April 8, 2001
Memphis Shock vs Arirang

We started the game with 11 missing 4 players in which all but 1 of those showed up. From the outset we were continuing the kind of form we had Thursday night against the Zebras, good passes and pressure near the goal. After a couple of tries on goal we finally succeeded. Mark Winters was doing his rediscovered run down the right side of the field, and saw Dennis wide open in the middle of the field. Ryan had managed to pull his defender over to the side with him. Mark sent Dennis a ball on the ground that he promptly put it past the left side of the keeper who stayed on the line. Memphis Shock 1-0 after 13 minutes.

Most of the game was played in the midfield. With both teams having tight passes, but also each team had their fair shore of intercepted passes. We came out on top of this in the first half. Their defense seemed to be out of sync as opposed to ours who understood their roles. A couple of times our defenders would steal the ball and then make a little run up the field. Its good to see that, even better that the midfielder on their side figured out what they were doing and then covered their spot. We nearly had another goal when Winters was running down the right side and sent a low ball to the center. Ryan shot the ball which curled just to the outside of the post.

Arirang had 2 chances on goal that were both thwarted out. The first one was from a corner kick, the ball was bouncing around in the middle. It ended up hitting the crossbar, came down, tried to clear, Arirang player took a shot, but Micah was still standing post to clear the ball. Another one was when their forward got on a break away but didn’t have complete control of the ball. Baxter came off of his line to slide and knock it away followed by Tim clearing the ball. Off of a free kick, Bishop sent the ball for Nathan. Nathan was charging for it, and hit shins with the keeper. Somehow, the keeper hurt his kneecap. Strange. Then, on the in suing free kick, their forward was barely touched by Sharp, who kicked all ball, and fell down in pain. Strange x 2.

At halftime we knew what we had to do to get more goals on this team and keep them from getting any chances on goal. It also seems that at this time, Arirang decided for them to win, they would have to start diving in pain from a fingernail scratch.

We started out the 2nd half probably the worst we have ever played, and it lasted for nearly 15 minutes. In all that time the ball only got to a forward once. Somehow a ball got to an opposing player in the middle near the 18 who shot the ball low and beat Baxter to his right. Tied 1-1. On the one chance we had, Bishop was taken down from behind when he received the ball. This drew the first of many yellow cards for the other team. The second goal for them came when Chris was pressuring the forward with the ball. Due to Chris’s tight marking, the forward tried to beat him and stepped on the ball. The ref must’ve thought that the player really did step on Chris’s now very inflated foot when he fell down in agony. So on a bad call, right outside the box, the guy took a shot and got it just over Baxter’s hands for the go ahead goal. Arirang 2-1.

We finally decided to start playing soccer a few minutes later. We started to ever so slightly to turn the momentum to our side. We were playing with confidence even though behind, and started putting pressure on their defense again. After that goal Arirang didn’t get another shot on goal. I kid you not, every time we fingernail scratched the opposition this half, they would fall in pain and would be awarded a free kick. But you know what, if you abuse something, usually it comes back to bite you in the end. But hey, it’s done all over the world, why not here?

This whole sequence started with no more than 15 minutes left in the game. After one of our players being taken down, Bishop took the free kick from the right side of the field about 30-35 yards out. He sent it left post in which Nathan challenged the keeper making him mishandle the ball and awarding us the corner. Sharp took the kick from the left side, the defense deflected the ball, Davis took a shot from an impossible body angle which hit the crossbar. The deflection bounced once and Dennis went to head the ball when the Arirang player decided to put a boot in his face. At this point he was acting like he was kicked in the top of the head, writhing in pain. The ref awarded a free kick, inside the box?? At this point, 2 more players for the other team got a yellow card for dissent arguing with what they thought was a bad call by the ref. Since we were so close to the goal, the whole opposition was on the goal line. Cam was trying to get inside of them wherever he could. After a couple of their players pushing him around, the ref came up and told them to get where they will be, and then our player could decide where he would go then. Funny. We had everyone up within 35 yards on the goal, even the fearless keeper himself.

Davis tapped the ball off to Bishop who was upended by a player who jumped early while we were trying to shoot. Davis quickly shot the ball and the deflection sent the ball out of the box, which Jordan collected, and sent back in the goal area. Cam got the first of 5 headers, which went to Davis, which went to Bishop, which went to Dennis, which was finished off by Nathan that went in the net. But, on Bishop’s header, he was pushed from the back so the whistle was blown just before Nathan got what should’ve been his first goal of the year. Impressive about this, all the header’s were by us.

So, Bishop steps up ready to take the PK. A couple of the Arirang players at this point started mouthing off to the ref. The ref asked them to stop but they would just keep going. So the first culprit was shown a yellow, and then a red. So while this player was yelling at the ref, another guy started yapping. Well, the ref showed him a yellow and red since he wouldn’t stop. At this point, Arirang decided to walk off the field in poor display of sportsmanship. Bishop did score the PK in the end, on Barrett.

The score before the walk off, Arirang 2-1. GMSA rules state that in the event of a forfeit, the team not forfeiting is awarded a win by the score of 2-0. So we are awarded the win. I’m sure Nathan and Bishop are disappointed they didn’t get the goal, or chance on goal.

Like I said, that was a poor example of sportsmanship. I wish it didn’t happen, not only because of the way it happened, but we were hot at the time. Yes we gave up 2 goals, but I can guarantee you Bishop would’ve scored that goal making us even at 2. And then Arirang would’ve been down 2 players, leaving us better chances on their goal. Even though we are having a hard time finding the net, we are ever so slightly getting closer to having over half of our shots on goal. I hope we find it soon. And I have confidence that we will. We still have a problem with playing a complete game. The closest we have come was Thursday night, when the Zebras were beating us for maybe 15-20 minutes. If we can get that down to 10, well that would be grand. We play a good half, and a so-so half. We usually play good for over 2/3’s of the game, but that last 1/3, we just completely lose it. If we can knock that out or even play better in that last 1/3 we will be hard to beat.

Our defense did a great job thwarting the many chances Arirang tried on goal. Midfield really had to work hard today and responded well, with the pressure being on. Forwards, even though they didn’t get too many chances today, supported the midfield on defense and on offense and did a good job in pressuring their defense. We have started to play more as a team here recently in our last 2 games. Evidence of that is playing to certain players strengths, and switching fields on attack. We are no longer going up and down the same side of the field. We are starting to spread it out. Now, if we could only get people to be on time to our games. Let’s go out for our next game against the Eagles and show who is the top team in our league.

Dennis Thompson