the post. But I felt the chances were there for me. Then one of Simon's patented charges made it 0-1 Simon. There was a nice stretch where I controlled the ball within a a four inch circle, but I couldn't score. The second half was more erratic, but I had a few shots. Overall, good flicks, wide open play, Fun match.
Simon Hutchinson 1 v Nick Lindgren 0 (HT 0-0)
Nick used Maricopa newcomer rules.
Pitch : Fast pitch, Porter Ranch
Simon: I find it hard to play Maricopa Cup rules again, especially when I am giving advice at the same time. I did have the ball in the shooting zone a number of times, but I was advising Nick which figure to block so he did. It was a good goal to the far side [of the goal] beyond his goalkeeper.
Nick: I believe I did a great job in the first half. Simon is a great player and I think I played better in my game against him that I did against Dominic. I had good touches and had fun. Great game!
Wayne Smith 2 v Dominic Hutchinson 0 (HT 1-0)
Pitch : Middle pitch, Porter Ranch
Wayne: Dominic had good defense and great blocks.
Dominic: I concur.
Kevin Nieman 2 v David Jensen 1 (0-1)
Pitch : Mawra, Porter Ranch
David: I started off very strong and scored early. I continued to generate good chances but couldn't score. My goalie let me down in the second half. Kevin scores on two slow rollers late in the half.
Kevin: Dave took the lead with a shot to my left in almost the same way Simon scored his goal in my first match. Dave had more chances early on, but I scored two goal within two or three minutes to take the lead with 2:50 left. It was a fortunate turn of events and one amazing save of a rifled shot by David secured the victory.
David Jensen 1 v Simon Hutchinson 0 (0-0)
Pitch : Mawra, Porter Ranch
Simon: The goal was scored with two seconds left. David took a throw-in to a figure in front of the goal in the penalty area. I could not block, and he scored. Apart from that I was frustrated as I had lots of possession and shots, but David did enough to keep the ball out of the goal.
David: A very balanced games. We both went on the attack and had a lot of shots. Both of us made good saves. I got a lucky break at the end and put in a goal just before the final buzzer.
Dominic Hutchinson 4 v Nick Lindgren 0 (2-0)
Mercy rule called with 50 seconds remaining in second half.
Pitch : Mawra, Porter Ranch
Dominic: I felt that the game was good. I was more offensive than the last one [with Nick]. I think Nick is getting slightly better. He should definitely keep playing.
Nick: I felt I didn't do good, maybe I am tired. Dominic played great. I feel that I'm starting to get better. I'm glad I came to this.
Wayne Smith 1 v Kevin Nieman 0 (HT 1-0)
Pitch : Middle pitch, Porter Ranch
Kevin: Wayne's offense was, as the teenagers say "So on!". The only thing was Wayne hit posts with shots, I made saves, and kept to 1-0. This was really a joke fest with the Subbuteo being second. I will say that Wayne's final drive and shot missed, and remarked "The only thing that stopped you was you, because I wasn't stopping anything.
Wayne: Concentration was lacking, but laughs were flying... seriously!