The Mariners came into tonight's matchup with a 10-10-3 record and
coming off a pair of great road wins, to finally break their winless
road streak for the season! Just the previous Friday, the Mariners beat
Atlanta 4-3 down in Atlanta. If the Mariners are to have any chance at
making the playoffs, tonight is a must-win game for them and it
certainly doesn't help to be missing four starters! Bilyk was serving
the first of his 3 game suspension and Danbusky and Hutchison were both
serving suspensions for yellow card accumulations. Also Steve Shak was
still out due to inujury, although he did dress for the game and sit on
the bench like he might play.
By contrast, Atlanta came into the match in a better position - in 4th
place in the standings, with a 12-7-2 record and with games still in
hand!
The Mariners led the series between the two teams 2-0 for this season,
but with both teams pushing hard for playoffs, the 2,011 fans in
attendance at Wednesday night's game were sure to see some action!
And action we did see....plus, we even saw two things in this game that
I, personally, don't think I've ever seen in a soccer match before!!
But more on that in a little bit...... :)
The action started off quick, with the Mariners getting a great scoring
opportunity in the second minute of play! Dante Washington (#9)
followed up on a shot at the goal that Atlanta's Goalkeeper, Joe Barton
(#1), tried to kick out. Dante got there just in time to deflect the
ball, but wasn't able to get it under control before it eased across the
end line just to the left of the goal.
The beginning of the match gave us some pretty good back and forth play,
with the edge in play going to the Mariners, but with Atlanta getting a
few good opps, such as one in the 7th minute. Atlanta had a throw in,
which was headed out by a Mariners defender right to a waiting Atlanta
player! One good, solid connection to the ball in mid air and the
Atlanta player sent a blazing shot from about 25 yards out! Luckily,
Mariners' Goalkeeper Matt Nelson (#1) was able to make the save.
Not long later, though, in the 16th minute, is when we would see the
first of the odd plays that I don't believe I've witnessed in a match
before.
It all started on a ball played up to Carlos Garcia (#17). It was a
long ball and he made the run and I thought he legitimately timed it
right and should have been ok, however the ref whistled an infraction as
the ball went on past the end line. The Atlanta Keeper brought the ball
from behind the line to set up for the free kick, but I noticed he was
messing around with the ball a lot and even had to stop and tie his
shoes. My thought at the time was that it was like he wasn't all
"there". Apparently, I must have been right, because shortly after that,
he played the ball up to one of his defenders to take the free kick.
Then, for whatever reason, the defender played it right back to him! He
must have been asleep at the wheel at this point, though, because as he
was standing right in front of the goal, with the ball coming right to
him, he suddenly did the unthinkable! He reached down and picked up the
ball!!!!!!! On a playback from his own teammate!
Now, before I continue, I will say this. I just looked at a video clip
of the whole play and after watching that and watching the demeanor of
the defender who kicked it back to him, it almost looks like the
defender might have thought he was being told to take the ball back to
start it. (I will admit, he was right much farther up the field than
where he SHOULD have been starting it.) So, the only possible
explanation I can come up with for what happened is that MAYBE the
Keeper thought it was being sent back to him to take the free kick
instead, from farther back. Now, that being said, it's also clear from
the video that after the hand ball was called, the referee DID go and
talk to the side judge, so one would assume that if he had really told
them to back it up, that he would have told the ref that.
Now, the next part of this gets interesting. The Keeper picked up the
ball and the whistle was blown. He was mad and yelling about it and
kicked the ball way over to the side and off the field to stall things.
Carlos Garcia (who is well known to us Mariners for liking fast restarts
on free kicks) ran behind the net and grabbed a ball, ran back out and
placed it at the spot of the foul, kicking it to Jakob Fenger (#11) who
rebounded a shot off the keeper before the ref could stop everyone. The
ref then conferenced with the side judge and came back and awarded the
Mariners an indirect kick at the 6 yard line! Atlanta was able to line
up their entire team (all 11 players) on the goal line to try to block
the goal. The Mariners lined up Jakob Fenger on the ball with Dante
Washington set to take the shot. Fenger did a quick little fake kick,
which caused some defenders to lunge out of position, and then Fenger
played the ball to Dante, who drilled the ball at the wall and after
ricocheting off of the Keeper and another player, it found the net!
Gooooooooaaaaaaaaaallllllll, Mariners!!!!!!!!
I don't think I have ever in my life seen a play quite like that. And
an indirect kick from the 6 yard line?! Definitely something new for me
and I imagine new for plenty of other people in the stands too!
Atlanta must have been rattled by this play, though, because a couple
minutes later in the 20th minute, Dante Washington made a nice cross to
Hamisi Amani-Dove (#21) right in front of the net for a beautiful
score! Gooooooooaaaaaaaaaalllllll, Mariners!
Atlanta didn't roll over after this, though, that's for sure. In the
25th minute, Atlanta's John Ball (#15) made a great shot at the
Mariners' net that Matt Nelson had to make a diving save on! Great job,
Matt!
The game would continue on, with both sides playing fairly intense, but
the Mariners definitely getting the edge. In the 34th minute, Carlos
Garcia broke through the Atlanta defense for a 1v1 with the Keeper, but
would end up missing just left of the net.
A few minutes later, though, would bring another rather unique play to
the game. Carlos Garcia and Alan Woods (#2 for Atlanta) were mixing it
up rather tough, when Garcia was called for a foul. What's so odd about
that, you ask? Well, after Garcia was called for the foul, Garcia
rather incredulously pointed out to the ref that the fact that he was
standing there with his shorts pulled down to his knees (and yes, I mean
the TOP of his shorts were at his knees), would tend to suggest that
perhaps he had been fouled first. The ref seemed to say "Ok, that's
fair enough..." as he then proceeded to give Wood a yellow card for
that, and also gave Garcia a yellow too!!!! I can only guess that after
Garcia pointed out what happened, the ref must have figured Garcia's
foul to be retaliatory. Nothing big came of the play, but how often do
you see one of your best players standing on the field with his shorts
down in the middle of a game?! hehe :)
Play would continue on for the remainder of the half with the only other
thing of note being when Atlanta's John Ball picked up a yellow card in
the 45th minute on a swan dive.
The beginning of the second half would bring two new teams to the
field. Atlanta made a couple substitutions at the half and then began
turning up the pressure as the Mariner defense began giving up way to
much ground!
The Mariners still had some good opportunities, though, such as in the
51st minute, when Carlos Garcia crossed the ball to Jakob Fenger, who
made a hard, solid shot over the cross bar!!!
A minute later, though, Atlanta's Leslie Fitzpatrick found his way to
our end of the field, where he drilled a ball at the keeper, who
deflected it right back to Fitzpatrick for the easy shot right in front
of the net. Goal, Atlanta.....
The pressure didn't let up there, though, when another Atlanta player
had a great shot at the net in the 54th minute, but Nelson made a great
save on that one.
I also have to admit that in the 59th minute, former Mariner Gary Brooks
(#19) made a great run up the field, working around and past three
different defenders, to then make the pass for a great shot by one of
his teammates.
As play continued, the play level definitely began evening back out.
Both sides would get oportunities, but it would be in the 84th minute
that the Mariners's Dante Washington would take a pass from Jose Gomez
(#16) to place a beautiful shot on a wide open net from about 6 yards
out. Goooooaaaaaaaaalllllllll, Mariners!
With the insurance goal in hand, the Mariners slowed down drastically
after this, content to play keepaway and knock the ball around, unless a
really great opportunity presented itself, such as in the 90th minute
when Jose Gomez crossed the ball in to Daniel Alvarez (#15) who had a
nice header that was saved by the keeper.
The game would go on to conclude with a 3-1 final tally and a definite
boost to the Mariners' playoff hopes!
Thoughts on the Match:
Dante Washington - My goodness! I don't know what came over him, but I
think I saw more hustle out of him tonight than in the previous 5 games
combined! Great job!
Gomez - I think at least twice, he took the ball up the field and had a
great chance to shoot on goal, but instead, stopped and played with the
ball until the defenders caught up! What was he thinking?! All I have
is one word for him......... SHOOT!!!!!!!! I wonder if he heard me
from the stands?! O:)
Defense - We definitely missed Danbusky and Hutchison tonight. The
defense did good the first half, but they really fell apart in the
second half. In some ways, we were quite lucky they didn't score....
Overall, it was definitely a great match. Officiating was a little
lopsided, but we seemed to come over that just fine.
Next up is Toronto on the road and then back to the SportPlex for a
match against Charleston!
Go, Mariners!!!!!!
-Ken
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Game Statistics:
VB Mariners: Nelson, Knott, Aldrich (Gomez 65), Kirmse, Washington,
Jonas, Fenger (Alvarez 62), McManus, Garcia (Winkel 67), Amani-Dove,
Amani-Dove, Morelli
Atlanta Silverbacks: Joe Barton, Woods, Afful, Fitzpatrick (Quiroz 90),
Broder (Iotov 68), Pineda, Degand (Ilarionov 46), Ball (Josh Barton 46),
Lewis, Brooks (Murraigui 77), Cozier
Yellow Cards:
VB: Garcia (38), Gomez (80), Jonas (83)
AS: Woods (38), Ball (45), Afful (62), Iotov (90)
Red Cards:
None Issued
Goals:
VB: Dante Washington [Fenger] (18), Amani-Dove [Washington] (20),
Washington [Gomez 84)
AS: Fitzpatrick [unassisted] (52)
Announced Attendance: 2011
Referees: Andrew Chapin, Bill Dittmar, Scott Johnson, Clive Edwards
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