Special thanks to Mike Zimmerman for allowing us to come up to his home field and fill what would have otherwise been an off-week for us.
It was a first for both sides as they were hosting their first-ever home match on a brand-new field, and the first time we have played away from the twin-cities. The friendly was put in their local press ahead of the match: read here. It is safe to say that all of our guys were blown-away by the quality of the pitch even after all the heavy rains earlier in the day. He had promised a 110x70 yard pitch and international boxed goals- and he delivered. Not only that, but we were amazed at the perfect evenness of the field (with most pitches we play on having slight humps here and there) and the fact that there was grass, and not dirt patches, in the goals. This is the kind of facility one could get used too. Oh, not to mention the lines painted were the straightest and most accurate I've seen since taking-in my last USA match at Soldier field in Chicago. However great the field is, the Midstate outfit has had challenges in finding teams to make the 25 minute drive North to play them up there, and thus the field unfortunately sees very little game time. When I asked the city league captains about playing a friendly Mike was the first one to reply and anxious to get a game for his young team up North. They had a healthy attendance from the local community as we were able to just practice some things that we have needed to work on. They have some talent on their side and will continue to get better. While we weren't keeping official score there were plenty of goals. The hosts netted twice, one beating your truly while trying my 'hand' in goal. I've already spoken to other league captains and have encouraged them to make the effort to give Midstate more home games. cheers- ck
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The site has served some purpose... Olabanji Oke has gotten a hold of me from London town! He 'googled' his name and found us. He did play for us in two matches in 2008, both wins. What is with our team and London at the moment. We have Mark who just left for an internship there, Bartley trying to get citizenship to permanently move there and now Banji saying he may be coming back from there... Pretty crazy...
We are set to play this friendly up in Minonk at their Millennium Park at 6:30. Rain is in the forecast so no promises. The news on the ref is that we aren't 100% positive we'll have one, Ed is working with their manager to get us at least one. I've updated the soccer score and weather widgets on the front page as well as added some more UCFC photos including the 2009 summer league team shot. I'll have some announcements on player changes for the summer as I may have some spots to fill. We only have 5 remaining players from our original 15 that were in the side in 2008, we're used to change. More after the friendly -ck |
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