Game recap, 3/21/2010, Zu 2-Richmond Blaze 2

In an effort to keep this page a little more active, I am going to try to do a quick recap of every game. Couple of things to keep in mind-- I play in the back, and often don't see all the plays up front, or who is making which passes. Since I missed last week, and the stupid Cup game was postponed (again), we're starting with Zu-Blaze...

The Zoosters started out a little slow, with Karl looking at me as the game was starting and saying "my timing is just a little off today"-- this would be a harbinger of things to come. We had our chances early in the first half, with a few shots going wide, Yonni's near miss on the corner kick, and some slip-ups in center of the field leading to a couple of early fast-break opportunities for the Blaze. But we held strong until a corner kick about 20 minutes into the half, where an unmanned back post and slow clearance led to a cheapie goal for the bad guys.

Rather than come back strong right away, the Zu gave up another goal in short order, this one off a long ball, header slightly mistimed by Greg, and Karl and I unable to recover in time. Joao came out to make the play, but we'd left him too much to do, and he couldn't stop the breakaway goal.

This time, the Zu responded. About 10 minutes later, we saw a nice pass from Adrian lead to a half-bicycle goal from Cosmin. (Heard at halftime: "well, he was called offsides a lot, but that goal makes up for it, i think.") Anyway, nicely played from the two of them there...

Halftime score 1-2.

Second half was much better-played by the Zu, at least from my perspective. We were much better-spaced, and gave up few real opportunities other than 2 near-misses on Corner kicks. Manny made a (rare) great defensive stop on one play, too. Joao did an excellent job, despite threatening to quit mid-game (sorry about that one, Joao-- i was tired, and had my man :)). Up front, we had a bunch of good runs lead to close calls, and finally got a goal midway through the half on a breakaway started by Tomasso from near midfield. Nice ball down the middle to Fawaz, who beat his man in a straight race to the ball and put it solidly by the keeper.

Not a ton of note after the evener, except a few more offsides calls and Joao deciding he would stay with the team, at least for now (I promise to try to listen better... and we need you).

The line of the day came from the Blaze left Fullback, who, upon my hitting a shot about 10 yards left of the goal, cracked: "I guess that's why we're defenders." True Enough.

Final Score 2-2.

We probably should have won the game, but played well, particularly in the second half. A good warm-up for the season, and Rogues next week.