|
 Slow & Steady Notebook
Posted in DC Outdoor Division on September 20, 2007
By Sarah Banks
Great first game everyone! We can definitely pick it up a bit during the season, but we have a great base to build upon. They had a couple of fast guys, but we managed to contain them, and anyways our guys were just as fast! Patrick scored another hatrick, and Mike had some great saves in the back. Great job to all of our girls as well, who played solid and moved the ball really well. We had some good passing and ball movement, and most importantly were able to score 5 goals! If we figure out how to not be offsides, we will be set!
Posted in DC Division V on September 20, 2007
By Sarah Banks
Great first game everyone! We can definitely pick it up a bit during the season, but we have a great base to build upon. They had a couple of fast guys, but we managed to contain them, and anyways our guys were just as fast! Patrick scored another hatrick, and Mike had some great saves in the back. Great job to all of our girls as well, who played solid and moved the ball really well. We had some good passing and ball movement, and most importantly were able to score 5 goals! If we figure out how to not be offsides, we will be set!
Posted in DC Division I on August 21, 2007
By Sarah Banks
Jake stepped in to help us out at keeper, mike and steve had some pretty sweet goals, thomas and beth hustled their assess off and prevented them from doing much, and Madiha mowed through quite a few people, unstoppable! The tall kid on PC devils managed to not injure anyone, one of their girls was an absolute pushing bitch, and danny called a foul on thomas everytime he touched anyone! all in all a sweet victory.
Posted in Boston on October 19, 2006
By Danielle Riley
Someone should have informed the What’s Soccer team before they showed up, that soccer is a game of skill, and Slow and Steady knows how to play. Wow! Last Wednesday the Slow and Steady squad came out in full force. Although What’s Soccer seemed to have a never-ending supply of subs, our offense blew by their defense and their offense couldn’t get past our defensive wall. The offense was fueled by Pauline, with three goals, Mike and Rich each with two, and Larry with one. Amy, Chrissy (A.K.A. the human shield), and Ehab, who helped out both on offense and defense, were a defensive wall, protecting our talented keeper. Numerous times their forwards were shut down and when the ball did manage to get by, all but three shots were quickly stopped by our phenomenal keeper, Brien, who for those of you who didn’t see, took a rocket off of the stomach and quickly jumped up to stop the next shot. Of course our quick moving coach, Coach DeRosa, was there cheering and quickly opening the door when our subs were available. Overall, ending the game with a team victory of 8 to 3 felt fantastic!(except for the sprained knee and ankle) It just seemed that the team clicked and that every ball went our way. Hopefully this Wednesday we’ll once again bring our A game and show the Shams what soccer is all about.
Posted in DC Outdoor Division on October 3, 2006
By Steve DeRosa
Three weeks into the start of the season and I thought we'd never receive a welcome into the competitive division. The first team we played made us wonder if we had been placed into a newly created lower division. The second team we faced made us think that maybe we'd been put back into the recreational division. But last night, we quickly saw that we were in the competitive division.
This team had it all figured out. They knew how to open up the field, when to make a run, how to make excellent passes, and how to anticipate our every move when we had the ball. With the speed some of their players were packing, they could even outrun many of us.
Throughout the entire game, we struggled to keep the ball out of our half. By the way they spread out and moved to the ball, they looked like they had extra players on the field. Whenever we tried to clear the ball out of our zone, they amazingly had an abundance of players waiting to knock it back towards our net.
By half time, they were leading us 4-0. We had gotten off a few shots, but nothing substantial or worthwhile. In the second half, we started to adapt to their playing style and began working more as a team. It was actually quite impressive how we came together and started moving the ball around. We weren't rushing every time we touched the ball, but instead controlled it more and made the necessary passes to move the ball up the field.
They were still a dominant force on the field in the second half, of course. Their 3 goals is a clear indicator of that. But our performance in the second half was a much closer match to theirs than it was in the first half.
After a hard fought run down the sideline, Patrick was fouled in the goal box. All of Del Merei's players lined up behind Patrick as he wound up for his penalty kick, hoping that their goalie would save it and they would get to the rebound before we did. But Patrick didn't let it get that far. Instead, he pounded a perfect shot into the left hand side of the net and earning us our first and only goal of the night.
We had a couple more opportunities late in game, including a perfect pass down the left sideline from Tom to myself in which I ran it to the net and then chipped it horribly over in disgrace! But of course, nothing materialized the way we needed it to.
Great efforts were exerted by all, including Mike T's diving saves, Chris's awesome defense that stopped two potential open net goals by the other team, Patrick's control of the midfield, and extra efforts by Pinger late in the second half when he was all riled up and ready to take on the world!
While they may have beat us 7-1, our second half performance showed that we can compete with the best. A 3-1 second half against three time defending competitive division champions isn't bad at all.
That said, welcome to the competitive division, guys! Get ready to play some intense soccer!
Posted in DC Division III on October 1, 2006
By Steve DeRosa
Tired and worn down from a hard fought game that ended just minutes before, we took the field to play our second opponent of the night, KPMG 1.
However, the Slow & Steady team that entered this match was not the same one that finished their previous game with flare and fireworks. Our exhaustion had set in, despite rotating through an over abundant roster.
Even though KPMG had started short handed, they were moving around us like we were cones in one of their practice drills. We had no excuse for the fact that they scored first. And then, when they fielded another girl and were at full strength, they struck again, taking a large lead, 2-0.
We eventually came back and by the end of the first half it was a tie game 3-3. However, we were giving a poor performance to a team that we should have been beating.
But even so, the first half proved to be the heyday of the match for us. We scored just 3 goals in the second half. KPMG, on the other hand, scored 10 goals. There was no doubt that we were their punks tonight. Matt, our friend that comes to watch many of our games, pointed out that we struggled against them so much because their playing style was just like ours. While that was true, the greater problem was that they were utilizing that style even better than we were tonight.
The tragedy is that KPMG was not as good as Highballs, the team that we had faced in the previous game. Had we played the way we did in the first game, then we would have easily put this team out to dry and took home at least one victory for the night. But we had wasted all of our efforts and energy on a team that we were less likely to beat. By the time we played KPMG, we weren't up to the challenge. I suppose we played the right team at the wrong time. We were just one game too late.
Posted in DC Division III on October 1, 2006
By Steve DeRosa
The team we faced tonight was fresh out of school. They were young, agile, and very quick. Top all of that off with fancy moves and we had a formidable opponent. As soon as the game began, we knew we were in trouble. They came out with 3 quick goals and took an early lead. Two goals later and we were still trying to catch up. They were dribbling and passing around us. They were even beating us to the ball.
Facing the possibility of a very humiliating defeat, we switched gears and stepped up to the big leagues. We fought hard and ran to open space. When we scored, they were caught off guard. But they soon began to realize just how serious a contender we were when we scored again and again and again to bring us within just two goals of them: 6-4. Then, just as they were seeking refuge from our reign of vengeance and with seconds left in the first half, we pounded another shot into the back of their net to bring us within one point of their score.
We had proven ourselves a worthy challenge to our opponents... now we just had to keep up the pace. And we did-- at least for the first few minutes of the second half. But then, like a roller coaster reaching the peak of its runway, we plummeted into disarray. Flashbacks of the first half sprinkled the turf before us and before we realized it, they were leading us 9-5. But we woke up once again, just as we did at the end of the first half, and began dusting off the playing field. By the end of the game we had scored 3 goals to their 3. They still had a 4 point lead on us. But, once again, like the first half, we scored another goal with just moments left on the clock. Although they had beaten us, we walked off the field proud of a hard fought game. They may have had youth over us, yes... but we had experience. And our experience shined brightly tonight.
We had been in the upper division before, but never had we played like an upper division team ourselves. Tonight, however, we not only proved that we deserved to be there, but also that we were a dangerous and skillful squad not to be overlooked.
Posted in Boston on September 28, 2006
By Mike Ausevich
This game can be loosely compared, though it may be a stretch, to the traffic jam that caused Ehab to miss the first half.
For the whole first half everything was flowing normally, we were playing well. No one knew at half time what trouble lie ahead. During the first 10 minutes of the second half our team was hypnotized, I hate to say by one player but I think that was the case, and we lost focus (an accident ahead, traffic slows down). We eventually regained our focus and put points on the board (after the accident, traffic lets up). Unfortunately our efforts were a little too late, if we had 5 more minutes in the game we could have taken it back for the win.
Regardless of the score, there were a lot of positive points that made this a fun game to play.
Chrissy had a beautifully placed goal from a free kick in their end, reinforcing the fact she plays well on both sides of the field. In that same half Amy had a great defensive presence, sticking it to everyone that came in her path. Brien denied many a fine shot from our defensive zone to keep the score respectable.
Second half was kept in perspective with a nice goal from Pauline, when she wasn't making something happen on offense she was falling back on defense. Danielle put one away while pressing up on offense, she always keeps them guessing... Both of these goals would not have been possible without Rich and his sweet passes from the wing and runs off the ball to open up the field. The next goal was a pretty one; Larry broke down the field and let go the precise pass that Ehab needed to poke in our last goal of the night.
We had innumerable chances in front of the net tonight but only a small fraction fell. We kept pounding them with shots and trying to keep it down their end, that strategy is bound to yield positive results. Like my hockey coach used to say "You Can't Score If You Don't Shoot!"
I had a blast tonight and hope you all did too! See you next week
Posted in Boston on September 21, 2006
By Kim Nagle
It's true, there is something about a few goals posted on the opposing
team's score board that gets our players motivated. The unique thing about
our team is that everyone plays to win, and plays their hearts out, but
still we support each other and no one leaves angry. We have a great team
and deserve to win....so last nights victory was hard earned and well
deserved.
Slow and Steady started off, well, slow and steady. It took us a goal or two
to really get on our game and start hitting the back of the net. And we did
hit the back of the net..six times,
actually. Earning points for Slow and Steady were Kim and Pauline with two goals each, and Ehab, Danielle, finishing off nicely executed passes to
score a goal each.
Brien was great in net... allowing Slow and Steady a cushion late in the
second half. Chrissy, Amy, Larry added to the victory by commanding a strong
presence in the backfield, while Mike and Rich were versatile in both attacking
offensively and retreating to stop many advances from our opponents.
Jim was there, as always, cheering for the team and proving to be Slow and
Steady's greatest fan, coach, and supporter. We appreciate you being there
and organizing our team! Thank you Jim!
It was a great game by all. Keep up the good work!
Posted in DC Division I on September 20, 2006
By Steve DeRosa
It was a night for winning. We had a full staff of guys, and enough girls to field a full team. Our opponent, on the other hand, had only one guy sub and only had one female which means that they would have to play short handed the entire game. So the game began...
Ten minutes later, and the score is 3-3. Two more minutes pass, it's now 4-3... and we're the losing team. Half time comes and now we're losing even worse... 6-3!
What happened? Well, that's what we were trying to figure out. We weren't spreading out and we weren't playing together. Add that to the fact that we were all playing off of our game and we had a mixture for disaster. Although we picked it up in the second half, we never REALLY picked it up. For each goal we earned, we let up a goal in foolish mistakes.
With just 5 minutes left in the game, we were still losing by one goal. At that point, we should have rallied back and cut our losses. But instead, we let them score yet again. We came back fighting and scored a quick goal. Now two minutes left and we're one goal down.
BUT AGAIN! When we should be scoring, we let up yet ANOTHER. And again, realizing too late our mistakes, we fought back hard and scored a goal to put us within one point of our opponents.
But time wasn't on our side. We had too much of it already and wasted it away. Now when we really needed it, it was gone. Thirty seconds left and we're beating them to the ball and making the necessary passes. But we don't get the chances we're looking for and a few deflections later the whistle is blown.
Game over. Our short handed opponents had beaten us badly. As Mike said after the game, it was a "dark day for Slow & Steady."
|
|
|
|
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 29 |
30 |
31 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
| 5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
| 12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
| 19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
| 26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
1 |
2 |
| |
|
|
