October 28, 2001
Memphis Shock vs Rowdies

For some reason the game was over 5 minutes late is starting. Both teams were on the field and the Rowdies were trying to make a goalie change. After some of us telling the ref to get the game going we started. 10 minutes into the game we made a goalie change, keeper super sub Chris in for Dennis. Around 10 minutes later we started making our substitutions. The first round of subs was well timed. Rob won a ball in midfield and sent a thru ball up to J.J. J.J. outran his defenders for the ball. The goalie came running out of the box. Somehow, the ball got thru 4 people without anyone touching it. Nathan was following on the play and shot the loose ball into an open net for a goal. Memphis Shock 1-0.

We nearly got another goal pretty quickly when J.J. laid the ball off the Mark. Mark dribbled a bit and fired a low shot that went under the keeper. Both Ryan and J.J. came flying in from the left side to finish the rebound. We thought we scored again but 1 of them was ruled to be offside on the shot and thus out of the play.

Right around this time Chris made 2 plays. One of them was his only save of the game on a shot from long distance that really didn't have a chance. The other was a sliding clear. A ball got loose in defense and Chris came off his line to clear the ball that the forward was rushing to get to also. Other than that Chris wasn't ever challenged.

With a little over 5 minutes left Kip chested down a ball that was sent to a Rowdies forward. He took a couple of dribbles and sent a long ball for our 3 players on the right side. J.J. collected the ball and took it to the right side of the field. From an acute angle, he shot with the outside of his foot that squeezed thru and hit the inside left netting. Memphis Shock 2-0.

End of the first half. It seemed really short. We played, well, we had 2 goals. We were halfway to our goal of not allowing a penalty kick.

Bishop nearly started the goal scoring in the 2nd half. A loose ball was sent to him and he dribbled past 2 defenders. He juked the goalie twice but with the keepers long body he just barely got a body part in front of the shot. On the rebound Matt shot the ball wide of the goal post. A few minutes later Matt was making a run up the left side. He got in the box and was trying to make a cut, but the defender impeded his cut and Matt was taken down. Further reply shows an all of the sudden tight jersey on Matt. Anyways, we were not awarded a penalty kick. The ref said he found no harm in the foul in that the defender was just trying to move out of the way. Ummm, OK. So on the free kick inside the box, the ball was dropped to Baxter who took a shot that hit a defenders leg and went out for a corner kick. Matt went to take the corner, and sent the ball into the middle of the box. Todd came flying in from like midfield and headed the ball with enough power but enough touch to go over the big keeper and under the crossbar. Shock up 3-0.

We were playing some better ball. Our passes were sharper and we were hustling more than earlier. During this next stretch of play, David got his first yellow card of his Shock career. He acted clueless to the call and while walking away accidentally, haha, back heeled the ball like 15 yards. So the ref promptly gave him a yellow.

With roughly 15 minutes left in the game we got another goal. Nathan passed the ball off to Kip who was pushing up from defense. Kip faked, and then out ran his defender. Just before he reached the touchline, he centered the ball back in. The ball skipped thru to Rob, who settled and made a karate-kick style shot that found the back of the net. Shock 4-0. We finished the scoring off minutes later. Todd cleared a ball in the back that made it to Matt. Matt turned and lofted the ball up to Bishop on the wing. Bishop dribbled the ball to just inside the 18 and took a shot. The ball pinged off the far post and into the goal for the fifth goal of the game. Bishop finished the pretty play by executing what had to be one of the worst airplane celebrations to have ever been witnessed.

Minutes later the ref blew the whistle to end the game with a win for the Memphis Shock to the tune of 5-0. Chris Brown with his 2nd consecutive clean sheet.

This was a big win in a couple of ways. A) with the win, we are just about guaranteed to stay in D3 next season as Rowdies now have to win all of their last 4 games to pass us. B) we didn't give up a penalty kick, and C) we finally beat the Rowdies after 4 attempts.

We played a pretty good game. The first half was ugly, but the second half looked a whole lot better. Same ole same ole. Defense, stout. Midfield, good hustle. And forwards, constant pressure. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Chris is goal. He did so little in this game there isn't really anything to talk about. He did look pretty sexy back there.

Dennis Thompson