Katie Barnes' 32nd minute goal proved to be the difference as the Charge's streak of opening night wins ended with a 1-0 outcome at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. In an ominous development, 6th overall selection Deliah Arrington was injured in the 26th minute after colliding with Thori Bryan and did not return. No word yet on her status as this is posted. Kelly Smith did not enter the game until the 62nd minute. The Charge have not scored a goal in league play since the 73rd minute of their August 7, 2002 game with the CyberRays; a span of 311 minutes, including stoppage time. Stats: Shots: 11-9, SJ Shots on Goal: 7-5, SJ Fouls: 9-6, SJ Offsides: 7-4, SJ Corners: 5-3, PHL Saves: 6-5, PHL Next up: 4/26 at Boston. Paul
An objective piece from the SJ Merc: Barnes makes Rays debut with a bang By Dylan Hernandez Mercury News
Re: Re: Charge-'Rays [R] Wrong. Visiting team first, home team last. I've been a freelance writer for the better part of a decade and that's the way I was taught to do it. Paul
That is true of baseball & of most other American sports. It's different in soccer. Check your conventions. I AM an elitist and a soccer snob. I know what I'm talking about. You don't. And never have.
*sigh*.... I will not get drawn into a pissing contest with you, Cachundo. I will, however, turn the other cheek. Insults such as this are beneath your obvious intelligence. They detract from the quality you bring to this forum. First, the Charge website is stating the scoring drought the team is going through is 286 minutes. For the record, the 311 I came up with includes stoppage time added to each of the four games. So pick your poison, I guess. You could make an argument both numbers are right. It's just the first match, and there's a good amount which can be fixed. Predictability is getting to be a problem, specifically with the insistence on keeping the 4-5-1 in place in the first half. The following is just speculation, and only speculation on my part. The fact Kelly is still a distance from being 100% had something to do with it. With the roster limitations, you can't have people play out of position; still, that doesn't explain Pichon as a midfielder . People tore me a new one for saying it, but I don't think Kelly will be 100% until mid-May. The damage to the knee and meniscus was just too staggering to hope for a full recovery by the opener. Until she's ready to go, we may be stuck with the 4-5-1. Yes, *stuck*. Pichon and Scasna up top are the way to go and have Arrington come off the bench in the second half, to me, is the logical thing to do. Let's all put aside differences and hope this injury isn't serious. It's fortunate we have three weeks to play another game that counts in the standings. Putting the ball in the other guy's net is priority #1, results irrelevant. Get that out of the way first. Even if you get your heads handed to you like the Power last night, you will have at least scored. Once that's done, then the rest will follow. Paul
Post-game stuff... Melissa on the Barnes goal: "It was unfortunate, because she was pretty wide open. She was able to come up and have a pretty good crack at it. I had a go at it and thought that I covered it, but it was a very well hit shot. I give her a lot of credit for it. It was a great hit." Coach K on Solo's status: "Hope's been out for a while now, a week to 10 days. The initial prognosis is that she'll be out two weeks to start, and after that we'll see. Two weeks out means she comes back to start training sometime next week." View the whole article at http://www.philadelphiacharge.com/352184.html Paul
It is social convention in football. To list HOME side 1st... Guest 2nd...... cachundo is 100% correct in this area.
Yes. Talk about being anal-retentive, to nitpick about which city goes first in a friggin' result thread rolleyes: to infinity.). Paul
Snow is bliss too, most of the time, but today was downright ugly. That, plus the fact that I definitely picked the wrong Phillies game to go to this past weekend, plus the fact that the first Charge game is in the middle of final exams. Wow, I have managed to drive this thread ridiculously off-topic. I think I'll try to go to sleep now.
What? No trolling Rays' fans with a game report yet. OK. Hopefully I can provide some info and maybe you can educate me about the Charge. It was a really fun game to watch, mainly for the athleticism and the individual ball skills. Neither team linked up that well, but the Cyberray's definitely had the edge. They took a lot more chances and it ultimately paid off. With some more polish the Ray's could've won 3 or 4-0. They just played with a great deal of energy and flair. The Charge held back quite a bit. Particularly Mitts and Fair, which is surprising because they are both in the USWNT pool. Also, it really took the wind out the the Charge's sails when Arrington got whacked by Bryan. Arrington was the Charge's most dangerous player, by far, until Kelly Smith came onto the field. The tackle was on Arrington was marginal and could've been called either way. Ball first, but she went through the player. The refs were "letting 'em play" and the game was reasonably physical. Prentinha had been decked about five minutes earlier by the Charge keeper (not Hope Solo, I was so bummed.) And Moore didn't even touch the ball, just Brazilian leg. Kelly Smith brought the Charge to life, and the Charge's best section of the game was the last 20 minutes, with plenty of threatening chances. Fair was pretty much sleep-walking out there, and some of the other players were over-compensating for her, particularly Hoffman and Pichon. Those two were dishing out their share of off-the-ball shots at Ray's players. Anyway, we have Brandi Chastain, and she would answer back as only she can. Overall, a really exciting and fun game to watch. It was a great start to the season.
I agree the reffing in wusa, barring Sandra Hunt, makes, Barrett look like Colina. From year 1 to year 2, it improved a bit, and the only hope is first match of the season caused the woeful display. Chacundo match report in PBP thread detailed the match, as he was there too. Rays and Charge play a similar style. hence a good brand of soccer to watch. Cachundo had mentioned too much long ball early on by the Charge. Charge remind me all too much of the USMNT with Arena, when Reyna is out. I think this is akin to Smith too. As to Mitts and Benson not getting forward, I'm sure there was some concern to protect McVeigh a bit. When you start having to cover for an other player, it'll take you out of your normal role a bit too much. The best approach is either to blood a player slowly, or just take the sink or swim approach. McVeigh's growth over the next half dozen matches is the most important element to this season.
PHL didn't effectively utilize Pichon & Fair on the flanks. The 1st-half tactic of whacking the ball upfield could have been more effective if the ball found the flanks. The central-mid block of Tullock-Mak-Hoffman was not your traditional d-mid/a-mid. Rather, Tullock was the holder, Mak supposed to be the organizer, & Hoffman the a-mid. Tullock definitely played the holder role because she would take on SJ's a-mid (Pretinha). In transition, Tullock would only penetrate with the ball, which she did superbly. Mak as an organizing mid was a disappointment in this game. If Mark did indeed anoint Mak in this role in this particular game, she did not display the vision nor the technical ability required of the position. The organizing mid sets the tempo for the team. The tempo for most of the game was of fits and starts. Hoffman's role in the 1st half was the a-mid in the 4-5-1. Hoffman had good skills & combined well at times with the flankers & the forward. PHL missed Kelly Smith's vision & creativity. The central mids are not yet that familiar with the others' tendencies, but that familiarity will come with time. SJ's play was predominantly central. Not to take anything away from them, but PHL's inability to assert their dominance in midfield made SJ look very good. Mak's lack of vision & tactical understanding of what's supposed to happen enabled SJ to penetrate through the heart of the defense, catching Tullock out of position, forcing McVeigh to take on the speedy Pretinha. A final score of 3-0 would have been fair if the gods were smiling on Pretinha that day. At this point, McVeigh seems to be a project. Mak is an enigma.
Krikorian has married this season to the ability of McVeigh to develop, and, somewhat, Makinen to contribute. The question is, once Smith is match fit, who sits. I assume that's Makinen. As I stated ad nasuem, possession in midfield is the key to the Charge defending. And with Smith, it will happen, without her it won't. Last year, Zhao was on either flank, and even without Smith, she impacted greatly. I wouldn't expect Fair to offer Zhao's technical flair. I'm a bit surrpised Pichon did not. These are some of the reasons I selected the Charge for 5th, too many questions to be answered. And if Arrington is out for an extended period, one of the answers won't be there.
A good news nugget today... The league injury reports came out for the coming weekend's games, and even though we're not playing, Arrington is not on the list. Only Maso de Moya and Misaki are repeats from last week's list. There's the second list which comes out every Thursday, so maybe she won't be on that, either. So everyone else is healthy. Paul
And from Coach K... http://philadelphiacharge.com/352876.html Arrington a sprained ankle, out for a week. Thank goodness for the "bye" week(s) Paul
with the 2 bye weeks i viewed this game as a preseason match really in terms of preparedness with all the crappy weather weve had and are still having...they played ok according to reports i think the offense needs to come together and then i think we will see better results, with all the hangups and foul weather the charge never really came together in camp...they now have 3 weeks which should be ample time with one match under their belts...id expect a different team facing boston, one more like our predictions on how the charge would play with skill and not just longballing it.
basically what i was saying from the day the u19 scrimmage was cancelled. cant magically put a team together, it takes time to train...luckly the schedule gave us an unexpected gift.
don't forget Pichon is going back to France next week.. and what's the schedule for euro 05 qualifiers?? The big question was Smith getting 30 minutes, and what the schedule will be for her over the coming weeks. Does she get 30 or 45 against Boston? And when will she be able to go the full 90. So we see why Hoffmann was acquired... looks like Arrington is out a week with a sprained ankle... So, if you're going up to Boston, I assume Smith is sitting, then I go with Arrington Pichon Hoffmann Scasna(Monroe) Fair and Tullock Benson Tietjen McVeigh and Benson Moore... I can't decide whether or not to use Monroe or Scasna right now. With Smith coming off the bench, Kelly can add the offensive spark, which leads me to prefer Scasna out there to start.. but conversely have Monroe's doggedness at the beginning mighgt be the defensive tone to set. Can't quite decide which route I'd take right now. If Monroe starts, then having Scasna and Smith as offensive options for the 2nd half.
Re: Re: Re: Charge-'Rays [R] Apparently in the USA home teams are listed last. In the USA the game is called Soccer and elsewhere it is called Football. Since this is Big Soccer and not Big Football and this is a US based league, Charge! is correct. BTW, cachundo if you are an elitist then shouldn't you be a "football snob"?
Last time I looked, the USA was on this planet with other folk, and are in a minority in how football scores are listed.... but we know how anal some folk in the USA can be when they assert their authority...... if it ain't our way, we'll force you to accept it... ain't anyhting to be with snobbery, but with americans being ignorant of the way the rteo del mundo does it... notice how telemundo and univision report the scores... they get it right... it's the anglo media who doesn't...and they display their ignorance is so doing..