I will start with saying that this was the most physical game that Cooper has been in this season, it seemed to me that some of the boys at NCC thought that they would be able to "outmuscle" some of the boys from Cooper. When this did not happen, it appeared that some frustration set in pretty early. Freppon and Snow ended up in several 1v1 situations at midfield early in the match with neither one backing down on any of them, I would say that they both won their fair share of these battles. After a handful of these occurred it seemed like Freppon got to the point that enough was enough, he basically flattened Snow on one of the 50/50 balls and was immediately sent off with a Yellow. This foul pretty well set the tone for the rest of the match, there were several hard fouls and a lot of physical play... nothing I would call dirty by any means... just really hard played soccer. I think there were about 3 or 4 yellows given to both squads and both coaches were also lucky recipients of one.

 

Cooper did a pretty good job of dictating the pace for the biggest part of the first half and had NCC on their heels the majority of the time. Other than a couple of chances off of set pieces, and corners, NCC did not threaten the goal. Cooper held a 2-0 lead at half.

 

In the second half, both teams came out with even more intensity which made for some pretty good soccer. Both teams had a couple chances to capitalize early in the second half but neither did. As the match wore on, Cooper became content with not pressing forward and worked to keep the clean sheet. Over the final 10 minutes, NCC pushed players forward in hopes of cutting into the lead, if not for a few misplaced headers the results could have been different. I think that both teams seemed pretty evenly matched and this was a good battle for both teams.

 

Early in the match, a Cooper player took a shot at goal just outside of the box that struck a player (#10) from NCC in the head before it traveled 5 feet, prayers going out that he is OK and is able to get back on the pitch soon.

 

Good report. IMO NCC and Brossart are usually the most aggressive teams I've seen play on a consistent basis. Not just "this is a big match, let's step it up"

Good report. IMO NCC and Brossart are usually the most aggressive teams I've seen play on a consistent basis. Not just "this is a big match, let's step it up"

 

As stated above, the physical play was evident from the beginning, I look at it as good hard soccer.

 

I thought it was a good early test for Cooper, especially for some of the younger players, or ones that have not been subjected to this style of play through Club. It was good to see them adjust to a different level of intensity, and IMO, I think some of them actually thrived.

As stated above, the physical play was evident from the beginning, I look at it as good hard soccer.

 

I thought it was a good early test for Cooper, especially for some of the younger players, or ones that have not been subjected to this style of play through Club. It was good to see them adjust to a different level of intensity, and IMO, I think some of them actually thrived.

 

I wasn't challenging your assessment. I was simply pointing out my observations through the years of those 2 teams. Always good to be challenged in different ways to see how you overcome them.

I wasn't challenging your assessment. I was simply pointing out my observations through the years of those 2 teams. Always good to be challenged in different ways to see how you overcome them.

 

No, I did not take your comments that way at all... really just reiterating what you were saying and pointing out that I was also glad to see how they responded.