We boarded the bus at the OMAC on Saturday morning with a team in good spirits and seemingly ready to play. The mood on the bus was good and William the driver was full of his own confidence in negotiating the projected extra traffic in and around the Charles River (this was the same driver who had provided the grand tour of New York en route to Columbia in 2007). When we arrived on campus we were sent (not escorted) to the locker room, which happened to be the same one that was used by the Boston Breakers during their recent WPS season. The space was large enough, but freezing cold and with no hot water. Between Wallsy and myself we managed to "odd-job" the thermostats and hot water heater power controls to provide us with the necessities....
After some wonderful, friendly, welcoming and courteous behavior from the Harvard event staff (!) the match kicked off in blustery conditions. Early in the game chances were at a premium, with neither team imposing themselves on the contest. Grandstrand was alert in dealing with a couple of early chances for the hosts, while the Harvard custodian was more than fortunate on one occasion as he "saved" Sean Rosa's shot from 20 yards.
But as the match progressed there was some uncharacteristic play from our boys. In tennis they refer to them as "unforced errors." As a coaching staff we prefer to call them....... well never mind, this is a family blog..... Harvard were certainly a well organized team who were "up for it" but in all honesty should have been no match for our best. The problem was that our best had been left behind at Stevenson field..... "Oh my" stated Ray Houghton in trademark fashion, on a number of occasions as we simply gave the ball to our opponents.
Despite our charity with the ball, the fact that a small 140lb midfielder was allowed to have free reign, and some passing that wouldn't be out of place in a U12 game, we stayed in the contest until half-time...
Because of the distance from locker rooms we elected to stay outside during half-time. Coach Noonan reminded the boys of how to play the game and encouraged them to less anxious....
Something didn't click... within minutes of the second half kicking off we were behind to a soft goal. The Harvard centre-back won a contentious challenge on the halfway line and a ball was played into our right flank. From a none-threatening position we somehow allowed the ball to be played into the Harvard centre-forward eight yards from goal who then turned and shot low past Grandstrand. 1-0 Bad guys.....
Ten minutes later Grandstrand came out for a low ball played through into his box. For some inexplicable reason the Harvard left-back launched himself and planted two feet into our custodian as he lay on the floor. It was a terrible challenge and was deserving of the red card that the referee had no hesitation in producing.... Thankfully our 'keeper wasn't badly hurt and was able to continue in goal.
Once again though, going down to ten men seemed to galvanize our opponents, and we struggled to take advantage of the extra player. We did manage to produce a few chances with Austin, TJ and Jonny all going close. But, at the other end of the park we continued to charitably give the ball directly to our opponents in situations where we had plenty of time and space... if only we could have passed the ball as well in this game as we had on many previous occasions...
Despite the best efforts of our once-again outstanding vocal support, we were unable to make a break-through and the match petered out into a disappointing 1-0 loss. The comments and behavior from some of the home alums both behind the goal and the visiting bench definitely added to the feeling that this world-famous educational institution still has much learning to do....
The day ended on a nice note as the team spent an hour at the home of Alumnus Dave Flaschen and his family in their beautiful Chestnut Hill abode. The former Brown goalkeeper and 2008 Hall of Fame inductee provided a much-needed warm welcome for our tired and weary boys as they enjoyed some quality food, a very comfortable place to relax and outstanding company. Ray Houghton was magnificent in guiding our highly skeptical bus driver through the streets of Cambridge and Brookline - what kind of bus driver has no GPS in 2009???.
"Flasch" in his heyday....
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