Cucuy Hands Mercenaries First Loss of Season

Cucuy FC - Mercenaries FC 3:1 (2:1)

First game of the new year.  Out with the old and in with the new .  This adage definitely held true for an opposing striker who some of us have come to know dearly as "Diaper Boy" because of his tendency to roll up his shorts as high as humanly possible, only to barely hide his private areas while exposing the lower part of his ass.  Apparently our dear Diaper Boy has moved on to greener pastures and decided to let the legs of his shorts fly freely.  In light of this earth shattering change, I propose a new nickname for our friend.  I propose "Sauce Boss" as he is apparently trying to grow a beard only trumped by the host of epic meal time. Voting on Diaper Boy's new name to be held in the coming weeks...

All joking aside we earned another win we should be proud of.  Mercenaries FC was undefeated coming into this one, and we showed why we can be top contenders in Div 1.

The story of the game revolved around a consistently strong wind that favored one direction all game.  We won the toss and took the wind advantage first half to try to draw first blood.  Our decision paid off and we scored the first two goals of the game.  After some long shots that barely missed the net, Mercenaries made some sloppy passes in their 18 and Scott was able to control the ball at the top of the 18 in the center.  With 2 defenders in his face he calmly pushed the ball to his left and delivered a shot to the left upper 90.  A great finish.  A short while later, another free ball misplayed by Mercenaries came to Karol maybe 30-35 yards out.  Karol noticed the keeper was way off his line and took the shot on his first touch.  The power control was perfect and the ball sailed over the keepers head and landed safely in the net for a 2-0 Cucuy lead.

It had been a while since an errant penalty kick reared it's head in one of our games, but just for the sake of starting 2014 off right we pulled one out.  Sauce Boss was doing what Sauce Boss does best, and that's dribbling way too much in the opponents 18.  He came in from the left side along the baseline and drew a questionable penalty from Brent.  Apparently running along side an opposing offense man is a foul, but only in 2014.  This gave Mercenaries their only goal of the game.

We did a phenomenal job defending in the second half.  We knew the pressure would be shifted to our defense with the wind now against us, but that didn't seem to change the flow of the game much.  We actually owned the only goal of the second half.  A beautiful ball played from Jason through the Mercenary defense with the outside of his foot put Scott through one on one with the keeper.  Instead of taking the shot early Scott beat the keeper to his right and rolled the ball into the net easily.

Honorable mentions for this game include Kyle for keeping our lead several times.  A lot of low bouncing shots came in the second half which Kyle managed to control and not give up any rebounds, and Kyle owned Sauce Bosses lunch near the end of the game making a great diving save which could have tied the game.  Also, Steve did a great job jumping in at sweeper.  Other than that, lots of hard work all around.

-Hintz

Goals: Scott (2), Karol
MVP:  Steve

Not So Athletico Peru

Cucuy FC - Athletico Peru 3:2 (1:2)

We brought in the new year with a great effort against a solid team, and fortunately our efforts paid off.

The game was evenly played from both sides from the start of the game.  I think we had some more threats on net than they did, but they controlled the ball and organized in the center of the field better than us.  Having the (generally) younger legs, we were able to compensate and keep up.  The first goal belonged to us and came from a semi-controversial corner kick that the Peru players did not seem to think was correctly called.  The kick was tight along the goal line, but Justin got in the keepers face and made a stuff play up close to deliver the ball to the back of the net.  The latter part of the first half was unfortunate as some uncharacteristically bad passes were made in our defensive half as we were trying to switch the field.  These losses of possession resulted in both of Peru's goals.

Despite the frustrating causes for Peru's goals, we regrouped at halftime, made some adjustments, and played with a sense of urgency.  We formulated a plan for the center midfield, marking their threats more tightly and all of a sudden their style of play became predictable and easy to defend.  The tying goal started at the right side of the field, where Justin crossed a ball on the ground to just above the PK spot.  A couple of dummies landed the ball on Karol's feet, where he took it one time to the lower left corner of the net.  With the tying goal behind us we dominated the rest of the second half.  With just a couple minutes left in the game, when it looked like we weren't going to be able to secure the winning goal, a very similar play to the tying goal resulted in the ball trickling out to Steve about 5 yards outside the 18, where it he took it one time with the outside of his right foot, leaving the keeper with no chance at a save.

Let's continue to bring it strong in 2014.

-Hintz

Goals: Justin, Karol, Steve
MVP: Justin
Cool Fact: Karol scored his 75th goal (!) for Cucuy, and Steve's goal was the 555th for Cucuy since we started keeping track. Prost to that!