FC77 Rangers 2, Petro Kickers 2

Scorer:  Muralt (45'+1, 47')

Matt Muralt's brace on either side of the half-time whistle salvaged a draw for 'Gers, who outshot the visitors by an approximately 15:1 ratio but were unlucky to find the third goal to claim maximum points.  Fair temperatures, a good crowd of supporters (both home and visitors), an appearance by the GPSD league president, and a rousing comeback all made for a fine October afternoon on Match Day Five, but the reigning Rose City champions were still a bit disappointed to settle for the draw.

The Yellow and Black were up to only eleven players when the referee whistled play to start for the 4:00 kick-off, but were soon joined by Mike Pullen within the first fifteen minutes.  Only eleven players meant everybody started and injuries and non-attendees meant that manager Sean had to mix up his back line to compensate.  With Brett Baumgarte nursing an injured hand and unable to catch, Dan Calkins once again graciously accepted the invitation to play keeper.  Fronting him was a makeshift line consisting of Ingersoll, Snyder, Baumgarte, and Vogel.  The midfielders included Foubister, Muralt, Radigan and Burden.  McConnachie and King were the familiar tandem in the forward positions.

Early probes into the Kickers defense yielded a promising start, with crosses and shots peppering the keeper from all parts of the pitch.  Both McConnachie and King received good service in the middle and their shots went just high or wide, sometimes even clattering off the woodwork.  Play was consistently in the away sides end and so it was quite against the run of play that Petro capitalized on their first real strike at goal with a breakaway to the far post.  Events turned even more grim when the away side doubled their lead around the thirty-fifth minute, again on a bold solo effort that was more hero run than coordinated play.  'Gers refused to mope, however, and deep into added time for the first half, Muralt received a short corner, worked himself well into the box, and beat the keeper near side with a spirited strike to the inside left upright.  As this score was about thirty yards closer to the net than most of Muralt's other goals, the home side were glad to go into the break only one down and with momentum on our side.

Muralt immediately followed up with a more characteristic blast to start the second period, finding some open space in the middle of the field and launching a rainmaker from (conservatively) thirty-five yards out.  The keeper tracked it all the way in but was powerless to stop the expertly placed finish in the upper right corner.  Tied at a deuce a piece, 'Gers smelled blood in the water and went hunting in packs to find the third.  Ingersoll, Burden, Radigan and King worked the left side with some good passing sequences.  Foubister, McConnachie, Vogel, and Baumgarte (moving up to a more offensive position for the second 45 minutes) tied together multiple passes and "give-and-go" series on the right.  Snyder, Pullen, and Muralt held court in the middle and allowed FC77 to take about 352 shots on the Petro goal.  I'm exaggerating a bit, but honestly, if I had that advanced video "shot tracker" technology like they do for the professional clubs that traces the position of every shot on a layout of the field, the resulting diagram would look something like a screenshot from an advanced level of the '80s video game "Tetris":  Dozens and dozens of straight lines splayed all around the outside with a disappointingly clear center.  With little to do in the second half, Calkins was only required to make one or two saves and the final whistle was greeted with a collective team "hmph!"

The second leg of fixtures starts next week with the return bout against Controlled Chaos, who will undoubtedly be eager to avenge their inaugural thrashing.  I--we--need everybody who is not injured to be there to play.  Twelve players allows for a lot of pitch time, which is great, but we need 14-15 guys to make sure we have fresh legs.  We have proved we can go face-to-face with everybody in our division.  We have seen what they can bring and frankly, it doesn't impress me.  A strong start out of the gate won't mean jack s**t if we falter in the home stretch and finish third (i.e. Arsenal.  Sorry, James, that's not a slam on you but it's true!)  I want to play in the division championship again and I want to win it again.  I want teams in this division to look at the schedule for next spring and think, "Man, am I glad Rangers got promoted 'cause I got sick and tired of them kicking my a*s every season!"  I want to get calls from other players asking if we have space on our roster because of our level of awesomeness.  I want league president Terry to say, "Sean, your club is too good for the 0-30 D3.  By the way, here are your new championship t-shirts."  I know you want it, too.  A year ago we were just happy to win a few matches and drink home brew.  Now we want to win everything and drink friggin' champagne from the division cup.  (OK, that isn't possible with the configuration of the trophy, but you know what I mean.)  To do that, we need to run the table from here through November and to do that, we need bodies to finish the job.  Our pitch is the best.  Our camaraderie is second to none.  And dammit, our wives are the hottest in the league!  Are you with me?!  Can I get a "Hell, yeah!?"  

Next match:

FC77 Rangers v. Controlled Chaos

Saturday, 18 October, 2008

4:00 p.m. KO

Montessori Earth School