Hi Guys,

I think you'll all agree that today's victory over Huiwen was MUCH more satisfying that some of the blow-outs we've had over other teams recently. Huiwen provided significantly tougher competition, being fast, skilled and, for some reason, bigger in size than I seem to remember. There were at least a couple periods in today's game where their quickness and rapid passing also had us scrambling somewhat chaotically on defense for minutes at a time.

Things got off to a bit of a worrisome start after Huiwen passed in and around our defensive line and scored in the 10th minute. However, Oto set things right three minutes later, driving hard down the left wing and then up the end line to put a hard shot in. Most of the remaining first-half time was spent in a back-and-forth battle and even score, with Gary making a wonderful diving save to keep it that way. Thankfully, a couple minutes from half-time, Oto once again scored to put us ahead.

Huiwen pushed us hard again in the second half and there were more scary moments. Compass finally started to solidify its lead in the 63rd minute when Cesar bounced a ball of crossbar, creating a deflection that Ben returned with an awkward-looking lob into the left side of Huiwen's net. Ten minutes later, Artem beat the keeper on the edge of the box and put a cross over to Laurent, who headed it in.

I'd like to recognize Gary as today's Man of the Match. He had a brilliant game and several excellent saves that kept dangerous Huiwen shots out of our net, and charged hard onto 50/50 balls heading in our direction. As usual, he also kept the defense in line with plenty of instructions and talking (the mark of good keepers). We're lucky to have him in our net.

Today, we also enjoyed the strong contributions of a SECOND Bartlett--Ben's brother Jeff--who plays at a high level back in Canada and was strong for us on the right midfield today. Perhaps Ben can offer him a partnership in BeMo's and convince him to move to Taichung!

Next Sunday at 3 we have our next Central League match versus Scunners, whose captain has promised us a tougher game than they gave Jhubei today.

GO COMPASS!

Doug