Compass walked away from Saturday's match feeling a lot better than a week earlier, thanks to a nice 2-0 win over Tainan Phoenix in a hard match that certainly wasn't easy.

Ben O. and Hans both commented before the match that we had one of the best line-ups that they had seen in a while for Compass, with our full contingent of Frenchmen, thanks to Arno's return, as well as most of the entire squad. While Tainan didn't look like they had everyone, they certainly brought out some of their big guns, including veterans like Ollie and Leigh.

Leaving out a lot of detail, the match was a hard-fought back-and-forth affair, although it's fair to say that Compass dominated the lion's share of it. However, there were shorter stretches in both halves where the Phoenix took the initiative and put some serious pressure on our goal. Their overall height repeatedly made corner and indirect kicks in particular nerve-wracking events for Compass. Our defense held tough, though, together with some good typically aggressive challenges and saves from Pete.

For the most part, we took control of the center of the pitch from front to back, starting with Arno and Hans in the back and Lukas and Laurent in the center midfield. As usual, this led to some good short-passing sessions and a number of beautiful through balls to rushing midfielders and forwards. Pressure by our offensive coughed up a goal in the first half by Ben and another in the second half by Gaetan, although Compass peppered the Tainan goal with multiple shots that didn't go in, thanks to some heroics by their keeper and a little bit of bad luck for us. I was also happy to finally see the Cesar-Daniel combo up front that I've been wanting to, although it was only for about 10 minutes. These two played together for four years in their pre-Compass era and I'm confident it will generate some positive results in the future for us.

Although there were the usual disputes and complaints--mostly from Tainan--it was overall also a fairly uncontroversial match, with referee Andy letting the flow of the game continue without much interruption.

Of special note, I'd like to officially welcome our newest player, Chris Harris, who ably played his second match in a week for Compass in the right defensive position and is already making good contributions to the team. Chris hails from London and his arrival gives Robert some English company and will help prevent Compass from becoming overly Frenchified. Welcome, Chris, we're glad to have you!

At the same time, Gaetan has unexpectedly informed me that this may be his last match with Compass for a while, as he's planning on returning to his Gallic homeland in early April. However, he does hold out the possibility that he will be back in the late summer period. We're fully counting on that, Gaetan, and will miss your presence in the meantime.

Regarding our upcoming match schedule, there are no games next weekend, largely due to Spring Scream down in Kenting. However, I'm assuming that enough of you will still be around for perhaps a Sunday afternoon futsal session next weekend. I don't believe we have another league game scheduled for at least 2-3 weeks and will do my best to schedule a friendly with someone a couple weekends from now.

Go Compass!

Doug