Virtual Soccer Champion
Posted by: kmikeym | From: November 19, 2005
Saturday, November 19th, a day when most people think of the historic first meeting of President Reagan and Gorbachev in 1985, now has a new meeting. This day shall now be remembered as the day Gene Merrill invited eight friends over for an epic single elimination tournament of virtual soccer. Eight men played, but only three walked away with prizes.
Round One
Round one started off with a match between Jona Bechtolt and Josh Berezin. Josh's go-ahead offense created many chances, but it was ultimately a defensive battle that enabled jona to pull ahead. With the benefit of several referee's decisions in Jona's favor, a 1 goal nudge ahead was enough to give the victory to the young Norwegian. (Final Score: Jona 1, Josh 0) Unfortunately, Jona was disqualified when he tested positive for performance enhancing substances.
The next match was a reminder of the epic 30 game tournament of 2003 with Steve Schroeder and J. John Afryl facing off. We saw plenty of chances from creative midfield action from John, but the first leg saw no goals because of Steve's excellent defensive play. Coming down to the wire, these two excellently matched opponents threw everything forward for the win. Two extra time periods elapsed, and it was on to the shootout, where John dispatched steve in three ably taken shots. (Steve 0, John 3)
The hosts first game of the night, Gene Merrill made full use of his home field advantage to pepper Erik Mork with plenty of shots on goal on the first leg, resulting in a 2-0 advantage for the 2nd. Erik switched to a offensive formation but it backfired, resulting in a win for Gene three to nil. (Gene: 5, Erik 0)
The final game of the first round saw Mike Merrill use the Metrostars' fabled bad luck cursed soccer expert Ryan Wise in a defensive battle with little chances. Ultimately, the supper club's 2005 squad in white defeated the red shirted version in a short-lived penalty shootout. ("Jonnie Walker can eat it. It's no wonder he was traded to the f'in crew!" -Ryan W.) (Wise 1, Mike 3)
Round Two
Host Gene Merrill demoralizes Josh Berezin with two early points in the first half. Josh, fueled mostly by anger, manages to hold off Gene's punishing assault for a bit. The anger mounts with Josh's keeper being unable to hold onto any hard-hit shots. Midfield possession becomes the name of the game, as Josh tries to break free to get on the board, but Gene's defensive ends all of his opportunities. Two-Nil is the final score--the players shake hands but Josh is forced to hide behind his fancy mustache in defeat. (Gene 2, Josh 0)
The two mustachioed men of the Hott Denn faced off in their head to head match. Crisp, one-touch passing was the name of the game for John. Mike attempted to counter with athletic runs through the middle. John Afryl began the second half with a blistering run through Mike's defense, but the finish was lacking. Later, Mike stymied the midfield and was fouled at 20 yards out. The resulting free kick was well parried by John's keeper. On the counter attack, John dribbled in and scored on the rebound. Two minutes later, a brilliant run was finished into the upper corner to increase his lead to two. A valiant comeback effort was eventually denied, and John was through to the final. (John 2, Mike 0)
Battle To Place For Third
With the bitter taste of a round two defeat in his mouth, Josh approached this game with fierce determination. The opening minutes were a battle in the midfield, with Mike finally coming on strong in the early 30th minutes but forced his shots from too far out of the box. Still, his defense refused to give any ground, keeping the ball out of the hands of Josh's strikers until well into the 2nd half. In the 70th minute Josh sent a fantastic cross into the box and connected with the forward's foot, but the chance past when the ball was fired into the crowd. Mike responded by forcing the keeper to save twice near the 80th minute but the game went into extra time despite these late game heroics.
Mike gave Josh a good scare in the 96th but his shot was too soft to find the net, Josh immediately responded with a sparkling run down the length of the field and a shot to the upper left corner that put Mike's keeper at a full stretch.
The second batch of extra time began with some sloppy play by the tired midfielders, and settled into rough tackling as neither team wished to give up such a hard fought battle this late in the game.
The shootout was a psychological battle, with the kicks going center before finally aiming for the corners. Josh took the early lead 2-1, but Mike kept himself alive with a shot followed by a great save. But his next shot sailed over the bar and Josh's next two shots were fired home with authority for the win.
FINAL MATCH
We now go live to Josh Berezin for a play by play:
Josh Berezin here, liveblogging the finals match. I'm coming off my penalty kick victory over Mikey for 3rd place and a gallon of gatorade, so I'm on a natural high. It looks like the players have agreed on a rules change for the final match. They're going to 8 minute halves. I expect this change benefits the home team, as he's had the most time on this game and system. I'm going to make an early prediction for Gene here.
They're playing as Arsenal. Afryl's going with a standard 4-4-2 set. Afryl's knowledge of the Arsenal roster certainly gives him an air of confidence.
And play has begun! Both teams have some early struggles holding onto the ball, with a couple of takeaways, as well as a very awkward pass right out of bounds by John. Gene gets the first shot off in the 6th minute, which is easily handled by John's keeper.
Thierry Henry gets a gorgeous shot off for Gene's squad, sliding past the keeper, but also slightly outside the post. Gene regroups and fires another hard shot at goal in the 14th minute.
John finally gets a solid possession in the 15th minute, makes an amazing dribbling move, and then squanders his advantage with an ill-advised shot. Gene gets a shot that I thought would have been impossible to block, but it's handled and Gene collects the rebound. After a couple of more tries at it, John gets the ball with the whole field in front of him, and quickly returns possession to Gene, who gets yet another shot, narrowly missing again. I have to say Gene is looking like the stronger side at this point.
We're in the 29th minute, and I've seen very few hard defensive challenges. These teams are going to need to play some harder-nosed defense and take some risks if they're going to score.
John is clearly plagued by his unfamiliarity with the XBox controller, repeatedly making button-pressing mistakes. It must be very frustrating for him.
Gene gets the keeper one-on-one and somehow can't get the ball into goal, but it rebounds, and he shoots it right back at the keeper, but he hadn't quite recovered yet from the first shot, and it ends up in the back of the net, for a one-nil lead.
The spectators present are trying to keep Afryl's spirits high as he is now playing at a deficit.
Both players have realized that they can afford a couple of calls going against them, and it's worth risking a yellow card to break up a dangerous play. We've seen a number of hard tackles. John picks up a yellow card just outside the box in the 45th minute, and Gene puts the resulting direct kick perfectly in the top left corner of the net, to run the score up to 2-0. There are only moments left before the end of the half, and John gets a desperation shot off, but the last seconds tick off without event.
As the second half begins, John tries to stay loose, and he has control early. But after giving up possession, Gene is awarded an indirect kick above the box, lays it off, and buries it in the exact same spot as his previous goal. Three to nil now, and it's looking like first and second place are determined.
In the 53rd minute, Gene gets still another beautiful chance, with no one but the keeper in front of his striker, but doesn't put enough mustard on the shot, and it's handled. Afryl drives upfield and puts a hard shot off the keeper's hands for a corner kick. This chance results in nothing, however, as the keeper snatches it out of the air.
Afryl has not given up! He brings the ball upfield again and shoots across from right to left, but misses the far post by a couple of feet. On the resulting possession, Gene brings it up and Afryl again presses the wrong button, slide tackling when he meant to just play straight up defense. This time, Gene's free kick from just outside the box glances off the wall and over the endline.
Afryl gets a shot off from all the way on the endline, which curves up and in front of the goal, but glances off the crossbar harmlessly and into open space.
Gene's attacks are relentless! Repeatedly driving right up the center, he gets shot after shot off, but he lacks the finesse to elude the keeper. Finally, on his third or fourth attempt, he takes it easy, and instead of powering a shot into the keeper, he drops it softly into the back of the net in the 75th minute. Now it's 4-0! There's no question any more who's taking home the gold medal, but I know Afryl would feel good about scoring at least a single goal in this match.
The players seem to be reading each other's playbooks, and Afryl drives directly up the center of the field, gets a hard shot off, but it ricochets hard off the crossbar, and he fires the rebound up into the stands. That was probably his best chance of the match so far.
Afryl regains possession and plays with patience, but puts a cross into the arms of the keeper, and he has to hope Gene makes a mistake to give it back quickly.
No more scoring or serious chances come for either player, and the players shake hands as their teams walk off the pitch.
It was a one-sided match, but it clearly motivated John to learn the game better in the future, and there are rumblings of an ongoing FIFA league. We've not seen the last of either of these players.
Josh Berezin, signing off.
Thanks Josh! And that there is why November 19th will be long remembered as an epic day in virtual sports history. Gene takes home the $25 gift certificate for the CD/DVD Game Exchange, John walks away with a silver Adidas soccer ball, and Josh drinks his weight in Gatorade with a gallon of Fruit Punch.
(additional reporting by Ryan Wise and Josh Berezin)
Totally fun times, but I want a rematch with the Winning Eleven game!
Posted by: J_John at November 21, 2005 11:56 AM