Announcement
27 Jan. '08. The Internationals were back in action at Covenant Park to face the strong NY Hota Academy who traveled down from NY early in the morning and played a hard match vs. U17/SAC United several hours earlier. Although the temps were in the mid-40's with partlly sunny skies, the blustery wind made it feel like it was just above freezing. The Hota team played very physical and committed 12 fouls (including a YC shown to #3 for a push in the back on Skylar and also to #10 for USB plus 1 handball). inter's strong defense held Hota to just a single shot on goal. The Internationals controlled play for most of the 1st half, shooting 6 times on goal -- and credit their GK for a great save on a close-in shot -- and setup up 4 corner kicks which all were unsuccessful while committing 3 fouls (including 1 high kick & 1 offsides) and the half ended scoreless. In the 2nd half, Hota penetrated deep into the backline on occasion and managed 3 shots on goal including a direct kick at Seth who easily caught the ball and another diving fingertip save, and 2 corner kicks but all went awry/unsuccessful while committing 5 fouls (including a YC shown to #5 for a hard foul on Roque). Just 2 minutes into the half, Vitalis served a ball on the left about 30 yards out into the center to Brian around 10-12 yards out where he sent a shot towards goal which deflected off a Hota player where Roque alertly collected the ball, took 2-3 steps to his left and found a crease to fire in a left-footed blast which flew by the GK into the lower right corner of the net. At the 26 minute mark, Fabio sent a nice ball upfield to Brian who took a quick shot on goal but it was saved by a joint effort between the GK and a field player only to bounce out to Fabio who cleaned up an easy goal. At about the 33 minute mark, Patrick launched a beauty of a corner kick from the left side of goal which sailed into the box where Nat E. (unmarked) timed his leap up to head strike in the 3rd goal. All in all the Internationals would launch 13 shots, inclulding a hard shot by Vitalis but was saved by a Hota field player. The Internationlas would also setup 2 other corner kicks which were unsuccessful while committing 3 fouls (including 2 offsides), and the contest ended, 3-0, Internationals.
