MISN? What’s this?

Hello MISN,

On Saturday February 2^nd we played game nº15 of the Winter 2007-08 Lachine indoor league, vs. FC Sorrento.

The team is officially going through a good period: after the wins vs. Hellas (4-1), and Boca Juniors (4-3), we managed to overcome J.S.S. with a 3-1 scoreline last week and brought our run of victories to 3!!! Great for morale, and great for points as we continue our climb of the Division 2 rankings, hoping to receive a big help from above.

Our opponents for the day were FC Sorrento, a team against which we were quite unlucky in the first part of the season, losing a fiercely-fought match 3-2 in the final minutes. Today it was time for revenge, and prove that our loss wasn’t deserved the first time around!

Attendance-wise, we had a few problems with our roster once again. A logistical problem (or rather, extreme snowy weather conditions) forced Can to be late for car pick-ups (shovelling snow takes time), and we thus lost the services of Eric after he waited for over 15 minutes in the cold. Don’t worry he didn’t freeze to death he just left and went home. We tried to reach him on the phone once Can arrived, but got no answer.

Also, Kevin was busy with his thesis, Saad snowboarding, and Saber once again unavailable. Fortunately Alex was back after his one-game break, and we thus started the game with 9 players (i.e. 7 starters and 2 substitutes).

Here was our line-up:

As the match began, we immediately took control of the ball and started pushing forward. Our opponents weren’t putting too much pressure on us initially, and our wide passing was creating a lot of space, something which allowed us to create chances on net very early into the game.

On a corner-kick by Can, the ball was crossed to the 2^nd post to Nafee. Our Moroccan playmaker connected with a diving header, but it was over the bar. Minutes later, Marco and Bardia combined for two chances in quick succession, both from set pieces (Marco kick-in from the right, crossing it for Bardia free in front of the goal, missing the ball by a hairbreadth; Marco corner-kick to the 1st post for Bardia, flick parried by keeper), but unfortunately the ball refused to go in.

We were really making our presence known inside our opponents’ half, and it didn’t take long for MISN to produce another few scoring chances. Controlling a pass forward with his chest, Can left the ball for Marco on the right wing. Our Italian wing-back faked a pass to the left, then pushed further down the wing to execute a perfect cross onto the 2^nd post to Santi. Our Argentine winger’s downward header was well-executed, but parried away by the Sorrento keeper.

Minutes later, Santi and Can combined to set up our Turkish striker in front of the net: Can couldn’t manage to turn and produce the shot, falling on the ground and allowing the ball to get loose. Marco tried to get to it, attempting a difficult shot unbalanced, and failing to see Santi completely free behind him. Chance went begging. Our bad luck continued when a 20m free-kick was taken quickly by Bruno, passing it to Can who attempted a 15m-slamming shot, curling the ball on top of the crossbar. The rebound fell to Bruno a second time, but his shot was over the bar.

Eventually, after a lot of missed chances, we finally opened the lead. Receiving the ball on the left wing, Santi dropped to the corner flag and used his dribbling skills to take his markers one-on-one: he first cleared defender nº1, then defender nº2, managing to get very close to the goal near the end line. Spotting Can unmarked in front of the net, our Argentine winger delivered a perfect pass for the easy open-net tap-in. 1-0 MISN!!

Shortly before the half-time, we made it two. With Alex in possession of the ball, Santi and Marco made a run towards the goal and called for the pass. This distracted the Sorrento goalkeeper a bit, and that moment of hesitation was fatal because he did not even attempt to dive on Can‘s beautiful curling shot, which dipped straight into the top left corner!! 2-0 MISN!

We were thus leading by two goals at half-time, but considering how many chances we had obtained it should have been a lot more. Still, we were happy to be playing well and to be in the lead, and it was all a matter of continuing our efforts to get some more.

In the 2^nd half we continued our siege to the Sorrento net, really pushing forward with more intensity. Can obtained two back-to-back one-on-ones with the keeper, which unfortunately he did not manage to finalize. On his first shot, our Turkish striker attempted a chip which beat the keeper but was cleared off the line by a defender; on the second opportunity his shot was too hard and the ball ended up over the bar.

During this period, Marco was also pushing up a lot from his defensive position, combining well with Can on a few occasions, without managing however to find the space for the shot. On one of these opportunities however, as the ball was backheeled to him by Can (following a great run by our Turkish player, who resisted the pressure from two opponents to defend the ball), Marco spotted Bruno on the right wing completely unmarked and making a run forward from his defensive position. Our Italian wing-back promptly slid the ball to him, but Bruno’s shot was way over the bar and a good chance went begging.

Eventually though, we finally put the game on ice thanks to another quick-pass combination, featuring Santi passing it to Nafee in the center, who then waited for the keeper to rush out to slide it to Can on the left, enabling another easy tap-in with the net empty. 3-0 MISN.

The ref called full-time not too shortly after, giving MISN yet another 3 points! Woo-hoo!
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3-0 final score

Scorers:
Can (2)
Alex

Yellow cards:
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Our record thus increases to 12 points out of 12! An awesome feeling compared to our terrible crisis situation not so long ago… we are definitely on the right track boys!! Let’s keep this up!

GO MISN!!

-Marco-