Darlington Nagbe's MNT debut

Our Portland Timber attacking dynamo, Darlington Nagbe,  was called up to the US Men's National Team for a qualifying match against St. Vincent & the Grenadines.   Nagbe was called to play in the 64th minute along with another player.   review of the game's flow showed that he acquitted himself well, passing accurately,  moving off the ball to create opportunities and occasionally turning to the attack, at one point cracking off a strong shot.  

Notable to me was that Nagbe's workmanlike performance on the field in that short period of time involved precise passing,  intuitive movement off the ball,  and a defensive effort to break down counter attacks when the opponent picked up the ball.  I thought that Nagbe was stellar at showing he could play that role throughout his twenty-some minutes of play.   He made few mistakes and showed a clear understanding of the USMNT system despite its differences from his play with the Portland Timbers.

Nagbe is one of the most talented players over the ball in the MLS...and maybe elsewhere.  The typical response from opponents is to take him down and draw a soft foul.  This may be one of the weak points of the game---that a low consequence foul, say pushing the player to the ground,  doesn't cost the offending team much but nullifies the talent and skill of the player fouled.   I hope this isn't the direction the game is headed.

Nagbe deserves the call up.  He's a quality attacking player.  He's effective if he's used in a system that understands his strengths.  He will be a legendary player if he can be protected from the cynical fouls that are so common in MLS.

My hope is that he remains healthy and that he stays with Portland.   I think he's one of the best players I've seen---just needs some help against the thugs.

Portland Timbers first MLS playoff match: eliminating SKC in PKs.

Anyone who follows futbol passionately treasures their short list of legendary matches, generally matches attended in person.  And the game provides a limitless list of competitive moments, in small or large venues, where the passion was intense, the stakes were high, and the goddess, Fortune, put her hand on the scale more than once to tip the outcome. 

The first playoff match for the MLS Portland Timbers kicked contending matches aside as the team battled through 120 minutes of field play and eleven rounds of penalty kicks to finally take the win when keeper, Adam Kwarasey ,stopped opposing keeper, Jon Kempin, with a  great save after making his own statement by bending the net with a strong shot.  

Old Nicks v Pierres 9-12-15

On Saturday, September 12,  Old Nicks opened our fall season with a match against Pierre's, the perennial champions of the division we share in Portland's men's league, the GPSD.  This was a particularly notable moment because Old Nicks had won the O58 Summer League and championship game.  Pierre's never plays in Summer Leagues and so we'd won without having to face them. 

Pierre's is a classic select team carefully assembled over the years by Tony Ryan, a canny footballer with an eye to enjoying the game as a winner even when he's had to watch from the sidelines.   In our age group,  Pierre's has always been a strong team because the players have long played soccer,  have trained together for years, have been coached to a unified style of play, and in most instances are natural athletes.  Despite the fact that we've been beaten by them over and over through the years,  we have admired them for their style and commitment. 

Over the years since the Millennium  we have only had a single match in which we were able to eke out the win.  At the January King Cup Tournament in Las Vegas (held the weekend of Martin Luther King Day) 2002, our motley crew in its second tournament appearance faced off against Pierre's in a night game and beat them on a high lob from Jim Brinkman.  The win has been part of our team mythos for a dozen years since.  We did beat Pierre's that one time, but in league play, they've been unstoppable.   

Our strategy, strongly urged by Jack Stigler who has played with both teams, has been to initiate a regular team practice,  to drill on basics,  and to work on getting so familiar with each others' play that we are comfortable on the field.  "If I pass to this guy, he'll do this."   We were feeling confident from our steadily increasing team play in the summer result but were also keenly aware we'd won it without having to face Pierre's.

At noon on the newly created turf field at Delta 5 the players drifted in, preparing for the match.  Though it was an autumn day,  the temperature was warm and the sun was bright.  No Oregon overcast.   Old Nicks faced a dilemma.  We had enough players to take the field, but our goalkeeper wasn't available.  In Summer season we'd won using six different goalkeepers.   In addition,  we had half a dozen players out injured or on various forms of family trips. The biggest challenge of the oldest division may be that the players are all at an age when they want to do what they want to do--and on a given weekend that may not be soccer.

The other and beneficent side of the coin is that all the older players know each other and are willing to step in and fill a void for guys they like on a weekend where they are not opponents.   So it was that the Nicks' were augmented by Tom Wolfe in goal, Roddy Coles in defense and Greg Anderson as a rover.  All three had played for their own team, Masterbooters, just prior to our match and had agreed to hang over with us.

The match began as they so often have with Pierres kicking off and trying to organize an attack.  Only minutes into the game,  it was clear that something different was happening. Old Nicks players were pressuring the Pierres attack and disrupting it.  Old Nicks forced Pierres to cough up the ball and then began their own attack.  Repeatedly,  the Nicks' pressure forced turnovers and as the moments clicked by, Old Nicks began to counter, distributing the ball across the pitch. 

Rocky and Jeff supported by good midfield play, made a concerted give-go-gone passing sequence which led to Rock putting the ball in the net.Not many minutes later,  another rush at Pierre's goal produced a second goal.  Nicks' players had to ratchet down their exuberance knowing that Pierre's was capable of storming back.   

Then Nicks, pressing hard, won a corner kick.   Glenn took the cross which sailed in high, was cleared but straight to Kim Bergenser who sent a rocket into the net.   The halftime score ended 0-3.   

We did not know what to do with such a situation.  Not only had we never scored three goals against Pierre's, we couldn't recall who else could have.  But we knew that this was a most dangerous situation.  They had 45 minutes to correct all their mistakes and win the match. 

As it happened, they almost achieved that goal.  They muscled their way to a first goal, Reggie using sheer physicality to get through and take the shot.  Shortly after,  they earned a PK which was finished precisely against our gimpy keeper. And then, late in the second half,  a blooper of a shot from the outer left side of the box into the top right corner put the game outcome in question.  

Not because Nicks had been taken out of the game by any means.  We'd had attacking runs into their end and had not been able to convert.  Balls had hit the crossbar and the post more than once.  The decisive moment came when Jeff Heilman was able to beat their defender and paste the ball into the net in a perfectly timed run.  The tally was 4-3 Nicks.

That was the final result.  We'd broken a long string of losses.  We'd played together as a team and had shown that we could play the beautiful game when we were at our best. Most importantly,  Tony and a substantial cadre of Pierre's joined us for beer after,  and acknowledged our win as well as asserting their intention that we not make a habit of it.








   

FC77 Old Nicks win Portland's O58 Championship

Championship matches have a special flavor. Regardless of the level of competition, the allure of being a champion trumps many other emotions. FC77 Old Nicks have toiled in workmanlike fashion through the O50s and the formative years of the O58.  A substantial number of our players have committed to weekly practices---basic skills, scrimmaging and building fitness and familiarity.  The work has paid off.   Increasingly,  our guys have been able to play to our strength as a team--not to feed the ball over and over to the strongest players but to mix that up with simple basic play.  Triangles.  Solid traps, Accurate passes. Movement away from the ball.  Each player being aware of what they might do to support the play.  And increasingly,  our results in matches have improved.   We haven't won dozens more games over the period of this transformation, but we have had games that were close in which our play measured more closely to 'the game' than it has in past years.

This Spring/Summer season, Old Nicks took to the field with our usual optimism but an additional feeling of gritty resolution.   We'd played the short winter season and felt we'd played well in most of our matches but had not been able to pull off a win. The only game where we were not close was the last one against Pierre's, a 904 loss.  We were frustrated.  We thought we should do better. 

FC77 Old Nicks- O58 League Champions  Spring 2015

The biggest challenge we faced, in my estimation was our own focus--our sense that we weren't just taking to the field to have a good time, but that we had a common purpose,  a desire to demonstrate that we had learned something of value in all our work in the winter gyms and that we could translate that into something stronger than just camaraderie---into performance. That feeling of intensity carried us into an opening run in March and April knocking out a tie and two wins, one of them against Royals-the strongest team in the pool.  At the end of the month, however, we unraveled against Master Booters giving up a 0-3 result. In May, despite the long stretches between games,  we beat our sister team, FC77 GE and routed Rodders who were shorthanded by four goals.    In June we eked out a second tie against Widmer and another against Royals.  The season finished with wins against Booters and FC77 GE.  The latter played courageously shorthanded rather than taking a forfeit and playing a friendly.   Some thought that GE should have had a tie on a shot that appeared to go into goal.  
The result placed us at the top of the table with Royals right behind.  A 'championship' game  was scheduled for July 11 at Gladstone and Nicks prevailed against Royals on a late goal.  Anatole Farci placed a lovely free kick into the scrum where Jeff Heilman flicked it home.  By all accounts it was a deserved result.  



All of this was accomplished in a season in which we had six goalkeepers in ten games.  Jim Chan, Tom Wolfe, Greg Anderson, Bruce Barclay, Randy Provine and Mike Calder all took turns in the hole.   I think it's a tribute to the reputation of Old Nicks that so many people were willing to step in to help.  And we got great service from each of them.  The championship season was built with the contributions of more than the ordinary group of players. 

Where does Old Nicks go from here?  We have our eyes on being ever better at playing successfully as a team.  And we keep working it.  And we will get better.   Regardless of the results on the table,  when we play together as we are capable of, we are champions.