 Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show |
Date
May 23, 2008
Participants
Edgar Flores, Simon Hutchinson, Ian Sayer, Wayne Smith
Report
Edgar Flores debuted his new Mexico team tonight and it made a definite difference in the way he played. In the previous two weeks he had used a borrowed team and then a Zuego team. Using his own team he felt he could flick them around as hard as he wanted without feeling guilty of damaging someone else’s figures.
In his first game with his new team Flores faced is old foe, Ian Sayer. Sayer had most of the offense during the game, but when he would push the ball into the shooting zone he would not be in a position to get a good shot on goal. Edgar only had to make two saves the entire game. Flores weathered Ian’s pressure and would break dangerously at speed. From one of this breaks in the first half he scored the only game of the game. In the eighth minute he broke from defense. With two quick flicks he had pushed the ball into Sayer’s shooting zone, and as the ball just came to rest Flores shot and scored. Ian was taken so much my surprise by the speed of this move he was around the other side of the field, nowhere near his goal.
In the second minute Simon Hutchinson almost took the lead against Flores. His shot from the right side stuck the inside of the far post, bounced out, struck the goalkeeper’s rod, and rolled just outside the “six yard” box. This was to be the pattern of the game as Hutchinson had most of the possession and offense, and Edgar would break from his defense line at speed. It was from one of these fast breaks that Flores took the lead. In the third minute he broke quickly down the center of the pitch, pushed the ball through a gap in Simon’s defensive line and quickly shot the ball into the goal close to the right post. Three minutes later Hutchinson pushed the ball around the right side of Edgar’s defense and after a quick 1-2 move to line up for the shot he blasted the ball into the goal by left side of the goalkeeper. Another three minutes later Flores broke quickly down the right and into the shooting zone. He pushed the ball into the center, half way between the shooting line and the edge of the penalty box. As there was a gap in Simon’s defense just in front of the ball Edgar flicked a figure through to strike the ball, and drive it into the right side of the goal. Hutchinson almost tied the game before half time. With just three minutes remaining his shot from the right struck the crossbar. In the third minute of the second half Hutchinson equalized with a shot from the left side that chipped Flores’s goalkeeper. Simon took the lead for the first time in the sixth minute from a drive down the right, a 1-2 to line up for the shot, and then a hard shot into the goal by the side of the goalkeeper. The final goal was an own goal. With just four minutes remaining in the game Hutchinson missed the ball with his figure and turned over possession to Edgar just in front of the “six yard” box. Flores’s flick just touched the ball, and Simon’s defensive flick position his figure millimeters in front of the ball. Edgar attempted to slice the ball across the front of the goal, but mis-hit and sliced the ball into the goal at the far post.
Before kick off Wayne Smith warned Ian Sayer of a large gap in his defensive line, Sayer chose not to reposition his figures. Straight from the kick off Smith pushed the ball through the gap and drove the ball into the goal, it had taken him just 15 seconds to take the lead. For the remaining 14:45 there were no more offense by either player, Ian was the only player called on to make a save during that time. Four minutes into the second half Wayne struck from the left wing to double his lead. In the 11th minute he scored his third. And his fourth came with just a minute remaining in the game. While Ian did have offense, pushing the ball into the shooting zone, he would be left with no figure open to get to the ball to take the shot.
Edgar Flores started his game with Wayne Smith with five figures in offense. For the first seven minutes of the game this worked in keeping Smith pinned back, and Edgar had most of the possession. Flores would get into the shooting zone and then rush his shots shooting most of them wide of goal. Wayne was the first to be forced to make a save with his goalkeeper. In the seventh minute Smith scored, and then shortly after scored his second. The third came with just two minutes remaining in the first half. At the start of the second half Edgar pushed six figures forward. He did strike the cross bar with one shot. With another shot he sliced the ball so that is ran along the top of he penalty area, the figure that had taken the shot with struck Wayne’s goalkeeper and bounced out into position to be able to take the shot from the other side of the penalty area. Smith scored three goals in the second half, in the twelfth, seventh and fourth minutes, the final one was from a chip shot over Flores’s goalkeeper.
The game between Smith and Simon Hutchinson was not all “one way” traffic. Simon did have possession and did get around Wayne’s defense into the shooting zone. In the seventh minute Hutchinson gifted Smith a goal when his spare goalkeeper played the ball into one of his opponent’s figures in the penalty area. Smith took one flick to touch up and then shot the ball into the unprotected goal. Wayne doubled his lead in the eleventh minute. With just 1:15 left in the first half Hutchinson scored a goal that Wayne described as “one heck of a goal”. The move started on the right. When Smith’s defense blocked Hutchinson on the right, Simon played the ball in front of Wayne defensive line to the left. He pushed the ball into the shooting zone and drove the ball into the goal. The second half saw both players push the ball into each other’s shooting zone, but accurate shots were rare. Simon saved one hard shot from Smith that ricocheted off his goalkeeper off for a goal kick at the other end of the pitch. With just three minutes remaining Wayne came down the left, found space to push the ball around Hutchinson’s defense and scored from a chip shot in at the top corner at the near post.
Hutchinson bounced back from his defeat with a victory over Ian Sayer. Simon had most of the possession and offense during the game. He scored the only goal of the first half in the third minute. After that his offense “spluttered” as his figures seemed to stick to the pitch too much. At half time he polished his team and while it made a difference at the start of the second half as the game wore on the “stickiness” returned, Hutchinson blamed it on the humidity. Three minutes into the second half Simon scored his second, and with four minutes remaining he scored his third. After the game Sayer noted that in all of his games while he had got the ball into his opponent’s shooting zone he had failed to seriously threaten the goal.
Jason Mitchell attended tonight. Jason is an Englishman and a recent arrival to Los Angeles. Like most Brits of his age he grew up playing Subbuteo, but had not played for a long time. He spent the evening getting reacquainted with the game, playing some friendlies, learning the changes in the rules, and the improvement in the figures that has occurred since he stopped playing.
Results
| Edgar Flores | 1 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Simon Hutchinson | 4 | v | 2 | Edgar Flores |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Wayne Smith | 6 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 1 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |