Game Summary (by Dan):

  To quote one of the forwards from St.Pats, "You guys (that would be us, the Harriers) were not meant to win this game."  Then to quote our center back, "Do we really need a match report for today?  I mean, do we want to relive the horror?"  It is true, if football deities do indeed exist, they did not look upon us today with favor.  And yes, I suppose even a loss needs a report, therefore, without further ado...

  The game started in St.Pats' favor almost immediately with a goal from their 'nice guy' as one Harrier put it.  Nice guy or not, he slipped past our defense on the left side and blasted one past the keeper to make it 1-0 in the beginning minutes.  It looked offside; the reason for him being so open, but without linesmen the referees in this league are bound to make a few errors.  The Harriers came back with a fervor, but we were unable to capitalize with our forwards and midfielders either hitting the keeper right on, or missing the net, usually the former (where's the confidence?).  If things were looking up, they certainly looked bleaker when within a few minutes of our flurry of activity, our very own midfielder managed to get himself a red card (no names, I'm sure he feels bad enough).  Granted, from this scribe's perspective, his actions did not warrant a red card, but nevertheless the referee has the final say (funny how they are all powerful with their precious striped shirts, but I digress).  It is also true that the ref made some suspect calls, but we did not play to our full potential either, so the ref is off the hook as far as I'm concerned.  As said, were down to 10 men and down a goal.  The Harriers then decided to dominate the opposition.  We were all over them.  We controlled the ball, passed relatively well to each other, and played solid defense.  Yet we were unable to capitalize and the half ended with the boys in black still holding a 1-0 advantage.

  In the second half St.Pats turned it on a little more, but so did the Harriers.  If one were to have just come to watch the game in the second half, one wouldn't know that the Harriers were down a man.  In fact, one of our own players didn't know!  That is because the Harriers poured on the offense.  Evan(season:2goals, 1 assist) found George(season:1 goal) for a 1-1 tie.  The Harriers did not let up on the pressure after that, and they kept going at St.Pats, who looked to be back on their heels.  Yet somewhere around the middle of the second half, a hand (not Maradona's) found its way onto the ball in the Harriers' 18-yard box.  Thus setting up a penalty kick for St.Pats.  While the keeper guessed the right way, he was too slow to get to the ball that hugged the left pole and slipped in: 2-1 St.Pats.  Shortly thereafter, the Harriers were awarded a penalty kick.  However after the ball was blasted off the crossbar/goalpost corner, and their keeper was yelling some psychological voodoo magic stuff, the score still remained 2-1.  The Pats struck again soon after on a low shot that the keeper had to move from one post to the other for, and was unable to come up with the save, thus leaving the score 3-1.  Shortly after, Martin(season:1 assist), from a free kick, found Evan for a slow-motion header that seemed to bloop for quite some time, but that had enough 'bloop' to find the other side of the back of the net: 3-2.  The Harriers, then really turned it on.  We had chance after chance, but were unlucky in finding the back of the net.  With about 2 minutes remaining, the Harriers were awarded another penalty kick (thank-you, justification for our stellar play).  Yet, as the ball sailed wide of the goal mouth, the football dieties smiled upon our misfortune and we lost 3-2.

  *Notes:  We dominated this game as far as ball control and chances go, but we were unable to capitalize, and as many a Harrier said afterwards, "We almost deserved to lose that match."  We really held our own against a very organized team for nearly 75 minutes being down a man.  Martin and Francesco played their positions quite well today, and every Harrier picked up the slack being down a man - nice job boys!  Also, a special thanks again this game to Sean and Sun for supporting the team even though they didn't suit up.  Daejeon is one week away, get some sleep, keep limber, and keep your heads up, we need this one, a 'W' would look nice since we are without one yet.  And finally, you might not remember, but at one point I handled a ball quite sloppily and dropped it between my legs.  While trying to pick it up, St.Pats' striker (#24 I think) took a swipe at the ball, but missed and hit my pinky finger.  Well he kicked it hard enough that he broke off a piece of one of the bones in my finger.  Yes, a piece of bone is now floating around inside my skin and the bone is quite broken.  I will not be able to play for at least three weeks as my finger is in a type of cast.  No regrets, I simply shouldn't have dropped the ball ... all the best lads; I'll still come out to write match reports though ...