Randal Smith

They’re baaaack…Heads up to SBFC, Celtic, St. Pats, and Incheon: Seoul United is better than last year.  Despite a couple of defections, the core of the Seoul United team that claimed the championship last season is still intact except that they’ve added the cream of the now defunct Moroccan team including Mohamed, Jerry Kakkar, and Said the guy I think is the best defender in the league (along with Noel Raggett). For all of the talk of Seoul United’s attacking strength I think the real story of this United team is their defense. In the past it has been their Achilles heal. Now, by virtue of Dave Dillon’s astute recruiting, United not only has the best offense in the league, it can also boast the best defense.

The game didn’t start auspiciously for the Harriers as we were informed twenty minutes before kick-off that the field we booked wasn’t booked. Need I explain? Fortunately there was an adjacent pitch we were able to commandeer. Though it was bigger we would have preferred the tiny pitch we had originally as this would have taken away some of the advantage Seoul United had over us in pace. Most of the Harriers are old geezers who don’t like to run.

Our concerns proved valid with the first Seoul United counter attack. While our midfield scrambled to get back our defense was swarmed as it would be throughout the game especially as it progressed under the heat. Adams on the left arched the ball up for his Seoul United teammate, Fudje. Covering Fudje (sort of) was your humble author who got sandwiched between both Fudje and Michael Cop, the Harrier’s goalie who is also well over 6’ tall. Everything went blank; then a cheer arose from the bleachers… the wrong side of the bleachers. Apparently Fudje met the ball just before Michael could grab it out of the air. The ball then bounced slowly into the net behind him.

In retrospect it was clear the Harriers had let themselves get intimidated by Seoul United’s lineup. Anytime our players would win the ball we’d either lob it up field (if we were in defense), or, (if we were in midfield), we’d rush a pass even if we were not under pressure at the time. In short order Seoul United racked up three goals on us. One of them was a penalty but the other two were well struck.

At some point in the first period Sylvain injured himself in one of his trademark kamikaze tackles and had to take himself off. Dave Shin and Evan Hale re-arranged the lineup and brought on Didier Balistaire, our new Belgian-Canadian acquisition. Didier, playing as a central midfielder, made a huge impact in his first game with the Harriers. Like Trent Anderson, Didier (or Didi as he’s fast becoming known) is a superb football talent and an excellent leader. He managed to calm everyone down and re-instill some confidence to our ranks. Suddenly the Harriers were playing their game, stringing together passes and keeping their shape. There was a definite change in tone as noted in Seoul United’s match report of the same game: “The Harriers came out the second and looked to dominate the field as they hadn’t before… United were lucky to come out unscathed as the Harriers played better for the period.”

Kind words indeed, but admittedly a little generous. In fact, despite a few inspirational plays from our midfielders (esp. the Trent-Didi-Christophe triangle), the Harriers’s backline of Randal, Joel, Lawrence, and Sylvain found themselves constantly outnumbered, out run, and often out-bedazzled by United’s forwards who effectively laid the ball off to each other as they coursed through our ranks. Had it not been for Lawrence Heavey, usually the last man standing during these attacks, the game could have been a worse blow-out than it was. For his staunch defending Lawrence is Man of the Match.

At the other end of the pitch our usually prolific strikers: Evan, Guillaume Cario, and Andy Collin were uncharacteristically toothless on the day, having to contend with a constricted supply of passes from the rest of their team and a strong defense in front of them. Guillaume had a close one and Christophe had a chance too (well described in United’s match report); however, once Sean Freer got carded off for some colorful protests over getting kicked in the head, the game was effectively over. Twenty minutes later the final whistle blew. The score: 5-0 for United.

PS – Following the game Sean manly admitted that the boot to the head was inadvertent. The game was clean as it always is when we play Seoul United.

Man of the Match: Lawrence Heavey

Goals: <none>