Matchday 6 - OGFC Green v. Southeast Cosmos

DATE OF MATCH:October 17, 2015

OPPONENT: Southeast Cosmos

LOCATION: Delta Park Field #6

FINAL SCORE:Southeast Cosmos 3, OGFC Green 0

SCORING SUMMARY: Goal scorer (assisted by), time - None

MISCONDUCT: Player name (type of card), time - None

Green Players: Paul Atkinson, Eric Berg, Stephen Chen, Tim Dibble, Ryan Harris, Sean Hutchinson, Jon Johnson, Kip Kesgard, Steve Kuenzi, Dale Montgomery, Rupert Prince, Rich Sheals

OGFC Reserves: Rodrigo Munoz, Mo Phillips

OGFC Gold: Lane Schiedeman, Thomas Augst, Patrick Boyle

OGFC 50: Charlie Clough, Gary Golisch, Rainer Thierauf,

Green Managers: Dale Montgomery, Jamey Billig, Eric Berg

Injured Green players unable to play but present: Jamey Billig

The Green side went back on the collective side once again to find enough players to fill their lineup in game number six of the 2015 Fall campaign, but their task was made slightly easier in one sense – the Gold team was just finishing up a match versus Rose City Revolution at the same pitch with the Green side playing the next fixture. After suffering another injury in match 5 (which the Green media team was unable to attend) where Jamey Billig, one of the team’s managers as well as defender and fill in keeper, was injured further in goal and spent part of the match shirtless. Ok, that was part of the report from Manager Eric Berg, who also indicated that for the first time in several seasons that he had actually scored a goal in Match 5 versus FC Widmer West Linn. Unfortunately for Berg, it was an own goal, but the fortunes and excitement were back in this match as the group was playing Southeast Cosmos, a relatively new entry to GPSD. Playing on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon up at Delta Park, Billig was employed as the team’s manager, and he was working out master plans for the Green.

The first question was going to be who could fill in as goalkeeper – regular keepers Rex Forkner and Gavin Granmo were both unavailable as Forkner continues to recover from an ankle injury suffered in week 4 – and with Billig now injured, the team turned to Charlie Clough from the 0-50’s to fill the role as keeper for the afternoon. With several other additions and alterations to the roster, Billig had plenty of options at the ready when things got rolling. Southeast Cosmos hadn’t won a match in 2015 yet, so it would be interesting to see how they would attack Old Growth. From the onset, Cosmos seemed willing to push along the wings, but as much as they got forward, the OGFC defense was able to keep them relatively channeled and they were even able to press forward with several wonderful overlapping runs and attacks. The only goal of the half came from a broken play when the Cosmos broke down the left side and were able to produce numbers in the attack, and they slotted the ball just inside the post off the breakaway. However, Clough had made several huge saves in traffic to keep the scoreline at 1 to 0 while OGFC was starting to find attack space forward, especially finding a cross in the box for guest striker Lane Schiedeman that didn’t miss by much and sailed just wide right.

The Gold players that had stayed had mostly left at the half, so there was some adjustment on the fly to new assignments, but the change in attack and tempo didn’t alter the OGFC approach as they were starting to find room to move forward. However, in pushing forward, they left themselves open for the counter, and on one occasion, they were able to push a shot past Clough on an odd numbered scenario. Add in a free kick effort that would have been difficult for any keeper to stop, and that was all the offense that the Cosmos needed to score their three goals. However, their defense and keeper were tested with some late flourishes as OGFC – specifically Munoz and Phillips – were really starting to exert some danger. However, the bounces and shots didn’t fall their way as it was another scoreless affair. While the Fall has seen a marked improvement on the defensive side of the ball, the offense has produced just one goal on the season, but as has been pointed out, the bigger goals of playing better soccer, improving each week and looking good in shorts are being achieved – and that is more important.

OGFC Green will return to action on October 24 back at Delta Park when they face their longtime rivals, Rogues, at Delta Park #6. Rogues were playing at another field at the same time, and have been a longtime member of GPSD, so it would be interesting to see if familiarity would be on the side of the Green. Talk to you all next time!!

Submitted by Kip Kesgard, OGFC Green/OGFC Media Team