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September 26, 2005
First Homestand of the 2005 season
As we're off and running into the 2005 season with a great early record of 4-1 we head back to Seattle after our travels for our first homestand. I thought it would be great to get a perspective from the weekend from one of our outstanding freshman, George John. So I asked him to give you all a little run down of the weekend.
Well, the weekend of September 23-25 was definitely one people will be remembering for a long time. This was the weekend of the annual Husky Fever Classic. This year we brought in the "Big Boys" to compete for one of the most coveted trophies in all of collegiate soccer. The four teams that competed this year were the University of Portland, University of Wisconsin, Hartwick College, and the University of Washington.
Coming off a couple of emotional games the weekend before on the road, everyone was excited to play at home in front of our friends and family. I was particularly excited because it would be my first home game experience under the "Friday night lights." We started the weekend playing a Wisconsin team that we knew very little about. Viewing the game from the bench it was pretty evident that we dominated the game from start to finish, although the game summary might not reflect that. We just decided to make it interesting for the many fans that came to support us.
Well, the game went something like this. We go down early in the game 1-0 to an untimely goal against the run of play by a Wisconsin forward. He slipped through our defense and punched a shot past the goalkeeper. However, although we were now down in the game 1-0 our team did not look the least bit discouraged. We kept pressing throughout the 1st half and had many great opportunities, but walked into halftime still down 1-0.
The second half goes along the same lines, we had control over the game, and created more chances. It wasn't until about 20 minutes was left in the game when we equalized. Fellow freshman Jo Jo Katz sent a 40-yard ball to an on running Ely Allen who calmly stuck it in the back of the net. Unfortunately we weren't able to take the lead before the end of regulation. Overtime followed the pattern set in the previous two halves. We created some opportunities but were unable to convert. Not until 20 seconds was left in the second half of overtime did we finally take the win. Once again Jo Jo assisted on the goal to Leo Totev. It was an exciting and energetic game that I'm sure was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone in the crowd.
Sunday we continued our winning streak and beat Hartwick 1-0 off a magnificent header by Bobbak Talebi. All in all the weekend was a great experience and I am looking forward to playing again at home and experiencing the excitement of the "Friday night lights."
MC
