State Game 5 -  Xtreme vs. Hoover Blue - October 7, 2006

The Xtreme entered the second half of State League play today.  After going 4-0 in the first half of the season the Xtreme was looking to continue their winning ways and lock down the number one seed for the state tournament in November. 

The Hoover Phantoms Blue traveled to Huntsville today to take on the Xtreme.  The Phantoms Blue are a great team and they are getting better every time I see them.  It was going to be a great match up.  The Phantoms have a great attack and have, in my opinion, the best striker on any of the teams we will play this year.  With one of our starting center defenders sitting out on a red card suspension the question was, could we contain the Phantom’s attack?

The game started well and the Xtreme looked to be in good form.  Possession was going to be a key to the game and at the start the Xtreme was winning the battle.  The team pressured from the start and was able to get a couple of early chances and it wasn’t long before the team capitalized on one of them.

It was in the 8 ^th minute of the game that the Xtreme found pay dirt.  Devin made a great run and got the ball to his feet.  Devin made a couple of dribbles and got his head up to size up the situation.  Devin found Evan on a great split run and played the ball beautifully right to his feet.  Evan showed tremendous poise and took a couple of touches and played the ball to the far post and in to the net.

The Phantoms didn’t give up, they actually picked up their game.  They were able to gain control of the possession game and get the Xtreme’s defense on their heals.  Every time #10 touches the ball he’s a threat to score.  Late in the first half he was able to get deep in to the box and got a shot off on charging Ben.  Ben was able to deflect the ball but the ball went loose in the box.  The same striker got the ball to his feet and had an open goal all he had to do was touch it in.  He did that and from nowhere Nick got his body in front of the shot do deflect it away.  A big defensive stand and the Xtreme went to halftime up 1-0.

The second half was a different game.  The Xtreme looked flat and seemed to be playing more not to lose than to win the game.  The off the ball runs just didn’t seem to be there and the team seemed to be waiting for the balls to come to them instead of going to the ball.  The Phantoms took advantage of the sluggish play from the Xtreme.

Only 4 minutes in to the second half the Phantoms played a great ball to #10 who made a great cut back move and got loose behind the defense.  Drew used his great speed and was able to catch him but the striker made another great move to free himself up for a shot.  He buried the ball in the back of the net to tie the game at 1.

The Xtreme picked their game up and tried to get another scoring opportunity.  It was anybody’s game and it was going to be who could capitalize on their chances.  The Phantoms had already missed a golden opportunity and it was the Xtreme who did the same late in the game.

Spike played a beautiful ball to Taylor who had made a beautiful run.  Taylor ran on to the ball and found himself behind the defense.  Taylor dribbled in to the box and the defenders were closing in on him.  Taylor drew the defense to him and had the goalie commit to him and at the perfect time played the ball across the 6 to find our other outside midfielder, Turtle, on a beautiful run.  It was an empty net and all Turtle had to do was touch it in but he was unable to finish it and the golden opportunity had passed us by.  The good news is our outside midfielders, Turtle and Taylor, made great runs and showed tremendous recognition of the game.

Both team had great chances to win the game and it could have gone either way.  The game ended in a 1-1 tie and both team earned 1 point in the State League standings.

Overall I was disappointed with the Xtreme’s effort today.  Other than the first 10 minutes the team looked flat and didn’t play as well as they usually do.  You never want your team to tie or lose but maybe this game will light a fire under the team.  The team needs to realize they have to play every game with 100% effort and play as a TEAM.    The Xtreme travels to Birmingham to take on Trussville and try and get back to their winning ways.