2009 Season
Marin Team :: Game Report

Game Date:
Opponent:
Final Score:

May 9, 2009
UCA
L 2-6

The Spikes played their fifth game of the Marin League season on Saturday May 9th at Creekside field in McGinnis Park, against UCA, a team that we almost always play well against, even though they are consistently one of the best teams in the league. They had a rough year in 2008, moving up to the A division after winning the league the prior season, but they had shown promise so far in 2009, winning all three of their games. The match started well, with each team showing off its controlled passing game, and producing some quality attacks. The Spikes struck first off a pretty shot from Bob just inside the top of the box. The injury bug unfortunately struck again, as Joey reinjured his foot and had to leave the game. We hope he comes back strong! UCA fought back, regaining some of the control of the game that we had taken from them, and eventually put in a goal towards the end of the half. That’s where the game stood at half time as we each retreated to our sidelines to figure out how to solve the other team’s defense.

UCA came out in the second half with a little more spirit and bounce that the Spikes did and showed us that we have a little more work to do on our conditioning. They came up with a little extra effort several times and cashed in on a few of them, putting in 5 goals in the first part of the second half. They were able to push us back in our end of the field for extended amounts of time and kept us there. We rallied towards the end and came up with some good attacks, with Leo getting fouled in the box late in the game to earn the penalty kick. Barry expertly put it in to regain a bit of Spikes pride, and that’s how the game ended, with a tough 2-6 loss.

All ascents to glory start from places that are not quite as glorious, and that’s how we will look back at this game as – the starting point from which we build the rest of our season. There were things we didn’t do so well during this game, but there were a heck of a lot of things that we did do well. Next week will be better!

Players: Adel, Barry, Bob, Chris F, Ed, Greg, Izzy, Joey, Karl, Leo, Matt, Patrick J, Scott, Thang