Air Force Recap

A very solid showing for the boys last night as they utterly dominated and came away with a 1-0 victory. Settle slotted home a PK around the 60th minute after a deliberate hand ball in the box. The scoreline does little to reflect on the quality of play from the Fort. It could have easily been 3 or 4 if it wasn't for very near misses and a couple lucky deflections when the ball seemed sure to find the net.

The starting line up looked like this:

-----Euan------Barden-------

-Byron----------------Settle---      Subs: Hoang (CM), Dimo (LM), #13 (FWD) JUCO Transfer

--------Keano---Jeff------------

-Sam--Fabian--Jamie--Wood-

------------Zane-----------------

I was very very impressed with our performance against Air Force. The introduction of Oige as the head coach and bringing back Andy and Jason for preseason has paid large dividends it seems, as the style of play has reverted back to more of what we saw during the '04-'06 seasons where we lost a total of 6 games and made it to two final appearances.

The link up play was tremendous where in the last couple of years it has seemed too direct at times. Jeff and Keane finding the ball from the back and bouncing off to the wide players. The connection of Byron/Sammy and Settle/Wood all night was giving AF fits and their backs literally look pained everytime the ball came down. Overlapping runs and one/two passing was a joy to watch. The service into the box was mixed, some beautiful looks in, and the finishing was left wanting a bit, but 10 days into preseason, the positions Euan and Barden were getting into were promising and they will bury those come season. Again, there were some great looks on goal. Barden hit one across his body low, and the goalie made a tremendous save, and both forwards had a couple skim the postion as flicks left the keeper stranded. Euan and Barden also tackled well in the back forcing some nervous moments for AF, and had no issue going at them. Jeff made a nice run into the box and missed one high and right, as well as Settle had one hit an AF player in the back of the head when from where I was sitting looked like it could have found side netting. Great stuff going forward.

The defense was strong, as expected when you return the complete back 5. A couple mix ups in distribution here and there, one almost leading to a goal, but two great saves by Zane protected the clean sheet. Smart defending on offsides traps and strong in the air made Air Force only look to lump it into the corners and pray somebody did something...they didn't. Great tackling from all in the back and a calm deminor in their approach to the game sets the stage for our counter build up play.

The biggest thing for me watching this match was not the passing or formation, it was the intensity. The tackles that were flying around the field left around 3 or 4 AF players having to be assisted off the field. These were clean tackles and no foul was called. Just strong, hard playing. It seems that the passion and pride in wearing the FLC shirt is instilled within this team and I couldn't be happier to see it. All credit to the new coaching staff taking over so quickly and turning this thing in a direction where I could see big things.

Again, this was 10 days into the preseason and they made a mid level D1 team look foolish all night long. Sat by the Air Force girls team during the first half (not lovely, not one of them) they kept commenting on how a small school like Fort Lewis could be so good and how we passed and moved so well, making their team not look so good.

Good luck this weekend Helm's! Wish I could make it down there, but someone has to get ready for a CFA exam and turn this economy around. I'll be planning on doing a write up like this for all the games I attend or catch on the web.

WHO'S THE BOMB?!?