clay@Eastern 10-11-10

[post101]

who wins this one?

[Burg_Grad_77]

Clay should win this one.

[rockyraccoon]

Should win, but didn't

Eastern 1
Clay 0

Clay didn't adjust their play to the small field (not much bigger than a U15 field). They tried to play small passes and every thru ball had to be on the ground. That works on a bigger field with the defense spread out but with players being 15 feet apart it's hard to get anything thru for a shot. The needed to chip thru balls over the top.
That's not to take anything away from Eastern. They played very hard and had something to prove. They only won 3 games last year, and two of those were against Clay. Eastern's coach, Rich Holloway, has Clay's number, being a former coach of some of their players. Also have to give a lot of credit to their goalie, he made several great saves.
Wish I could say this game didn't matter, but the loss cost Clay second place in the SOCI, which went to Valley. Good luck to both teams in tourney play next week.

[svbt1112]

Wow! This result is surprising.

Rocky: Is Eastern's field that much smaller than Clay's field?

I would think their width are very similar----not sure on the length. I would doubt either field meets the requirements for size (which I guess don't really exist!).

[rockyraccoon]

Much smaller. I would guess it to be 80 - 90 yards long tops, and probably closer to 80, and probably almost 5 years narrower. Eastern played liked they wanted to win, Clay played like they were out there having fun.

[UUsokkr12]

Disappointing result but I would have to disagree with you rocky on the fact of playing balls over the top. If you can play the ball on the ground, on any field, then you should. But with smaller fields, I don't see anyone on Clay's team that can put the right spin on the ball to make it catch and slow up enough for someone to run onto before it gets to the keeper or goes out of play. On larger fields you will have more time, but like I said if you can play through balls on the ground, that is a much better chance for the playing running onto it to get a cleaner first touch. Unless you can control the pass enough to give your teammate a chance to run on it, you basically are just kicking a 50/50 ball, whereas a pass on the ground can be directed easier to the side of the defender that your teammate has advantage of.

But, congrats to Eastern and good luck to both teams in the tourney.

[rockyraccoon]

I think Clay players passed up a lot of shots from 15 to 25 yards out looking for that perfect thru ball for a one on one shot. It never happened. Of course, if your going to play the ball over top you have to play it towards the corner to freeze the goalie. Down 1 - 0 with time running out and not having many thru balls in the middle, I would settle for a 50/50 ball. Clay plays everything to the middle into the crowd. They are still making passes to players no more than 10 feet away. Eastern left the corners open all night and the few good shots and passes Clay got off came from that area.

[murmur]

The results of this game surprise me. I would have thought the score would have been more for each team. Eastern should have pulled this one off before the tournament drawing.

[vballsoccer178]

I don't understand why Eastern doesn't have a bigger field. It is inside a track (like several other fields) and they have room to make it longer and wider. Maybe they like to keep it smaller to have some kind of advantage.

The size of the field does make a difference for teams. I agree that it is harder to work the ball around and even send it through. What was the shot count & how many corners did clay have? Corners & throws ins become pretty important on smaller fields.

Maybe this will give Clay & Eastern some spark for the tournament. Good luck both teams

[rockyraccoon]

Clay out shot Eastern about 2 to 1 and 4 corners to 2. There were some nice saves by their goalie, who I am told was only his second or third game. Clay hasn't scored in the past two games on teams that they scored 9 goals on the first go around. Valentine is getting doubled up on and he is having problems with his knee that keeps taking him out of the game. They better figure it out before next Monday.

[THE_MOOSE_IS_LOOSE]

This too is a complete shocker to me, no disrespect to Eastern... but with them just starting up their program a few years ago i cant believe they could beat Clay who has been solid over the years

[GaryGroundhawg]

I am confused by the logic of not wanting to pass the ball??? It seems to me the Kick it hard to no one stile of the 80's and 90's wouldn't work on such a small field? I mean if you just kicked it to the goalie frozen or not all the time wouldn't get you much. It looked like clay was getting away from kick it and catch it. If the shot count and the corners showed clay ahead and they were having fun. Sorry Im just confused I thought they were supposed to have fun??

[The Player]

i think easterns defense was the reason of win they stepped it up when they needed it there were a couple players that stood out on defense.