Date
February 22, 2008
Participants
Adam Carlson, Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Wayne Smith, Steve Tucker
Report
The Werder Weekly returned to its spiritual home in Northridge tonight. There were six players, but only five games were played.
The night opened with a less acrimonious than usual game between Adam Carlson and Dominic Hutchinson. Both players had plenty of offense in the first half. At the start of the game Dominic enjoyed the majority of the possession but was unable to take advantage of it to get the ball into the shooting zone to take a decent shot on goal. By the end of the first half Carlson was the one on attack. In the tenth minute he scored with a beautiful chip shot from the right wing over Dominic’s goalkeeper, only to have it disallowed for offside. In the second half both players struggled to retain possession for more than a few flicks, as both players’ flicking became more erratic. The few shots became wilder and wilder, with the ball more likely to strike the player holding the goalkeeper than requiring a save from the goalkeeper. The game finished goalless and it appeared that both players were satisfied with the result.
Wayne Smith’s practice to speed up his game allowed him to keep Steve Tucker on the defense for large parts of their game. The only goal was scored in the first half following a “moving back”. Smith had pushed the ball into Tucker’s shooting zone when Steve flicked one of his figures into Wayne’s moving figure resulting in the “moving back”. After the figures were repositioned while Tucker appeared to be looking for another figure to flick Smith shot, taking his opponent by surprise, and scored. Tucker did manage two shots on goal, but Smith saved both with his goalkeeper.
Simon Hutchinson took an early lead against Munir Merchant with a chip over his opponent’s goalkeeper. In the ninth minute Merchant equalized with a chip from the left wing. Simon’s sustained pressure paid off midway through the second half when he pushed through a narrow gap in Munir’s defense line to blast the ball in to the goal at the far post taking his opponent by surprise. With just three minutes remaining Merchant equalized with a good move up the right wing and with a chip shot that bounced off a defender and into the goal. “I learned that I am not as good at goalkeeping with my right hand as my left.” Simon said at the conclusion of the game. “All credit to Munir for his goals as they were great shots.”
The players agreed to a shoot out, more for practice than to decide the winner:
Shot | Munir Merchant | Simon Hutchinson |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 (save) |
| 3 | 0 (save) | 0 (hit cross bar) |
| 4 | 1 | 0 (save) |
| 5 | 1 (save) | 1 |
Sudden death | ||
| 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | 1 (hit inside of far post) | 2 (chip) |
Merchant won his first game with an impressive victory over Carlson. Adam took the lead in the second minute with a fast break and a lightening shot that Munir could not save. Midway through the first half Merchant equalized, and then just a few minutes later he took the lead with a strike from the left wing. The second half started with Carlson scoring an own goal. Munir scored his fourth soon after, taking Adam totally surprise with his shot. Adam scored his second near the end of the game with another quick break and then long flick to strike the ball in the shooting zone for a hard, low shot into the goal.
In the spirit of the night the players then went to a shoot out:
Shot | Munir Merchant | Adam Carlson |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 (slow roll under goalkeeper) | 0 |
| 4 | 2 (chip) | 0 |
| 5 | 2 | 0 |
Smith’s faster game caused Simon problems in the first half. But Simon did have the first two shots on target. The first needed Wayne to save with his goalkeeper, and the second struck the cross bar. Smith’s fast play finally paid off in the seventh minute when Simon was caught out with a hand ball. The ball stuck his hand as he was withdrawing it from the pitch after a defense flick. Following claims that he has a hard time scoring penalties Wayne drove the ball into the left side of the goal. Simon did keep possession for periods in the game but was unable to get into a decent shooting position in Smith’s shooting zone. Wayne scored his second midway through the second half with a quick break and a fast low drive in at the near post. The third goal was scored with just three minutes remaining. Smith had three players who were in position to shoot, Simon blocked one of the players, and Smith scored with one of the unblocked players.
As they had done in previous games the players went to a shoot out:
Shot | Wayne Smith | Simon Hutchinson |
| 1 | 0 (save) | 1 (chip) |
| 2 | 0 (save) | 1 (save) |
| 3 | 1 (chip) | 1 (save) |
| 4 | 2 (chip) | 1 |
| 5 | 3 (chip) | 1 (save) |
Results
| Adam Carlson | 0 | v | 0 | Dominic Hutchinson |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 0 | Steve Tucker |
| Simon Hutchinson | 2 | v | 2 | Munir Merchant |
| Munir Merchant | 4 | v | 2 | Adam Carlson |
| Wayne Smith | 3 | v | 0 | Simon Hutchinson |