Maricopa Cup 2008 R3

Date

April 20, 2008

Participants

Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith

Report by Kevin Nieman 

On April 20th, Round 3 of the Maricopa Cup was held in Simi Valley, California. The following article is a transcript of interviews conducted after each match. The words are mostly unaltered, and you get the raw, unfiltered reactions to the matches from the players themselves. You can only find this amount of dedicated match documentation here on the Southern California Subbuteo Club website. Enjoy!

Round Three participants were:

• Wayne Smith, referred to as "W."
• Simon Hutchinson, referred to as "S."
• Dominic Hutchinson, referred to as "D."
• Kevin Nieman, referred to as "K."

Each match shows the match participants by first name, the final score, the name of the pitch, the first-half goal count and and the second-half goal count.

Simon v Dominic 2 - 0 (Drey) 1-0 (1-0)

S - First three minutes was all Dominic on offense. Dominic had a corner, he had a shot, he was on the right side of the field, got past my defense (my defense was too far forward,) he pushed the ball over the shooting zone, and had a shot from six inches, and sliced it so far that it went out halfway between the corner flag and the goalpost.

K - Ah.

S - As I said, the first three minutes were all-Dominic, and then on the fifth minute, I charged up the field, straight through the middle of his defense because he, thankfully, scattered it, shot over the goalkeeper to take the lead. From that, the game changed, and was mainly myself applying pressure on Dominic and Dominic keeping numbers back in defense to block, and Dominic depending, then, on long flicks.

Second half, in the fifth minute, I scored the second goal from a very tight angle on the right hand side of the field level with the top of the six yard box, shot the ball hit on the side of Dominic's goalkeeper and into the goal. From then on, Dominic did have some chances of pushing the ball forward, but was unable to make the flick because he didn't really have anybody far enough forward to take a shot. He'd push the ball into the shooting zone and then be left with a flick of bringing a figure from the halfway line.

I stranded my goalkeeper twice. Once in each half, and Dominic very quickly gave up possession in both occasions. Overall, Dominic showed very good offense. It's a pity he doesn't show this more often, and I'd like to congratulate him on a good game.

(Dominic had no further comment.)

Kevin v Wayne 2 - 1 (Rookery) 1-1 (1-0)

(Goal by Wayne 8:00 minutes in. How was the shot?" Kevin asks. "I don't remember." Kevin believes it was a shot at Kevin's left low post.)

W - Ten, two minutes later, Kevin hit the goalpost. And you scored at the end of the first half with 18 seconds left, and that was a ramp shot from your left wing, hit my defender bounced and went under then over the keeper. He got his foot on it but couldn't stop it. The whole second half, I spent frustrated as the ball wouldn't roll straight.

K - There was that one goal kick I has where the ball did an "S."

W - Yes. And since I depend on long passes, pin-point long passes, it just destroyed my game. (pause) And you scored with 4 minutes left. And that, you pushed the ball right through the middle of my line and hit it while it was still rolling into the corner of the goal.

K - Were you distracted?

W - Well, the pitch wiped me out. It absolutely kills all my confidence if I can't make long passes. Absolutely destroys me. See, one thing I realize I need to work on is, if I play on a pitch like this, I have to completely change my game, and I don't do it. I have to change from long passes to short passes. But on this pitch even short passes you couldn't depend on. So yeah. I was very distracted. It was really aggravating. Sadly, I have to adjust my game, and I am not mentally capable of that right now.

Dominic v Kevin 1 - 1 (Drey) 1-1 (0-0)

K - (To Dominic.) Describe your goal.

D - Hmm. I came down the right side, got confused as to whether or not it was shoot-able, asked Kevin, looked over, he said 'Yes,' shot, and made it into the goal from a really hard angle.

K - Yeah. Specifically, I was not ready for that shot. (laughs)

D - And then you swore, like four or five times.

K - I called you a 'weasel.' That's not swearing. But that was an excellent goal. Very well done. I did score within a minute and equal it up. (paused) I don't know about you, Dominic, but I think it was pretty even.

D - I would say so.

K - There was one shot you had that rang off my goalpost that was in the second half. It was off my right post, and I don't even think I had my hand on the keeper.

D - You did.

K - Well, I did, but I hadn't actually maneuvered it when the ball hit the post. And once again, I was not aware of that happening. One little millimeter or two millimeters to the left and you would have scored on me. (pause) So then, there was that situation where, toward the end of the game, I had the ball and I touched up, Dominic did an offside trap on me, and I didn't see it, and I shot and scored, and the referee took the goal away fairly, and thus ending 1-1.

D - I want to enter one interesting comment.

K - Yeah?

D - In the second half, Kevin set up a whole bunch of really weird-shaped defenses.

K - It was my 'U' shaped defense. Or, my 'horseshoe'-shaped defense. [Editor - This was Kevin's reaction to Dominic leaving previously flicked players close to his shooting line during a goal-kick. Since Kevin could not move Dominic's figures away, he intentionally surrounded Dominic's figure in a way to discourage this strategy.]

W - What you should mention is that, what Dominic did to get you offside was very clever.

K - It was.

W - And quick-thinking. Very smart play.

K - In fact, the very last play was a free-kick and I mis-flicked it. I should have flicked it in a different way, but Dominic's defensive flick was . . . perfect. It was the perfect flick to prevent the obvious shot with about ten seconds left to go, and that kept the draw. So, bravo Dominic.

Wayne v Simon 4 - 0 (Rookery) 1-0 (3-0) [Unofficial Score: 4-2]

S - First goal was Wayne came down the pitch on the right, ramped a shot off of one of my defenders, over the top of my goalkeeper and in. Second goal was a quick shot, a rolling shot, just to the left of the middle, blasted it just inside the left post, beating my goalkeeper. Third one was ramping off the goalkeeper.

W - The third was was exactly like the first one.

S - I think the fourth one was the same as that too, wasn't it?

W - Yes. I got a lot of practice in ramping shots off of defenders and managed to get three on goal. I also knocked a bunch wide because he keeps doing that. He does it so well. He puts a figure right in front of the ball about half an inch in front so I have to take a lot of practice in knocking the ball off his figures on goal. Otherwise, I'll never get a shot on goal.

I must say that the warped pitch the worse end of it, I attacked on in the first half. In the second half, where my attacking pitch was flatter, I had a lot more success. Throughout the entire game, many of Simon's figures stuck like they were on Velcro. He had a terrible time with the pitch as far as being sticky, which, of course, helped me. My figures slid fine.

After the six minute mark of the second half when I took a 4-0 lead, Simon scored two very nice goals. Now, those won't count for the Maricopa Cup, but for my records, I'm counting it as a 4-2 game. I didn't stop trying after it was 4-0.

S - But we have to stop the game at 4-0 to make sure it's consistent with all the other Maricopa games.

K - Any particular defensive comments?

S - Uh, defensive comments . . . I would agree with Wayne that it was harder for me attacking in the second half due to the warp in the pitch. I'm finding the ball would not consistently roll over to the left or to the right. It was rather confusing. There was one flick I took from defense up the field and the ball changed slightly more than 45 degrees. There is obviously something with the surface of that pitch that makes the ball go that way.

I feel 4-0 was a bit unfair. I thought I had a bit more offense than that. I certainly had several shots on goal, including one cracker that Wayne managed to get his goalkeeper to, as well as several that came close from tight angles. But, yeah. Such is it. Some days you play well, some days Wayne bounces back from his defeat against Kevin. You can certainly tell in the beginning of the first half, he was very frustrated.

W - I was extremely frustrated.

S - And certainly, as the game wore on, and as the second half wore on, he became more confident and more his usual self.

K - (to Wayne) So, do you think you've figured out the pitch?

W - No! No. It's just that I have to . . . The game becomes more random that way. And I have to make sure I concentrate on each flick and don't assume the ball is going to go where I think it's going to go. So, every time I will have a new situation, I can't assume the ball's gonna end up where I place it.

K - So, you kinda have to have more people up for more options?

W - Yes. That's one thing. Another thing is you have to make sure you don't over-pass. As soon as the ball's over the shooting line, take the shot because if you pass it, who knows where the ball will end up. It's like playing in a tornado.

Wayne v Dominic 4 - 0 (Rookery) Mercy-Rule with two min left in the first half.

W - Dominic tried to play ten men back. It didn't work very well because once he did get the ball he couldn't hold it for much longer than three or four flicks because he had no one forward. So, he'd get the ball and then he'd knock it up the field and lose possession, or he'd knock it all the way out for a goal kick.

D - And I'd have a big hole in my defense if I did not knock it out for a goal kick and he'd come right through and score.

W - His goalkeeper had an uncharacteristically poor day today. Usually he make about six or seven saves for every three or four goals I score. Today, I think he made zero save.

D - Zero save for four goals. (Points to keeper.) I blame his drinking problem.

(Laughter)

W - Now that I think about it, my shooting was really "on." I hit some really nice shots.

K - So, have you figured out the pitch?

W - Oh, there's no figuring out the pitch. I do know, though, that the far end, which is closer to the door, is a lot flatter in the attacking zone than the part facing the dining room.

K - So, final words, or lessons learned?

W - Don't play Wayne in Subbuteo? (laughs)

D - No. (smiling) Not after some time. (Pauses) No lessons learned. No final words.

Kevin v Simon 1 - 1 (Drey) 1-0 (0-1)

S - You got close to scoring almost immediately. I got the ball up, had that free-kick where I flicked the ball back not really paying attention to where the ball was, drove it into the back of the net, and you, of course, called it back because it was on the wrong side of the line.

K - Right.

S - Pretty even after that for a while till you got your goal, which I think there was seven monutes on the clock. 7:40, or something.

K - Right. And that was off the right side of the pitch. I don't know if it was over or under.

S - It was over.

K - Over.

S - Then, after that, second half, if you don't mind me saying, there was a lot of me just trying to come forward.

K - You were pretty relentless.

S - My flicks were coming up short again, but whenever I gave up possession, you were up on the quick break.

K - If you noticed, I was doing a lot of breaking up my defensive line just to compensate for your attacks.

S - So my goal came . . . I think you missed it, didn't you? You missed the ball and gave me back possession. I flicked, missed. You flicked, missed. I had possession on the left side by the touch line, one flick in, two flick in, and third flick was a chip which was nowhere near your goalkeeper. Your keeper was straight forward and the ball went into the left side.

K - So, you hit near-side.

S - Hit near side with a chip shot. So, the rest of the second half, I was trying my hardest just to keep on pushing relentlessly towards you, gave away a foolish free-kick with less than a minute left, which fortunately enough, you'd blocked yourself in to be able to do anything with it.

K - In classic Simon phrases, I snookered myself.

S - And then you took a great flick which drove straight through, touched up to the ball but not powerful enough to be on target . . .

K - That was a great flick!

W - That was a terrific flick. If you'd hit it just a little more solidly, then it could have been the winning goal with three seconds left.

K - The way I looked at that particular flick is I had a little bit wider than the actual base itself, and you just have to try it. It's kinda like hockey. The way I look at hockey is a lot of the replays you see of guys doing amazing shots, that guy can't do that every single time. It's the fact that they put it on net trying every single time, and you're going to get those amazing goals. I mean, if you set up the exact same scenario and had me do that ten more times, I'd probably miss it ten times.

Simon v Wayne 1 - 1 (Drey) 1-0 (0-1)

W - Five straight corners. One clear shot, hit crossbar.

Simon came down once and scored against the run of play, I might say. His defense was really outstanding, his marking flicks were just [awesome.] Most of my corners I had no one open to pass to anyway. Really really good defense.

S - It was a game of two halves. First half was in some ways me hanging on. The second half was much more even with Wayne attacking in waves but then again not being able to necessarily keep possession, and being beaten back and Simon breaking forward. As far as my goal goes, I think that at that time it was against the run of play, I think at that time I was having the majority of play. And then Wayne came back within two minutes and got the goal back.

Simon v Kevin 1 - 1 (Drey) 1-1 (0-0)

K - Weird, weird game. I had the first goal.

S - What had happened was he'd taken a thrown-in, he'd built up, he had three players literally in a line

K - Oh, that's right. And you have two players right between the ball and the net.

S - The trouble of it is, is my "almost" blocking player was only covering half the ball. So when you struck it, it hit the edge of that and go up, which is what it did, high up, dropped behind the keeper.

K - Okay. So, mine was a ramp-shot, but that wasn't nearly as interesting as Simon's goal.

S - No.

W - Simon had a figure in an offside position. He had a free kick just outside the shooting line. He touched the ball with his figure to take the free kick. The ball moved only a couple of millimeters. He then took an onside flick. He was about the flick the player for his next positional flick but he was about to flick a player who had already taken the free-kick and no one else had touched the ball. Like an idiot, the referee [Wayne himself] said, 'You can't use him. He just took the free kick.' Simon then pushed the ball over the shooting line after taking two tick-flicks trying to get the one player onside. He finally got him onside. Simon pushed the ball over the shooting line, shot it, Kevin's goalkeeper made the save, the ball flew up in the air about a good foot, hit the back of Kevin's hand, which was at mid-field, rolled all the way back into the goal for an own-goal.

S - Yeah. The thing about it was that Kevin had taken a defensive flick and he was withdrawing his hand from the pitch when [the ball] struck the back of the hand. The referee said, ' Handball,' and I said, 'What about advantage?'

W - Play on.

K - And since it was 'Play on,' it was a goal.'

S & W - Yes.

K - To continue the weirdness is the Simon throw-in. I'm preparing for a defensive flick for Simon's throw-in. Simon realizes how intently I'm waiting for his throw-in, and he does a fake-flick. I flicked my figure, and the referee calls a foul on Simon for faking a flick, and I get the throw-in. That's never happened in my playing life.

S - I could see Kevin tense his finger every time I got close to my player. Every time my finger got close to the guy who was going to take the throw-in, Kevin's finger would tense. So, my flick wasn't even fairly close. And I deliberately went to make the noise as opposed to flicking the figure.

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Final table

As the players played different numbers of games the table is sorted by the average of points won (Pts/Pl).

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Results

Pitch: D = Drey, R = Rookery

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