Announcement
24 Apr. ’09. After the early morning match vs. Manhattan, players remained onsite to rest and await the 2nd game vs. Javanon later in the mid-afternoon instead of trekking back to the hotel in Cincinnati (45 mins. each way). Javanon is a nationally-ranked top team (5th): Region 2 Champion/National Semi-Finalist 2008, and Pachuca hoped to compete well against this strong team after playing a hard-fought match vs. Manhattan in the morning. Inter kicked off in the 1st half with a strong diagonal cross-wind to their left side/backs. The Javanon team was big, fast, athletic and very talented, challenging the ball on every possession by Inter, giving little time but mostly for one-touch passing. Javanon scored twice early on off of counter-attacks as a result of some ineffective passing in the middle which caught the back line out of position at about the 16 min. and 20 min. marks. Earlier, at the 7 min. mark, Javanon served a ball in the box for an unsuccessful header attempt which was grabbed by Seth. Javanon did not take any corner kicks while committing 6 fouls. Inter had several chances, taking 4 shots on goal and 3 corner kicks but could not finish while committing just 2 fouls. At the 26 min. mark, Skylar’s right corner kick into the box was headed by Erik on goal but it was caught by the GK, and an identical scoring opportunity ensued at the 33 min. mark. Inter’s best chance came at the 39 min. mark, when Skylar collected a pass near 25 yds. left, dribbled a few yards ahead and fired a hard blast but the GK layed out to his left for a finger-tip-save and resultant corner kick. One min. later, Erik passed a nice ball in the middle over to Skylar about 25 yds. center but the shot went wide left, and the half ended, 2-0, Javanon.
Javanon kicked off in the 2nd half with the diagonal cross-wind to their left sides/backs. Their defense tightened up, holding Pachuca to just 2 shots on goal and 1 corner kick. At about the 21 min. mark, Nate collected a ball near 20 yds. center and fired a shot which went over the cross-bar, and one min. later, Schillo’s shot from 25 yds. center also went high over the cross-bar. Inter committed just 2 fouls but committed several more unforced passing errors. Javanon launched a barrage of shots on goal (6) and setup 4 corner kicks while committing 4 fouls. Several shots were caught or deflected by Seth but Javanon would score off of a counter-attack on another ineffective pass in the middle at the 17 min. mark, and the match ended, 3-0, Javanon. Although Javanon was clearly a superior team, Inter showed fatigue from having played a hard match earlier in the morning and did not execute its normally sound fundamental possession play on the thickly cut grass. Congratulations to Javanon on its well-earned victory!
Pachuca flew back home from Columbus later in the evening to play MD State Cup Round 3 on Sat. vs. MSC Scorpions, thus, forfeiting its 3rd match of the Blue Chip event.
