Date
June 7, 2008
Participants
Edgar Flores, Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Jason Mitchell, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith, Ian Sayer, Steve Tucker
Report
With nine players present this was the best attended round in the three years of the Maricopa Cup. With four pitches 29 games were played today.
Dominic Hutchinson tried his hardest to mass his defense to keep Wayne Smith’s attack from overwhelming him. Dominic only conceded two goals at either end of the first half. In the fifth minute of the second half Wayne scored his third. Shortly after, Dominic had his only shot of the game. He forced the ball through the middle of Smith’s defensive line, but his shot was hard and wide. In the seventh minute Smith scored his fourth goal and the game ended due to the Mercy rule.
During the first half Steve Tucker had the edge in possession against Simon Hutchinson. Tucker scored the only goal in the first half with a pass that stopped in the perfect position, just outside the penalty area, just in front of another figure that was used to shoot and score. In the second half Simon had more of the possession but was either unable to get through Tucker’s defense or his final touch deserted him. The few shots he had were saved by Steve’s goalkeeper. Simon pushed figures up looking as he tried for an equalizing goal, and this left him defending with only a few. Tucker’s second goal came from a quick break where he quickly passed the reduced defense to score. The last five minutes of the game were played in and around Steve’s shooting line as Simon tried time and again to find a way through his opponent’s defense but was unable to get into a decent shooting position.
Jason Mitchell described the first half as “all one way traffic”, defending in numbers as Kevin Nieman dominated in attack. Midway through the first half Nieman found a way just through Mitchell’s defense, just to the right of center, and scored with a chip over the goalkeeper. In the second half Jason did manage two shots, both were wide, winning a corner from the second one. As Jason attacked he pushed his defenders forward reducing the number of figures on his defensive line. Kevin took advantage of this pushing the ball into Jason’s shooting zone, touched up with a figure flicked from a quadrant away, and shot. The shot was so slow it fooled Mitchell as it rolled under his goalkeeper.
Both Ian Sayer and Edgar Flores described the first half of their game as “one way traffic” as Ian’s attack pressed upon Edgar’s defense straight from the kick off. In the first minute Sayer won a corner, which he flick towards the middle of the shooting zone, the ball stopped right in front of one of his figures, the shot was so hard that it struck Flores’s Zeugo goalkeeper and went over it into the goal. In the seventh minute Ian “dinked” the ball with two figures up the field into Edgar’s shooting zone. When his shot came it was beyond the reach of the goalkeeper. Ian was so dominant in the first half that the players could only remember Flores having possession only once in his opponent’s half. The second half was more “erratic” and even. Edgar had two shots on goal that required Ian to save with his goalkeeper. At the other end Sayer’s shots were either wide or very high.
The first half was pretty much Simon Hutchinson on the attack, pressuring Kevin Nieman’s midfield, and pushing the ball into his opponent’s half. In the ninth minute Simon quickly pushed the ball through Nieman’s defense and shot quickly, blasting the ball to the right of the goalkeeper. As Kevin pushed forward the figures on the right side of his defense as he brought the ball forward to attack Simon’s defense. In the twelfth minute Simon pushed the ball down the right, where there was no defense. He touched up before shooting, the shot ran along the surface of the pitch and under Kevin’s goalkeeper. The amount of possession was more even in the second half, although Simon still had more of the offense as Kevin struggled to get a figure and the ball lined up for a decent shot on goal.
Wayne Smith scored a second Mercy rule victory, scoring the fourth goal in the twelfth minute of the second half against Edgar Flores. Three of the four goals were scored when Edgar did not have hold of his goalkeeper.
In the first half Jason Mitchell had plenty of possession bringing the ball from his defense into midfield, but would give the ball away before he would get it close to Steve Tucker’s shooting line. Tucker’s ability to either steal the ball or force Mitchell to turn it over is what gave Steve his goal in the tenth minute of the first half. Tucker stole the ball from Jason in the shooting zone and scored. Steve doubled his lead in early in the second half with a bullet-like shot into the top corner of Jason’s goal. Mitchell did have two shots on goal in this half, the second one struck Tucker’s goalkeeper, rather it being a save. Right before the end of the game Jason’s shot, following a corner, and struck the goal post.
Dominic Hutchinson took the game to Ian Sayer at the start of their game. Early in the first half his shot from the left wing hit the crossbar, dropped, bounced up to strike the cross bar a second time, dropped, struck the goalkeeper, and stopped just in front of the goal line. In the fifth minute Dominic made his way down the center of the pitch, passed his opponent’s scattered defense, and shot over the goalkeeper into the goal. With just a minute left it looked like Dominic was going to claim his first victory of the day. With 40 seconds remaining Ian won a corner. Both players took their flicks and only 15 seconds remained. With just 10 second left Ian took the corner and the ball stopped in the middle of the shooting zone. He shot with one of his figures, the ball flew over the goalkeeper and into the top of the goal, with just three seconds left.
When asked about their goalless draw both Munir Merchant and Edgar Flores said that there were no shots on goal and the few shots they did have were misses. Edgar did comment that Munir had won a lot of corner kicks.
Wayne Smith won his third game in a row with a Mercy rule victory over Kevin Nieman, in the fourth minute of the second half. Both players played with defensive formations that did not give up many shots. Rather than play long balls from defense to a striker on the shooting line Smith was forced to bring the ball up the field using several figures. This change in tactics was successful as Nieman said after the game that it had all been “one sided”.
The start of the game was described by the players as “even”. Then in the fifth minute Jason Mitchell scored on his first drive into Ian Sayer’s shooting zone. Jason drove down one wing, switched to the other and had five figures around the ball that could shoot on goal. The shot hit the top left of the cross bar and dropped into Ian’s goal. For the remainder of the game Sayer was on the attack, pressing for an equalizer. But his shooting was so erratic only one, a long flick with a figure from his defensive line, required Mitchell to make a save.
In the battle of the Hutchinsons father, Simon, attacked for almost the entire game. The son, Dominic, only managed to have possession in his father’s half just a few times. In the second minute Simon managed to push the ball through Dominic’s ten figure defense line and was able to blast the ball into the goal at the near post. As the half wore on Dominic’s defensive flicks and goalkeeping kept frustrating his father. At the end of the first half a defensive error opened a gap in Dominic’s defense. Simon took advantage of this to get into a decent shooting position and scored. As the second half wore on Dominic continued to defend in numbers, and Simon became increasingly frustrated as he could not find a way through his opponents defensive line. At one time there all but two of Simon’s figures, including the spare goalkeeper, were in Dominic’s half. When Dominic’s defensive line became disrupted he would blast the ball out for a goal kick at the other end of the pitch. One time Simon’s shot hit the far post and went out for a throw in on the far side in Dominic’s shooting zone. Dominic wanted to reset his defensive line so he blasted the throw in up the other end of the pitch wanting a goal kick. He failed as the ball hit the goal post of Simon’s goal and went out for a throw in.
The first half of the game between Munir Merchant and Steve Tucker was described by both players as “50:50”. Steve did have more possession but was unable to get through Munir’s defense and into a decent shooting possession. There was more action in the second half. Munir commented that there were “decent amount of shots” and “many saves”. Steve scored first, from the left side, in the tenth minute. Just two minutes later Munir tied the game, scoring from the same position Steve had scored his goal from.
Simon Hutchinson started very quickly against Jason Mitchell, in the first four minutes he scored once and forced three corners. The rest of the first half was still “90% Simon” but not with the same intensity, as Jason struggled to keep up with the speed at which Simon moved the ball. Hutchinson scored again in the sixth minute with a shot from right. In the second half Simon seemed to relax and Jason would have time to clear the ball from his defense. In the sixth minute Simon scored his final goal.
Edgar Flores rushed playing the ball in the first half against Kevin Nieman, “going for it”. Nieman responded by trying to hit moving balls and blocking Flores’s long passes. This resulted in a lot of free kicks. In the ninth minute Edgar scored with a shot from the right taking Kevin by surprise. In the second half Nieman stepped up his offense and started to dominate the game. His equalizer came in the third minute of the second half. Edgar’s goalkeeper had blocked the ball, but it still found its way into the goal. In the seventh minute Kevin scored a second goal.
In an even first half Munir Merchant was the only one to get shots on target. Ian Sayer saved the first, and, in the tenth minute, Munir scored. The possession “raged” from one end of the pitch to the other for the remainder of the half. In the second half Munir started making long passes to his figures on Ian’s shooting line, something he does not usually do. This allowed him to bypass the midfield and get the ball into the shooting zone. In the fifth minute he scored from one of these long passes. Just two minutes later Ian scored a consolation goal. The ball was half way down the penalty area, his shot struck a defender in front of the “six yard” box and was deflected into the goal.
Steve Tucker adopted a nine player back and one up front strategy against Wayne Smith. Wayne countered by playing with four players forward, instead of the usual one. This allowed for Steve to attack on the break. The first half end goalless. Hope of this continuing was dashed at the start of the second half. Smith took the kick off, rounded the left side of Tucker’s defense, and while Steve was concentrating on taking a defensive flick, Wayne shot and scored. Following the goal Tucker pushed two or three figures into attack as he sought an equalizing goal. With four minutes left Smith rounded the right side of his defense and scored, putting the game beyond Steve.
Munir Merchant made sure he did not move the center of his defense, and forced Wayne Smith to have to go wide around his defensive line. Smith had to resort to shooting from tight angles. He struck the cross bar five or six times, the post at least twice, and forced Merchant to make four saves. Munir did enough to keep Wayne from scoring for the only time today.
Ian Sayer commented after the game that Simon Hutchinson had “turned up the juice” and “come back with a vengeance” following their goalless draw in last night’s Warder Weekly. Hutchinson “Mercy ruled” Sayer scoring in the second and tenth minute of the first half, straight from the kick off at the start of the second half, and the fourth goal came with three minutes remaining. Ian did have the occasional break but his shots were all wide of the target.
Kevin Nieman described the game as “random chaos” as Dominic Hutchinson defended in his own peculiar way. Nieman scored in the first half with a shot that struck a defender, hit the side of the post and into the goal. Kevin dominated stretches of the second half keeping the ball in Dominic’s half for most of the second half. After his second goal Nieman won six corners in a row, but could not get into a decent shooting position from any of them.
Steve Tucker’s aggressive fast pace was just too much for Edgar Flores. Tucker scored his first goal within the first couple of minutes. Tucker scored his second while Flores was concentrating on rebuilding his defensive line. Steve was so quick that Edgar did not have his hand on his goalkeeper’s handle. Edgar scored his goal after Steve had scored his third. Midway through the second half Flores knocked the ball into shooting zone. He flicked a figure from the half way line that struck the ball perfectly, blasting the ball into the goal. Tucker scored once more just before the end of the game.
Wayne Smith claimed another Mercy rule victory, scoring his fourth goal against Ian Sayer midway through the second half. Ian described the game as “one way”. He managed to prevent Smith from scoring until the eighth minute. Wayne struck again with just a minute left in the first half. He scored straight from the kick off of the second half, and scored his final goal with 8:56 left.
Kevin Nieman and Munir Merchant played themselves into a goalless stalemate. There were not many shooting chances as both defenses kept the offense at bay. Most of the game was played in midfield, and possession was swapped many times as both players missed flicks. The only offense was limited to corners. Munir won two corners and Kevin one, but neither player was able to do make anything from them.
Dominic Hutchinson scored a goal with just five seconds left that Steve Tucker described as “really nice”. He also noted that Dominic played some offense, and that he had moved away from just clearing his defensive line for a goal kick every time he won possession. Steve scored early in the first half and near the end of the same half. He noticed that the longer that he did not score Dominic played better. Even though Steve scored a third midway through the second half he said he noticed how much better Dominic was playing at the end of the game.
Simon Hutchinson played almost the entire game in Edgar Flores’s half of the pitch. He kept pushing the ball around the sides of Flores’s defensive line almost at will. Hutchinson claimed his second Mercy rule with goals in the fifth and tenth minutes of the first half, straight from the second half kick off, and the final goal came with just three minutes left. Edgar did managed to push the ball into Simon’s shooting zone, but none of his shots were on target.
“This was a story of stranded goalkeepers and offense unable to score in wide open nets,” Kevin Nieman reported after his goalless tie with Ian Sayer. Both players had a shot at an open goal with their opponent’s goalkeeper stranded. Kevin gave credit to Ian for the better shot as his had hit the crossbar. Nieman’s shot had gone wide of the goal. Sayer’s good defensive flicks frustrated Kevin’s offensive moves and stopped him from having any other decent shots on goal.
Two first half goals from Steve Tucker was enough to give him victory over Edgar Flores. Edgar came close to scoring twice. The first was a shot from a long flick through the center of Tucker’s defense. The second came right at the end of the game. Flores quickly played the ball into Steve’s shooting zone and shot before Tucker could grasp his goalkeeper’s handle. The ball struck the post and bounced away from the goal.
Dominic Hutchinson only had two shots on goal in his game against Munir Merchant. The first went wide. The second, taken two minutes before the end of the game, he ramped off one of Munir’s defenders and into the goal giving Dominic the win.
In the fifth minute Simon Hutchinson surprised Wayne Smith with a shot from the right that went over the goalkeeper and dropped into the goal. Afterwards Simon defended keeping only two players in attack & the rest in defense. He continually frustrated Wayne stopping him from getting into the shooting zone. This forced Smith to change his tactics. Wayne stopped putting a figure on his opponent’s shooting line, placing it in the third quarter instead. With seconds remaining in the first half Simon conceded a penalty with an accidental double flick. Smith struck the penalty low to the right side to level the score. In the second half Simon continued to play a strong defense to keep Smith out of good shooting positions. A bad defensive flick with just four minutes remaining left Smith with a small gap he drove the ball through & then shot while the ball was still rolling. Simon was taken by surprise as he did not think the ball had crossed the shooting line. It was not all one way traffic as Simon forced Wayne to make several saves in both halves, and shot wide of the goal more often than he was on target.
Final table
As the players played different numbers of games the table is sorted by the average of points won (Pts/Pl).
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | Pts/Pl |
| 1 | Wayne Smith | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 19 | 20 | 2.86 |
| 2 | Steve Tucker | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 2.57 |
| 3 | Simon Hutchinson | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 4 | 12 | 17 | 2.43 |
| 4 | Kevin Nieman | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 15 | 2.14 |
| 5 | Munir Merchant | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 2.00 |
| 6 | Ian Sayer | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | -8 | 11 | 1.57 |
| 7= | Dominic Hutchinson | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 12 | -9 | 9 | 1.50 |
| 7= | Jason Mitchell | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | -6 | 6 | 1.50 |
| 9 | Edgar Flores | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 18 | -16 | 8 | 1.14 |
Results
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson MR |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Ian Sayer | 2 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores MR |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | Ian Sayer |
| Edgar Flores | 0 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman MR |
| Jason Mitchell | 1 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 1 | Steve Tucker |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Jason Mitchell |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 1 | Edgar Flores |
| Munir Merchant | 2 | v | 1 | Ian Sayer |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Steve Tucker |
| Munir Merchant | 0 | v | 0 | Wayne Smith |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer MR |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Steve Tucker | 4 | v | 1 | Edgar Flores |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer MR |
| Munir Merchant | 0 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Steve Tucker | 3 | v | 1 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores MR |
| Kevin Nieman | 0 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 1 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 1 | Simon Hutchinson |
MR indicates Mercy Rule win.