In the sweltering heat of Memorial Day Monday, we wore our sweat suits (black shirts, black shorts, black socks, even some black shoes) for our postponed game against Medfield. There was an unusually good turnout of seventeen players, and even more spectators, as family and friends turned out for some entertainment.
We applied strong pressure in the opening minutes, but about 20 passed before our first decent chance, when Abdullah belted in a shot from the edge of the area. The first goal finally came when Karsten got his head, or possibly his shoulder, to Eric's cross from the left and the ball looped past the Medfield keeper. Kirk had a great chance a few minutes later, but his low drive from the right came back off the upright into the arms of the keeper. When the half-time whistle was blown we had just the one goal to show for all the first half dominance.
We supplied more of the same in the second half, with almost unrelenting pressure. Five minutes in, Karsten received the ball from Andy and split the defence with a through-ball for Kirk who calmly rolled the ball past the keeper. Medfield did have a decent chance shortly afterwards in one of their rare forays into our half, and Mike O had to be alert to get down low to his right and palm away a powerful shot from twenty yards out.
Karsten met a cut-back on the edge of the area, only for his shot to cannon back off the post. Shortly afterwards he was blatantly shoved on the edge of the area, right under the nose of the ref. As the Medfield players complained about the ref's decision to award a free kick, Peter stepped up and chipped the ball over the keeper and into the net, clipping the underside of the bar for added drama. This prompted Peter to leave the field - presumably he felt his work was done.
Pedro blocked an attempted clearance by the Medfield keeper, rounded him with the ball, but shot wide with a sole defender standing on the goal line - whatever happened to those contact lenses? Then Eric was put through with just the goalie to beat, but the keeper got down well and blocked the ball as Eric tried to go around him. With five minutes left Abdullah's lovely dummy on the edge of the box allowed him to step past the defender, run into the box and slot the ball home to give the score some extra polish.
Squad: Mike O, Kirk G, Mike A, Tom, Antonio, Peter, Karsten, Kirk N, Abdullah, Steve S, Chris, Ivan, Andy, Eric, Steve G, Samuel, Pedro
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