 Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show |
Date
June 6, 2008
Participants
Adam Carlson, Edgar Flores, Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Jason Mitchell, Kevin Nieman, Ian Sayer, Wayne Smith, Steve Tucker
Report
Tonight had the highest attendance in the history of the Werder Weekly, with ten players present. We also welcomed Jason Mitchell to his first competitive Subbuteo event with the SCSC. With only two tables the players only played a few games each, warming up for tomorrow’s Maricopa Cup Fourth round.
The night opened with the host, Steve Tucker, taking on Ian Sayer. Tucker had slightly more possession during that game, 60:40, and slightly more offense. Steve has six shots on goal to Sayer’s two. In the second half Ian made a spectacular save with his new Sports Figure goalkeeper to keep the game goalless. Despite the lack of goals both players described the game as “competitive”.
Simon Hutchinson scored the first goal of the night, against Edgar Flores, in the third minute of first half. Simon, playing uphill, pressed Flores’s defense for most of the first half and most of the action was in Edgar’s half of the pitch. The elder Hutchinson struck the cross bar twice, the post once, and forced one save before he scored his second goal late in the first half. In the second half Flores had more possession than he did in the first half, but did not manage to get a shot near the goal. Simon continued to press forward, striking the post again, and was frustrated with the downhill slope of the pitch as the ball would roll past his strikers.
The younger Hutchinson, Dominic, enjoyed most of the possession against Adam Carlson but was unable to get many shots on goal as he would push only one player forward. Carlson would break from defense in numbers and try to make his way through the heart of Dominic’s defensive line. Most of the time Adam would get the ball into the shooting zone, but would not have a player who could get to the ball. On one occasion Carlson pushed the ball into Dominic’s shooting zone and the only player who had a clear line to the ball was on the edge of the center circle. Adam flicked this figure, it flew through the gap in his opponent’s defense, struck the ball and chipped it over Dominic’s goalkeeper to score the only goal of the game.
This game was Jason Mitchell’s first competitive game for “20-odd years”. He did show the occasional flashes of what he could do then, but he obvious rustiness cost him three goals. The first two of Munir Merchant’s three goals came from Mitchell pushing the ball into his own goal with the goalkeeper or the rod. The second half was more even, with both players scoring one goal. Jason’s goal came from a break and shot that took Munir by surprise.
The first half game between Wayne Smith and Kevin Nieman was described by Nieman as “all Wayne”. Smith struck twice, in the third and ninth minutes, to be 2-0 up at half time. The second half was “more even” as Smith pushed more players forward to try and get around Kevin’s defense. On a break in the seventh minute Nieman caught Wayne with only a few defenders on his defensive line, and scored. In the eleventh minute Kevin broke again and his shot forced Smith to make a great save to prevent the goal.
Ian Sayer played his second goalless draw of the night, as he withstood Simon Hutchinson’s attacks. Simon had most of the possession but he could not get through Ian’s defense or when he did Sayer’s Sports Figure goalkeeper would make the save. Ian had to make five saves during the game, Simon only had to make one.
There was a lot of play in the middle of the pitch as Kevin Tucker played Steve Tucker. Both players pushed the ball into their opponent’s shooting zone, but Nieman could not get either the ball or his figure into a position to get an accurate shot on goal. Tucker did not have that problem. He scored straight from the kick off, in just 14 seconds. In three flicks he pushed the ball into the shooting zone, and scored with his fourth flick. Steve doubled his lead before the end of the first half with a shot from the left that went into the near side of the goal. In the second half Nieman continued to struggle to get the ball into position for a decent shot at goal. At the other end Tucker forced Kevin to make a number of saves to keep the score at 2-0.
Jason Mitchell scored the only goal, against Adam Carlson, with exactly one minute left. Mitchell pushed up pitch at speed, past Carlson’s scattered defense, and took a quick shot to score. Mitchell had scored earlier but the goal was disallowed as the ball had not completely crossed the shooting line. The rest of the game was described by both players as “fairly even”. Adam did get three shots at goal, but only one needed Jason to make the save with his goalkeeper.
The phrase “a game of few chances” was an apt description of Dominic Hutchinson’s and Munir Merchant’s game. Dominic managed just one shot on goal during the game, and Munir had six. The game ended goalless and both players described it a “pretty even”.
Edgar Flores played really good defense in the first half of his game against Wayne Smith. Smith did not score until there was less than minute left in the first half. Flores then managed to hold on until the eleventh minute of the second half when Wayne scored his second. In the last two minutes Smith scored twice more for the game to finish 4-0. The miss of the game came in the second half after Edgar had stranded his spare goalkeeper. Wayne took his time, one and half minutes, to get the ball around his opponent’s defense into the shooting zone. When he shot the ball struck both post, and failed to cross the goal line.
At the start the game Adam Carlson attacked Kevin Nieman and had the majority of the possession in the first few minutes. After than Nieman took over and dominated the rest of the game, scoring two goals. When asked about them all Kevin would say was that they were “not spectacular goals, but goals are goals.”
Steve Tucker had a rematch with Ian Sayer, having shared a goalless draw at the start of the night. Sayer had some very good flicks pushing the ball up the pitch towards Tucker’s shooting zone, but would end up with the ball in a position that none of this figures could get to. Ian would also pressure Tucker in midfield and managed to force Steve into mistakes to gain possession. Steve struck in the sixth minute of the first half scoring with a shot into the top left corner of the goal. At the end of the first half Tucker made a long pass using his spare goalkeeper to the right side of Ian’s shooting zone. When he shot the ball went under Sayer’s goalkeeper with just ten seconds remaining. It took Tucker until the twelfth minute of the second half to score his third goal. Steve’s corner stopped in the center of the shooting zone, and Ian missed a blocking flick. Tucker shot at a steep angle to cut the ball into the goal.
For most of the game Edgar Flores’s and Munir Merchant’s figures were scattered all over the pitch. The spectators described the game as “pretty much chaotic”. With just 3:35 minutes left in the first half Munir lost possession on his left. Edgar played the ball into the shooting zone, scored with a shot that went into the goal at the near post. In the tenth minute of the second half Merchant had the ball on the edge of the right side of his opponent’s penalty area. He shot hard and the ball went off the far post and into the goal to tie the game.
Both Edgar Flores and Ian Sayer had one shot each in the first half. The difference was Flores scored from his in the seventh minute. Ian stranded his goalkeeper leaving Edgar with an open goal to score into. In the second half Ian enjoyed more of the possession and managed three shots on goal. With just 30 seconds left Sayer came up the right and shot. Edgar’s “brilliant” goalkeeper “jumped up” and stopped the ball on the line, preventing Ian from drawing the game.
Results
| Ian Sayer | 0 | v | 0 | Steve Tucker |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Adam Carlson | 1 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 3 | v | 1 | Jason Mitchell |
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |
| Simon Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Steve Tucker | 2 | v | 0 | Kevin Nieman |
| Jason Mitchell | 1 | v | 0 | Adam Carlson |
| Dominic Hutchinson | 0 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Edgar Flores |
| Steve Tucker | 3 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |
| Edgar Flores | 1 | v | 1 | Munir Merchant |
| Edgar Flores | 1 | v | 0 | Ian Sayer |