2-0, the visitors, Pretinha with both goals. Stats Shots: 10-6, SJ Shots on Goal: 5-2, SJ Fouls: 11-9, SJ Offsides: 6-3, PHL Corners: 3-2, SJ Crowd: 5,517 (for a pisspoor weather night and for Memorial Day weekend, this was a very good number. More thoughts in a few... Paul
Personally, I blame Paul Hanlin Jr.... Yes. It was yours truly who had the bangup notion to upgrade my 2003 season ticket to VIP when I was clearly firing a shot across the bow of the Karma Gods' virtual ship. *sigh*. Now to be serious...I guess the thing to say here would be who DIDN'T have a bad game? In no particular order, those were Deliah Arrington, Kelly Smith, Melissa Moore, Pavlina Scasna, Karyn Hall and Alexa Borisjuk. The rest I can't vouch for, unfortunately, and that includes the coach. When you are as small as the Charge collectively are, height-wise, and when you have people who are long gone (E-I, Pia, and more on her later, Zhao), who are on the IL (Kelly and Dee), or who got sat down (Melissa) and aren't out there on the field for us, there is simply no margin for error anymore. None. You cannot install a turnstile in the midfield. You cannot not have team defending. This is Mark Krikorian's team and on draft day, he blew it up thinking he could make it better. Which begs this theory I've been having since the train ride home last night: Maybe it *was* Pia all along. Maybe it was her who was the catalyst for the success we've had the past 2 years. And she was there tonight; I saw her myself after the game chatting with one of the players. ESPN Original Entertainment broadcasts an occasional special program called "The Season". It's a look back at a particular team's championship season, or a famous player's final season like Cal Ripken. It runs sometimes 2 hours, most times one. Next Saturday night, on the 20th anniversary of the last major pro sports championship this town ever won, whether the Charge, or those who post here who have been with the team through thick and thin realize it or not... Carolina is The Season. Paul
please calm down everyone as i am sure everyone who does not live in philadelphia has been telling you forever, defeatism might just lead to defeats. and yes, i do not technically live in philadelphia; and yes, i go to a school that regularly wins championships and has a lot of happy inhabitants because of it. so you can take what i say with as much salt as you like. but every once in a while i ask myself if i should ask my friends in philadelphia why they can't be content with what they have sometimes. because you might just have more than you realize if you let yourself step back a bit. or maybe i'm just not from philadelphia.
Coach K: "Anytime you're winning and get on a roll, you feel good about yourself. When you're losing, you start to second-guess. Sometimes all the breaks go your way, including injuries, sometimes they don't. When they don't, you have to work harder and maintain your focus and keep fighting. We're doing that, we're working together to find a solution. We've accepted that it's not going to be easy." JT-P on Katia's entrance in the second half: "You have to stay focused on her and you have to make sure you have a body on her. I thought we did pretty well limiting her chances. I do feel pretty good about that...We got spread out a bit tonight. We try to work on staying compact. We limited Brandi from getting into the game and giving her serves. It was difficult." Solo: "The first one was a tough shot. That was in the far corner. But I think I could have gotten it if I played a little bit further off of my line. The second one, with the turf and the wetness the ball is a little slippery. That was a last-minute decision. I tried to flick it up but it didn't go over the goalpost." Paul
Well, the team just didn't play well. There was no engine driving the team. Kelly would provide that. Defense was fairly solid. First half was pretty close. We were even in the first half. The field slowed us down and the passes weren't there. Once again Pichon was playing as a midfielder despite being a forward. That is she kept on going back into the midfield helping out or just getting balls. This minimized the attack. Hoffmann was the other forward. But there were times when she was opened, the team would still pass it to Pichon who was being covered well. Hope had a decent game in goal but she made some rookie decision. At one free kick, the Charge's bench was telling the players how to line up. Pichon had a few shots on goal. Decent shots but her power was too much and they went over and out of bounds. Offside a few times. One time it was the wrong call. Misaki didn't do so well as a winger in this game. Better luck next time. The Charge went through most of the second half without a shot never mind one on goal. The CyberRays do have a solid defense but the Charge should have done better. Height wasn't an issue in this game. It was the lack of creative play in the midfield. Something wasn't clicking. Little creativity and chance-taking. But then again there were several neat moves by Mitts, Benson and Makinen past players but then nothing happened. Field was soggy and a passing game wasn't working. Several times players from both teams slipped. The Charge just wasn't on target tonight. The Brazillians were able to do quite well with their ball skills. Katia and Sissi and Pretinha know each other so well that they play well off each other. Back heel passes and other moves. Their defense is excellent. I'm sure Thori was still a little hurt but Keri Sanchez is an excellent organizer. Our subs didn't do much. Burt should have started as a forward. Put 3 up top. We need goals. April Heinrichs was there and so was Pia. Dee was walking around with her crutches. Crowd was indeed good. The weather continues to be a problem for all of us but it just reflects the mood of the game this time around. Let's hope that next week's game will be played under better conditions. It's almost a given that it will be better in San Diego. Weather-wise that is. A team with Latham, Wagner, Fleeting, Zhang, Daniela and Sullivan is quite a good attacking team. If they had Mac, they would score more goals. But maybe we can build up some confidence for the Courage who played well today but still lost. They had their weak moments but then again they are where we are. But this team will find its magic again.
Question for the remaining fans here.... Why were the Charge wearing their *road* unis last night? Paul
Comcast SportsNet recap Mucho bonus points to anyone who knows this writer. http://philadelphia.comcastsportsnet.com/showwire.asp?clmn=/news/2003/052403-charge.prm
Charge came out in a 4-4-2 with Hofmann paired with Pichon... Tullock took Hoffmann's slot in midfield and the rest had Makinen in her same spot with Fair out on the left wing and Misaki out on the right wing... mitts tietjen mcveigh and benson in the back with solo in goal... san jose had katia sitting to start the match... early on, both sides were about equal with the charge having two good chances... pichon was played through once and had a free hoffmann on her right running ummarked, marinette shot high... later, hoffmann broke into the box and beene save brilliantly tipping a shot marked for the upper corner. as the match proceeded, San jose gradually seizing control of most of the possession, playing technically very well on a slick turf. The big key was the defensive pressure from San Jose, always challenging and disrupting the charge in midfield... in turn this pressure led San Jose to dominate most of the possession, and then eventually create the chance for the 1st goal... ball directly down the middle from Barnes skipped past a charge defender, since there in no replays, I don't know if it was tietjen or mcveigh, but pretihna broke in all alone right down the middle and beat solo into the lower left corner.. one of the more interesting match-ups was misaki on chastain, and this was a huge mismatch ... katia entering the match at half time gave the cyberrays even more control of the match... charge started reverting to long ball hitting the ball hopelessly long tryin to win the ball in the air...bryan was following pichoin everywhere and there was always a 2nd defender to support, at times when pichon got the ball there'd be 3 defenders challenging her... around 60 minute mark clemens broke into the box , wicked shot up high which solo tipped off the crossbar and a crashing pretinha beat everyone to the lose ball for the goal... double sub for the charge with maso de Moya on for Hoffmann and Burt on for Misaki... lots of long ball now by the charge, hitting and hoping... kruze comes on with fair sitting, kruze out on the left with burt switchging wings.. by this poitn san jsoe was dominating, the charge never able to get any decent possession on the slick field, with san jose looking to counter with speed... on the whole, san jose seized control of the match as it went along... the pichon miss of hoffmann running free unmarked and the been save of hoffmann while the score was 0-0 were key... if both had gone the charge way, then the game is different... still the charge paniced and rushed stuff, and played far too much without confidence... but san jose deserves credit for forcing the game that way...