Two Penalties Seal Win for Vanguard

Cucuy FC - Vanguard 1:3 (0:2)

This was a pretty fun game, and a pretty good match-up with lots of chances on both sides. We had the better start and kept the game in their half for a good 20 minutes, but could not score. Vanguard played a good and fast defense that gave us little time to think, which kept us from playing a good final pass.  Then Vanguard pushed back a bit, and one attack led to a penalty kick after Stan supposedly played the ball with his hand. I was right there, it was a pretty ridiculous call, but 0:1 nonetheless. Right after that, Jason had the defense play of the game, whacking the daylights out of a shot that would have been trouble for Kyle. I got out of the way just in time. Right before half time, after a throw-in a Vanguard player somehow made it around a defender and took aim from an impossible angle, but somehow the ball went in. A good, but very lucky shot in my book, and the end of first half.

Second half we wanted to come out strong but Vanguard hat the first few chances. Two of them were open shots that Kyle somehow amazingly saved for us. Then Javier finally put one away for us after a blocked shot from Todd. Karol could have tied the game after an open run on the keeper, but it wasn't meant to happen today. "Hast du Scheisse am Schuh, hasst du Scheisse am Schuh." (A. Brehme) Instead, with minutes left Vanguard got another penalty after a hand ball from Marty. From what I heard, another sketchy call.

Goal: Javier
MVP: Kyle

Karol Scores Cucuy's 300th Goal

Cucuy FC - SA Chelsea 5:0 (2:0)

Sunday March 9, 2008, Brent scored the first goal we tracked on this blog. 3 years and 7 months later, Karol scored the 300th yesterday, also his 50th personal goal! Prepare for Glory! The free-kick was not the prettiest shot I've seen but somehow it skipped over the keeper into the net. So when's the party?

Before that, we scored four goals, first Hintz then Todd in first half, then Hintz, then Todd again in second half. Todd scored off two penalty kicks, I'd say he should keep on taking them, they looked pretty good. In between we had at least 3 shots on the crossbar, so overall I would say it was a deserved win.

Goals: Dave H. (2), Todd (2), Karol
MVP: Karol

A Win with a Man Down

Guanajuato vs Cucuy FC 0:2 (0:1)

We were far better than Guanajuato in my view, but the ref made a bunch of unusual calls that got some folks worked up. It also did not help that the ref really could not explain in English (or Spanish) what in the world he was calling. After Karol called Gary at half time to check out the ref, the second half was much better. Came too late for Hintzki though, since he had already seen his second yellow for two pretty harmless fouls.

Besides the hooting and hollering on both sides, we also played some soccer in between, and not too shabby. First half we were completely dominating, and Javier put us in the lead.  Second half with a man down we were still the better team. There were only two close calls on our end, one of them was an awesome save from Kyle.  With just minutes to go, Javier set up Karol who scored with a shot outside the box in the bottom right corner to seal the win. Nicely done!

Goals: Javier, Karol
MVP: Javier