Nearly 45 minutes before the 2:00 p.m. kick-off against league power Code Blue, nine of the opponents were huddled under their canopy tarp at the northwest corner of the pitch. Around 1:40, Sean Ingersoll, Brian Bauman and Ron King were similarly gathered under a tent of our own with Brian's two girls. Blue's ranks had swelled to a full eleven.
"Well, we got a forward, a gimpy midfielder, and a defender." The trio of Rangers chuckled. "I guess that's almost a team." Soon thereafter, Jim Snyder and his boy Ethan showed up, as did Thom and goalkeeper Steve Berg...and he was suffering from a head cold. Aaron Radigan and new Argentine player Dario Lemos began to warm up. Referee Jan Wolf came by to check the roster.
"So, is this all of your players?" he asked. With eight, we technically had enough to field a team and play the match.
"As of right now. We like dramatic last minute entrances," Ingersoll smiled. Wasn't it just two match summaries ago I was waxing about having fifteen and not worrying about not having enough players? Stupid manager! Bad manager!
As the teams took the soggy pitch in a new 3-3-1 formation, Mark Vogel came dramatically rushing onto the field. We decided to play a 3-1-3-1, or maybe it was a [6/2 + 2 + (3 x 1)] + 1. Whatever. We had nine against an a full squad of police officers and DAs under stormy conditions. All we needed was some Scandinavian thrash metal and it was just like the Battle of Thermypolae as depicted in "300"...minus 291.
No one would have faulted the Rangers for sitting back Alamo-style and hoping for reinforcements, but to our credit we played Code Blue like we had a full team, collapsing on defense to meet wing attacks and charging the counter when the opportunity arose. Despite having two additional men, Blue struggled to connect with the open players and their shots were often wide. As usual, keeper Steve was active in the box, sliding in to grab the ball off the striker's feet and coming off his line to throw himself at point blank shots. Thom, Jim and Brian formed the makeshift defensive line and the three of them slid, dived and punted everything that came near them. Dario and Ron worked a few surprise runs that caught the opponents off guard and managed a few shots of their own; Dario in particular had one strike that just missed the woodwork. Despite 'Gers best efforts, Blue finally found the net off a fluke deflection...after twenty-five minutes. Blue scored another one before half, this one a real goal, and the yellow and black went into half-time down 0-2.
The half-time gathering was surprisingly upbeat. "We're playing good ball," someone offered. Dario suggested more give and gos, "South American style." Splattered in mud and starting to feel tired, the team regrouped at the north end and pressed on for another half. Play continued in much the same manner as the first half. Rangers scrapped to clear the ball. Blue squawked about getting called for offsides. Around the hour mark, Steve made two tremendous consecutive saves--a sprawling, fingertip diversion followed by a point-blank block off the chest--before the rebound was clipped in. That was a heartbreaker. Two more goals followed in the ensuing twenty minutes as 'Gers were overwhelmed by numbers and Blue made better use of their two open men. It was disappointing, but there was to be a bit of a silver lining in the afternoon's leaden skies.
Rangers broke the right flank and moved the ball along the sideline into the Blue half of the pitch. Someone, maybe Jim or Dario, booted a beautiful cross back to the center of the field. Sean--at this point a hobbling, limping train wreck of a left midfielder--chested the ball down and, despite being twenty-five to thirty yards from the goal, somehow decided it would be a good idea to take a strike off the half-volley. The shot had some zing to it and beat the keeper at full stretch to the upper right corner. Sean, both elated and momentarily blinded with pain, let out a scream that was either "YEEAAAHH!" or "RANGERS!" or some other unintelligible exclamation. In any case, we took away their clean sheet and played some spirited ball for the last eight minutes. It was kind of cool.
Thanks again to Ethan Snyder for being our Junior Ranger in the worst of conditions. Our fans are by far the best and most dedicated...even if they come because their Daddies make them. We look forward to fielding a full strength squad next week. Until then, remember the heroic efforts of the nine Rangers who fought bravely against the assembled armies of the Code Blue, Mother Nature, and Totally Trashed Groin Muscles..."RANGERS!!!!"
STEVE BERG...BRIAN BAUMAN...THOM FAHRBACH...JIM SNYDER...AARON ADIGAN...DARIO LEMOS...MARK VOGEL...RON KING...SEAN-SCOTT INGERSOLL
Sean Ingersoll
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