1-1 tie vs FAU... Strikers played mostly non-starters & trialists to try to fill out roster spots. They dominated & scored in the 1st half, but got caught on a counter by FAU in the 2nd half for the draw. Fun to watch & a pretty good crowd attended, including the best ULTRA turn out to date. Really looking forward to April 7th...
http://www.flight-19.com/2012/03/21/still-unbeaten-strikers-1-1-owls/ Nobody has beaten us in 2012 so far. Not a terrible result considering the guys we had playing, and we did control the majority of the possession. Just a few missed opportunities and FAU took advantage of their chance. Great turnout too. HUGE event Friday, downtown FTL Pub Crawl. Official start is Tarpon Bend at 6:00 PM(SW 2nd St. just west of railroad tracks), we'll be fueling up on tacos a bit earlier right next door at T-Mex at 5:00-ish. Also Saturday, Strikers vs. Barry U at 10AM at FTL Stadium, Ultras 24 Hour Soccerthon in Kendall at Soccer 5 starting at 7PM. Gonna be a fun weekend!
Claiming 200 or so. The bleachers were nearly full and the grass on that side of the field got a real good trampling from the multitudes that walked it, sat on it, and, possibly, napped on it.... Many Striker fans. Many FAU fans. I hope a few from FAU will now take a peek at the goings on at Lockhart this season.
I'm with you on really watching what Shore does roster/player wise this year. I think it was kind of obvious last year some of those decisions came from Traffic personnel above him last year. This year, as far as the eyes can tell anyway, Traffic is gone, and Coach is in complete control of the roster. Now it's time to evaluate him on his own. First things first is he needs to sit Polo on the bench, or send him back to wherever he was loaned from. Same with Pecka. I wasn't able to make it out to the match last night, but saw Otte scored, and I was impressed with him from what we saw last year before injury and last Sunday. I'll take him over either one of them in MF as a starter in a heartbeat.
I think you are spot on with your comments there at the end Antique. I think the student population at FAU could be a big potential marketing point. Granted a good percentage of their students are still commuters (my step-daughter is currently), but it's not the same FAU of our youth where it was really just a commuter school, largely fed by graduates from PBCC and BCC. They have a lot of on campus housing now, and even a true D1 college football team. I really think the Strikers should look into some on campus advertising, maybe student discounts. Last night could have been a great marketing event for them on that campus. I couldn't make it out so I didn't see what Strikers personnel were doing there, but I would hope they were at least trying to sell some tickets. At the very least they should have been hyping the pub crawl! That's got college students written all over it!
We actually had two new guys join F19 last night who go to FAU. They couldn't stay for the game unfortunately but we met up beforehand to deliver membership packs. Good stuff. We have one or two guys from last year who are alums, and I actually went there for a 1+ before switching to the Art Institute. Good breeding ground for Striker Likers I guess lol.
S & M, I passed the idea on to the Strikers FO. My addition was to offer student discounts to all college students from any local school w/ID. I also put in a plug to get them on the pub crawl, but it may be too late to get the word out for that. DR, I also added your comment to show that the idea actually may have some merit. We'll see what comes of all this....
I pulled this out of your response to air a gripe. I thought Otte was pretty versatile (Played some @ RB in '11 IIRC)-and didn't look out of place before " I guess" he got hurt......... That's what the Strikers said.......in 2012. Question: When did the NASL become the NFL/NHL ? *would it have KILLED ANYBODY for somebody on that club to say something about why guys disappeared into a hole and were never heard from again? We don't need med repts.-but how 'bout an update? (as in: out for year!) There are still guys from last years team I can't find anywhere. Makes it a great deal harder to follow than it needs to be...............
Seems the Strikers ascribe to the Beli-cheat theory of team statements about injury which is basically to say as little as possible, and when you have no choice, then be misleading as well. LOL Seriously though, I get the roster frustration. Anderson is a good example. After watching the game last Sunday, I thought he definitely looked worthy of a roster spot in the MF considering the play of some of the other players they had out there. I'd be remiss if I didn't continue my calls for the exit of Pecka and especially Morales. I watched speedy little MF's run around the pitch for the Strikers last year and be mostly ineffective. Morales was the worst of these. We need guys to have a combination of some speed and some size. Guys like Hassan. I don't mind some speedy playmakers in MF, but let them be more solid all around players, and actually show some kind of chemistry with who is out there with them. Otte and Anderson had some terrific passing plays between them and Laing on the left side of the attack last Sunday. Meanwhile, for 60 minutes Morales continued to look like he was playing a completely different game from everyone else on the field. He just isn't fitting in here, and I don't get what Shore sees. Anyway, I like the looks of our guys on the backline, and of course happy to have Matt back in net again. MF seems to be the weak link, so I hope over the last couple of preseason games Shore can get the right group out there together for some extended minutes so they can start to gel.
I'm always hearing about how in places like Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver that the new wave of heightened pro soccer interest is largely with younger, hip-or-trendy-or-something people. As a middle-aged conservative, I don't exactly fit that demographic LOL but FAU is full of just that type of consumer. If the Strikers haven't thought of doing some kind of targeted advertising on campus there before, then shame on them. The Strikers have got to be doing everything they can to market to every significant demographic in both Broward and Palm Beach counties, while hoping some small amount of effort in Dade will at least yield some results at this point. Pro soccer is a very inexpensive way for college kids to get out on Saturday night and have fun, plus with the games ending around 9:30, the night has only just begun. If I were you DR, I'd really see if you can push those new mebers to help you make some in-roads in getting F19 and the Strikers names around campus. Can you imagine having to expand the supporters into 116 because you were able to pull in a mass of FAU kids?!? $99 for a season seat over there with you guys should be pretty affordable even for college kids. Would be pretty awesome for me to look over at and listen to from my comfy midfield stripe seats in 119! LOL
I saw only a little bit of your whipping boys Smoke, and I wasn't impressed either but to be fair: they both came in-season and I'm sure it was harder for them to adapt on the fly. Was hoping a full camp would do them some good. I only read up on pre-season, as MLS and the Bundesliga take up more of my time for the moment-but I'll take your word that no progress has been made. One of the reasons I'm asking about the roster cap is trying to figure out how many #'s they will carry at each position group. Midfield looked a bit tight to me BEFORE Anderson. Was certainly expecting help there & am hoping the new guy is a player for sure. My thoughts would be dropping 2 now after the loss of a guy like Gordon (one of many on the squad currently who can play more than 1 spot) would be hard on the line-up if you had any kind of real injury woes. The offense goes through Walter. The arrival of Restrepo and Mayen saved your season. #10 is the one guy you can't lose. I just worry about the depth right now. New guys/new day/new chance with me. Last year the Strikers were an oxymoron. A team without one. Striker, that is. Having any kind of real target option would go a long way to erase my personal Wheeler nightmare-but what would be a new season without this club doing something to piss me off? I'll keep an eye on Hassan's transfer to the eventual league winner over keeping your 2 faves instead.
We crushed Barry today 7-2. Barry got on the board first, we leveled 1-1, then they took the lead 2-1, then we leveled, grabbed the lead a ran away with it. 3 goals for Herron, 2 for Restrepo, 1 for Polo and 1 for Mark Anderson(Barry Alum). http://www.flight-19.com/2012/03/24/strikers-blast-bucs-7-2/
The boys played a surprise preseason game this morning vs. Club Bolivar's U-19 Squad at FTL Stadium. The Strikers cruised to a victory 5-1. Aly Hassan scored 2, Mark Anderson, Pat Otte and Hosman Ramos(?) also scored. http://www.strikers.com/news/Strikers-Win-5+1-Against-Club-Bolivar-U+19s Club Bolivar, if you recall, is the team in Bolivia that Marcelo Claure owns(he was money guy behind the botched Miami-Barcelona MLS bid and still the darling of some MLS-to-Miami folks' dreams).
Oh! That is interesting.......I thought the team's name sounded familiar. Why would that team be playing the Strikers? The full Bolivar squad is the current (2011) Bolivian league champion. Maybe we've been presented with an interesting question for Tim tonight. BTW, he is the darling of many in Miami for a reason. AFAIK, he is still pushing for an MLS team in Miami (FIU). It is said he is very, very serious about it. His pockets are also deep enough to carry the load alone, if he desires to do so, but the word is he wants at least another deep pocketed investor to go in with him to spread the risk and expense around a bit. It is said that there are at least a couple of those wandering around asking questions about the Strikers and South Florida. We may be reading more into this than exists, but it sure is interesting that he has some sort of relationship with the Strikers, however tenuous.
I am tempted to go on another rant about the absurdness of MLS to Miami, or playing respectable soccer on that stupid plastic field at FIU, or the history of massive failure of American club soccer in Dade County....but I'll digress this time. LOL Now that you mention it this was an odd preseason opponent for the Strikers. Would love to believe that Claure has finally come to his senses and seen that the only way MLS has any hope of succeeding in this market is with the Strikers brand. But that's probably a real stretch...on many levels.....
Thank you. We know this. That was mentioned. Still, anything related to that club associating with the Strikers is of note if you consider the owner.
up 4-3 after 85 minutes. Herron (PK) Lorenz (header)/Morales Hassan/Restrepo Anderson./Restrepo *looks like a team that will be in a number of shootouts overall.
I dunno. This game was strange. We don't usually see this many goals between the Rowdies and the Strikers. Sorry, but the ref gave you guys a penalty and a couple of goals came off weird deflections/bounces. Plus both defenses weren't holding up very well and more goals could have been scored by both teams. Have to say you did look a little better than expected, but OTOH we seemed to have our heads completely up our asses. Plus our back line was different than it has been for most of the preseason as our coach for whatever dumb reason insisted on having his son in the defensive midfield position all game. That was costly and we are getting tired of it. We could not control the midfield in the first half at all and it put alot of pressure on our back line. This is a pretty big cause for concern among the Mob. Both teams scored some weird goals tonight and the play was really uneven plus the ref was just calling the game like shit both ways. Really hard to take anything away from the result, for either side. You guys won, but in a shootout where it was pretty obvious that both teams had just been through a pretty grueling preseason regimen and there were alot of tired legs on both sides. A deserved win, but only just
I think this is the 1st time we've beaten you guys since the 70s in anything. We'll take anything we can get.... Lets hope this continues next week v FC Edmonton. At least the 2 times we play them at home. I'd hate have a big crowd see us lose to any team, but losing to the Rowdies at Fort Lockhart has a special burn and pain to it.