Revolution SC 3 - DSC Buffalo 2

With the conditions the way they were, having a ton of subs sure does help.  Thankfully, we had plenty of them (seven, I think) and DSC only had three.  

The first half was pretty oppressive, but there was nothing you could do about the heat.  We put plenty of pressure on DSC early and often, controlling much of the play during the first half.  We saw some Grade A chances sail by, or be gobbled up by their keeper.  We finally broke through just about mid way through the first half.  Corey DeVille had a free kick just outside of the 18.  Both he and Seb Barriere stood near the ball, waiting for the whistle.  Once it blew, Seb ran up to, then over, the ball, throwing DSC off just a bit.  Then, Corey came up and took a beautiful shot, curling around the wall, just past/through the hands of the keeper.  1-0.

We made the cardinal sin of giving up a goal in the last minute of the first half.  We got a little scrambly with DSC sending in a cross.  Frank Huber got his paws on the ball, but it just squirted out of his grasp.  The ball bounced around a few times, with some shots and clearing attempts missed, until a DSC striker found it just outside of the 6, and deposited it into the empty net.  1-1, end of the first half.

The second half conditions seemed markedly improved from the first half (that may also have been in part due to the shade that started to enter onto the field, on the right side, where I was playing).  The play was a little more even for the first 10-15 minutes of the second half.  I'm still not too sure who got the ball to Nate O'Donnell (Andy Page seemed to think/imagine the ball went off of his toe) but I'm giving the assist to Adam Hellerer.  Anyways, Nate had just come on to the field, received the ball, took a few touches up the field, just before the 18, and let a laser go that found the far upper corner.  2-1.  That gave us a nice little boost.  We scored our third one soon after that.  We earned a free kick just outside of the 18 on a weird play.  We sent a ball forward, and the AR raised his flag.  Our player moved the ball a bit, and was fouled.  The ref claimed the offside was on our player that didn't receive the ball.  The AR came in to talk to the ref, I was too far back to hear what was actually said, but the call stood.  More on the ref in a minute.  Corey came up to take the kick, and again delivered an almost perfect strike over the wall.  It hit the crossbar, came back into the 18 where Adam Hellerer was doing a great job of following up.  He very calmly took a touch to control the ball, and then placed his shot into the far, lower corner.  3-1.  DSC's last goal was actually an own goal.  With maybe two minutes left, DSC made a serious push up.  They got a nice shot off, just outside of the 18.  The ball drilled the crossbar, and the speed of the rebound caught Frank off guard a bit.  He turned to grab it, but ended up knocking it back into our own net.  Nothing he could really do about that one.  3-2.  The whistle went soon after the restart.  It was a pretty good game all around, with some hard tackles on both sides, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a men's league game.

Now, the ref.  I know that it seems like everyone just bashes refs.  Maybe so.  However, this ref was not good, at all.  He missed many calls on both sides, and gave some calls that were head scratchers (the offside debacle was one of them).  Adam was taken down pretty violently in the beginning of the second half, and the DSC player was only given a warning.  I talked to a few of their players, and they had no idea how there wasn't a yellow card given.  I am pretty sure all of the DSC players (or most) would agree.  Turns out, the ref didn't even have his yellow/red cards in his pocket.  About 10min into the second half, he had to walk off to his bag and put the cards in his pocket.  He ended up giving us a yellow, and DSC ended up with two yellow cards.  However, if you look at the game log by the ref, it only has DSC receiving one yellow card.  He never even marked down their second card that he gave out.  Just brutal, all around.

Good luck to DSC the rest of the way.  Good group of guys that played hard in the tough conditions with only three subs.  We now leave the comfy confines of our home field (4-0-1) for two road trips (Clarence and Meerkats).  We need to win out and get some help in order to make the playoffs.  Let's see what happens......