Playoff Game Starting Time Even with the change, the game should still be played in hot and muggy conditions. I wonder if it will have an effect on the visitors...
Huge Homefield Advantage for the SeaLions Tonight! I don't know if the weather conditions will have that much of an impact on Denver, but I'm curious to know the last time the Diamonds actually managed to win a match that wasn't played at an elevation of at least 4,000 feet above sea level? I think that the SeaLions are going to have a huge homefield advantage tonight and not just because Cathedral Catholic High School, in the San Diego Community of Carmel Valley, is so close to the Pacific Ocean at an elevation near sea level. I'm looking forward to seeing by far the largest home crowd of the season for the SeaLions and likely the largest crowd in San Diego for a WPSL match not involving Brandi Chastain's California Storm in several years. I've seen fliers for tonight's match posted all over Carmel Valley the past couple of days at local shopping centers, community bulletin boards, fitness centers, and of course at those all important Starbucks coffee shops. People all over San Diego have told me that they read the Union - Tribune feature about Ouying Zhang on Wednesday and a number of fans of the recently completed World Cup are even planning to give women's soccer another look for the first time since the WUSA folded. GO SEALIONS!!!!
Sea Lions - Diamonds Playoff Game [R] This playoff game was decided on a referee’s call in the last minute of stoppage time for the game. SDWFC fans (who had been riding the center and assistant referees all game about the gross disparity in calls made favoring the visitors), ended up yelling in joy as a Diamond player was whistled for a handball in the box. Ronnie Fair calmly took the penalty kick. The Denver keeper guessed correctly in her leap to her left side, but the ball was kicked too high for her to get a hand on. After the kick, #7 was ejected from the game, presumably for dissent. If the CR had been looking toward the Denver bench, he also might have ejected their coach for kicking off one of his shoes about 30 yards down the sidelines in protest. Just about a minute later, the game ended with a 1-0 score. Up to that moment, it had been a frustrating game for the home team, as they just didn’t seem quite in sync during parts the game (in part because of the Diamonds high level of play.) Starters for SD: Lu Snyder, Danica Carey, Ouying Zhang, Theresa Wagner, Carrie Schmit, Val Strocco, Jen Lalor-Nielsen, Sarah Halpenny, Lizzie Coghill, Alicia Kerch, Ronnie Fair. Subs: JoJo Idom, Nicole Prather, Kristen Koehrn, Samantha Hire, Mo Ramirez, Briana Betshart, Kara Koehrn. Notable in their absence were Lorrie Fair and Emily Wynne. Play went back and forth, up and down the field, at a high rate. There were not a lot of ‘quality’ chances generated, as both teams showed stout defenses. Those few that occurred ended up in shots wide or high or right at the keepers. Ouying had 2 ‘half chances’ generated by Lalor-Nielsen that ended up in shots on goal but 1 was right at the keeper and the other ended in a diving save by the visitors’ keeper. Denver really impressed me. They were well coached – always keeping their shape, hounding SD players at every opportunity, and seemingly winning something like 65% of all headers. They also held up very well in the heat, especially considering they only had the one substitute. They also knew how to take advantage of the CR allowing them to get away with a lot of shoving and forearms to the back – and were the recipient of a lot of generous offside calls that stopped SD attacks. Their own attacks mostly fizzled out, and in fact their 2 best chances to score were on consecutive corner kicks in the 36th minute. 1 was headed down on goal but was blocked out the far side. The 2nd was headed a bit high and wide at the far post. It's too bad that their efforts went for naught because of an unlucky play. Starters Cerruti Ebel Smercheck Antongiovanni Ruder A. Portincaso L. Portincaso Ripmaster DeDycker Heller Haugen Sub Lea Notes: -There wasn’t much of a crowd up to the start of the game, but after a few minutes had passed it grew and grew. It ended up being a lot larger than any other that I’ve seen this year. -There were a couple of guys at the game wearing Irish National Team shirts. One of them said that Sarah Halpenny had been practicing with their team. -It was really hot and humid at the start of the game, but it cooled off after the first 30 minutes or so and by half time the lights were turned on. -I’m sure that I’ve missed mentioning a number of things that I’ll remember later. Those I’ll post if someone else hasn’t gotten to them first.
More playoff game notes Denver did a good job most of the game in keeping the ball away from Lalor-Nielsen. She looked good when the ball did come to her, and made several really good passes that caught the visitors flat-footed. Danica Carey also had a good game, playing more of a 'post-up target' player than normal. Here distribution from that position helped the team keep possession and aided in the attack late in the game. And there was more of her dangerous long throw-ins. Ouying got off a number of shots and could have had 2-3 semi-breakaways if not for poor officiating. The 2 passes from Jen mentioned above resulted in a chip that almost got over the keeper and a volley off a lob that the keeper also saved. She was definitely the most dangerous of the forwards out there, for either team. A number of the other SD players also had their moments. Theresa Wagner got off several good crosses from the left flank early in the game. JoJo Idom was able to dribble around and through midfielders a number of times and also had a couple of near breakaways. Alea Kerch, as always, kept the defense together from her central back line position. Denver looked most dangerous on set pieces, both corner and free kicks. They also had a player who could perform long throw ins to the box.
Here's the latest from the SeaLions' site: "SEALIONS BEAT DENVER, HEADED TO FINAL FOUR! SAN DIEGO -- Ronnie Fair calmly drilled a penalty kick into the netting in the 91st minute Saturday night, giving San Diego a 1-0 win over the Denver Diamonds and sending the SeaLions to the WPSL Final Four in Salt Lake City next weekend. It was the first post-season women's soccer match played in San Diego since the WUSA Founder's Cup III match in August, 2003."
Re: San Diego vs. Denver Nice Synopsis Tsunami! The hand-ball call was complete BS at that point in the game. 89th Minute?????? Denver showed tremendous heart with only one sub. Ref should have let the players decide game. The fans were yelling horrible insults to the referees all game, really showed a lack of class. Particularly when Sealions outmuscled and controlled most of game.
Re: San Diego vs. Denver I completely agree with you that Denver did show "tremendous heart" playing as well as they did with only one sub. I wonder why Denver wasn't able to bring more players for such an important playoff match. As far as the PK goes, are you suggesting that the referee should ignore a handball in the area because it occured late in the match? I'm sorry to hear that a handful of fans voicing their displeasure at the referees was of such a concern to you. The things that I thought "really showed a lack of class" were the shoe that came flying from the Denver bench onto the pitch and the profanity that was used by some of the Denver players at the end of the match.
I'm really happy for Ronnie Fair that she was able to score the winning goal in her final match of the season for the SeaLions. Unfortunately Ronnie won't be traveling to Salt Lake City this week because of a prior commitment that she has here in San Diego this coming Saturday - she is getting married. Congratulations to Ronnie!! Fair was an extremely popular player when she played in the WUSA for three seasons and I know that all of her fans hope that she has a wonderful wedding and wish her all the best in the future.
Re: San Diego vs. Denver But it was a HAND-BALL in the BOX! There was no dispute that it occurred; the girl who handled the ball didn't protest the call nearly as much as Katie Antongiovanni whose verbal f-bomb-laden assault on the Ref led to a straight red-card! I agree it was a tough way to lose a match but it's part of the game and everybody who's played the game has been on both ends.
Re: San Diego vs. Denver If anything the CR should be lauded for having the guts to make the correct call despite knowing that it would almost certainly be game-deciding and would cause great consternation among the visiting squad simply because of that fact. An intentional hand ball is an intentional hand ball, regardless if it's in the 1st minute of the first half or the 5th minute of second half stoppage time, and regardless of whether it's in the box or out of the box. Was there an argument that it was not intentional? Was the AR closer and/or had a better view (if so, did the CR consult the AR)? These are the only possible objections. If anyone should be criticized, assuming the hand ball was intentional, it would be the Denver player who rashly decided to handle it with so little time left in a scoreless game. A red card for dissent like that is more understandable (but still not justifiable) if there was an accumulation of calls and non-calls during the game with which Denver disagreed.
Re: San Diego vs. Denver The hand ball, from my vantage, did not look intentional. I counted 7 Sealions swarming the box from the weak side. It was chaotic. The CR did not look to sideline for help, he saw it and called it a PK. The entire game the SD fans were hurling insults at ref. He probably wanted game to be over at that point. I find it funny that fans never object to missed calls in their favor, hence the homefield advantage. As you say - it goes both ways ... For instance, when #3, Ouying Zhang, does her signature spin move - she is never once called for grabbing, hooking, or pushing off other player - she does it so amazingly fast! Oh well, i thought it was a good game to watch until the end call.
Re: San Diego vs. Denver So where exactly were you sitting then that gave you such a superior vantage? There were a few children directly behind the goal who actually did have a great view of the play, but I don't believe there were any adults back there with them. It doesn't sound like you get out very much if a handful of fans occasionally yelling at the referee was so disturbing to you. The referee would have had to have even thinner skin than you to have made a call just because "he probably wanted game to be over at that point." I think it is very unfortunate that you haven't once said anything positive about the crowd of over 700 that turned out for Saturday's match and how good it is for the WPSL to have clubs that receive this level of support. IMO the SeaLions staff have done an amazing job promoting the club as well as they have while doing so on a shoestring budget. Just out of curiosity, what was the largest home crowd that bothered to turn out and watch one of mighty Ajax's home matches this season?
I was sitting Front row @ Penalty box. Don't be a hater. I applaud SD Sealions for their #2 spot and the WPSL as a whole. It sounds like you have some issues, but thats okay. Maybe your prescription ran out over the weekend ... As I said, playoff game was GREAT! Let the ladies decide who's #1 next week!
"... prescription ran out ..." ?! Hey, no need to throw that kind of cr-p around. Especially in the San Diego thread. As a third party, I am starting to think there has been some kind of bad blood between Ajax and the Sea Lions based on those types of comments (even though they haven't even played each other this year). If so, it certainly will make the Championship game more interesting if both teams advance to that match.
I guess in fairness to ajax#1 this is one of the few threads where an Ajax fan actually can "throw that kind of cr-p around" because during the past three seasons none of their loyal dedicated fans have ever even bothered to start their own thread here. Ironically enough it was Tsunami, one of the biggest fans of women's soccer in San Diego, who finally did start an Ajax thread last season. Sadly for the handful of Ajax fans out there, even that thread gradually faded away due to lack of interest.
Ajax - San Diego Rivalry During the three seasons that I have followed the WPSL closely I haven't been aware of any bad blood between Ajax and the SeaLions. I've only seen two matches between the clubs and the first one I saw was one of the most exciting WPSL matches I've attended. It was played at Hoover High the last Saturday in May 2004 in front of a good crowd and San Diego came from behind twice in the match and ended up scoring the winning goal with less than 10 minutes left. What made that victory even more special at the time was that those three points also put San Diego on top of the table as well.
SeaLions Awarded a Trophy by SD U-T In yesterday's weekly soccer section in the San Diego Union-Tribune, reporter Mark Zeigler awarded one of this week's two trophies to the SeaLions. Hopefully the SeaLions will be raising another trophy this Saturday evening in Utah. http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/soccer/20060726-9999-lz1s26mlspros.html (Go down the page past the first two paragraphs of the U.S. Open Cup article and you wiill see "Trophies" and "Red Cards" on the right hand side.)
Special Thanks to SeaLion Fans and Supporters I just saw the following posted on the SeaLions website: http://www.sealionsoccer.com/
Union-Tribune Futsal Article On the Ball http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060816/news_lz1s16futsal.html The article is about setting up Futsal league in the SD area. The organizer, Mario Mrakovic, mentions Jen Nielsn and her husband, Bo. And the last few paragraphs are about them or quote them.
The SeaLions' Emily Wynne was named to the Soccer Buzz "Elite Team of the Week" after scoring 4 goals for Pepperdine University last weekend in the prestigious Puma Classic Tournament. She scored the game-winner in the Waves' 1-0 victory over Ohio State, and was named Tournament MVP. The SeaLions' website (www.sealionsoccer.com) has a new newspaper feature, "SeaLion Bark." Pretty cool!
Make it 2, actually 3, in a row for the SeaLions. Kristen Koehrn (Davidson College) was named Southern Conference Player of the Week after her 4-goal performance including a hat-trick! And 2 weeks ago JoJo Idom (Cal Baptist) also netted a hat-trick and was named GSAC Player of the Week, as the Lancers beat Cal Poly to help their top-25 ranking.
SeaLions Updates Thanks for posting the SeaLions updates oldgoalie. Do you have any news to report about Jen Lalor-Nielsen and her ACL tear?
The SeaLions' website has posted a new story about Carrie Schmit. She's been named team Captain of the No. 16 University of Texas Longhorns (www.sealionsoccer.com). Watching her play the last few weeks of the season, you could see that coming. She has an iron will and a habit of always being where the ball was. Texas and Pepperdine in the Final 4!
Pepperdine goalie Kayla Stolte becomes the 4th SeaLion to be named a college "Player of the Week" after her remarkable performances last weekend. Details available at www.sealionsoccer.com or at the Pepperdine website. San Diego WFC seems to be one of the few, if not the only, women's clubs which is organized enough to keep its website regularly updated. And it's as good or better than some pro-teams' websites. Props & Kudos.