Bethesda Internationals

22 May '05. It was another beautiful sunny day on Inter's first visit to the nice turf field at Lewinsville Park in McLean, VA, where it faced the always feisty MCLN Thunder. Although Inter totally controlled the match, it was unable to finish in the scoreless first half, shooting 5 times on goal with 1 corner and 2 fouls. Inter's solid defense stymied the Thunder from taking any shots on goal or CK opportunities -- and no fouls. Around the 26 minute mark, a Thunder player attempted a high kick on a bouncing ball but missed and caught Roque in the mouth -- and no foul called by the official. Roque's emotion got the better of him and he retaliated with a push to the offending player drawing a yellow card. Inter continued to control the flow of the match in the second half, creating 6 shots on goal and 5 corner kicks and with 7 fouls, a couple of which were offsides that the side official appeared to make from a misunderstanding of the rules as to where a player is when the ball is sent (clearly behind a defender) and where he is whent he ball is in the air (running past the defender onto the ball). Inter's strong defense continued to stymy the Thunder, allowing just a single shot on goal with 2 fouls. At about the 26 minute mark, Skylar crossed a great ball off of a CK into the goal mouth where Nat jumped up and perfectly timed a hard header into the net past the surprised keeper for Inter's first goal. Around the 30 minute mark, a Thunder player #11 was given a YC for holding an Inter player (Patrick?) on a run through the middle. Several minutes later, at about the 33 minute mark, Inter counter-attacked with Pablo passing a good ball into the middle to Skylar about 30 yards out where he dribbled towards the goal, turned and fired a strike around 18 yards out through a seam in the defense past the unsuspecting keeper into the net. End of match, 2-0, Inter.