Date
August 8, 2008
Participants
Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith
Report
For once Wayne Smith did not score the most goals tonight. Simon Hutchinson scored nine goals in four games, Wayne scored six in three games. But Wayne was the only player to keep a clean sheet.
In the first game of the night Munir Merchant drew with Simon. Simon’s sustained pressure paid off in the sixth minute when forced his way through the center of Munir’s defense and quickly took a shot that flew into the goal close to the right goalpost. At the other end of the pitch Simon’s defense frustrated Munir, blocking his attempts to get into the shooting zone or forcing his figures wide to make it hard for Munir to get a decent shot on goal. With just three minutes remaining in the first half Munir did find a way through the middle of Simon’s defense and struck the rolling ball, this move took his opponent so much by surprise that he did not move his goalkeeper as the ball rocketed into the goal. The midfield battle was so intense that there was only one corner during the game and it took until the twelfth minute of the first half for the first throw in to be won. The second half was a midfield battle. Simon spent most of his time in Munir half of the pitch, but Munir’s defensive flicks kept blocking his attempts to break into the shooting zone. At the other end Munir was equally frustrated by Simon’s defense. Simon did have the only two chances of the half when he struck the goal post with one shot, and another shot forced Munir to make a save with his goalkeeper.
Wayne’s victory over Simon was the lowest scoring game of the night. For the first twelve minutes Wayne was let down by his shooting, which he described a “wild”, they were all wide of the goal by several inches. Finally, with three minutes left in the first half he managed to get a shot on target and scored the only goal of the game. In the second half Simon had more possession but he was unable to get into a position for a dangerous shot on Wayne’s goal. At the other end of the pitch Wayne won a string of corners but his figures would be blocked by what he described as “excellent defensive flicks”. In the last five minutes of the game Wayne was almost constantly on the attack, and Simon’s defense and goalkeeper blocked whatever Wayne could throw at them. With just 25 second remaining Simon conceded a penalty as the ball struck his hand as he was making a defensive flick. Wayne positioned his figure as if he was going to strike the ball into the left side of the goal, and Simon positioned his goalkeeper dead center of the goal. When the shot came it was dead center and Simon pushed it away with his goalkeeper with ease.
Munir scored on his first possession against Kevin Nieman. He was so swift that Kevin did not have his hand on his goalkeeper when Munir pushed the ball into the shooting zone. By the time Kevin had hold of the goalkeeper Munir had already shot for goal. “Very embarrassing” was how Kevin described his lack of preparedness. Just three minutes later Kevin equalized with a quick shot from the left that ramped off a defender, flew over Munir’s goalkeeper, and dropped into the goal. “The intensity dropped and the accuracy dropped too,” was Kevin’s description of the second half. While both players had a few half chances, neither could get a good shot on goal. Munir came closest to snatching the victory right at the end of the game, but his shot easily saved by Kevin’s goalkeeper.
Wayne built up a two goal lead, striking in the seventh and eleventh minute, before Munir pulled a goal back just before the end of the first half. With less than a minute left Munir pushed the ball over the shooting line on the ring wing up against the touch line. He missed the ball with his next flick, so did Wayne, leaving Munir to touch up and shoot from a steep angle. The ball bounced off the far post and into Wayne’s goal. The second half was described by Munir as “Pretty much all Wayne”. Munir found that some of misses were due to the imperfections on the bottom of the bases of three of his new Lorient figures. Wayne scored twice more. His third goal was struck in the “D” atop the penalty area, the ball went through the narrow gap between the goalkeeper and the right post. Munir was unlucky not to save the fourth goal. Wayne’s shot came from the left wing, the ball struck goalkeeper’s hands, hit the underside of the crossbar, then the goalpost before entering the goal.
After many games that have ended in either a tie or in a narrow win for one or the other, the game between Simon and Kevin exploded into a seven goal thriller. Simon took the lead in the seventh minute with a powerful shot that flew into the goal at the near post. He doubled his lead just a minute later with a slow shot that rolled into the goal at the far post. Kevin pulled a goal back just before half time from a quick break through a gap in the center of Simon’s defense. Simon fouled one of Kevin’s figures with a defense flick, but Kevin had already taken his shot on a rolling ball to score. The second half exploded with three goals in the first few minutes. Kevin equalized in the second minute with a long flick through a narrow gap in the center of Simon’s defense to strike the ball. “That was the goal of the game,” Simon said afterwards. Simon took the lead again just a minute later with a hard shot from the right. Two minutes later he doubled his lead with a slow shot that rolled over Kevin’s goalkeeper’s rod. In the ninth minute Simon scored his fifth goal with another slow shot that rolled over the goalkeeper’s rod. After the game Kevin was magnanimous “The only goals I scored were spectacular. I had to score them as Simon played so well.”
Kevin’s goal was besieged during his game with Wayne. In the first half he pulled off a string of saves and hung on until the fourteenth minute before Wayne scored, with a chip shot over the goalkeeper’s feet. The second half started as the first had ended as Wayne continued to press Kevin’s defense. Kevin’s defensive line held out so well he only had to make one save in the second half. As Wayne pushed forward he opened up gaps in his defense. Kevin’s breaks through these holes forced Wayne to make two saves with his goalkeeper. With three minutes left Kevin pushed through a gap in the center of Wayne’s defense, and his shot bounced off the goalkeeper and into the goal to tie the game. With fifteen seconds left Wayne managed to muster one final attack on the left. His attempted chip over Kevin’s goalkeeper’s rod was unsuccessful as Kevin parried the shot away with his goalkeeper’s armpit. “I felt like I was in Stalingrad,” Kevin said after the game, “defending the city over hopeless odds”. Wayne continued the analogy “I was in the city, running out of ammo and the weather was getting colder.”
Having tied the first game of the night Simon and Munir played again. Simon continued where he left off against Kevin pressuring his opponent’s defense. But Munir almost took the lead midway through the first half when his shot from the right struck Simon’s goalpost and bounced out to strike a defender. Simon scored the first goal in the twelfth minute of the first half with a chip shot from the right that went over Munir’s goalkeeper. The second came in the eighth minute of the second half from a powerful shot that went into the goal at the near post. His third goal came from a throw in. He pushed the ball from the throw in over the shooting line between two of his players. When Munir blocked one Simon touched up with the other and chipped the goalkeeper. “The first half was good,” Munir commented after the game, “in the second half I just lost it. I just could not break through Simon’s [defensive] line.” He continued “Simon’s offense was a certainly a lot better in this game than the first game we played.”
Results
| Simon Hutchinson | 1 | v | 1 | Munir Merchant |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |
| Munir Merchant | 1 | v | 1 | Kevin Nieman |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 1 | Munir Merchant |
| Simon Hutchinson | 5 | v | 2 | Kevin Nieman |
| Simon Hutchinson | 3 | v | 0 | Munir Merchant |
| Kevin Nieman | 1 | v | 1 | Wayne Smith |