Unfortunate Finish to Disappointing Tournament

FSSC, along with numerous guest players, turned in a fairly disappointing performance in the St. Joe Summerfest Tournament over the weekend.

FSSC faced the Kalamazoo alumni in the first match and struggled to adapt to the tournament rules. Never finding an identity, the Bulls got behind early after a give away in their own defensive third. An easy finish by K-Zoo led to an early 1-0 lead that the Bulls never recovered from. After a misplay on a dropped ball by the keeper, the Bulls went into the second half with a two goal deficit. No halftime adjustments were made and the second half was more of the same. The Bulls were scrambling on defense, often losing their marks, and on offense they resorted to the ol' AYSO style of kickball. It didn't work. K-Zoo scored on a rebound shot from 20 yards out and capitalized on a penalty kick to finish the game 4-0.

Next, the Bulls faced the Berrian County Warriors. Although not a quality side the Warriors proved an admirable opponent for the Bulls. After taking leads of 1-0 and 2-1, the Bulls finally found themselves in 2-2 deadlock with only 8 minutes to play. But with less than a minute to play, Ricky McQueary sent a long ball into the box that found the head of Paul Vance. Time expired thereafter and the Bulls escaped with what would be their only victory of the day, 3-2. Mike Sly scored the first goal for the Bulls with the second coming on an own goal.

In the final match of the day the Bulls squared off with Chicago Tigres (or as we called them - Chivas). Chivas is well known to the tournament as a dirty team and the Bulls knew the match would be intense, as the winner would advance and move on to the final. The Bulls played the first half like they had actually played soccer before and dominated play. Unable to finish several quality chance though, the score was tied at halftime. The Bulls tired a bit in the second half and played defensive, relying mostly on counter attacks to generate scoring chances. The strategy was seemingly working and Chivas was growing frustrated with the quality FSSC defense. However, things got ugly with less than 10 minutes to go when guest player Maurico was thrown to the ground after a whistle. While the referee was booking the guilty party another Chivas player stomped on Maurico while he was on the ground. Upon being confronted by several Bulls, the Chivas player threw a hay maker which partially connected with guest player Greg's head. Pandemonium ensued and things really got crazy when another Chivas player sprinted at Maurico while he was still on the ground. Luckily, Paul Simpson was there to intervene. Cooler heads prevailed on the FSSC side and the Bulls conducted themselves fairly classy considering the situation. Ultimately, the game was considered a draw and the teams were not allowed to finish the game due to the antics of Chivas. An unfortunate end result to a disappointing tournament.

Tournament Awards:

MVP: Paul Simpson
All tournament team: R. McQueary, C. Hallstrand, P. Simpson
Inspirational performance - Mike Atkins - gave up at least 80lbs and 3 inches to every forward who posted him up and defended like crazy against Chivas.

Sorry guys, but everyone else was fairly average.

***Special thanks to Chris and Mike for getting the tournament together...As well as to Tony Vance and Tommy "Turncoat" Beaubien for sponsorship.

***Congratulations to Cash Now on winning the tournament (even though they cheated).