Firecrackers Advance to Finals

15 April 2008

David Ahlgren

There are a lot of words to describe the San Jose Latinos.  But at 0-4 lifetime against the Firecrackers, there isn't much worth mentioning, other than they lose on an average of 3-1.  AND, when they are losing, they go for the ankles, or the knees, or whatever else they can put their cleats on.

Playing against the Firecrackers, though, can be quite an intimidating task in the first place.  I mean, the midfield is full of quality players, and the defense is a solid, intimidating wall--what else could the Latinos do?  Oh, that's right, not play like scumbags.

The Firecrackers took it to them early and often, with John Basanese setting up Josh Patton for first blood with an "easy tiger" pass.  He took a great shot across the goal of a diving Jorge Campos wannabe, and easily found the side netting.  Later, in the second half, after a few Firecrackers were "African death tackled", the Latinos were clumsy enough to score an own goal.  The Firecrackers maintained possession in their box and they cleared it right in.  Poor saps.  After the second goal, any sense of humanity that these Latinos had went right out the window.  EVERY challenge on the ball was a two-footed tackle.  Every challenge in the air was lead was by an elbow.  They showed that not only are they bad players, but bad people as well.  The game didn't matter to them--hurting someone did.

Thankfully the ref's were fairly on top of their game, issuing 5 yellow cards and two red cards.  Somehow, Reuben, or Rayban, or Rupin... whatever, his name's not imporant, (the second-half goalie), made it through the end of the game without a card.  His out-of-the box antics would lead you to believe he's the whipping-boy of a cage fighting match.  Any time he had a chance to hurt someone who had his back to him, he'd take it.  He was so dirty, that even if he knew what a shower was, he wouldn't know what to do with it.

The third goal and the nail in the coffin was scored by Ronnie Jenkins.

There were several shots off the post, or just wide, so the score could have been much higher.  On the other side of the coin, the Latinos had MAYBE one "shot" on goal all game.

Solid defense, crisp passing and many on-target shots all helped the Firecrackers to victory.  Not one player lost his cool on the pitch, and that shows the class of a great football club.

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From the 7 April game:

www.sjfirecrackers.com