February 16, 2014

Hi Guys,

To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect for today's match, given the fact that we had so many new players showing up and were missing a number of "old-timers". However, it only took about 30 minutes to have me feeling much more confident, as the new guys fit in well and, while it certainly wasn't our best match, things turned out pretty well.

I'd like to first like to welcome the "new guys": defender Paul Weasy from England; forward/midfielder Dennis Rehkaemper from Germany; forward/midfielder Luis Cerritos from southern California; and defender Beck Lin from Taiwan. I'm delighted to have all of them and think they'll fit in just fine at Compass.

Today, we also welcomed some "old-timers" back, including Hans, who played his usual brand of aggressive football in his old position with David; Grant, who had his first full match with Compass today and did wonderfully in the right midfield position; and Eric Chang, joining us for the first time in quite a while. We were also helped ably by Morrison's Justin and Aiden, who have both assisted us before and made good contributions today.

With all of the above, you can see why today was a big question mark for me. Chung Hsing University showed up with a small but aggressive squad anchored by some of their usual strong players, including their big German center defender/midfielder. The game was a pretty even back-and-forth throughout. Although Compass did get more offensive chances, Chung Hsing did threaten our net several times, as our defensive line and Gary stayed on their toes and kept Compass with a clean sheet.

Goal-wise, nothing happened until the 42nd minute, when Eric slammed in a beautiful shot from the left corner of the box that fly across and just inside the right post. Three minutes later, Eric put us up 2-0 with a cross from the right side. Clearly, he was on fire--although he couldn't stick around for the second half, he contributed more than his share.

After some discussion about what could be done better at half-time, I thought Compass looked more organized in the second half with some really smooth passing sequences. At the 57-minute mark, Ivan got our third goal after a pass from Robert and a shot from the left. Three minutes later, Aiden put in a shot that the Chung Hsing keeper bobbled a bit. Dennis charged in to take advantage of this and get his first Compass goal. There were a number of other opportunities that didn't go in, leaving the match 4-0 at the final whistle.

I'm looking forward to our upcoming matches. I'm still trying to figure out the next two Sundays: Morrison's big pitch is already booked for this coming Sunday, so I've been discussing with Jhubei the possibility of delaying a week. However, even if that happens, I'd still like to get a match for this coming Sunday, even if we have to play on the smaller pitch. I'll keep you posted.

Once again, good job, men!

Doug