December 18, 2011

Sunday saw a great end to Compass' 2011 year with a 3-1 victory over a very good Huiwen 'A' Team that, according to Eric, is currently the number-one high school side in the nation and includes a few Taiwan U18 National Team members. This was a team that had beaten Compass before, but not this time.

The game started off on an excellent note for us when, just about 2 minutes in, Ben lobbed a high ball down the middle to Cesar, who chipped the keeper in a beautiful goal. About 30 minutes in, Huiwen fought back and scored to tie things up. Despite a very aggressive, talented opposing side, Compass played one of its better games in recent months and were then rewarded with a PK. Seb--playing in his final match for us--stepped up and scored, but the ball was called back due to an intrusion into the box (Gaetan?). Seb took the kick again...and missed, much to the amusement of a number of his teammates. In a perfect ending for Seb, though, yet another PK was awarded just before half-time and this time Seb made it, thereby dodging a number of jokes that were heading his way.

Much of the second half was fairly tense for Compass as Huiwen had a number of good opportunities to tie things up, including a goal on substitute keeper Hans that was called offsides. With less than 5 minutes to go, however, we finally sealed the game when Eric put a nice cross over to Ben, who put it in.

A special thanks goes out to Tom who, playing his last match for Compass as well (at least for now), agreed to help out in the net first half and made some good saves, and to Hans, who manned the net second half. Although everyone played very well, a couple of teammates who stood out to me included Ross, who had a great defensive game, and Marin, who showed a lot of skill in the left midfield and rocked in a very nice, hard left-foot shot that the Huiwen keeper barely saved with a long dive.

The game was followed by a wonderful evening at La Bodega with Sebastien and his family, who are heading for Shanghai on Wednesday. Seb, you've been a very big part of the Compass team and family over the past 4+ years and we're really going to miss you! We hope you'll stop by now and then to visit Taichung, say hello and join us on and off the pitch. Maybe we'll even let you take another PK or two for old times' sake, haha.

As noted above, we're also bidding a farewell to Tom, who will traveling around Asia before spending some time in Hong Kong. He notes that perhaps he'll be back in June, when we certainly hope to welcome him back with Compass again. Thomas, too, is leaving in early January, but we're working to persuade him to move back to Taichung when he's finished with his other commitments. Keep in touch guys, and remember you're always a part of Compass!

On that note, best wishes for a relaxing, wonderful Christmas to all of you. I'm already looking forward to a great year of football with you all in 2012.

GO COMPASS!

Doug