March 16, 2014

"Annihilation" isn't a word I use often or lightly to describe matches, but that's about all that can be said about today's game versus Feng Chia University.

Playing under nice conditions, Compass met up against FCU for the second time since the fall and wasn't quite sure what to expect. Feng Chia did turn up with a mixed bag of players, including a new French player of unknown quality. Nevertheless, Compass got busy scoring immediately, with Cesar scoring on a through pass/assist from Arnaud just 1:50 into the match. However, our opponents showed a lot of energy and speed in pressuring us on the ball and this, combined with a variety of shots and other near misses that didn't go in, meant that the next 20 minutes went by without a goal.

The floodgates began to open at the 22nd-minute mark, when Arnaud scored our second goal. Eleven minutes later, Robert received a throw-in from Chris and drove down the right end line (FCU's left) to score his first. At the 38-minute mark, Lukas--who was moved into the center midfield for a change from his defensive duties--scored his first, followed three minutes later by an inaugural Compass goal for Nicky.

By this time, it was pretty evident that although Feng Chia's keeper had a few fortuitous saves earlier in the half, he was ill-equipped for the job and took on a largely ceremonial role of standing in the goal mouth as balls flew in all around him. Before the half could come to a merciful close, Lukas lobbed a ball from the the sailed just inside right post at the bottom, followed by a second Robert goal that left the half-time score at 7-0.

FCU did find a more competent keeper for the second half but the Compass slaughter continued just two minutes in when Compass was awarded a kick just to the right and outside the box. Paul stepped up and solved the challenging equation of angling it over the Feng Chia wall by scoring his first Compass goal on a beauty that curved around the wall and into the net. Our opponents were not finished, though, and once again there was a long wait for the second goal of the half. At the 72-minute mark, Nicky scored his second off a tap/assist from Cesar. Four minutes later, Robert got his three-goal "hat trick" after Nicky pulled a nice fake on a FCU player on the right and passed it into the center. The final Compass blow came three minutes from the end when Cesar got his second goal and our 11th.

This was our biggest blow-out this season, topping the slightly less-severe 10-1 beating we gave FCU back on Oct. 13. Nevertheless, we played some fairly decent football today and had the chance to do some experimenting that included Lukas and Chris in the midfield and Minjae in the central defense. Congratulations again to Nicky and Paul on their first Compass goals.

Doug