Date
March 28, 2008
Participants
Brian Hook, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith
Report
Brian Hook made only his second appearance of the year in tonight’s Werder Weekly. His rustiness showed in his game against Munir Merchant. Merchant has continually improved and was on the attack for most of the game, but was unable to convert his possession into decent shots on goal. Hook kept scattering his defense, and relied on goal kicks to rebuild his defensive line. Munir scored the only goal of the game midway through the first half. Brian’s scattered defense gave Merchant a wide open space to push the ball into and shot from. Hook’s pushed his goalkeeper to the right and ball went straight into the middle of the goal, where the goalkeeper had been.
A goal scored from a rolling shot from a corner early in the second half was enough to give Wayne Smith victory over Kevin Nieman. Otherwise there were not many shots on goal during the game. Smith won a few corners but could not score from them. The most glaring of his misses was from a shot with the ball two inches in front of the “six yard” box. Wayne managed to chip the ball high over the crossbar, he went onto to compare this shot to using a sand wedge on a golf course. While Kevin did have possession in the middle of the pitch, his final touch in the shooting zone appeared to desert him, missing what was usually an easy flick for him. He did manage just one shot on goal that Smith comfortably saved. Since this was his first match of the day Nieman was looking forward to being warmed up in his next games.
Despite being under repeated attack Brian Hook only conceded one goal in the first half against Simon Hutchinson. Hook either saved Hutchinson’s shots, or they struck the stationary goalkeeper. In the second half Simon scored three almost identical goals before the ‘Mercy’ rule was called for. All of the goals were long flicks to balls just over the shooting line that flew into the far side of the goal. Brian became more aggressive after the second goal pushing four and five figures forward. He did catch his opponent by surprise with an attempted rolling shot that if he had made would have been a certain goal as Hutchinson’s hand was far from the goalkeeper’s rod.
Munir Merchant had the lion’s share of possession in midfield, but Kevin Nieman’s defensive flicks always blocked him as he neared his opponent’s shooting zone. Nieman continued to struggle with his flicking. Despite this he scored the first goal of the game with just 24 seconds remaining in the first half with a chip shot from the left side of the pitch. His second came midway through the second half from another chip shot, this time from the right, into the top corner despite Munir’s goalkeeper getting the barest touch of the ball. Merchant did get one shot during this game but it was wide of the goal.
Simon Hutchinson scored the fastest goal of the day in his match against Kevin Nieman. Hutchinson broke quickly from the kick off and scored with a shot in at the near post past a stationary goalkeeper after only 36 seconds. There was plenty of midfield action as both players looked to push forward. Nieman only had two real scoring chances finding it hard to either get through or round Hutchinson’s defense. The first was saved by Simon’s goalkeeper, and the second struck the foot of the post before rebounding back up to the other end of the field, and was saved by Kevin’s goalkeeper. Hutchinson did have most of the shots and early in the second his shot was narrowly wide of the far post with Nieman’s goalkeeper stationary at the near post. Simon scored his second in the fourth minute of the second half from a shot chip shot taken from the touch line on the right side, level with top of the penalty area.
Wayne Smith tried to start out like “gang busters” against Munir Merchant, but was frustrated by Merchant’s defending in numbers. It took until the fourth minute before Smith found a way through the massed defense to score. Shortly after he almost doubled his lead, but shot just wide. In the fifth minute Wayne scored his second goal with a chip shot into the left of the goal from the right wing. Munir did try to push forward in search of a goal, but only managed one shot. The third and final goal came midway through the second half after a period of extended pressure by Smith on Merchant’s defense.
Kevin Nieman was constantly on the attack in his second game against Munir Merchant. Kevin had five shots on goal and a string of corners but was unable to score. Munir only had two shots on goal, and scored from a weak shot that surprised Nieman and it crept under his goalkeeper. For the remainder of the second half Kevin played the “soda offense”, 7 up in attack, as he pushed for an equalizer, but was unable to find a path through Merchant’s massed defense.
Rather than defend in numbers Simon Hutchinson tried a more offensive formation, with four or five players in a forward position, against Wayne Smith. The lack of numbers gave Smith space in front of the defensive line that he was not use to and was able to exploit to his advantage. He struck first in the fourth minute with a weak shot that struck the side of Hutchinson’s goalkeeper before entering the goal. From the kick off Simon went up the field and forced a save from Wayne’s goalkeeper. Smith’s second goal came from a chip shot from two inches outside the “six yard” box that struck the underside of Hutchinson’s goalkeeper’s base and bounced into the goal. The third goal was another chip shot that struck the top of Hutchinson’s goalkeeper before falling just below the cross bar and into the goal. The fourth, and final goal, came midway through the second half from a chip shot almost dead center of the goal that struck Simon’s goalkeeper’s shoulder and into the goal. Hutchinson did not call for the ‘mercy’ rule and the game played out the remaining time without another goal.
Results
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | Brian Hook |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 0 | Brian Hook (mercy rule) |
| Kevin Nieman | 2 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |