| March 28th,
2004: Hawks 1 – Glover Park – 3
The
Hawks finished their preseason off with a semi-final meeting vs.
Glover Park at Bretton Woods on Sunday. With several new players
in the lineup and several players trying new positions, the game
served as a final testing ground for determining the Hawks lineup
for the WPL regular season. The game started off with both teams
threatening. While the Hawks diligently worked a build-up to the
offensive third, Glover Park worked a deadly accurate counterattacking
style by playing directly from the defense to a speedy striker corps,
who were playing the ball back to an oncoming midfield intelligently
and bursting with new runs across the Hawks defense upon release
of the ball. The Hawks struck first in the 20th minute, when newcomer
Geof Thompson muscled a defender off of a long ball and beat the
keeper to slot in the game's first goal.
Glover Park, however, was up
to the challenge and answered quickly. A mix-up on the Hawks defense
left a gaping hole on the right side of the field, and Glover pushed
the ball into the stride of a streaking midfielder, who was left
with open space between him and the goal. A valiant effort by the
Hawks central defense to track the man down was nullified by a brilliant
strike from 22 yards in full stride that soared off Anthony Peters
glove and into the left upper 90.
Glover did not waste time in
exploiting another defensive Hawks error, when five minutes later,
another gaping left a Glover Player wide open on the left and able
to crank a beaming shot low and hard to the Hawks net. The ricochet
off of a nice save by Peters landed fortuitously at the feet of
a Glover Park striker, who notched the easy tap in convincingly.
Halftime score 1-2 in favor of Glover Park. The Hawks regrouped
at halftime and made some defensive adjustments, but Glover's fortune
continued with a brilliant free kick from 18 yards which was laced
perfectly past the fingertips of Peters to send Glover up 3-1 at
the 55 minute mark.
On the day, the Hawks first touch and
passing was off, resulting in many turnovers and the team expending
a lot of energy to recover possession. Glover was deserved in winning
the game, but the Hawks left the field confident that a future meeting
with Glover could end differently. Some key things to ensure success
in future games were higlighted as getting the ball to team playmakers
more, shoring up the defense, and adding some speed to the striker
corps to strecth opposing defenses. With the first game of the WPL
season vs. Village Settlements only one week away (4/4/2004), the
Hawks will continue to build positively towards playing the type
of quality ball we have all come to expect.
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