FC QUAKE 4 HAMBURG MONARCHS 1

What a hot but enjoyable Fathers Day match! Memorable for me at that I am joining the 7 other FCQ Dadbods this October with my own future Superstar. Pretty remarkably for this match we had all 8 of us present along with 4 other veterans (30 and up club minus Loweecey) and only 2 of our 8 young bucks in Mastrangelo & Clifford seeing us with 14. Fortunately for us, what we feared would be a better-manned side turned out to be victims of the same Club Tournament, and Hamburg came missing a few key guys as well and had only 12 men. Certainly set up for a tactical and sometimes slowed game pace on the scorching Mulroy turf.

Kickoff right around 2pm came with an agreement at the coin toss to feature mid-half water breaks. Both teams came in with what played out to be similar game plans. Try to slow the game down with controlled possession and spacing, and to be honest both took their turns executing it pretty well in the 1st half. We started off very well, controlling possession and quickly probing their backline several times in the opening minutes. After a couple squandered looks, a nice sequence of possession ended with a through ball from Iwankow that was partially intercepted by a Monarch defender but only enough to redirect to Mastrangelo who was well positioned and calmly ripped home far side netting from 10-12 yards out.

Post 1-0 we slipped back into the alarming habit we have had thus far of taking our collective feet of the gas pedal and Hamburg took full advantage, swinging possession into their favor for the middle portion of the half. Couple half chances from bad angles or far out early on were handled easily by Eaton or missed. But as the half wore on Hamburg became increasingly dangerous with good, fast runs by #2, #5 & #22. Not exactly clear on details as I had just subbed out for my 1 and only break of the game, but a scramble in front including a save from Eaton, blocked shot, attempted clear, ended with an open shot from near top of 18 by a Hamburg player that was beautifully placed side netting. 1-1 around 30'. Remainder of half was back-and-forth with some half chances for both sides, and a little recovery to our possession game the last 5-8 minutes. I would say for the half possession was 55-45 Hamburg. Not happy with our overall performance for a lot of the 1st, we put focus on getting back to possessing and playing simple, seeing late in the half that some of the opponents players looked to really be wearing down.

2nd half was one of our better of the season thus far. We quickly took control of possession pretty dominantly and by the 55-60' mark Hamburg really looked to be running out of gas (Cant blame that at all, it was awfully hot and we would of been gassed to if script was flipped). We had several fantastic buildups, with plays starting off nicely out of the back through the midfield to checking Forwards. Mastrangelo was a huge problem for their defenders all 2nd half, consistently taking guys and beating them cleanly 1v1 in the corners and along touchlines. He could of easily had another 3+ point day with little more selfishness or crispness to passes. Couple of very near misses on passes for tap-ins early kept things 1-1 until the 65' mark when a great buildup led to an opening for Walker to let loose from inside the 18, GK made a good reactionary save but rebound came straight out to a crashing Loweecey who made no mistake to pump home top netting over the sprawled GK for his 1st goal of his 2nd FCQ stint! 2-1 FCQ

This stage of the game things really swung our way to the tune of 70-30 or better of the possession. Hamburg did well to throw numbers forward a couple times to try and counter but we kept things pretty clean for Eaton entire 2nd half. We found the dagger finally around the 82' mark moments after a gorgeous half-volley 25 yard screamer from Mammoliti cranked the crossbar. It was an incredible shot from Mammoliti, I think this guy can somehow dislodge his leg from his hip because I have no idea how he got off a volley with such power about 3.5' off the turf! Anyways, after net-rocking crossbar volley we regained possession and worked a methodical switch of field that ended with Hanley feeding Walker onto a 1v1 with the Hamburg SW. Walker made a quick touch by the back-peddling SW and muscled/out-paced his way in alone, calmly taking a touch wide of the charging GK and finishing cleanly into the middle of the open net. 3-1 FCQ and game was a wrap.

We tacked on a 4th and a beauty off some wide-open possession running up to a dipping cross from Iwankow that Mammoliti streaked onto and beat his defender and GK to the 1st touch with a sliding flick forward into the back of the net. 4-1 FCQ 87'. Whistle blew very quickly after the reset.

Great game to Hamburg who battled extremely hard, especially 1st half after we took the 1-0 lead. They had looks at taking a 2-1 lead before we settled back in but Eaton was up to the challenge on those occasions. Was a clean match throughout and well officiated overall. Good luck to the Monarchs rest of the year, at full strength they can play with any team in this division for sure and will make some noise before seasons end. Considering the elements and our average age being around 32 instead of 25 or so, we really did well second half. Clifford for 2nd week in a row playing healthy for us was an absolute stud, shutting down any attempts to attack us through the middle and creating possession constantly off of it. Iwankow going tape-to-tape at CM and never getting caught too far up or back was probably most impressive individual performance of the match.

We turn our focus to the rescheduled Tehel Cup match with Honey Badgers this Thursday 6:30pm at Mulroy, all for the honors of a shot at the BSC Raiders in the next round before next Sundays critical 2pm matchup with a solid Rampart club.