Biggs Gets His Ben & Jerrys

Vermont 0-3 Brown

The University of Vermont is a nice place. Cold, wet, and windy, but nice. As we departed College Hill on Friday we prepared ourselves for the long treck through northern New England and an afternoon training session on the UVM campus..... We checked into the hotel on time and headed over to campus for a light training session before taking on the Catamounts the next day in a lunchtime showdown. We were well prepared to take on the home team but certainly not expecting an easy ride.... This is a team that had already won three games, including a significant victory over Stanford in an early season tournament.
Saturday was a much better weather day than Friday with the sun poking through the clouds and just a light breeze blowing in place of the blustery conditions that had greeted us the day before... The match kicked off and we immediately knew that we were going to have to stand-strong to cope with a team that was high in confidence and fully prepared to try to physically overpower us. Superior soccer was the order of the day for our boys and despite the home teams' attempts to unsettle us, we carved out the better openings of the half. Grandstrand was relatively untested...... Once again, it was that man Pops who came up with the first goal of the game as he exchanged passes with Tayls at the top of the box and chipped the home 'keeper from a tight angle. It was a truly excellent goal, better than anything Tevez has ever produced....
Scoring just before half-time is always a boost, and the boys entered the break in good spirits and ready to push on in the second-half. There were very few nervous moments in the second half to be fair, and the only real concern on the sidelines was ensuring that we stayed injury-free and didn't make a catastrophic mistake. The home team changed their shape in an attempt to assert more pressure, but our boys were alert to the shenanigans and coped comfortably. The game was put beyond doubt ten minutes from the end by Sean Rosa with a goal of the simplest nature. Grandstrand launched a kick deep into the UVM half of the field, Coleman flicked on with his head, and Sean just ran through and had the simplest of tasks to put the ball low into the corner. It was a complete contrast to the outstanding passing movement and finish of the first goal, but we didn't care.....
Late on, as UVM pushed forward more, Oki got in on the fun and was on the end of another long ball forward to score our third of the day. His initial shot was hit with such ferocity that the UVM 'keeper fell asleep while waiting for the ball to reach him and consequently Jon was able to follow-up and score the rebound while the custodian snoozed.......
Two road wins in a row now and two consecutive clean-sheets. League play is on the horizon. Columbia are coming to town......