October 7, 2012

Hi Guys,

This evening, we are the proud owners of a sizable piece of new hardware, thanks to an outstanding weekend performance that saw us bounce back from disappointment and overcome some big challenges to emerge as the undisputed Taipei Fall Cup Plate Champions, defeating Taipei Carnegies 2-0 in the final to clinch this honor.

What happened this weekend is quite extraordinary. As you could probably tell from the back-and-forth emails prior to the tourney, we were seriously undermanned from the beginning until the very final match. On both days, we went to Taipei honestly not knowing whether we'd have a full side or not, and we had to scramble several times to make sure we did, notably on Saturday.

On the first day, group play saw us bringing in a mixed-bag of players who came and went as needed throughout the day, as Hans and I drew heavily on the Morrison alumni old-boys network, including alumni Dan Long (a veteran Compass player), Uwe Mauer, Matt Sawatsky, Dave Homer (who's reffed for us) and recent graduate Boaz Gillette, and his high school brother Andy (who played with us last Sun.). A key contributor throughout the weekend was New Zealand footballer wunderkind Mitch, who played with Compass last year in Taipei and came with Dan. In his final year of high school, this cool-headed, skilled forward earned repeated praise (and multiple job offers) from Compass players. (Note: He'll be back from NZ from Dec. to Feb. and is willing to consider further matches with us then.)

Our first Sat. group match against Carnegies ended 0-0, followed by a 1-0 victory against our toughest group opponent Taipei Red Lions, thanks to a nice goal by Mitch. Thus, we went into our third match vs. the Scunners feeling fairly confident. The vastly-improved Scunners played a very aggressive game against a somewhat flat Compass side and got a goal off a defensive error, despite the fact that we had many good opportunities. This first-ever victory over Compass sent the Scunners into spasms of ecstasy and threw the group wide open. The complex calculations showed that our final match against new Japanese side Taipei United was a must-win to qualify for the Cup round, barring a final tied game between Scunners and Red Lions (the expected winner, with best group record). Unfortunately, Compass was saddled with a nasty, aggressive young ref that we later nicknamed 'Roid (Steroid) Rage and seemed to call everything against us. This came to a head when Matt S. brought down a Taipei Utd. striker just outside the box and was awarded an instant red card. We finished with 10 men and a 0-0 tie, later to be followed by a surprise Scunners-Red Lions tie. (Note: On Sunday, 'Roid Rage awarded the exact same red card call against Tubbies for the only 2 red cards given the whole tourney.)

With this disappointment and the Sun. absence of David, we came into the second day fortified by reinforcements Arnaud, Keiron and Gary. Despite this, we were still forced to play the our first Plate round match against Taipei Shane with 10 men, opting for a 3-4-2 formation. Although we controlled most of the play with good passing, things began looking bad after Shane scored against us. However, Cesar tied things up with an assist by Mitch--the first in a beautiful partnership that earned us multiple points the rest of the day.

Our second Sunday match was expected to be our toughest, against long-time nemesis Kaohsiung Pacers. However, Compass was up to the task and jumped ahead after Mitch broke down right wing to put a nice ball across the Cesar for our first goal. A few minutes later, Mitch staged an almost-identical run down the LEFT side and put it to Cesar, who scored again, leaving the final score 2-0. This left us tied in our Cup group with Taipei Celts, who we met in our third and final group match. We quickly got into scoring after Arnaud scored an awared PK, followed by a nice corner from Robert that went in. Cesar got his fourth goal of the day after running onto a long lob from Lukas, giving us a 3-0 win.

Our 11 players were feeling quite tired by now and Keiron sustained a nasty ankle injury, leaving his status questionable in our impending final against Carnegies, who had looked very aggressive and able in an earlier Sun. victory against Tubbies. A quick call had Dave Homer on his way as a back-up player. Perhaps a bit to our surprise, the final saw a calm, composed Compass largely dominate a hard-fighting Carnegies, starting with a PK scored by Michael. This was follwed by a nice left-footed shot powered into the net by Lukas. Keiron managed to stay in the whole game, but Dave played the last 2-3 minutes for an injured, badly-limping Rob--in our one and only substitute of the ENTIRE tournament.

In other news, the Scunners--advancing to the Cup round for the first time ever--largely fell apart on Sunday against opposition like the Nigerians of the Super Eagles and won no silverware. Taichung's other team, the Tubbies, lost twice on Saturday, did even worse on Sunday and were gone by early afternoon, failing to score a single point in the entire tournament. That meant it was left to Compass to maintain Taichung's honor.

Tournament Records
0-0 vs. Taipei Carnegies
1-0 vs. Taipei Red Lions
0-1 vs. Taichung Scunners
0-0 vs. Taipei United
1-1 vs. Taipei Shane
2-0 vs. Kaohsiung Pacers
3-0 vs. Taipei Celts
2-0 vs. Taipei Carnegies (final)

Goals:
Cesar (4)
Arnaud (1)
Lukas (1)
Michael (1)
Mitch (1)
Robert (1)

Assists:
Mitch (3)
Lukas (1)

I want thank all the Compass regular and non-regular, old and new players who came out this weekend, fought hard and made this happen, as well as small but vocal group of wives and girlfriends who cheered us on. This Trophy belongs to YOU! This big victory and outstanding performance has put this team on the road for more good things ahead and I'm looking forward to it.

GO COMPASS!!

Doug