Werder Weekly 2008 - February 29

Photographs from today are in the Werder Weekly slide show

Date

February 29, 2008

Participants

Dominic Hutchinson, Simon Hutchinson, Munir Merchant, Kevin Nieman, Wayne Smith, Steve Tucker

Report

The night opened with another close fought game between Kevin Nieman and Simon Hutchinson. Nieman attacked from the start of the game forcing two corners in a row early in the first half, but failed to take a shot on goal. Despite his early possession Kevin did not take a shot during the game that required Simon to save with his goalkeeper. At the other end Nieman made three saves, including a save with the rod of his goalkeeper that left the ball precariously positioned two thirds over the line at the far post. Simon’s winning goal came in the ninth minute of the second half. He pushed the ball over the shooting line, Kevin flicked his defense out of the way, allowing Simon to touch up with one flick and drive the ball into the goal with the second.

Simon was determined to make amends for last week’s tie with Munir Merchant. He dominated the first half, playing at a faster pace than Merchant was comfortable with. Simon’s first goal came in the fourth minute with a chipped shot from the left wing. The second followed four minutes later with another chip from the top left of the penalty area. The second half was more thrilling than the first with Munir making four saves, Simon striking the near post, and Merchant’s shot hitting the crossbar with just a couple of minutes remaining.

Nieman remained scoreless as he ground out a goalless tie with Dominic Hutchinson. Despite having a lot of possession Kevin was continually frustrated by Dominic keeping his defensive line intact and he performing right defensive flicks at the crucial time to block Kevin’s attacking flicks. In this game Nieman did get two shots on target, both were saved by Dominic. At the other end Dominic did take a shot but the ball went wide of the target.

In less than two minutes Steve Tucker pushed up into Wayne Smith’s shooting area and scored with a quick shot that went under the goalkeeper. Steve almost scored a second shortly after when his shot struck Smith’s goalkeeper and rolled two thirds of the way into the goal. Wayne equalized in the sixth minute with a hard shot from the left wing into the top right corner of the goal. Smith squandered the opportunity to take the lead before the end of the first half. The ball was almost dead center of the pitch and one to two inches over the shooting line. Smith was so intent on making a quick shot before Tucker would have a chance to react that he did so without looking where Steve’s goalkeeper was. The ball struck the center of the keeper and bounced away to safety before Tucker could grab the handle. Four minutes into the second half Steve took the lead again with a hard shot, described by both players as a “blast”, to the far post. Wayne equalized for a second time by pushing the ball through Tucker’s defense on the left wing, and striking the moving ball to chip the goalkeeper.

Dominic and Merchant described the first half of their game as “scattered” as neither player could get a good rhythm to push forward. It livened up in the second half with lots of end-to-end action as both players attacked, forcing saves by their opponent’s goalkeeper, but they could not deliver the killer shot to score.

It took only 40 seconds for Smith to score against Nieman, with a shot from the right wing. Nine minutes later Kevin pushed the ball through the middle and blasted the ball past the goalkeeper with a flick from an awkward position. Early in the second half Nieman’s hurried flick on the left wing allowed Wayne an opening which he drove the ball through to restore his lead. Kevin came back a second time with a shot from the left side that he hammered over Smith’s goalkeeper. Just two minutes later Wayne scored his third with a chip of Nieman’s goalkeeper’s rod from the left wing. With just 20 seconds remaining Kevin almost equalized when he pushed the ball through Wayne’s defense and shot before Smith could make a defensive flick, but Wayne was able to save it with his goalkeeper. “That was Kevin’s best game against me,” Smith said after the game.

After a number of wild flicks that were close but not on target it not was until the eleventh minute that Tucker scored against Simon. He broke quickly, pushing the ball through a gap in Simon’s defense, followed by a quickly taken shot in at the near post while Simon was trying to do a blocking flick. Four minutes later Simon tied the game having pushed the ball through the center of Steve’s defense Tucker obligingly flicked a defender out of the way that had been blocking the striker. Simon capitalized on this mistake and drove the ball in at the near post. The second half was fraught with Steve attacking frequently and Simon playing a strong defensive game. When Tucker managed to get the around Simon’s defense his goalkeeping kept the half scoreless. Despite being under siege for parts of the half Simon did manage to break and get two shots that were both narrowly wide of the goal.

Having played such strong defensive in his previous game Simon’s defense was not as strong against Smith. Wayne scored his first goal in the 12th minute with a chip from the left wing. Simon defense kept Wayne at bay until 11th minute of the second half when Smith scored from a ramp shot off a defender. The third came less than two minutes later following a number of panicked defensive flicks by Simon that cleared the path for the shot on goal.

There was no disputing the first goal in the game between Nieman and Merchant. Kevin had made a fast break and quickly shot from the right wing driving the ball into the right corner of the goal. The ball spent most of the time in Merchant’s half of the pitch, between the half way line and the shooting line, as Kevin relentlessly pushed forward. It was on a rare break by Munir that the controversy happened. Both players were concentrating so hard on Merchant’s drive up the middle of the pitch that it was only after Munir had scored they noticed that there was one of Merchant’s figures on the right wing that could have been offside when the shot was taken. It all came down to the position of a defender. Had he always been on that spot? Or had Munir’s goal scorer knocked him off the defensive line after taking the shot? No-one could recall where the defender had been and Kevin, always the gentleman, decided that he would consider the attacker onside and the goal good. In the remaining minutes as Nieman struggled to force he way through Merchant’s packed defense he did get two shots on goal that Munir had to save with his goalkeeper and another struck the cross bar.

In their rematch Smith was 2-0 up in the eighth minute against Tucker. The second goal was scored with a figure that with its first flick pushed the ball from midfield over the shooting line, and drove the ball into the goal with the second flick with Tucker stranded on the other side of the pitch. Steve struck back in the second half with a goal that came from intricate play as he worked his way through Wayne’s defense and scored with a “boom boom”. Smith missed his chance to increase his lead with just three minutes remaining, but he stuck the cross bar.

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