 Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show |
Date
May 16, 2008
Participants
Edgar Flores, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Ian Sayer, Wayne Smith, Steve Tucker
Report
In the days preceding tonight there were hopes that there could be as many as nine players attending. Tonight there were only six players, and there was enough time for ten games.
Munir Merchant stuck first in his game with Edgar Flores midway through the first half. After a slow build up on the left side Merchant pushed the ball over Flores’s shooting line and it came to rest just outside the penalty area. Munir took one flick to touch up and then unleashed a shot which flew into the goal to the right side of Edgar’s goalkeeper. Flores equalized just before the end of the same half. He made a long flick to pass the ball into the Munir’s shooting zone, and then shot with a nearby figure to “rocket” the ball into the goal. Both players described the play in the second half as “scattered” and “open”. Flores did manage two shots on goal in the second half, which Merchant saved with his goalkeeper.
Both of Wayne Smith’s goals came in the first half of his game with Steve Tucker. The first came, midway through the half, from an attack on the right through an opening that Smith had made by knocking defenders out of the way. Wayne shot, taking Steve by surprise as he was looking to make a defensive flick. The ball rolled so slowly that Wayne described it as “crawled into the goal”. The second came with just 21 second remaining in the half. Smith used speed to get through Tucker’s defensive line and into a shootable position. The power of his shot was described by both players as harder than the shot that scored the first goal, but it still rolled slowly into the goal. Smith came close twice, one in each half, with shots that struck half way up Tucker’s goalpost. In the second half Steve forced Wayne to have to attack around his defensive line, restricting him to two shots from wide angles. While Smith enjoyed two thirds of the possession Tucker did get two shots in the second half, but both were wide of the goal.
Ian Sayer almost took the lead against Simon Hutchinson early in the first half. His shot struck the inside of Hutchinson’s goalpost, and Simon managed to punch the ball out of the goalmouth with his goalkeeper. Sayer forced Simon to make one more save in the first half. At the other end of the field Hutchinson made two weak shots on goal. The first struck the goalpost and the second was just wide of the goal. In the second Hutchinson took the game to Sayer. In the eighth minute he scored with a shot from the left into the top left corner of the goal. Simon’s second came with just two minutes left. He pushed the ball over Ian’s shooting line and shot the ball into the goal at the near post. Hutchinson’s offense so dominated the second half that Sayer only managed to get the ball close to his opponent’s shooting line twice, in both cases Simon’s defensive flicks kept him out of the shooting zone.
For most of first half Steve Tucker was frustrated by Munir Merchant’s defense. His attacks ended in corners, from which Munir was forced to make two saves with his goalkeeper. Tucker finally scored from a mass attack, with just one minute remaining in the first half. Merchant missed a blocking flick, leaving Steve with a clear path on goal which he took to score. In the second half Munir did get into Tucker’s shooting zone, but both of his shots were wide of the goal. At the other end Steve had five shots, two were wide, and two were saved by Merchant’s goalkeeper. The other was Tucker’s second goal. He came up the right side and then unleashed a shot that was so slow its speed fooled Merchant who pulled his goalkeeper out of the way allowing the ball to creep into the goal.
Wayne Smith’s dominance of the first half was complete over Ian Sayer. Smith hit the crossbar after only 45 seconds, and went on to score three goals in the fourth, seventh, and thirteenth minutes. While Sayer did not get a shot on goal in the first half, he did strike the post twice in the second as he came more into the game. Ian said his defense “came on better” in the second half, and Smith only scored one more goal.
Simon Hutchinson scored three goals in the first five minutes as Edgar Flores struggled to cope with the speed Hutchinson used to move the ball in his opponent’s half. After the three goals Simon relaxed and it showed as his shots were not as accurate or as powerful as they had been, allowing Edgar to make a series of saves with his goalkeeper to keep the score 3-0 at half time. Midway through the second half Hutchinson upped the tempo of his play again and scored three more goals in the eighth, tenth, and twelfth minutes. The few times Edgar tried to attack his bases appear to stick to the pitch, and he struggled to get his figures to the strike the ball for more than just a few time.
With a minute remaining in the first half Munir Merchant scored the only goal of his game against Ian Sayer. The rest of the half was described by Merchant as “ebb and flow”, as play surged from one end of the pitch to the other. In the second half Sayer pressed for a goal and came agonizing close three times, with Merchant saving two of them. The closest Ian came to scoring was in the tenth minute when his powerful shot from the right was pushed by Munir’s goalkeeper on the goalpost, some how putting spin on the ball, which then spun out for a throw-in on the opposite side of the pitch. Both players made good blocking defensive flicks to thwart the other from getting into a good shooting position.
Wayne Smith commented after his game with Simon Hutchinson that he had had to play faster then usual game to find a way to get past Hutchinson’s strong defense. The first half was not all one way as Simon did have periods of possession but was unable to get into a good shooting position in Smith’s shooting zone. Half way through the first half Wayne scored with a quick shot from the right following a slow build up as Simon had kept him outside of the shooting zone making him move from the right side, to the left, and back to the right again. In the second half Hutchinson had more offense, but as Smith was playing with nine figures in defense it was hard for Simon to get around or through to the shooting zone. In the ninth minute Wayne doubled his lead with a shot from the right that ramped off one of Hutchinson’s defenders, bounced in front of the goalkeeper, and then over the keeper, and dropped into the goal. With just three minutes left in the game Smith score another from another ramped shot from the right.
It was a game of few chances as Munir Merchant defensive blocking flicks and Simon Hutchinson’s flicks coming up short of the ball leading to a game of few chances. Hutchinson only made one save in the game, in the first half. At the other end of the pitch Merchant made a string of saves, and Simon had four corners but he was unable to get a decent shot on goal. Neither player was surprised when the game ended goalless.
It took Ian Sayer less than two minutes to drive down the left and score against Edgar Flores. Flores struggled in offense, only managing one shot during the game. Sayer had four shots on goal in the second half, including one he missed hit and it struck the goalpost catching Edgar by surprise. Ian’s second goal came following a mistake by his opponent. Sayer had the ball in his opponent’s shooting zone surrounded with his figures but he missed the ball with his flick. As the possession was now Flores’s he decided to use his spare goalkeeper, but missed the ball. This left Ian with an open goal. His shot was so slow it barely crossed the line, coming to rest just over the goal line.
Results
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 1 | Edgar Flores |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 0 | Steve Tucker |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Simon Hutchinson | 6 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Ian Sayer | 2 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |