Bethesda Internationals

24 Oct. '04. Inter travelled to Nokesville, VA to play the tough MATT Crew on their nice field at Valley View park. It was a cloudy day with wet/slippery turf from previoius rain earlier in the morning. In the first half, both teams played equally well in attacking and counter-attacking, moving the ball up and down the field. Each team made 3 shots on goal with Inter taking two corners. MATT committed 9 fouls with just 1 off-sides, while Inter committed 7 fouls with 3 off-sides. One Crew player was awarded a yellow card for a push in the back of an Inter player dribbling the ball forward. At about the 18 minute mark, MATT Crew countered with an attack upfield towards Inter's left defense, and a nice pass was made to a MATT Crew player who fired in a hard shot to the far post past Nat who was covering the near post while awaiting for defender to arrive to help but it was too late due to defender being too far out of position in the middle. In the second half, MATT Crew out-hustled Inter and managed 4 SOG's and 1 CK to Inter's 2 SOG's and 3 CK's; and, the Crew committed 5 fouls with 1 off-sides while committed 6 fouls and 1 off-sides for Inter. The officiating was poor with several fouls not being called on MATT, particularly a very blatant trip on Mario near the sideline with the side official 3 feet away. Neither center nor side official made the right call and let play continue. At about the 20 minute mark, off of a CK setup, instead of sending the ball towards the net, MATT Crew passed to a closeby teammate who was unguarded/unchallenged by Inter defender, and dribbled to about 6 yards to the right of the goal and slammed a hard shot directly at Nat, who caught the ball while on the goal line, and as he was losing his balance backward (from what appeared to have been a brush by a MATT Crew player and no foul called) threw the ball out/away -- and after a delayed call by the official (as he decided that the ball was over the goal line when Nat was losing his balance backward) resulted in a goal for MATT Crew. Inter was able to launch a nice attack late in the second half at about the 30 minute from a nice cross by Sam to Ebo who sprinted past the MATT defense and sent in a clean strike to the left of MATT Crew's excellent GK -- who made several great saves off of Inter shots throughout the match. With about 5 minutes left, at about 20 yards out from Inter's goal, a foul was called on Skylar who barely brushed a MATT player while trying to tackle/clear a ball resulted in a DK, which a MATT Crew player peferectly placed over Inter's wall and bent in leftward into the net on the right post side past a diving Nat who was unable to reach/stop the ball in time. Congraulations to MATT Crew for playing a superb match against Inter and earned a well-deserved win!