Saturday, September 1 • Kickoff: 7:30 PM • Lockhart Stadium This is a MASSIVE match in more ways then one. Both playoff positioning and the 2012 Coastal Cup are on the line. It's definitely winnable, Andy Herron will be back, our defense has been great recently, and Tampa Bay hasn't scored in the last 3 matches since Yoshitake left. It's there for the taking. Hopefully the boys are up to it. Don't forget about The Tailgate Show Brew Off from 4:00-6:00 before the game and the (rescheduled from last week) Ultras FIFA tourney at 3:00. FYI these are the scenarios for the Cup. It's an uphill battle but it's as doable as it's ever been for us in the Cup's short history.
I'm beginning to believe you really do have too much time on your hands, DR.... Here's hoping for a 4-0 win for the Strikers after a dry and very successful Brew Off & ULTRAS Tourney. Go Strikers!
Tampa wins brawl-game 3-0. Defends Coastal cup with ease. 3 games to 1. 9 pts to 3. 10 goals to 5. Faceplants Strikers into Lockhart turf, jams their banner up their ass cracks and 1 legged stands over them: Capt. Morgan style........... Much like a seasick sailor, I'm ready for some Shore leave.
A very discouraging result, no doubt, but your assessment is much too harsh, IMO. We lost a player in the 18th minute to a red card - deserved, BTW, it was an exceptionally stupid move on his part - and outplayed the Rowdies until about the 70th minute. Then exhaustion set in and in the 78th minute we gave up a goal that most could see was going to happen. Then the wheels came off. We tried to push for a goal & got caught on counters twice. Not good, but the guys put out a terrific shorthanded effort against one of the best defenses in the league. By added time it was obvious the Strikers had nothing left in the tank, thus the 0-3 final score. IMO, they deserved better, but that's sport. Things don't always work out the way you want. As for Mr Shore, who do you recommend as his replacement next year?
You guys didn't out play us, come on. You DID play better than alot of teams do when down a man and you could have scored. But we were creating chances as well and the game was much too even and open considering we had a man advantage for most of the game. I can't even say the goals were inevitable, I was sure it was going to end 0-0. Better luck next season.
First things first, as always you give credit to the victor, no matter how difficult that is in this case. Congrats to the Rowdies for taking the derby once again. This game had a few moments that really tell the story better than the 3 - 0 final scoreline. As speedcake said, 0 - 0 would not have been a surprise final considering how well the Strikers played down a man. First key moment was of course the red card for Tetteh. Antique is 100% correct when he says Tetteh was rightly sent off for his stupid REACTION. Here's where the ref lost complete control of this game. Tetteh's actions were inresponse to what Arango had perpetrated first. Guys don't like high elbows, thus Tetteh's lack of composure in retaliating. Even after talking to the useless assistant in that side of the field he couldn't get it right, and only yellowed Arango, probably knowing he did indeed do something that started the melee, but somehow managed not to see it. But anyone who has watched sports long enough knows this rule - they always catch the second guy. If the ref gets it right there and both players are sent off, we have a very different looking game. Next was yet another missed call by the ref. Thinking he was trying out for Wrestlemania or something I guess, #23 from the Rowdies launched himself at Stahl with a flying forearm a little bit into the second half. Once again the ref seemed to feign ignorance at what initially caused all the players to get together in a scrum and ultimately only handed out yellows to both players. This one I couldn't believe he missed as Stahl was actually attempting to play the ball when #23 went flying at him. WTF was the ref watching all night?!? I didn't have the best view of the Herron goal that didn't count, but if it was offside it, couldn't have been by more than a hair. If that hadn't have been waived off, again, very different game as that would have put the Strikers up 1 - 0. Anyway, fatigue certainly was a factor, and this is where I put some blame on Shore. He subbed Herron in for Abe at half hoping for a better chance of getting a goal. I get that. I expected it. But his other subs, and his handling of subs in general has been a concern to me all year. Ramos certainly appears to have technical skill on the ball. But he hasn't seem to be able to get into sync with the rest of the team when he comes in. His size makes him a liability defending, and being down a man and still holding onto a 0 - 0 game in the 73rd minute, I don't understand taking out a good defensive MF for him. I guess maybe Shore just decided to say F it and try to find a win instead of trying to hold onto a valuable late season point against a team just two points ahead of you. Guess someone would have to ask him. But he seems to do this all the time in games, no matter what the score is. We often see better defensive players come off for more attacking players, even if the circumstances dont' seem to warrant it. And of course it all went down the toilet. Once they gave one up, they had to try and push everyone forward, and they paid of course. We still need someone to step up and chip in on the attack along with Mark and Herron. Abe did that last week and we got a win. We need someone to do it this week, because we HAVE to have all three points over the Islanders. Even though ATL and EDMN will probably both be eliminated by the time we head on the road, we still haven't proven we can get the job done away from Lockhart. 9 points from these last three probably ensures a top four spot, but it's going to be tough to get them.
The whole situation with Michael Tetteh is a shame. He's on loan from the Sounders to get playing time and he's played really for the Strikers... until his red card. I had a good view of the incident but unfortunately my memory isn't great. I remember he was tussling for the ball with the Rowdies player and throw a right elbow at the other guy's face. I'm pretty confident he didn't make contact but it still looked really bad and deserved the ejection. Really stupid decision. Does anyone else think Pecka is underrated?
I had a pretty good view of the play from where I was Mark, and this is how I saw it. Arango got his elbow up a bit high on Tetteh, and Tetteh took exception to that. Tetteh's reaction added to Arango's flopping act when Tetteh came at him got Tetteh ejected. Like I said above, the real problem is that everyone knows it's always the second guy that gets caught. Tetteh has got to be more disciplined. But in all reality, what does a critical game for the Strikers mean to a guy that was only loaned here a week earlier, and wasn't going to be around long anyway? You should be a pro and act like it, but immaturity and lack of discipline is something we see regularly in today's athletes. I don't know the guy, so I can't say what he is normally like as a person, but I'm guessing some of the players with an actual investment in the Strikers because it is truly their team, might not have acted quite so hastily. When Stahl got hit in the face by that flying forearm by their #23, he was rightly pissed, but he didn't react so poorly that the ref tossed him. As for Pecka, to me he is this year's Laing. From 2010 to 2011 Lance showed tremendous improvement in his game, attaining NASL Best XI status, going on trial with a couple of MLS teams, and even getting called to the Jamaican national team camp. Now I'm not saying Pecka has improved THAT much, but I definitely see that he has picked up his game noticably since last season. He has been a very solid defensive MF, especially in the last few games, and it's made a real difference in the defensive turnaround.