MISN? What’s this?

Hello MISN,

On Thursday August 30^th we played game nº16 of the Summer 2007 Lachine indoor league, vs. MU1.

Following our defeat vs. co-leaders Trakia last week, MISN Impossible were ranked 2^nd in the standings after game 15, three points behind their big rivals. With very few games left in the regular season, our hopes of clinching away the title were dim, but we had to try nonetheless. We set our objective to obtain 9 points over the next 3 games at all costs, and hope that Trakia would somehow slip up.

Our opponents for the day were MU1, a team with quite a strange record this season. Champions of the Winter 2006-07 division 1, their form during the summer had been somewhat disappointing. Despite sometimes being capable of producing some very fast-paced action, MU1 had surprisingly lost a good number of games to much weaker opposition, so we didn’t quite know what to expect today. On the upside though, our first encounter this season had ended on a score of 7-4 for MISN (with goals by Can (4), Ludo, Renaud, and Marco).

Attendance-wise, with the month of September only a few days away, it seemed as if the August curse would finally be lifted. Indeed, this week we benefited from many welcome returns as well as some extremely useful emergency subs. Here was our absentee list for today:

1) Absent long-term:	Saad, Alex, Renaud, Güven, Can, Santi, Denis
2) Injured long-term:	Amer, Tevin
3) N/A this week:	Nafee, Abbes, Danny, Zaid, Simiso, Sami, Kevin

The returns I mentioned before included Imad (after 1 week of absence) and Ludo (returning after almost 2 months of M.I.A!). Also, we had three very useful guest-players today: Tim, Jonny, and Dani from our McGill Intramural team!! This meant that we had the luxury of having TWO (2!) substitutes for each zone of the field!

Here was our line-up:

Keeper:		Jan
Defense:	Marco / Bruno	Jon	Dani / Imad
Offense:	Tim / Jonny	Bardia	AC / Ludo

Following a (bad) MISN tradition, we set off the game on the wrong pace. Due to some car lift problems half of us got to the soccerplexe very late, with 5 minutes before gametime. That effectively forced us to start the match with virtually no warm-up at all, which is far from ideal under any circumstance.

As a result, it didn’t come as much of a surprise that we conceded the first goal, most of our players still trying to get organized on the field. The MU1 players pushed forward on our left wing, setting off a mid-range shot which found our keeper Jan ready to parry. The ball however ended to the feet of Ludo, in a difficuly position to clear it. Our opponents immediately seized the moment’s hesitation to recover the ball, and make a quick pass followed by a quick shot. The trajectory surprised Jan who could only parry the shot into his own net. 0-1.

A few minutes later, it looked as a decidedly uphill game for us when we conceded another goal. Following a lost ball, MU1 set off the counterattack and tried to feed the ball towards our right. I believe the pass was deflected back, and the main MU1 striker ran after it before it crossed the line. With one of our defenders closely marking, he somehow managed to turn around (the marking was obviously not close enough), move back towards the corner of the box and set off a shot. Once again, Jan got his hands to it but could not prevent the ball from rolling into the net after his save. 0-2.So, much like last week, we were trailing already a mere 10 minutes into the game. This looked like another one of those August crappy nights.However, we didn’t despair (far from it). We re-organized, shifted a few playing positions around (notably Ludo to offense and Dani back to defense), and our gameplan improved considerably. A few minutes after MU1‘s second goal, we reduced their lead. Pushing forward, the ball was passed from AC to the center, close to the penalty box. Tim controlled it back to goal, managed to turn around despite the close marking, and sent the ball to the keeper’s left!! 2-1!!

A couple of minutes later, we came back level! Intercepting the ball in our zone, we rapidly moved our troops forward to feed the pass to AC. Trying the dribble, our Turkish striker was tripped by his marker, but with the ref playing the advantage AC managed to slide the ball to an upcoming Ludo in the middle. His one-time shot found the twine, and MISN was level! 2-2!

Then, to complete our lightning-fast comeback, we actually went ahead for the first time! AC got a pass on the left wing from Ludo, took the ball past his marker, and scored a left-footed shot inside the post from a narrow angle!! 3-2 for MISN, with 3 goals scored in less than 10 minutes!!!

The MU1 defense was all over the place at this point, losing all their initial cohesion and compact structure. Following a good start, their morale had now sunk to the bottom, and you know how the saying goes: “beat the iron while it’s still hot!” (or “kick ‘em while they’re down”, I don’t remember which one it is ). Anyways, we took advantage of our momentum and managed to score another before the break.

Following a foul in our own half, the free kick was taken by Bruno who sent a long ball forward, all the way to AC beyond the last defender. Our Turkish striker let the ball drop, and with the keeper rushing out he adjusted a precise header past him into the net!

So the score was 4-2 at half-time! We had made a great comeback after a rough start, and were now surfing the wave of confidence! All we had to do was keep it up. Our new recruits were by the way the much needed energy spark that the team had been missing in the last few weeks: Tim provided movement and agility, Jonny ball control and power, and Dani accurate passing from the back.

We came back on the field in the 2^nd half, and continued right from where we had left off: scoring goals!

Following yet another turnover, Jonny got the ball on the right wing, with only 1 defender to beat. Faking a pass to the center, our new recruit accelerated toward the wing and blasted a powerful shot low into the right bottom corner!! The keeper was surprised and could do nothing to prevent the ball from sneaking in: a great goal for the 5-2 scoreline!!

From then on, MISN‘s domination in terms of scoring chances was total. The MU1 players did their best to bring danger into our zone, especially through their main central striker (very fast & agile), but our defenders always kept him in check, and our backline was well-organized to prevent his teammates from getting through either.

So whenever we blocked an offensive from our opponents, we set off a counterattack, and that’s how we managed to score another 3 goals! First, we scored through Tim again (don’t remember the details, sorry), and then through two quick goals by Bruno and AC.

With Bruno pushing forward from the backline, our Mexican center-back went through on the right wing, battled with a defender and tried a pass between his legs. The ball was deflected up at knee-level, but Bruno obtained the lucky bounce. All he had to do was then take a small step toward the center and blast a low left-footed shot inside the right post. 7-2!

Our last goal came from a beautifully orchestrated play with some great build-up, starting in our defensive zone: Marco got the ball and passed it down the right wing to Ludo. Our French midfielder made the 1-2 pass with Jonny and obtained the return pass to go deep. Lifting his head up, he made a pass to center for AC, who one-timed to Bardia in the center. As our Iranian playmaker got closed down by defender, he laid off the pass back to AC on the left, who then adjusted a precise shot inside the left post! “Calcio-champagne” like we say in Italian. 8-2!

MU1 did manage to get one back before the end, as their fast striker ran forward on the right wing, made a few cutbacks to confuse our defenders, and forced Bruno to upend him in the box. The PK was duly transformed sending Jan the wrong way.

8-3 final score.

Scorers:
AC (3)
Tim (2)
Ludo
Jonny
Bruno

A great win boys! It sure feels great to get back on the victory train, especially with a convincing 5-goal difference in the final scoreline! August is officially over, and the rest of our players on holiday should slowly begin to resurface in the next few weeks. We’ve got 2 games left, but we can look at them with a little bit more optimism!

GO MISN!!!!

-Marco-

Posted in MISN Impossible |

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007 at 3:00 am and is filed under MISN Impossible. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.