November 14, 2011

It was a hard-fought battle today against Chunghsing University, which turned out to be a radically different, and much better, team than last time. Although we were well aware of that in theory, it wasn't until they scored 5 minutes into the game that we started to wake up to that reality. At the 21-minute mark, Ben scored off of a nice set-up by Daniel and Cesar, putting us back in the running.

The entire match was a back-and-forth that saw CHU theaten us on a number of occasions, keeping our defensive line and Gary on their toes. In the meantime, the football gods seemed to alligned against us, as Ben, Daniel, Cesar, Gaetan, Ricky and about half the team got a variety of great, point-blank opportunities on Chunghsing's net that just wouldn't go in, as balls pinged off posts, richocheted off of the crossbar and deflected off defenders. It got to the the point where it was comical. In the second half, CHU scored a fairly nice goal on us, putting the pressure on our lads for most of the half. In the final minutes, Compass applied a full-court press on its opponents, which bore fruit in the last few minutes when we drew a straightforward foul in the box and a PK which Seb put away, leading to a final 2-2 draw. We were all relieved that we didn't inaugurate our shiny new jerseys with a loss.

Chunghsing is clearly a good match for us and their coach is already asking for a rematch that I know some of you (particularly Ben) will especially welcome.

And afterwards a few of us headed to FuBar, where Ben and Keiron turned Chris into a UFC fan in the short span of an hour. Chris can now talk knowledgeably about UFC weight classes and tell you who his fave lightweight fighter is.

I'll keep you posted on our match for next Sunday, whether that be the Kaohsiung Pacers or someone else.

Go Compass!

Doug