Bethesda Internationals

04 Sep. '05. On another beautiful, sun-drenched day, Inter faced a new opponent, SSC Stronghold Munich, NJ State Champs 2005, who took it on the chin from MATT Crew in the opener yesterday, 0-3, but prevailed over ABGC Red Devils, 2-1. Although the NJ team reminded coach Pete of Inter's similar style of play 1-2 seasons back, the SSC Munich could not seem to crack Inter's strong defense, shooting just once in the first half and committing 6 fouls. Inter controlled the tempo from the outset and moved the ball around the field effectively to setup 5 shots on goal and 4 corners but with 8 fouls committed. At about the 28 minute mark, Skylar sent a perfectly placed CK into the goal mouth at about 4 yards out where Nat timed his leap up in the air and headed the ball into the net past the keeper for Inter's only score of the match. In the 2nd half, Inter's strong defense again shut down the NJ team to allow just 2 shot son goal with 5 fouls, while Inter managed to setup 6 shots on goal but could not finish, and committed 7 fouls. In the Champ match tomorrow, Inter will face another old friend and D1 rival from VA, the FCH Premier AC 91W, who handed the storied and rarely beatable RR's a 2-0 loss earlier today.

03 Sep. '05. On a splendid day filled with lots of bright sunshine at the nice fields at OBGC, Inter faced its old friends from VA, the ABGC Red Devils, who always play hard and with strong determination to the end to the end of the match. Inter controlled the tempo and flow of the match from the opening whistle, shooting 7 times on goal and creating 2 corner kick opportunities with 5 fouls. Inter's strong defense allowed the Red Devils just 2 shots on goal and 1 CK, while committing 2 fouls. At about the 13 minute mark, a short CK was setup by Patrick to Skylar, who dribbled the ball a few feet and then sent a nice serve into the goal mouth about 6 yards out where Ben perfectly timed a great header past the keeper into the net for the 1st goal. Later on, Vitalis received a pass up field and dribbled past a couple of ABGC defenders and sent a sharp pass into the goal mouth about 6-8 yards to Roque who turned and blasted in the 2nd goal of the half. Inter again controlled the 2nd half, shooting 4 times on goal but committed 10 fouls, while the Red Devils stepped up their offensive intensity, firing 3 times on goal and committed 3 fouls. At about the 5 minute mark, the Red Devils managed to penetrate deep in the back near the right end line but Inter was unable to kick the ball out or clear it away, and a determined Red Devil collected the ball and turned and fired in a hard strike past Ben into the net for its only goal of the match. In its second match of the day, Inter faced another VA friend and D1 rival, MATT Crew, who edged out Inter in early spring league play, 1-0. The match was hard fought and both teams moved the ball well, counter-attacking back and forth. Inter's strong defense limited the Crew to just 2 shots on goal in the first half with 7 fouls, while Inter took 5 shots on goal with 3 fouls. At about the 25 minute mark, Chris received a pass up field on the left side and dribbled forward a few feet, stopped, turned and then sent a nice pass into the goal mouth about 10 yards out to Vitalis, who collected the ball, turned and slammed in the only goal of the match. The match intensified in the 2nd half, with 7 fouls committed by Inter and 4 by the Crew, and 1 yellow card awarded to a Crew player for dissention on a non-foul call. Inter played its style of soccer extremely well, making numerous through balls to create 5-6 break-away shots-on-goal situations, but thanks to the Crew's outstanding GK, all shots were blocked/saved by the outstanding goal keeper. Inter will need to work on its one-on-one finishing in the coming practices to sayi the least!

01 Sep. '05. After initially seeding Inter Bethesda (MD State Cup Finalist 2005) in the Premier II Division, Olney tournament officials revised the bracket/schedule to position Inter in the Premier I Division along with SSC Stronghold Munich (NJ State Cup Champs 2005), NCSL/D1 rival, MATT Crew, and our old friends, ABGC Red Devils, whom Inter will play its first match against early Sat. morning. We thank and appreciate the Olney tournament officials for realizing the oversight and correcting the brackets: Premier I A1 Stronghold Munich B1 Hota Academy 91 A2 Inter Bethesda B2 Jersey Crew A3 Annandale Red Devils B3 Bethesda Roadrunners A4 Manassas Crew B4 FCH Premier AC 91W Inter Bethesda is looking forward to its participation in this excellent local tournament, with great weather and formidable competition expected this weekend.

29 Aug. '05. Inter has been accepted into the CASL's prestigious Raleigh Shootout tournament for the 2nd year during 12-13 Nov. Inter hopes to reverse its first experience at last year's event, where it played 3 top/strong teams, losing to both First Coast Kyxx (FL)and Concorde Fire Elite (GA), 0-1, and, after leading, 1-0, Inter fell to the eventual division champion and this year's NC State Champs, North Meck Storm, 1-2. The full Acceptance list is expected to be posted by Sep. 12th.

28 Aug. '05. After having made important changes to its rosters during the summer, both BSC club teams scrimmaged out at Muldoon's Farm on a hot and sunny afternoon. The field was in decent shape after moderate rain the day before, but some unusual depressions (drainage?) in the turf provided for the ball to take some quirky bounces on occasion. Nonetheless, the scrimmage of 4 x 20 minute quarters was hard fought with both teams showing good movement of the ball and strong defensive pressure. Inter was awarded a PK early on in the scrimmage and after some extra shuffling of his feet, Skylar kicked a hard shot towards the goal but it sailed high over the cross bar. Inter was able to break through the Blast's defense with a couple of nice balls sent up into the center of the goal mouth about 8-10 yards out by Philip and Ben, respectively, where Tomiwa was able to collect the ball on each occasion and deftly dribble closer in to fire in 2 strikes into the net past the Blast's excellent Keeper. Roque also made a nice pass into the middle about 10 yards out to Patrick who sent in a hard shot past the Keeper. For the most part, Inter's defense pretty much stymied the Blast from penetrating deeply to take any quality shots on goal, but late in the 4th quater, the determined Blast was able to break through Inter's defense and send several hard shots towards goal which were either collected by Ebo or went wide of goal.