Firecrackers Inch Closer to Playoffs

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-To be posted soon-

 20 September 2005

 Two things happened yesterday that have not happened to me before.  Three teams showed up to play a game, one of those teams being a co-ed bunch from Foster City.  I felt bad for them, driving all that way, but I soon forgot as the game started.  The other thing that I had never seen before was the two sewer grates on the field, near the sides.  They were the honest-to-goodness two foot by two foot grates that you see out in the road.  A very interesting place for grates, but at least they went nicely with the planes taking off overhead.

 The game started very well for the Firecrackers.  They took the opening kickoff and strung close to twenty passes together before taking a shot.  All the Monarchos could do was chase the ball around like a flock of butterflies.  Butterflies with claws.

 About 15 minutes into the game, Dave Ahlgren took a pass from Donny Fugate.  He turned and chipped the ball just over the defenders’ heads to a streaking Ronnie Jenkins.  Ronnie took the ball in stride and went towards the goal.  Facing a near impossible angle, he fired a shot right past the Monarchos goalie for the game’s first goal.

 Shortly after, the Monarchos were fouled outside the Firecracker 18 yard box.  Taking advantage of the sun, they took a hard shot towards the goal.  The usually sure handed goalie Travis Bianchi couldn’t see the ball well, and the ball went through his legs.  The Monarchos were coming back, just as they did in the previous game.

 Not two minutes later, Ahlgren was fouled yet again, just outside the penalty box.  Jeremy Basanese stepped up to take the shot, and while the ref was telling the Monarchos to back off, Jeremy played a quick ball to a wide open Franco Beneveno, near the penalty spot.  Franco put the ball away easily and the Firecrackers were back on top.

 Near the end of the first half, John Basanese (remember him?) took possession of the ball 2/3 the way down the field.  Once he got past the defender, he played a near-perfect bending ball, all the way across the field to an open Josh Patton.  Because he didn’t have much of a shot, Josh headed the ball back across the face of the goal to an again open Franco.  Franco easily hit the full volley into an open goal face for his second brilliant goal of the game.  3-1 Firecrackers.

 Other memorable moments include Paul Touchet getting called for a blatant handball near midfield.  Paul made it more funny than anything.  He knew he was going to get booked and started jogging off the field even before the ref could get the card out of his pocket.  I still don’t think something like that should warrant a yellow, but whatever.  As we all know, it’s much better to get called for a handball at midfield, than it is in the box.  Ronnie also got a yellow for repetitively fouling the Monarchos.  He got the yellow on his second foul.  Yeah, really repetitive.  Dave Ahlgren also got a big cut under his eye when a defender tried to rip his face off on a breakaway.  (It looks like I’ve been abused, so I just tell people that I “fell down”.)

 The defense held well all game again.  The defensive unit of Devin, Will, Chris, Antonio, Ronnie (and now Matt Bishop again) and Travis is a very well organized group.  They are working well together, and have allowed 1 goal in the last 180 minutes of soccer.  Superb job, guys.  Brian Montejano and Donny Fugate are solid in the middle, Franco appears to be everywhere, and Jeremy, Paul, Josh and Sean are all doing well on the outsides.  Great job, everyone.

 That being said, I would like to see some improvements next game.  We are playing the La Soledads (who we beat last time 2-1) at Ocala park.  As far as I know, they are in first place.  If we beat them, we will take first place in the league, going into the playoffs.  If we tie, we might finish second, and if we lose, we could end up in third or fourth.  Obviously, we need to finish strong, so here are two things that I would like to see us do in our next game: 1. Pass like we did at the beginning of the Monarchos game.  We did so well to play the ball back and to the sides.  Let’s really make a concerted effort to do that the whole game next Monday.  We pass well in spurts, but we often get caught holding the ball too long.  Know who you are going to pass to before you get the ball.  2. Cross the ball more.  A lot of times, we have numbers in the box.  That can be even if there are only 1 or 2 people in there.  We are generally taller than the defenders, so let’s have more crosses earlier.  If you don’t think there is enough people there, take the ball to the end line, angle your run at the last minute, and slot the ball across.  Doing so will result in lots of goals.

 Again, great win.  We are all playing well together!

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