Firecrackers Put the Brakes on the Little Engine Who…Couldn’t. 6/6

Another day of beautiful California air, and another day of soccer. We must be in heaven here!

Yesterday’s game had another interesting start to it, bringing up memories of the movie Rat Race. In the movie, the ref blows the coin toss and gives the call to the wrong team. For our coin toss (yes they decided to go back to an actual coin and not a player pass this time) Captain Donny Fugate was the visitor and called “tails.” Normally when the player calls “tails,” the referee repeats and says “Player calls tails.” This time however, he said “Player calls heads” as it landed on tails. Before Donny could protest, the Real Espanol “capitan” chose the side going against the wind, allowing Donny to have the side he wanted in the first place. I guess two wrongs can make it right.

The whistle blew and the domination began. Not 5 minutes into the game, the Firecrackers had a brilliant buildup and shot on goal. The ball was played through to forward Dave Ahlgren, who one-touched a pass back to outside mid Jeremy Basanese. Basanese took one touch and played a sweet ball through to a charging Ronnie Jenkins. Ronnie wasted no time, hitting the ball at the top of the box over the charging goalie. As the ball was easily bouncing to the back of the net, Ronnie turned and put his hand up in victory to run back for the kickoff. What he didn’t see (and I did, in slow motion) was the ball bounce twice, hit a dirt clod, and pop OVER the goal. You couldn’t replicate that one if you spent the next six months doing it. Ronnie turned in horror, asking “What happened?!!!” only to hear the sad story for himself. He didn’t have time to mourn—the game was back in play.

A few minutes later, Donny Fugate brought down a ball at the top of the box. He had time to play a nice pass to the feet of forward Dave Ahlgren, who received the ball at the top right corner of the 18 yard box. He took one step around the defender and fired the ball past the charging keeper. Side netting, far post. Nothing they could do.

Above: Donny Fugate prepares to unleash the 'slayer'

A few minutes later, the Espanol players cleared the ball out over their endline, allowing for a ‘Cracker corner kick. John Basanese, a corner-kick specialist strolled over to practice his art. Normally a stalwart corner taker, he has struggled as of late to place the ball. Not anymore. His kicks are back, big time. He took the kick, putting a devastating spin on the ball, causing it to bend drastically back towards the goal. This is fairly simple to do on a corner, but what made this so deadly was the topspin that the ball also had, pushing the ball down sharply at the last minute. This allows the ball to bend millimeters over Paul Touchet’s head, around the keeper and smack the back door of the net. Simple enough, right? 2-0 Firecrackers after 21 minutes.

High pressure paid off a few minutes later for the Firecrackers when forward Dave Ahlgren stole the ball from a Espanol defender and easily put the ball in the back of the net, past a very out of position goalie.

Things were not all shining moments for the #5. He mis-played a cross to an open Paul Touchet a few minutes later, and the goalie made a couple of nice saves. Not being discouraged, he played a good high-pressure game up top.

Once the score hit 3-0, and it looked to be a blowout, the center referee came up to Dave and said to watch out for fouls on the other team, as well as to play smart so they wouldn’t start fights. This was infuriating, because from this point on, it seemed that the ref made one-sided calls to keep the Espanols from getting mad. In spite of this, the Firecrackers kept their tempers even.

Other players who showed a good performance yesterday were Devon Nelson, Will Race, and Chris Lucas in defense. They never gave up a good shot the whole game.

Above: Will Race clears the ball from danger

In the 38th minute, the ‘Crackers had another corner-kick opportunity. John Basanese trotted out to the corner, and Josh Patton was in the vicinity. Espanol defenders fell over themselves, trying to get out to mark Josh. Yeah, like that was going to happen. John took another kick, this time from the right flank with his left foot. Whether it hit off of a defender or not, it doesn’t matter. The story is the same as the first—sick goal off of a corner kick.

I’ve been speaking to John about his kicks recently and he had this to say, “My kicks have the possibility to be great, but they also can go bad easily. My trick is that I kick the balls very hard. If I put the right amount of spin on it, it’s going to be a tough shot to defend. If the spin is off, the kick might go out [for a throw-in].”

Less than five minutes later, Ronnie made up for his opening minutes bad luck. He went in on a 50-50 ball with a defender, which left the ball in a favorable position for him to beat the goalie once again. He put the ball over the goalie’s head, only this time he watched the ball like a hawk, and followed it in to the goal.

You’d think the drama would end there, but no, not with the ‘Crackers. In the 44th minute, one of the Espanol players got a good jump on the ball. Firecracker guest Paul Basanese (who was on the roster at the beginning of the season) took matters into his own hands and stopped the breakaway, just outside the box. As the he and the Espanol forward tumbled to the ground, the whistle sounded. After the ref pointed to the spot of the Espanol free kick, and what seemed like an eternity, P Basanese was ejected from the game.

This gave the Espanols some life in their beaten down spirits, and they swarmed the box. The kicker sent the ball into the 6-yard box, and for a brief second, it looked like u-7 rec ball. Their players were all in swiping at the ball as it bounced from player to player, until, unfortunately, the ball found its way into the net.

Shortly after that, the half ended, 5-1 Firecrackers.

Relaxed, the Firecrackers let players decide where they wanted to play to start the second half. This was working out fine, until one Espanol player had the time to pass the ball while in the penalty box to another player who took a tough near post shot. Goalie Dave Fugate was in the right spot and easily made the save.

Two minutes later, an Espanol player took a shot from outside the 18-yard box. This would have been a routine save, as it wasn’t hit very hard, but it was directly into the afternoon sun. Dave Fugate, still shaken from an unfortunate halftime port-a-potty incident not even involving him directly (ask JB about that one, if you really want to know), couldn’t see the ball and it slipped though his hands at the last second, and into the goal for the second Real goal.

With a 1-man advantage and momentum behind them, the little Real steam train was chugging back to life.

With foul Spanish language abounding, as well as hollow threats in broken English, Jeremy Basanese had had enough. He waited for the most foul player to creep up on his back when he had the ball. Looking back to see him right where Jeremy wanted him, he turned and 'nutmegged' the Espanol-er, right in front of the ‘Cracker bench. Firecracker cheers, mixed with a single, random, “Hi-yiy-yiy-yiy” lauded his efforts. He was able to dribble down the field and make good passes to Anthony Kwapinski, who continued on down the field. The ‘Crackers didn’t manage a goal on the play, but they did take some steam out of the Real “loco” motive.

In the 60th minute, we were back to bunch-ball in the box. A Real player crossed the ball into the box, filled with what looked to be thirty Real Espanol players. The ball popped up in the air and one of them tried a bicycle kick, and he actually struck it well. The ball was blocked, and before it could hit the ground Ronnie cleared the ball, as hard as he could. The problem was that keeper Dave Fugate had already put his body in motion to gather up the ball and ended up taking Ronnie’s clearance point blank to the face. The ball bumbled around, and found it’s way to the back of the net, again like a bunchball game.

The Drama continued in the 69th minute when Devin Nelson was cautioned for heading the ball. Near a Real player. For his high-energy play, Sean Basanese was also a constant target for fouls called against him. “The don’t get out of my way fast enough,” he told me.

From that point on, there wasn’t much else that happened. John Basanese, Sr., said of the second half, “The wind was a mighty player for them. It really hurt you guys in the second half. That, combined with playing with only 10 players made things difficult. You have to say their team never gave up. I think that more short passes would have helped you control the second half better. As a matter of fact, number 22 [from Real Espanol] came up to me and said that he remembered the last game, and that you all played very well this time too.”

The little engine that thought it could in the second half, really couldn’t. The Real Espanols never had enough steam to beat the Firecrackers.

Special Thanks to John Basanese Sr. for his brilliant photos, found here.