FC Yemen 2 OP Quake 0

A perfect night for round 2 in the Tehel Cup. It was very strange to drive into Lackawanna knowing you're going to face a Yemen club not at "The Cage". They still had their supporters there but not in the numbers I can remember just an odd feeling. Quake showed with all but 3 guys on the roster and Yemen showed with I believe 3 subs.

Game got under way we decided to play a more defensive style rather than pushing to attack. We really did not want to give them an early chance or give them fast breaks. It was pretty much back and fourth for the first stages of the match. The refs were going to let us play today which was nice. The only call I can't wrap my head around was when I think 7 came into the area tried to do a spin a rama and fell into our defender and then he pointed to the spot. Luckily I guess correctly denying them of their first goal on a PK. They tested me from outside the area a few times but nothing dangerous in the first half. We had a few chances but like Yemen we didn't have anything to serious in the half. 0-0 at the break, we were feeling great to hold a scoring machine as of late to nothing we started to feel more confident in ourselves.

Second half we came out with the mindset still in defense first. FCY had a few great chances that should have found the back of the net, they had a great look on a free kick around 20-25 yards out (hard to tell since the pitch was short). Finally they broke us down sent a cross in back post to an unmarked #10 who headed it just inside the post. I couldn't get back in time to even get a play on the ball, great set up and finish by those two. Then following the goal we passed it back off the kick off the same guy that just scored picks the ball up all alone and places it perfectly into the side netting. 70 minutes this game was played 0-0 and within 1 minute it was 2-0. We started to press hard, we had nothing to lose at this point. We started to generate some great chances unfortunately for us we hit the bar, hit it wide, and the keeper made 1-2 great saves that kept the clean sheet.

Great match all the way around, refs were great, FCY was a great club didn't get chippy till after they had a 2-0 lead but even that wasn't to much. Their supporters were crickets until it was 2-0 which was a nice change playing against them!! Good luck the rest of the way out, I wish we had another shot at them though I feel like we could beat them, but they were the better club today they finished their chances and we didn't.

Adams recap is to the point and dead on but I just wanted to add my 2 cents...

We really played this game exactly as we envisioned it all week in our preparations. FC Yemen is just as good offensively as their recent scorelines have shown and gave us a huge challenge but the way to slow this team down is exactly how we did it. flat 4, 1-3-1 midfield, 1 striker. I thought we showed them a little too much respect after the first 20 minutes when they really didnt generate anything whatsoever, and at times and allowed them to start finding possession near midfield a little too easily. But we basically lined up our four biggest, fastest guys at the 2 centerbacks, DCM and CM positions and made it impossible for them to beat us up the middle. They were still able to create some chances first half with their incredible speed down the wings, but in the final third everything was kept to the outside or long range shots that Adam had little trouble handling. Our counter attacking looked dangerous on 2 or 3 occasions, and could of easily gotten us 1 in first half but we narrowly missed wide on several opportunities and were unlucky to not be awarded our own PK for an obvious shot block by a defenders hand on a strike from J. Iwankow that was definitely on target. Where we really missed our chances was off I think 5 cornerkicks, these guys are a very small team and at times we had 5 guys on the field that were much taller than anyone on their side, we really needed to bury some of those balls we got our heads on inside the 12 yard line. But overall first half ended 0-0 and we couldn't complain, they definitely had a one or two more scoring chances than us overall.

Second half we came out a little too conservative just as we ended the first and FC Yemen definitely started pushing the pace harder. Still, our size and speed up the middle kept everything long or forced balls that were too long and easily scooped by Eaton ahead of the oncoming forwards. About 10-12 minutes into second half is where things started getting interesting. I unfortunately went down with a nagging hamstring injury that I knew probably wouldn't hold up for the full 90 minutes, an aerial tackle cleaning up a long ball down the sideline was the final play I could muster before I just could not run close to full speed any longer and I made my very ungraceful exit. We held up quite well for the next 5-10 minutes, but Eaton began to be called upon to make some pretty damn good saves starting around the 65th minute. Their first goal came off a play that from the sideline did not look very dangerous, with a long cross from their left side into the box finding a poorly marked #10 who had a great finish with his head inside the far post. Incredibly frustrating seeing them win a header in our box with such a size advantage but they did a great job catching one of our smallest guys left 1 v 1 on their best player. 10X more frustrating is what happened off the ensuing kickoff, as a routine ball back by newcomer R. Mahany (who looked fabulous in debut and is a beast in the DCM spot) took a crazy hop on him and resulted in it splitting our centerbacks and sending #10 in on a breakaway. 30 second span led to 2-0, and finally some of the sideline banter we expected all game.

From 70th minute on it was all OP Quake, as we switched back into our classic 4-4-2 and further into a 3-4-3 and really began pushing them to the breaking point defensively. We earned numerous set pieces, corners, and point blank scoring chances, but im still not quite sure how we didn't have that game back to 2-1 within 5 minutes, let alone all the chances we had all the way up to the final whistle. Crossbars, bad hops with guys in alone on the keeper, rebound chances blasted right into their GK's face all led to them managing to cling to their 2-0 lead to the final whistle.

All this being said I take nothing away from FC Yemen, their skill and speed in the attacking half is as impressive as I have played against since my years @ UB. Overall, they deserved their 2 goals, but I cant help but cringe thinking that at the absolute worst it should of ended 2-1, and could of justified deserving a 2-2 end to regulation with the quantity of close range chances we had. A great learning experience for our young squad, when playing against the upper tier teams you have to bury your chances, or be buried.

The reffing was good overall, kept things under control when it got very physical in last 15-20 minutes. Good luck rest of the way to FC Yemen, they are a fun squad to play against. Rush v. FC Yemen will be must-see soccer without a doubt. My recommendation to Rush is to use the formation I suggested if you have the horses in the back to pull it off, it really gave them fits.

there is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is also no such thing as a long cross at Martin Road Elementary, hah

Having watched this one, I have to say the game was pretty even.  OP Quake played well, at a level that you'd think would be enough to establish themselves as the best in D-2 were they to play similarly in future weeks (although I've only seen Amherst Alliance at their worst, and I still know nothing about a few of the newcomers, so), and Yemen wasn't as good as I thought they were going to be given their recent scorelines.  Even though that 6-3 versus the Bantu occurred at this same field, I think it probably did hurt Yemen to play this particular opponent at this field.  Sean just said what OP's strategy was, clog the middle and deny space, and this field is a massive help in the objective of limiting space.  When we played Bantu at the same location a few weeks back, their speed advantage was similarly neutralized by the space, and from a combination of the 30 minutes of that game I participated in myself and what I was told about the rest of it, that was also an even/winnable 2-0 loss.  Polonia and OP are somewhat comparable in style just as Yemen and Bantu are

Biggest surprise for me was when my teammate Mo showed up and started cheering for OP.  But I guess that's just me doing some weak ethnic profiling.

Best part of this week vs the last week, when I watched OP Alliance play Yemen Elite at the same field, was that no one yelled at me for drinking beer at an elementary school.  I bet you can guess which side was responsible for that admonition....

Thanks for your opinion Matt. Was hoping to hear some educated third party thoughts to justfy what we thought was an even game as well. A couple of fairly routine finishes could of gave us a chance to pull the shocker but its a good lesson learned. I think your right on with our playing styles being similar and the small field thing. People were warning us all week of how they use their speed to burn you on the short field but I felt all week in my gameplanning that this would play right into our plans to shutdown the middle of the field. Glad no one yelled at you for drinking and to hear Mo is a Quake fan!! haha good luck to you guys going forward in D1, nothing but love for you guys from the Quake.

Thanks, Sean. Yeah, advantage Quake over Alliance in the OP alcohol allowance competition, haha. To be fair, the guy (middle-aged parent--perhaps the person who posts on here? He seemed well-connected) from the Alliance who said something to me issued more of a stern warning that I shouldn't be drinking at an elementary school. He then left me to do as I please. Still, I could've done without that, even if he's technically correct. I wasn't bothering anyone.

I was just starting to enjoy the Thursday routine of showing up at this Martin Road field to watch a Tehel game, then heading down rte 5 to Canalside for the main act of the Thursday concert series. I forget what Rademaker projects for the fields for next week, but I'm figuring next week I'll have to go Mulroy-Pierce before Canalside instead...also conveniently located near Rte 5.

Best of luck to you guys as well! Also, my condolences about the recent death. Saw that on Twitter. Sincerely, that's terrible and all those affected have my sympathy