Game 1 - Win - Monroe Thunder 4 - East Brunswick Inferno 0 Record 1-0-0
The Monroe Thunder stormed into the Sunburst Tournament, hoping to avenge their earlier season loss to the East Brunswick Inferno. The Thunder came out firing. The Thunder played a strong game, Eric ended up with 2 beautiful goals scored off of Tyler M crosses and both Ryan W and Michael C had goals scored off of EB defenders. The Thunder ended the first half with a 3-0 lead and coasted to a well deserved 4-0 victory.
Eric started the scoring in the first half, on a head ball off of a Tyler M cross. It was a beautiful run by Tyler and a nice head ball by Eric. We were proud of Eric staying home on the far post. He did a good job. The second gaol was scored by Michael C as he shot a rebound off of a EB defender that was deflected into the goal. Michael did a good job of getting to the ball and getting a shot off. The Third goal of the game was scored again by Eric off of another crossing pass. He stayed home again, and scored another high quality goal. Good Job Eric!!
In the second half, we were able to get Ethan in the field at right fullback for a good portion of the game. He did a good job. We moved Ryan M, David A, Brandon, and Tyler W up front. David A had two head balls that were near goals. Ryan W had the fourth goal of the game in similar fashion to Mike off of a fullback. Ryan M played well up front and actually had a very good goal taken away on an offsides call. He played strong and hard up front. It was a good win and a fun game to watch and coach.
| 16th Annual Sunburst Soccer Tournament 2010 |
Sunburst Tournament Website
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Team Schedule:
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Division Standings and Schedule
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Directions:
Mercer County Park:
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Conover Park:
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Field Map:
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Game 2 - Loss - Monroe Thunder 2 - East Brunswick Dragons 5 Record 1-1-0
For 1 hr and 50 minutes the Monroe Thunder played very solid soccer. At the 50 minute mark of the second game, the Monroe Thunder held a 2-1 lead over a very tough EB Dragons. For 50 minutes, the Thunder played hard, played aggressive, and had a couple of good opportunities to expand on the 2-1 lead. They played well, I really thought we had a chance to hang on...then we simply ran out of steam, had several crucial defensive breakdowns, and the EB dragons stepped up the pressure. We really missed Joe Zargo in this game, and also Shawn. WE played well, but we simply ran out of steam and stamina after a long hot day.
The EB Dragons opened the scoring on a nice head ball off of a corner kick. It was a good cross and a good head by the EB team. The Thunder responded with another Eric goal off of a strong cross by Tyler M. Eric ran through the ball and put it home for his hat trick goal of the day. 3 goals for the day for Eric and they all were identical. We had several other opportunities to score in the first half...Ryan W had a shot hit the crossbar, Eric S shot a cross just wide, and Jair had a couple good opportunites to score. Tyler M had several nice runs and had a one on none with the goalie, howver, the goalie made a nice save. We ended the first half in a 1-1 tie.
In the second half, Ryan made a couple of nice saves and we challenged the ball well. We took the lead with one of the nicest shots of the entire season. Michael C pushed the ball to his right on the 18 yard line and took a nice hard low shot into the side netting. It was a perfect shot, really beautiful. The Thunder stormed back for a 2-1 lead. The Thunder had a couple of nice chances...we had a head ball on an open goal go over the crossbar, Jair missed a shot just wide, and Ryan W and Tyler M both had a couple of nice runs. It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to tack on an extra goal, I think if we put a third goal in to take a 3-1 lead we would of been able to pull this one out.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get that extra goal, and then we had several severe defensive breakdowns in the last 10 minutes of the game. We missed 2 marks in front of the goal, and EB had two shots from point blank range and they were both unobstructed. Our defense then gave up two separate breakaway goals on similar middle defense breakdowns. The game was alot closer than 5-2, it was our worst scoring differential of the season, but for 50 minutes, I thought we played really well.
Overall, still a good day and I am looking fwd to tomorrow.
Game 3 - Win - Monroe Thunder 7 - Edison Dynamites 0 Record 2-1-0
The Monroe Thunder rumbled to a dominating 7-0 lead in an early morning game that put the Thunder in position to come in second place for the tournament. The Dynamites started out shorthanded, and it took a little while for the Thunder to wake up, however, once they started they didn’t look back. We had a guest player for the first time, Ryan C added to the 3 other Ryans on the team made for some confusion as to which Ryan was being spoken to. We couldn’t even yell out last names, because when we yelled Ward, well, we had three players staring back at us. Very funny!!
The Thunder rolled out to a 4-0 lead as Ryan W led the Thunder attack with 2 consecutive goals. One of the goals was scored off of a defender and Ryan was the closest and last player to touch the ball. Shawn G had a beautiful shot from outside the 18 yard line and put it over the goalie and into the far corner of the net, one of the nicest goals of the day. Shawn has scored in many different ways, but that was the third time he scored by putting it over the goalie’s head and into the far corner, very impressive. Tyler M also scored two goals on the day as he continually made runs down the right sideline and broke free for two goals and several nice crosses. In the second half, Ryan C scored a goal off of an opposing defender. Ryan C also had several nice overlap runs during the game.
For the majority of the second half, the Monroe Thunder retained their 6-0 lead and played a keep away for about 15 minutes of the game...this was some of their best passing and they really did a good job on spacing and keeping their heads up. We were able to flip-flop our offensive players and defensive players and Ethan was able to play on the front line. Near the end of the game, Mike C scored a 7th goal.
A good win, however, we will need to play better in the second game of the day to get a win.
Game 4 - Loss - Monroe Thunder 1 - Somerset Hills Cobras 5 - Loss - Record 2-2-0
The Thunder were playing for second place in the Sunburst Tournament. They came in missing 3/4 of our central defense (Joe Zargo, David Anderson, and Jair), which really caught up with us about 1/2 way through the first half and we couldn’t recover. We had several defensive breakdowns in this game that really hurt us. As Bill Craver indicated, we dominated the first half and parts of the second half and there were several times that both he and I thought we were going to roll to victory. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and we ran out of steam and our defense gave up 2 poor goals in the first half and 3 late second half goals that were partly due to us pushing up and partly due to the lack of discipline on our defense. A tough disheartening loss.
The Thunder dominated the first half of play as we kept the ball in Somerset’s defensive field for the majority of the game. Tyler M had a nice run ending up witha 1 vs. 1 against the goalie and the goalie made a nice save. He had another opportunity sail just wide. Eric S had a really nice shot off of a cross that just sailed over the cross bar. Ryan S had a golden opportunity right in front of the goal that sailed just over the crossbar. Michael C, Ryan W, and Shawn all had strong games in the mid-field positions as we utilized several through passes and overlaps. Unfortunately, Somerset had 2 runs at the goal and both ended up as goals as we neglected to mark the weakside. Somerset had two weak crosses come across from the right wing and their left wing was left unmarked and scored on a couple of weak shots. One our goalie was out of position and the other the defense just simply lost their marks. So, despite dominating play in the first half, the Thunder found themselves down 2-0 at the half.
In the second half, the Monroe Thunder continued to dominate and was able to put a ball in the net, the result of a good cross and a wild scrambe in front of the goal. Ryan C also had a nice shot on goal from the center striker position. I believe, but I cannot remember, but I thought it was Ryan M that scored the goal. Somerset was up 2-1 and the turning point in the game was a corner kick by Somerset. As the corner kick was struck, our stopper, sweeper, and right fullback left their marks and inexplicably moved to the corner as the cross was over their heads by 20 yards. All 3 players left their strikers unmarked and Somerset ended up scoring. This made the game 3-1 and the Thunder now had to push up on offense to try and get back in the game with 10 minutes remaining. As a result, Somerset put 2 late breakaway goals in to make the final score 5-1. A game on the field where we dominated, but the final score indicated we were beat handily. Bill Craver could not believe we didn’t outscore them in the first half, and thought for sure after we scored to make it 2-1 in the second half that we didn’t just take over from there.
I believe we were simply missing too many of our defenders. As a result, we had too many players playing out of position and we lost our marks and then we lost our energy.
Overall another disappointing loss, but we did not play nearly as poorly as the final score indicated.
