FC QUAKE 2 BSC INTER 2

Rescheduled week 1 washout against a desperate BSC Inter team last night at a decently conditioned Parkers Pitch, the wet Spring seems to have taken a toll in that the field has become much more uneven than last Summer, and the grass was long, but overall alright conditions.

We had 14 for this one, and debut of our recently signed backup GK Chris Carrington in relief of a recovering Eaton. BSC had 14 and then 15 a little ways into the 1st half I believe. I did not know the HR but did recognize AR's for this one. Not going to talk about this all recap, but they were horrendous last night. Phantom offsides, HR had no clue what he was doing consistently being inconsistent and calling everything that was not a foul a foul and letting play go on after some brutal fouls. Overall we don't think it impacted the final line and my guys did a great job handling, certainly less animated than a few of BSC guys.

Kickoff came and this game had a completely different look than against Willies. Not sure if its the change in setting (Nice turf to okay undersized grass) or the opponent, but game was rather broken for the majority of play tonight. That said, we came out on the better foot, possessing in the middle and working the wings well. We got off to a great start with an eerily similar goal. Good possession, Cruz breaks free on the wing and swings in a nice near post ball that Mammoliti finds at its high point and buried top corner near post. 1-0 FCQ 15'.

After the goal things got really helter-skelter, neither team really sustaining possession. BSC was content to play a style I was not expecting at all, sit 7-8 guys back and boot to one of 3 big guys holding at the midfield line and hope they can win 1 v 1. Well unfortunately, we really did not defend against this tactic well last night until 2nd half. We escaped a couple of opportunities for BSC unscathed, with Chris needing to make 1 good save, before things unraveled over a 10-15' stretch. On one of these such boot-it plays, a FCQ defender made a huge gaffe, panicking under pressure in the corner and putting the ball right out to the top of our 18 where only Fleck was standing. He took one touch and drilled home. 1-1 25'. We seemed uncertain of where to be from the MF to D during this stretch, and it soon cost us another when yet again a 50ish yard boot into our half (Looking into The Sun playing on the East half looking West wreaked havoc on both sides by the way) found Fleck who cut one guy near the top of the 18 and sent a nice little floating chip onto #12 who full volleyed grazing the near post and in after getting a half step on who else, myself. One thing to note, I hate the nets at Parkers. They are wobbly and round toothpicks for posts, normal sized round or square posts would of kept 2 goals out of our net here and may have cost us as much as 3 points already. 2-1 BSC 35'. We needed to stop some bleeding so we pulled Kerr back as a stopper type and remainder of half played out evenly with nothing super dangerous to note.

Halftime we gathered ourselves and reset. One thing we knew coming in and noted very early 2nd half, was BSC is an older bunch than us, and really looked tired out pretty early. I'm not going to say they had no chances 2nd half, the long ball counter style attack occasionally created semi-dangerous looks and generated a couple corner kicks, which were tough to defend against the plethora of huge guys they have, but we kept Chris pretty clean overall. About 10' into 2nd half is when we really started getting our footing back. A significant amount of sustained possession was had, and we soon were threatening into the final 3rd with consistency. Miskell, Cruz, Fisher and even Kerr were terrors down the wings. 15-20' in BSC had a break down and we were able to counter with numbers. A heady play from Walker and Kerr found Al in on a pseudo break away with other FCQ in behind him. His shot was well saved but directly to Iwankow who calmly volleyed the bouncer into the open net. 2-2 65'.

Things really opened up now. BSC continued to get the occasional frantic chance in our end off long balls, but for the vast-majority of time from around 70' on we had the ball. We were consistently entering the final 3rd rather easily while Ross and Co on BSC' backline still were defending well to prevent great chances. Once this game got into the last 15' it really felt like a jail break for us and that the winning goal was coming. BSC was gassed and content to boot clear and sit 9 back in their 3rd and try to repel our attack. Kerr, Walker, Schwaab, Soemann all found themselves with great open looks in this stretch and just couldn't connect with the open goal. BSC did threaten once with a corner kick that did not miss by much off a header. The final 7-8' was in their end. Chances galore with FKs, CKs, point blank shots, you name it, we missed it. Couple of really hard fouls from gassed BSC defenders that drew blood on Iwankow somehow went uncarded by our zombie like HR tonight, but again set us in scoring position. Under 1' to play saw our last glorious chance after a perfect cross from Fisher split the BSC CBs and was controlled out of the air beautifully by Mammo, setting him up for a rapid-fire 1v1 on the GK who made an amazing save closing the angle and stuffing Ricky's attempt for the late-game glory. Tough ending to a game we feel we left another 2 points on the alter.

Good effort from Ross & his BSC crew, they played hard and won the 1st half tactically. We look to cleanup our game and produce a much needed 3-points against a game Hoops side on Sunday, 6pm at Parkers.