Monday, October 18, 2010
Release Your Inner Dragon...
Mid-October and it's the final stretch with just 5 games to go...time to Release Your Inner Dragon!!! (saw this sign board in the airport when we hit Florida and I couldn't resist). I mean come on, is there a cooler mythical creature around than the dragon? Umm, no is the answer; a resounding no! I mean according to Wikipedia, the Dragon is a "legendary creature"...stay with me now, a bit of writers lib...apparently, in making one simple decision (to say yes to my bosses, Dr. Eric Zilmer and Nick Gannon, in accepting the position of Head Men's Soccer Coach at Drexel University) I reached legendary status... So Will "I Am Legend" Smith, move over bro, the new Legend is taking over West Philly ("Doug Hess, legend in his own bedtime"...a.k.a. dreams!)...you may have been born and raised, but I am now occupying your space on 43rd and Powelton! Perhaps there will be a made for T.V. movie (I'd even take an after-school special), called I Am Dragon in the near future...
Know what other time it is??? That's right, it's Unkempt October time as well! What is Unkempt October you say? So glad you ask, it's the time that you start prepping for No-Shave November... what is No-Shave November you say... well, quite simply it is the time you let it all go. The beard gets scraggly, side burns kicking, hair longer all in preparation for a strong finish. Why do we do that you ask? For added strength, duh...
Last week saw us split in the CAA, a loss of 2-1 to Delaware and a 2-1 win over Georgia State in the warm confines of Vidas Athletic Complex, a.k.a. 43rd and Powelton, a.k.a. The Dragon's Den, a.k.a. Legend's Corner...
Soccer is forever a game of chances and mistakes...we saw both down at Delaware last Wednesday night. We created three fantastic chances to score prior to the Hen's getting their first on a counter-attack. The first chance was a free header off a Mannny Cazares corner that Tal Bublil could not manage to get on frame...missed opportunity one. The second, a solid strike from 8 yards steered away by their goalkeeper. Manny takes the ball down the right side, splits two of their defenders to find Nathan Page inside their penalty box. Pagey does the business, turns their defender and takes the end-line. He pulls the ball back to an un-marked Malcolm LeBourne above the six yard box...missed opportunity two. Another attack down the right side, this time a Cazares pass splits their backline for an on-rushing Nate Baker, whose early service finds Malcolm at the back post for a tightly-contested header that goes just wide of the back post...missed opportunity three (fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice shame on me...fool me thrice...hmm, I guess you lose a soccer game).
So, the Hens do us up in a counter-attack off of our throw-in, in their half. A great finish on their part, but a cornucopia (an early Thanksgiving reference...I love Thanksgiving) of individual mistakes. The rest as they say is history...I have to think that more times than not, the team that scores first in college soccer wins...I'd venture as much as a 70-75% rate. In the scenarios that don't prove this to be true, I would venture that most of those games are won by the team that scores consecutive goals. We only had one game to disprove this theory this year (the Towson game...which has caused me to add a heavy dose of beta-blockers to my diet...). In such a low-scoring affair like soccer, it is so important to be the first to score.
Onto the Georgia State game and a return home to Philadelphia. We concede the first on a corner, but proving the latter theory true...we score consecutive goals and take all 3 points to put ourselves in the log jam which is known as the CAA Men's Soccer Table! True to our young team's mentality, we showed strong courage to pull the game right back level after going down in the 43rd minute with a strike of our own from the penalty spot. We put 6 passes together from the kick-off after the Panthers' goal that led to Pagey clipping a well-weighted pass over their left back to Manny Cazeres, who takes the ball down in stride and attempts to cross to Andrew Goldberg getting to the back post. The ball would have made it's way there, but the left centerback's hand restricted its movement...step in the cool-headed Page to level the game from the spot.
A level game as we go into half and some simple points to make to the team to gain the result we want (a level game = level headed coach at the half...I went a bit red on the Wednesday in Delaware and don't think I helped my team at all. Live and learn...what can you expect though from the Red Dragon...It's part of my name...I got excited sometimes...I am human...even legends make mistakes...). I thought the guys made opportunities and stayed with the game, despite not being able to finish a chance. Perhaps this stick-to-it-ness mentality is what allowed baby-faced assassin, Mark "Ole Gunnar Solskjaer" Donohue, to finish for us (for those that don't know, Ole was a tasty forward for Manchester United in the 90's into the 2000's that made a living on a substitute's role and late game heroics). It was a blustery day to say the least and when Tal Bublil's clearence off Georgia State's corner kick caught the wind current, causing their last man back to skim the ball on and engage their goalkeeper to make a play about 35 yards from his goal...a tempest that may happen only once in a century--a nor'easter created by so rare an occurrence... it was the Perfect Storm....
Donohue forced their goalkeeper to make a play and he miscued. Donohue collects, and then makes a near elementary mistake. He begins his dribble into the box and before he places the ball in the open goal, he raises both of his upper limbs (those are his arms) into a position of a winged vehicle capable of flight, despite being heavier than air but propelled by jet engines (that's an airplane)... Mark has only been in the country for a little while (he is originally from England...or is it Wales...I don't think Mark even knows), so a little benefit of the doubt in that he hasn't seen enough of ESPN's Not Top 10 which is riddled with similar plays of athletes celebrating prior to scoring a goal, a touchdown, basket, etc.... As he neared the six yard box, I think he recognized this himself and it became "wow I can't miss this, better put my arms down" time a.k.a. squeaky bum time. Well done Mark!
Time to get the band back together again and hit the road! At Hofstra on tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 20) for a 7 pm kick-off, then down to Richmond (which is in Virginia, and Virginia my friends is for lovers...) for a match-up with VCU on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 7 pm as well. Have a great week and hope to see you on the road...stay in touch!
Regards,
Doug
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