April 18, 2002
Memphis Shock at Kodiak FC

Our fifth game of the year was against Kodiak FC. This was our first time to play them. This was a match-up of the 2 pre-season teams picked to finish at the top of our division. So one would think that this would be an entertaining game. It was quite the contrary. Game time conditions were in the low 70’s and great pitch conditions.

We started the game and played it with 3 of our top defenders not able to make it. Luckily, we have some guys who can play back there if needed and will do an awesome job. The first half was fairly boring. Although there were a couple chances on goal for each team, nothing materialized. Baxter did have to make one twisting save, but he was all over it. We had a couple of guys that had good shots on goal, but nothing came out of it. The general feeling at halftime was no one was playing like they wanted to win on both teams.

It’s hard to write about nothing when not much is happening.

At halftime we were concerned about the way were playing. No chatter, no hustling, no loose balls won on our part. We needed to change that.

We started out the second half strong, winning balls and playing all out better than Kodiak. But that wasn’t getting us any goals. We were getting more and better shots on goal than Kodiak was. As the half went on, the feeling that both teams didn’t have any drive to win was evident again. Now I’m not saying that we were just out there lollygagging, there were times where the game play would pick up for a small amount of time, but as a whole it just seemed that way.

With 10 minutes left, the game got exciting. All during the game Baxter had been coming off his line to break up sent balls to the Kodiak forwards as great goalies would do. This one was different. The ball was sent up to a Kodiak player from midfield. Baxter was coming out to get the ball and slid in to grab it. The Kodiak player slid also even though he was not close to the ball. Needless to say Baxter and the opponent slid hard into each other. Somehow, the ball rolled 8 yards and just limped over the goal line for a Kodiak goal. Kodiak 1-0.

Now normally I wouldn’t complain about this, but all game long the ref had said something to the player that went into the keeper every other play except this one. This was the third time Baxter got ran into this game. JJ tried to stop and nudged the keeper for Kodiak and he nearly got a card when they were both going for the ball. Inconsistency didn’t help us out. After a couple of minutes we got Baxter off the field and stuck Kevin back in goal. At this point there were no more than 5 minutes left.

Two minutes later all but like 2 of our players were within 30 yards the other goal. I didn’t see what happened but this came right from the Billy, with some minor spelling corrections:

Jeremy threw the ball in. Me and another guy went up for the challenge. I hit the ball toward the goal and he headed it out. Winters was there to receive it and crossed it to Talley. Talley chest trapped it towards the goal but got knocked down by 2 guys (probably should have been a PK). I ran in and knocked a guy out of the way and ripped it left footed. Goalie had no chance to stop it :) That’s about it. Then Jordan and Talley tackled me.

A minute later after a Kodiak corner kick was cleared the game was over. Considering how both teams played, a tie would’ve been nothing short of fair. The second half the game was opening up a little more, but still the drive wasn’t there. I’m hoping Sunday will be different. A win would give us a lot of pull in winning our division, as we would have the upper hand in the head-to-head. Not only that, I hope we play like we want to win.

Dennis Thompson