Final

I certainly hope the Cooper faithful appreciated the efforts made by Boone to make you feel welcome. The field was especially prepared to bring you a bit of nostalgia. This is the same field upon which Cooper beat Boone last year in the district final match 1-0 on a mud-caked, slip-n-slide pitch.

 

I, and many others, were surprised when we came into the stadium and saw mud spots scattered about the pitch. I asked my wife when it last rained. She couldn't even tell me what rain was. Hasn't it been 80's with bright sunshine, low humidity, and cool evenings for quite some time? Hence my surprise at the slick conditions on the field and the several mud spots.

 

Seems that the sprinkler system for the field was somehow damaged and the lines leak every where there is a sprinkler head, thus pouring a constant flow of water in that spot while the water is turned on. At least that is one explanation. I think it was done deliberately, as I said, for our Cooper fans to recall last year's victory at districts. We also did Cooper another favor. Boone now has officially surpassed Cooper as having the worst pitch in the district. I know it is hard to surpass the bumps, ruts, and protruding tufts of grass at Cooper, but constantly wet and slick conditions does this. Try dribbling the ball or running or changing direction when your back foot, normally planted but because of the surface is proving Newton's 3rd Law once again. The Cooper team must have found the conditions of the field favorable as they were able to duplicate the result from last year.

 

Cooper fans, be sure to thank us later.

 

Disclaimer: please don't read this as an excuse as to why Boone lost. I am just having a little fun, okay? Cooper was clearly the better team. And, the views and opinions expressed by oldgrappler in no way reflects the opinions of the Boone Athletic department, nor any of the soccer coaches, nor any of the players on the team, nor any of its fans. They are completely his own. And yes, og's family is trying desperately to get him to counseling.

Gotta love those Boone County sprinklers. They went off during one of the girls soccerama games. All I could think of was that somebody was filming a commercial for Buffalo Wild Wings as the goalie was getting pelted by the sprinkler.

My friend is correct, it was kinda like 10/16/14 all over again, at least this time it was ONLY about a 50 yard square you had to worry about... basically the whole middle of the pitch provided some adventurou moments.

 

As for the counseling, I know a place that might give us a 2 for 1 deal. :jump:

It was a fun game to watch. Both keepers made some saves to keep their teams alive. Especially Boones GK on a volley from Snow inside the box!

Shall we proceed to analysis of the match?

 

I look forward to a summary of the details by some Cooper faithful. I had the privilege of talking with Cooper's #1 fan at halftime and following the contest. I also met his son, who seems like a fine young man and is an excellent soccer player.

 

I do not recall exactly how Cooper scored. It was 1-0 and a pretty tight game at half. Boone was not passing to feet and possessing like they had been improving at through the season. It was more of a kick it forward kind of effort. They did challenge for the ball at every opportunity and looked quite determined. Boone had their chances at the net. They got the ball into position on several occasions to cause a corner kick or a throw in from near that same spot so that the ball could be thrown to the goal. Try as they might, Boone couldn't seem to head or body the ball in. Cooper's Keeper held firm and with a little help from his friends mounted enough of a defense to keep the ball out of goal. There was a period where Boone had several of these opportunities, even consecutive opportunities where one try would be deflected out by Cooper for another goal kick by Boone. Just couldn't get it to go. The Cooper defense made it hard on Boone's offense to put together an organized advance to the goal.

 

I will say that Boone's defense played fairly well. One miss-kick put the ball in position for Cooper to quickly set up a shot on goal and accounted for one score. Snow was as billed. I had not seen him play this year until last night. I will say that he has improved since I saw him a year ago. You have to account for him or he will be involved in a score. Boone marked him and made things difficult for him. He still managed to do a little magic and elude the defense to pass to another Cooper player. He has a rocket shot when he gets set and takes it. Two different Boone defenders marked Snow. I'm not sure this was by design. It seemed more of a function of where Snow was playing on the pitch. In the first half he was in the middle and Boone's Stopper marked him. In the second half, Snow seemed to be on the outside of the pitch and so Boone's right Fullback had the duty. Other defenders slid over to help out whenever Snow touched the ball. Overall, I think that Boone's defense played pretty well. Keeper was solid as usual.

 

The most notable play of the night came off of a free kick (I think) by Cooper. Cooper's Lance Adams launched the ball from inside of mid field. It was headed to the upper half of the goal. Snow came streaking from the side and leaped through the air. He crossed in front of the goal in mid air and the ball went just behind him. He got a glancing blow on the ball off his back foot that looked like it would be in. This was an ESPN highlight kind of attempt. Benjamin, Boone's Keeper, just reacted instinctively and with lightening quick hands deflected the ball just wide of its intended mark. He was congratulated for a fine save by Snow.

 

This report is leaving a lot of things out and focused on just a few things out of an 80 minute match. Other Boone fans are invited to provide details that will help round out this report and focus on some other strong things Boone did. Also, Cooper fans are encouraged to provide their perspective. We all would appreciate hearing from you.

 

I think the district draw is shaping up. Boone and Ryle will meet for their regular season tilt next week. Good luck to Cooper, at least until and if our two teams meet up again.

Although the field was not up to what one would hope, both squads had to deal with it and I still found the match to be as competitive as I expected going in, just played a lot differently than planned.

 

I think the field definitely changed the overall complexion of the match, it was very hard for the teams to get good footing and made it very difficult to play the ball forward more than 8-10 yds at a time... trying to connect more than two passes in the midfield was pretty futile. I felt there were many more loose balls than normal, I also blame this on the footing.

 

Cooper netted their first goal about halfway through the first half when Workman had his shot go just wide, I could not tell if Benjamin actually pushed it away or not, DJ Cooper had made a nice run and was on the back side to clean it up.

 

Both teams struggled to put much together in the first half, Cooper had a few more chances to score but a couple nice saves kept the score at 1-0 through the first 40 minutes.

 

Boone seemed to come out a little more aggressive in the second half and it seemed like they took one corner after another for about the first 10-15 minutes of the second half. If they weren't taking a corner, they had a throw in close enough to the goal that it was like defending a corner. Luckily, Cooper was able to turn each of them away but it made for some pretty anxious moments.

 

On the second goal, Cooper was able to get the ball outside (this was the safest route, see field conditions above) to Snow, he was able to get to the end line and played a ball back across the box to Zorn who converted it into a nice goal.

 

If not for both goalies this could have been a different scoreline, easily could have been a few more goals for both teams. I think the two best plays of the night occurred on the same play. Cooper had a free kick just inside of midfield that was launched in the box. Snow was able to get free from his defender and get to the ball in mid air, he attempted a volley with his back foot but did not get much on the shot. The ball still appeared to be headed for the corner until Benjamin was able to reach out and deflect it just outside the post, this was one of the best saves I have seen this season... don't tell the other Cooper fans... I actually stood and cheered for him.

 

This was the second time I have seen Boone play this year, much improved from the first time. I feel they are in good hands between the pipes. The back line played good last night, their man-marking was well done and they did a nice job of collapsing and double teaming on the ball. Their mids did a good job of falling back and supporting their back line. The offense seems to be coming along a little slower under the new coach, they were not able to get the ball forward on more than a handful of occasions last night... could also be the conditions because Cooper had issues transitioning as well.

 

It was nice to get some time to chat with OG last night and get the chance to meet young-grappler after the match... you done good with this one OG!!!

^ Thx, YC. Yeah, he's a good kid and loves soccer. But I thought he was a bit surly after the match. He was a little frustrated with the conditions of the field and the way the match developed. After getting something in his belly and a full night's sleep he's back to his usual sunny disposition. :dancingpa

 

As to your recommendation regarding going to the same counselor, I don't think any one counselor could handle it. :scared:

Heard the issue with the field conditions began a couple weeks back. Rained alot on thur/fri and Marty Steele forgot to turn off the sprinklers so on top of all the rain those 2 days we had added water to the field. The boys had a match that saturday that was called at half due to the poor field conditions and it has never recovered! It was in pretty good shape prior to the AD debacle.

Turf is the answer. Maybe they can get a grant from the Bengals like cov cath and cc.

Agreed! The tough part is getting the BOE on board which isn't easy..

Heard the issue with the field conditions began a couple weeks back. Rained alot on thur/fri and Marty Steele forgot to turn off the sprinklers so on top of all the rain those 2 days we had added water to the field. The boys had a match that saturday that was called at half due to the poor field conditions and it has never recovered! It was in pretty good shape prior to the AD debacle.

 

Hadn't heard that particular scenario, regarding having the sprinklers on while it rained. I don't think that is how it happened. The field didn't have muddy spots on the field for the game that was called off. It was just slick due to having rained during the JV game. I suppose the back story could have been what you wrote though I don't remember that it rained any days prior to the game.

 

Now there is a definite muddy spot everywhere the sprinkler heads are because they leak (I've heard). This is a new development first noticed at last week's match with Cooper.

 

The girls played last night at Boone but I forgot to ask how the field was.

 

On the bright side, Boone boys play at Ryle tonight. On the not-so-bright side, Boone boys play Ryle tonight.

Turf is the answer. Maybe they can get a grant from the Bengals like cov cath and cc.

 

imsays, you can start passing the hat after you fill it up. We can't afford turf because lots of our money goes to build schools in other parts of KY. Loved the natatorium I saw out in the middle of nowhere on the way to Dale Hollow several years ago.

An interesting definition from socceramerica.com:

 

PITCH: An English word for a sports field. It is not specific to soccer -- there are cricket and field hockey and rugby pitches as well. It has come into vogue in the United States, mouthed by those who feel they are showing some special inside knowledge when they use it. They are merely being pretentious. The American term "field" is all that is required.

Boone parents need to "pitch" the fact that they need a new "pitch" to the BOE.