Bethesda Internationals

16 Oct. '05. Inter hosted ASC Milan for its first home game at the nice MD Soccer Plex today. The weather was expected to be mostly sunny but unexpectedly turned into moslty cloudy skies with strong blustery winds which made the upper 60's temperature feel downright chilly. Inter won the toss and had the wind at their backs in the 1st half and controlled the play/tempo for much of the match. The scrappy ASC Milan battled Inter and managed several counter-attacks to no avail with only 1 corner kick opportunity and committed 3 fouls. Inter setup 5 shots on goal and 3 corner kicks while committing only 2 fouls. At about the 26 minute mark, after a foul committed by ASC, Skylar launched a free kick from about 25 yards out into the box where Ben jumped up and headed in the 1st goal past the ASC keeper. And, 7 minutes later, on a counter attack, Mati received a pass and dribbled upfield on the left and then made a pretty pass from about 35 yards out across field to Roque about 20 yards on the right, and Roque dribbled to about 10 yards out and slammed in the 2nd goal around the 33 minute mark. With about 1 minute left in the half, after Skylar sent a corner kick high into the box around 4-6 yards, the keeper jumped up to punch out the ball at the same time Marcus was leaping up to head it in and they both collided and crashed to the ground. Both players were slow to recover but without any serious injury and were able to resume play several minutes later. In the second half, Inter launched attack after attack and sent 13 shots on goal with 1 corner kick and 3 fouls, while ASC managed 2 shots on goal. Inter was in great form in the 2nd half, setting up a number of scoring opportunities close in the box with fine passing, but a number of shots went wide or high of goal. Ben played keeper to give Nat some time in the field, and later Ben moved up front and Ebo came in to play keeper. Neither Ben or Ebo were seriously threatened in the 2nd half. At about the 15 minute mark, after another foul by ASC Milan, Skylar sent a free kick from about 30 yards out on the left and into the box about 6-8 yards where Nat collected the ball, turned and fired in a hard shot into right side of the net past the keeper. Five minutes later, on another offensive attack, Tomiwa made a nice through-pass upfield and Nat collected the ball, broke through the last two defenders and dribbled towards the goal on a 1v1 with the keeper. Nat juked the keeper and sent in an easy shot into the net for the 4th goal. With about 1 minute left in the match, ASC player #2 inexplicably grabbed Skylar and flung him to the turf. The player was clearly frustrated and was fortunate in that only a yellow card was shown and not a red card/ejection. End of match, 4-0, Inter.