March 18, 2001
Memphis Shock at Arsenal

Arsenal, our nemesis. They have been the snake to our mongoose, or the mongoose to our snakes. I don’t know, I don’t know animals. (Dr. Evil) So after they lost to the Zebras we knew they were vulnerable this season. We had to jump on them to get the W. And, we did just that. Game day conditions were a breezy mid 50’s with quite a bit of sun again. Not complaining at all. We started the game with 11 players, finally, with another on the way. Three were out and we don’t know what happened to the other one.

Five minutes into the game we struck first. Bishop won a ball in the middle of the field and sent it up to Ryan. Ryan shot the ball past the keeper to his right that hit the back post of the goal. Shock up early 1-0. Around 5 minutes later Dennis stole a pass from an Arsenal defender and shot left top shelf to beat the keeper. Shock 2-0. Minutes later Arsenal got their first tally of the day. A breakdown in defense allowed their big guy to get a shot on goal from the wing. Shock 2-1. Nearly 20 minutes into the half after an offside call against Arsenal, Jordan sent the free kick for Dennis. After running a bit with it he placed the ball over an out of place keeper for another goal. Shock 3-1 on their first 3 shots.

The rest of the half was actually pretty boring. We seemed to have no energy. Not too much talking to other players on our team and just an all-round sluggishness seemed to plague us. Davis did have a nifty little run up the left side of the field, which on his attempt on goal, hit the post and bounced away. But hey, going into the half, we had our first lead of the year.

At half Baxter wanted to come out of goal. This was kinda a surprise. Since we have a couple of players who we can trust back there, we stuck Chris back there. He did a great job back there as a back-up. We also hoped we could come out with more energy.

Minutes into the half Ryan sent a ball into the middle of the goal that Dennis totally whiffed on. After getting a mock yellow for choking, he wanted to make up for it. Off of the goal kick from the whiff, Davis headed the ball to the outside. Dennis beat his defender and centered to Ryan who has got to have the strongest left ear of anyone I know. Using the left ear he put the ball in the back of the net for a goal. Have fun sleeping on that side tonight. Shock 4-1

This half we came out looking like a different team. We were hustling more, jumping on the opponent with the ball, centering better, and just playing well. We were filling holes and being in the right place at the right time on loose balls. We won at least 75% of the loose balls.

Arsenal got their second goal 30 minutes into the second half. Our keeper slipped on the wet conditions on that side of the field and the Arsenal player just got it between him and one of our defenders. Shock 4-2. With 10 minutes left in the game we got our last goal of the day. Winters won a ball in defense and sent it up to Baxter. Baxter used the old “ball from another game on the pitch” trick to get his goal. The Arsenal goalie tried to stop that ball, or save that shot from Bryant who kicked that ball off and left the goal wide open. After Baxter noticed this, being stunned he just kicked a self-proclaimed ugly ball to the goal. Without a goalie there was no one to try to stop the ball. After missing a couple of shots, including one that hit Ryan in the square of the butt, he didn’t miss this one. Shock with the victory 5-2.

We seem to be a second half team this year. It’s like we feel the way the other team is gonna play in the first half, and then decide to play our best for the second half. It’s a good strategy, but that basically wastes 45 minutes. Once again we dominated the second half. If we can play a whole game to our ability, we can’t be stopped. There was a huge difference in the way we played in each half. Once again in the latter half our midfield was running at will. We have a much stronger midfield than we ever have. We were doing a better job all game sending the ball to our speedy guys. Our defense was doing a great job not allowing good shots on goal if any. They were jumping on the bad guys when they did have the balls. Basically, we played the way we did against the Town, which we were all over the place. Best part about this, other than the win, we were extremely loose and having a great time playing. Good game to everyone.

Dennis Thompson