Quake 1 Willies 1

Finally at home on Howe Field for 6pm kickoff for a pivotal and interesting matchup btwn median aged 28ish FCQ versus median aged 18ish Willies. FCQ came with 15, couple important players missing, Willies had 16 I believe. Wind was absolutely whipping at times, and played a role in some moments but nth get critical.

Coming in we had planned for dealing with their speed, and textbook HS soccer style which we were 100% right on. They showed good ability and positioning in moving ball laterally and keeping a striker high on our SW while OM ran the sidelines. Game kicked off and for first 5-10 minutes we were executing exactly as planned. Good possessions resulted in several corners for us, 1 of which Mammoliti just blasted off the edge of the top right corner on a diving header. Couple other point blank looks we would want back were stymied by the GK who played well or cleared by Willie defenders off the line. This was an unusual game in that both teams produced good chances throughout, yet only found back of the net once each. Willies produced a couple chances as well but overall I thought we kept anything dangerous limited. They definitely flashed their speed and ability and kept us on our toes throughout. Overall, first half was possessed moreso by Willies after that first 5-10 mins but a couple more quality chances for us. 0-0 Halftime.

We weren't happy with our play overall and had some strong discussion amongst ourselves at halftime, I think Willies ate Watermelon. Second half kicked off and one of my two mistakes today cost us dearly. I started half on sideline as I typically try to get my 10 or so off field around that point. Simply put the D unit we fielded was just too slow and Willies #23 took full advantage on a great individual play to put them up 1-0. He streaked past our Left OB and took on our SW near the corner flag, a nice move got him free running back towards the top of 18 where he crossed the face of a guy or two and ripped it home near post against a defenseless Eaton really. Wonderful individual effort, but gross to watch on sideline. I entered the game a couple mins later and though from that goal on we played really good soccer overall. We started using our high press as an 11 man unit and it resulted in a flip in offensive zone time to use a hockey term. Willies did well to counter but the overall possession they had enjoyed crumbled away. After a couple more wasted looks one of our many chances to attack down the wing and cross finally produced. A nice exchange with our RB Cruz sprung Fisher down the sideline. He left one Wille swinging before sending a ball into the top of the 18. T. Bonadonna took a nice touch/layoff while setting a bit of a screen for C. Walker, who turned and ripped it home low far netting. 1-1 65'. Game was pretty back-and-forth from that point on with Willies long ball and counter speed giving us fits at times. They found iron off a frantic scramble in our box that Eaton got just enough of to direct it off the post and clear of danger. Deep breathe had by FCQ there as to that point we had squandered a couple more good looks. Game continued at a pretty torrid pace with some physicality coming out. Hard foul by a Willies player on Eaton after he had smothered the ball drew a crowd but the always great and present HR Tom George kept things controlled throughout.

Both sides had threatening sequences late but I thought An otherwise perfectly officiated game was botched late when Iwankow played a perfect centered through ball that had Mammoliti sprung on a full blown clean breakaway, Except the Willie defender Iwankow bent the ball around blatantly stuck his arm out and deflected it. Tom called play on as I would agree it still looked as though Mammoliti could get to it, but it took it off the clean line he had in for sure. It got a little worse at this point as Mammoliti got to the ball a full stride or two ahead of the charging GK and poked it past him just inside the 18 just to be completely laid out by him. I really don't know how Tom didn't award a PK on this as Ricky was cleanly in for a tap in before GK crushed him with a hip check after realizing he was beat... Felt a little shafted to not of gutted out a 2-1 W off that play. But overall it was a really enjoyable, well played game from Willies. Very fun to play against an organized young bunch like that. Very good chance we see them again later this year I think. Good luck rest of the way to them.

We continue our season-defining run of June matches next week against the rising, now 5th place RVS.