November 20, 2011

In what was a very nail-biting match, Compass pulled off a 2-1 win over the Kaohsiung Pacers and laid to rest arguments about who the better team is. We also appear to have nailed the lid on their last hopes for finishing on top of the Southern League, as they played their last games of the season on Sunday, including a following 1-1 tie with the Tubbies.

This keeps Compass on top of the league standings with 14 points, four points in front of second-place Tainan Phoenix, with whom we have one remaining match together with Kaohsiung Massive.

Both Compass and Pacers turned up with big squads on Sunday with about 18-20 players per side present. Compass immediately rocked Pacers when Ben scored a goal off a nice cross by Daniel a mere minute into the match. Pacers appeared fairly unruffled, though, and proceeded with what would be a tough 90-minute battle, assisted by some especially potent midfielders. About 15 minutes later, they evened up the scored with a goal put in on a corner kick. This continued until under 10 minutes from the end, when Gaetan ably capitalized on a Pacers keeper error to charge in from outside the box and head the ball in.

It wasn't the best match we've played by a long shot and we clearly need to work on addressing some midfield gaps that plagued us at times. At a very basic level, we need to boost our passing accuracy and work on our ground game, while continuing to improve our fitness. As has been noted many times, we're at our best when we slow it down a bit, look around and move the ball on the ground, versus booting it in the general direction of the opponent's net and hoping for the best.

While both teams fought hard, of special note was the widely-noted contrast between Pacers and Compass throughout the match in terms of attitude. True to recent form, the Pacers protested almost every referee call that didn't go their way, constantly complained and even having their "coach" on the pitch to lecture the ref. Compass, by comparison, looked relatively calm and relaxed, which is a good thing.

After our game, a number of us stuck around to watch the sometimes-entertaining match between Pacers and Tubbies, and to cheer for our cross-town rivals. Pacers scored first in the second half and the Tubbies put a tremendous amount of pressure on their defense, with both teams spending long stretches within the Pacers' defensive third. After pinging shots off the crossbar and posts several times and about 5 minutes left in the match, it looked like the Tubbies were going to fail. Then Nat put in a nice ball to tie it up. Tubbies seemed to appreciate our cheering section and local solidarity.

I'd like to welcome our newest player Jose, who hails from Madrid, Spain and will be here at least a year. Jose played his inaugural match with Compass on Sunday and we're excited to have him us. Welcome, Jose!

Regarding next Sunday (Nov. 27), it looks like we'll be playing Chunghsing University, which has requested a follow-up match. So we can expect another hard-fought, competitive match. I'll keep you posted on details, but expect we'll be playing at 3 p.m.

Good job and great victory today, guys! Go Compass!

Doug