Match Day Two: Comeback Kids!

FC77 Rangers 3 : 3 CHA CHA CHA O-30

(Ingersoll 55' and 63'; Bennouri 65')

After getting sucker punched for three goals in the first twenty minutes, FC77 Rangers answered back with a wicked barrage of three goals of their own within ten minutes to earn a share of the points against CHA CHA CHA 0-30. The shortened match at Rob Strasser Field in Delta Park looked like a morning to forget for the Yellow and Black, but credit the renewed "never say die attitude" of the squad--and Manager Seanny's profanity-laced motivational tirade after the first goal--for an exciting six goal shoot-out.

Starting XI:

Silverman, Goalkeeper

Pullen - Calkins - Payne, fullbacks

Snyder, holding midfielder

Schutte - Bennouri - Muralt - Ingersoll, midfielders

Fahrbach - Youssef, strikers

Reserves: None

Not available: Bauman, Burden, Gullung, King, Radigan, Reyes, Seaton

Rangers welcomed back Thom "The Good Doctor" Fahrbach after a year long absence as well as Paddy Schutte, who had joined the squad in the winter. With the same defensive line available from last week, Fahrbach switched to the new role of second striker, filling in for King. Schutte took up Burden's position on the right wing, with Ingersoll playing on the left. The 3-1-4-2 formation was otherwise unchanged from last week's side that ran riot over Wolfhounds. With no substitutes on the bench and a shortened 80 minute match required due to the late start of the OPL match on the pitch prior to kick-off, 'Gers hoped to settle in to a comfortable rhythm of possession and wide play like last week. CHAx3 did not want to play that game, alas, and took advantage of a long ball down the near wing to break a striker through on a hero run after just ten minutes. Silverman rushed out to cut off the angles but the net was just too big and it was 0-1.

Still reeling from the unexpected strike, the orange-clad visitors found a second goal not long afterwards. A similarly uncreative solo run up the middle again found Silverman stranded. 0-2 after just a quarter hour. The match seemed over and done around the twentieth minute when Payne was adjudged to have committed a tackle from behind in the box, dropping the striker to his back. Match official Carlos showed no hesitation pointing to the spot and although Silverman correctly guessed the shot was going to be low and to his left, there was just enough power on it to send it past his outstretched gloves. 0-3 before most people had broken a drizzly sweat.

But as Manager Seanny mentioned to Calkins after the match: "I just never believed we were going to lose." And thus The Rally began. It began with little things--Snyder executing his 38th consecutive clinically perfect slide tackle to stop a run...a smart little series of three passes from Pullen to Bennouri to Schutte to circumvent a troublesome CHA midfielder when others would have blindly kicked it out of touch...a tidy lateral pass from Ingersoll to Muralt to get a shot from distance off and test the keeper...Fahrbach and Youssef working together to send Youssef through the line for another shot that required a CHA defender to wildly throw himself at the ball. The tempo started to pick up. 'Gers started winning 50-50 balls and working the side lines for a throw-in and then a corner kick. And then another corner kick. Payne would get forward as Calkins and Snyder smartly shifted left to cover him. There wasn't a single epic turning point in the first half that heralded The Rally, but as the bulk of play continued to hover around midfield, then creep into the orange half, and then more than occasionally end with a shot just off goal, it seemed to this reporter that the times they were a-changing.

With a halftime faster than Chuck Woolery could say "We'll be back in two and two!", 'Gers retook the pitch with a mission: Score quickly to turn the momentum. Despite having the wind in their faces, FC77 looked spry and wily from the outset, finding success on both sides. Snyder and the defensive crew managed to shut down the hero runs as well as expertly synchronize their line for at least three offsides calls. With the back nicely buttoned up, the midfielder stepped up and began to dominate the field of play, occasionally springing Bennouri through or finding the strikers in dangerous positions up high. Finally, after ten minutes, 'Gers got their reward. A forward surge by the middies and strikers saw Bennouri place a sweet, sexy ball behind their left back and into the hobbling run of Ingersoll, who was gimping his way forward with a bum right heel. Not wanting to waste such a gloriously set ball, he surged into the box and toe-punched it forward from fifteen yards out. The goalie flopped at it but couldn't keep it from finding the upper near post.

"YEAH!!! YEAH!!! GET THE [bleep!] BALL!!! LET'S GO RANGERS!!! GET THE [bleep!] BALL!!! C'MON!!!" Undoubtedly Wayne Rooney is smiling somewhere in Manchester as his motivational, profanity-laced tirade found its Yankee counterpart on the wet, chilly climes of North Portland. As the sides reset, Ingersoll barked: "LET'S GO RANGERS!!! PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR [bleep!] AND PLAY SOME SOCCER!!!"

Play some soccer they did! A robust challenge on the CHA strikers after kick-off found the ball back in the orange half, as did another challenge when it came back, and again. 'Gers swarmed the ball wherever it went and not eight minutes later, the black horde surged forward again. Muralt took the ball into the box and then served it on a silver platter to the still-gimpy Ingersoll, who crushed it with the inside of his bum foot from just outside the corner of the six and into the same section of net to make it 2-3. More semi-intelligible roars of histrionic man joy ensued as the side barked for a third...and Bennouri obliged not two minutes later with a fantastic looping shot from outside the box that beat the keeper to the upper left corner. 'Gers went wild screaming for a match winner. CHA got a little snippy as they tried to stem the wave of momentum overwhelmingly in FC77's favor with several little incidents involving Snyder, Muralt and Pullen, ultimately forcing the referee to stop play and ask Pullen: "Do you want to play or what?" To which Pullen, to his eternal credit, responded: "Yeah I want to play but I don't a [bleep!]ing broken leg either!" He's not called Angry Mike for nuthin'! Boo-yah!

Silverman finished up the second half substantially less busy than the first, reeling in a corner kick and some errant through balls. 'Gers had a few chances to find a fourth in the last four minutes--notably, Muralt's shot from outside the box and Ingersoll's half-volley of a corner flashing over and wide of the upper right corner-- but The Rally was predestined to stop with three glorious goals and not four. An exciting finish and another point in the table keep Rangers undoubtedly near the top as the side prepares to travel to Vancouver for the long, LONG awaited rematch with the team whose forfeit cost us a shot at the championship last spring.

Match Summary:

CHA-10'

CHA-15'

CHA-(PK), 20'

RAN-Ingersoll, 55'

RAN-Ingersoll, 63'

RAN-Bennouri, 65'

Halftime: RAN 0-3 CHA

Discipline: None

Attendance: 14-36, depending upon what time you counted

Next Match:

Hawks (0-1-0, 0 points) v FC77 Rangers (1-0-1, 4 points)

Sunday, 18 April, 2011

Devereaux Field

Vancouver, Washington

10:00 a.m. KO