It's rather clear that the Pacers (a.k.a. the Bane of Our Existence) can consider themselves rather fortunate to walk away with a 3-3 tie, as their post-game celebration and our opposite reaction made clear. Luck can't fully explain their comeback from a 0-3 deficit but not one, but TWO, PKs called against Compass on supposed fouls in the box certainly helped their cause.

Overall, Compass played a very good game and got the better measure of the Pacers through the majority of the match, passing and controlling and beating them on the ball--despite an absolute garbage pitch (long grass in broad patches and no lines) and 34-35 degree stifling heat. It's also worth keeping in mind that this was the first time we've played together in a month. In both halves, there were periods where the play was pretty much limited to their defensive third of the pitch. In another surprise, our 16 players actually appeared to give us more subs than they had (for a change) offering us a little extra push when we needed it.

About 10-15 minutes into the first half, Laurent put Compass up 1-0 with a nice goal that went arrow-straight and low into the bottom right of the Pacers' goal, just inside the post and past their keeper's outstretched arms. The first half ended with the same score, despite a number of great opportunities and near misses on the goal by Cesar, Kim and other players. In the second half, Compass turned it on the first 20-25 minutes, as Ben put in an in-the-air ball, followed by what I believe is Chris' first Compass goal, which he put in with a provocative-looking hip thrust.

At this point, with yet other near goals by Seb, Daniel, Artem and others, Compass continued pushing offensively. However, the call against Hans--defending one-on-one against a breakaway Pacers forward--and the resulting PK goal put some wind back in the Pacers' sails. They pushed hard, often utilizing the big boot from the back onto a running forward, and were rewarded with another goal less than 10 minutes later. Things got even worse for Compass when the ref gave a second, almost-identical PK call against Hans, which tied it up 3-3. Compass had some last-minute opportunities (notably by Daniel) but the final whistle left things tied up.

The post-game consensus among Compass players (including the refs in our crowd) was that perhaps one PK (maybe the first?) was a justifiable call, while the other was a bad call. From my own perspective, if I was going to call anything at all for the second incident as a ref, I would have at least made it an indirect kick just outside the box, where it perhaps occurred (there were no lines at all, so one couldn't tell). This controversy, combined with all the near-misses on the Pacers goal, is where they got lucky this time.

That being said, we need to also learn from our mistakes and let-downs and this is a good case. We clearly can't and shouldn't pull the whole team back on defense when we're up 3-0, as that frees up the opposition to put heavy offensive pressure on our goal. However, I think it would be wise to pull the midfield in particular back into a more defensive posture in such cases, especially when it comes near the end of a match when everyone's a bit tired and less able to charge up and down the pitch on offensive-defensive transitions. I'd be interested to hear you all weigh in on this game, particularly coaching types like Laurent and Chris, to help us improve our team strategy. We don't have a coach directing us during games from the sideline, so we need to think about these things and do them better.

Once again, I'd like to welcome two new Compass additions who did well in their premiere outings with our team on Sunday--Eric Chang who, to my knowledge, is the first and only Taiwanese player to join Compass; and Kim Hwan who, to my knowledge, is our first and only Korean player. Welcome, guys!

Now it's time to get ready mentally and physically for the Summer Cup this coming weekend. I'll forward our game schedule to you by tomorrow. From what I heard so far, Pete, Ben O., Ben B. and Chris may be late in showing up on Saturday and Laurent can only play on Sunday. We have 19 guys signed up, so we should be okay. I believe our first match is around 10:30 a.m. Saturday against Taipei Red Lions.

Looking past the tourney, we have a tentative repeat match vs. Pacers at home on the weekend of May 25-26. In between, I will try to get us something else, depending on who's around and available.

Go Compass!

Doug