FC Quake 1 Willies 2; Disappointing Way To Lose

Not excited to write this one but if I recap all the W's should rightly recap the loss and put a final thought on our year...

This one started off rough, with FCQ guys immediately calling me saying there was no way field was playable. Willies Manager dropped the ball big time, no idea why they even play at Wendelville honestly but we showed up to an unlined, tiny field with huge ruts and holes, flimsy aluminum goals both leaning badly, long grass where it was still alive, and wooden stakes sticking out of every corner on the field (18, 6, corners, etc.) Have they played here all year, apparently, which blows my mind. But as expected refs showed up and immediately deemed field unplayable. To Willies manager credit he got paint there, got stakes out of the ground, and eventually convinced refs to allow game to go off after attempts to find a close, insured available field failed. The field did not play a role in the game overall as both teams dealt with it pretty well.

So for 2nd week in a row we kick off late. Both teams had great numbers, I believe 17+ both sides. Immediate advantage went to Willies as we got caught on our heals a bit trying to adjust to the field largely. We knew they have skill, speed and would move ball well but Bellinger still caught us a couple times, leading to the theme of this entire match which was lopsided officiating equaling endless set piece attempts for them. Bellinger is a terror up top with his speed, and superb acting/complaining ability. Outside of him the only real standout throughout the match I thought was Harris In the back, he cleaned up everything Sunday night. We nearly scored on ourselves, twice, in the first 20 minutes both off FK's that an FCQ player mishit battling tight with a WW player, but got a little lucky to not get unlucky if you will. Around 15' we started to settle in I thought and find possession and chances. Reid/Fisher/Lamos were doing damage down the wings with their speed and the always crafty combo of Walker/Mammi/Kerr/Iwankow was giving them some problem up the middle. That said the best offensive opportunities still were in WW favor I would say, again almost entirely of the set piece variety. Ironically neither of their goals came off of set pieces as we defended them pretty much perfect all day, which is a massive change for us.

WW took a 1-0 lead when a quick deflected MF turnover on the very short field deflected in behind everyone but not far enough to draw Eaton out, Bellinger was executing a plan which was to sit on me (SW) all day and try to use his speed advantage in long ball and broken situations like this one, which was the vast majority of the gameplay. I got caught not ready for the deflection and unfortunately once he had a step on me it was a breakaway and he made no mistake to float one far side netting past Eaton who had no chance. 1-0 WW about 30'. We responded well with our best stretch of play to that point and were rewarded no less than 5' later. A good sequence from Mammoliti Kerr and Iwankow sprung Jay free near top of the 18 where he let loose a nicely placed shot low into the far side netting, GK was very close but couldn't get his finger tips to it. 1-1 34' ish. Rest of half played out with nothing memorable other than a bunch more fouls called on us from great acting by WW and the CR having a hot whistle today.

We felt okay at half about our play, knew we needed to clean up the fouls that were definitely fouls to stop the onslaught of set pieces against us. The CR had already handed out a couple YC for hard tackles to us so we had that on the mind as well. Second half kicked off and honestly the only story is the reffing unfortunately. Were Willies quick and forcing us to slide tackle and play them very physically? Yes. Was literally every time we tackled or went into a 50/50 hard a foul on? NO. But that's how the entire half played out, and we became more and more frustrated due to it. Typically very good CR was extremely biased and uneven, and this is coming from someone who has had only one bad ref review this year to-date. No less than 10-15 times in second half alone we had fouls called on us for well executed tackles in which ball would be cleanly won, WW player dives as far and screams as loud as possible. Whistle blows. Rinse and Repeat. Honestly the most frustrating half I have ever been a part of from that standpoint as any momentum we tried building was just stopped time after time by dangerous set pieces for them. What makes less sense is that any and everything that wasn't called WW way the CR was harassed pretty badly, yet the flow of calls did not waver one bit in our favor. As far as the actual flow of the game it was pretty choppy but close to even overall I would say 55-45 to 60-40 WW possession-wise.

Inside of 10' remaining in regulation the defining, and GW play occurred when I had a clearance attempt off a drop pass under pressure blocked out of the air by Bellinger with his arm including a swatting motion to do so, which sprung him in behind me. Eaton came out to challenge and made the big save but it ricocheted right off him back at Bellinger who for a second time in about 5 seconds batted the ball forward with his arm, this time into the net. Bad play by me, great hustle play by him, but inexcusable to allow not 1 but 2 hand balls uncalled on the game deciding play. We argued obviously to no end, went all out the last 8ish minutes for an equalizer but couldn't find that magical moment with a couple SOG but nothing extremely threatening.

Willies are a great team who absolutely deserves a spot in the final, unfortunately we feel like we do too. Their style Sunday was pretty maddening with all the faking and diving and complaining but they are a young team, that on a typical Sunday in BDSL will learn that gets you punished by the refs more often than not, but Sunday was a massive outlier for whatever reason from the CR. Should of easily been 2-3 YC for diving and another 1-2 for fouls identical to those YC that were handed out to us. Enough on that though. Good luck to Willies in the final they are most certainly capable of beating Panthers again and deserve the shot at a Championship as much as any team did.

For us, we definitely entered the Summer not 100% sure where we would end up in D1, but pleasantly surprised even ourselves by building a lot of good chemistry with new faces. The end goal of building FC Quake into a top club continues starting now. We expect nothing less than another major jump in chemistry and skill this offseason, meaning we plan to run train in D1 next Summer! Expect significant, but not overhauling changes from us come Spring 2017, youth, speed and possession as the focus.

Good luck to everyone in the finals Sunday, should be a great day of Soccer! See you in 2017.

Very short field? I am pretty sure we played on at least two or three fields that were MUCH smaller than this one (this is also our home field). It is a decently sized field which was ravaged by this year's weather. Try and show me a field that stood up to the lack of rain/watering and came out looking good. It is what it is. Now, the lines not being there, that is inexcusable. Whoever takes care of that field should have known better and should have redone the lines. Maybe we can use the new fields at North next year....

What's with the (presumed) lack of availability of the North French fields? They'd be a better option than the Wendelvilles of the world (although personally I enjoy that drive, if not the field conditions)

I think those fields have armed guards there 24/7. And you need to book them about 20 years in advance, along with giving up your first born and about $100,000. Or something along those lines...

The league inquired last offseason with Amherst about the North French fields. They are contracted for exclusive use by Amherst Soccer Association.

I think that is pretty much what I said lol

The last BDSL team to play at The North French Fields was Elbow Soup in the mid nineties as far as I know.  

Requirement was Amherst residents, which most of us were at that time.

Then it became a requirement for teams to volunteer to work AIM.  We did.  

Then it became only junior teams.  

Bill Shaflucas on behalf of Haz Benz challenged playing there several years ago as a taxpayer and Amherst resident.  

The Town settled by building a field somewhere off of Tonawanda Creek Road to accommodate him.

That field made Wendelville look like Wembley, and was unplayable.

And now the complex on North French is as Alan describes it......