Date
Sunday October 26, 2008
Participants
Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, David Jensen, Edward Nathan, Wayne Smith, Greg Willey
Report
Edward Nathan, who has returned from Malaysia to So Cal for three months, joined the other players in the eighth round of the Maricopa Cup.
The numbers of players decreased as the round went on as Dominic Hutchinson withdrew after one game, and Greg Willey was struck with back spasms that caused him great pain and limited him to only two games.
As the players played different numbers of games they were ranked in the table using average points won.
Edward Nathan 2 v David Jensen 1 (HT 0-1)
David took the lead in the fifth minute of the first half scoring following a quick break up the pitch leaving his attacking figure in a
"one-on-one" situation with the goalkeeper.
Edward struck twice in the second half to win the game. His first goal was a shot from the left in the fifth minute, and his second, with three minutes left, was a slow shot that David said after the game he should have saved.
David: I rushed too much, I had good chances but just rushed my flicks.
Edward: A but rusty in the first half after nine months of not playing. In the second half I changed my tactics to be more offensive. I got some of my swerving touch back. It is good to get back into the game.
Simon Hutchinson 3 v Greg Willey 0 (HT 2-0)
Two “slow roller” goals from the right side in the fifth and ninth minutes gave Simon a two goal lead at half time. A hard chip shot over the goalkeeper in the fifth minute of the second half capped Simon victory.
Simon: It was a good game for me, even though I was thrown by the over gliding of my figures on the Rookery pitch.
Willey: I suck. My boys have not played enough.
Wayne Smith 3 v Dominic Hutchinson 0 (HT 1-0)
Wayne finally scored a goal in with three minutes left in the first half. Before that Dominic had kept him at bay with accurate defensive flicks and a string of three or four saves. Dominic’s aggressive whipping of his goalkeeper from side to side was enough to block Wayne’s earlier chips, but it caused Dominic pain as his hand would violently strike the surround of the pitch. The goal was from the left side and took Dominic by surprise not giving him time to whip his goalkeeper back and forth across his goal.
It took Wayne until the tenth minute of the second half for him to double his lead with a shot that was just left from center. Then with only 11 seconds left Wayne scored his final goal from the left edge from the penalty area. The shot was taken so quickly that Dominic did not have time to get his hand on the handle of his goalkeeper.
Dominic did have shots at goal during the game, but they were not on target.
Wayne: Let me say in the first half Dominic has a lot of pressure on me in my shooting zone.
Dominic: I did a lot better than I should of. I felt Wayne was resting in the first half and was back to his usual self in the second half.
Wayne Smith 4 v David Jensen 0 (HT 0-0) mercy rule
Both players described the first half as very even. David made his way through Wayne’s defense on a number of occasions using short passes, but could not get a shot on goal. At the other end Wayne won four or five corners, David would flick his figures into perfect positions to block his opponent, and when that did not work he made two or three saves with his goalkeeper.
It is almost inevitable that Wayne scores against all of his opponents. In this case the first goal came in the third minute of the second half. David had pushed the right side of his defense up to support an attack. Wayne took advantage of this gap and pushed the ball around David’s defensive line. David blocked the closest figure with a defensive flick, only for Wayne to score with a long flick. The following goals, in the fifth and ninth minutes, were described by David as "oops" goals which he felt he should have saved. The final goal of the game was scored with just two minutes left when Wayne attacked down the right and scored with a chip shot over David’s goalkeeper.
Wayne: David played really well but he has to learn when to rush and when to take his time. He had two good opportunities, rushed both chances, and ended up not scoring. In his own [shooting] zone he missed his offensive flicks leaving me with good scoring opportunities.
David: Wayne summed it up well.
Edward Nathan 2 v Simon Hutchinson 1 (HT 0-0)
Simon had the first three shots of the game but they were either wide of the goal or Edward saved them with his goalkeeper. Edward came closest to scoring in the first half when his shot from the right side struck the cross bar of Simon’s goal.
In the fifth minute of the second half Edward split Simon’s defense with a long pass to an attacking figure in the center. The shot with this figure went into the right side of the goal. In the seventh minute Edward doubled his lead with a long pass to a figure on the right side of Simon’s shooting zone, and scored with a chip shot into the right side of the goal. With five minutes left Simon pulled a goal back with a slow build up and shot from the right. Simon attack dominated the last five minutes, but Edward was able to hang on to his lead with his massed defense.
Simon Hutchinson 1 v David Jensen 1 (HT 0-1)
David scored in the first two minutes of the start of the game. He kicked off, Simon won possession then lost it with a foul. From the free kick David pushed the ball up to Simon’s shooting line, and Simon committed another foul to concede another free kick. David pushed this free kick into the shooting zone on the left and scored with a chip shot over the goalkeeper.
"A Wayne shot," was how he described it. Simon pushed hard for an equalizer for the remainder of the half but kept missing the ball at crucial points by less than an inch.
This pressure paid off early in the second half as Simon equalized early on. He pushed the ball through David’s defensive line and shot over the goalkeeper to score. The rest of the half was characterized as David playing defense and Simon pressing the defense for a winning goal. Right at the end of the game the tables were turned as David won three corners, but he could not make anything from them.
David: I got an early lead and I was more defensive but I could not hold the lead.
Simon: I am disappointed to have conceded such an early goal. I scored a fair [good] goal. Thereafter, I had several shots and David made a string of good saves.
Wayne Smith 5 v Greg Willey 1 (HT 2-1) mercy rule
Having recovered enough from back spasms after his first game Willey faced a rampant Wayne. Wayne took the lead in the third minute. Then Willey equalized. He pushed the ball up the field on the left of his opponent’s defensive line. Wayne blocked one figure, but Willey had another he could use. He shot from a sharp angle and slammed the ball into the goal. After much whooping in celebration and a threat to
remove his shirt the game restarted, Willey commented that his goal made the back pain worth it. Alas, just before half time Wayne took the lead.
The third goal came just 30 seconds after the kick off of the second half. Willey hung on until there were just two minutes left before Wayne scored his fourth. Wayne’s final goal came with just 20 seconds left in the game.
Edward Nathan 2 v David Jensen 1 (HT 0-1)
It was a rematch of the first game these players played today and a repeat of the score. The first half was described as
"lots of back and forth" and both players were unable to dominate the other. Midway through the half David took the lead. Having won a free kick in Edward’s shooting zone David could not play the ball forward as he had a figure in an offside position. He played the free kick sideways and flicked the offside figure back to turn the ball around and shot the ball into the top corner of the goal.
In the second half David started rushing his flicks and his game suffered. In the tenth minute Edward equalized. While David was taking a defensive flick Edward took his time to shoot the ball low into the corner of the goal. With just three seconds left Edward scored the winning goal from a counter attack. He played the ball down the center of the pitch, David messed up his defensive blocking flick, and left Edward with a long flick that he scored from.
Edward: Again the first half was tight. When I was "down" [in the second half] there were no seven defenders, I played with four defenders and six attackers.
David: It opened up but I kept messing it [my flicking] up.
Simon Hutchinson 1 v Wayne Smith 1 (HT 0-1)
Simon almost took the lead early in the first half when his shot came off a defender and forced Wayne to make a good save with his goalkeeper. The inevitable, Wayne taking the lead, happen in the eighth minute with a chip shot taken from the center of Simon’s shooting zone and the ball went into the upper left corner of the goal.
With three minutes left in the second half Simon equalized. He made a quick long pass from his defense to an unmarked attacking figure in a gap on the right side of Wayne’s defensive line. He took one flick to push the ball over the shooting line and took a powerful chip shot over Wayne’s goalkeeper into the left side of the goal.
Wayne: I was greatly disappointed [by the result] because in the second half I had 90% of the possession that someone had in a shooting zone. Simon’s defensive flicks even knew what I was going to do.
Simon: I did not defend en masse for any period of this game. I only had five back [in defense] as I pressed for an equalizer. I just had trouble getting the ball into the shooting zone.
Simon Hutchinson 1 v David Jensen 1 (HT 1-1)
Another rematch and another repeated score. As he had done in their previous encounter David took an early lead, in the third minute, from a quick break on the left leading to a chip shot over Simon’s goalkeeper. In this game Simon equalized in the same half, in the ninth minute, from a slow build up on the right leading to a slow shot that went in to one side of the goalkeeper. From then on the game was mainly Simon pressing on David defense, and David breaking quickly up the field to exploit the lack of Simon’s defense.
David: I scored early and went on the defensive and tried to counter attack. I am please with the result. And I did not miss many flicks.
Simon: I was very frustrated as I kept coming up short [of the ball] most of the time.
Wayne Smith 2 v Edward Nathan 1 (HT 0-0)
If Wayne was not to win this game then Edward would finish in first place for this round of the Maricopa Cup.
The first half was tense and goalless as Edward’s packed defense and goalkeeping kept Wayne at bay. In the third minute of the second half Wayne took the lead with a hard shot from the right side. With just five minutes left he doubled his lead shooting into an open goal as Edward had stranded his spare goalkeeper. Then from a quick defense splitting pass from one shooting line from the other Edward knocked the ball into one of his figures and into Wayne’s shooting zone. He shot rapidly and scored while Wayne was making a defensive flick, which is a move that Wayne has punished his opponents with on many occasions.
Edward: I played very defensively with seven or eight back, and used a sweeper. This is the lowest score I have had against Wayne.
Wayne: Edward has to thank the big [metal] goalkeeper. Edward has used the small [Subbuteo] one before. Playing against unpolished Subbuteo bases is unexpected in this day.
Final table
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | Pts/Pl |
| 1 | Wayne Smith | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 14 | 2.80 |
| 2 | Edward Nathan | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 2.50 |
| 3 | Simon Hutchinson | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 2.00 |
| 4 | David Jensen | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 7 | 1.40 |
| 5= | Greg Willey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | -7 | 2 | 1.00 |
| 5= | Dominic Hutchinson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -3 | 1 | 1.00 |
Results
| Edward Nathan | 2 | v | 1 | David Jensen |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Greg Willey |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | David Jensen Mercy rule |
| Edward Nathan | 2 | v | 1 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | David Jensen |
| Wayne Smith | 5 | v | 1 | Greg Willey Mercy rule |
| Edward Nathan | 2 | v | 1 | David Jensen |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | Wayne Smith |
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | David Jensen |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 1 | Edward Nathan |