The Bay Soccer - Your Area, Your Passion

Tonight's game was a perfect opposition of style, laced with high physical intensity and attack minded players on both sides. The final score doesn't reflect the very entertaining match played in front of a crowd of between 200 and 250. The referee, Colin Arblaster, excellent tonight, also had a role in the quality of the game, by not interrupting it too often and keeping the players under control without giving unnecessary cards.

As expected, San Jose's midfield had the possession of the ball in the first part of the first half, creating the best opportunities, with two shots by Nelson Diaz, one just above the goal, and the second deflected by Dan Benton (Seals' Goalkeeper), as the ball was going to hit the bar.

After 20 minutes of a clear Frogs' domination the Seals had a better period. To avoid the Frogs' dense midfield, they quickly played long balls to their forwards, creating a few chances.

The rest of the 1st half was balanced, with the Frogs patiently creating opportunities by possessing and moving the ball around while the Seals where trying to take advantage of each ball to immediately threaten their opponent's back three with long balls.

Both teams could have scored with a better finish, particularly on free kicks and corner kicks, some of them being completely wasted. The overall feeling at half time was that the Frogs looked a little bit more consistent and had the best chances.

The second half started on the same pace and the same intensity, with big challenges, the "match in the match" between Ignazio Finlay and Mike Balogun on the right wing (from the Frogs' point of view) being a perfect example of the level of intensity of the game.

The tempo of the match was really high and the only difference with the first half was that the game was now completely balanced. There were too many chances for both sides to mention here.

Overall, the Frogs could probably have more regrets than the Seals, because of the first half they slightly dominated, but the result is finally logical and both coaches seemed satisfied with it.

The Frogs' head coach, Jorge Espinoza mentioned he was "happy with the chemistry of the team", insisting on the fact that "we had a better possssion and we should have put the ball in the net at least twice, but it will come with time. We're going in the right direction"

Tom Simpson, General Manager and Head Coach of the Frogs had a very interesting analysis on the different styles played by both coaches: "They had a better possession but it put their defense at risk and that's why we had very good opportunities. In this kind of games, you have to decide if you want to possess or if you want to score. It's an old debate but I feel that 3-5-2 is too instable for most teams unless, as spanish teams do, you spend so much time working on it that it becomes kind of an art form and then it becomes a beautiful Chess game, but nobody in the English League can do it. I prefer having some stability in the back and then attack from the back (a thing that we usually do prety agressively usualy and I though we did it ok tonight but not as well as I'd like). That's one of the answers to the 3-5-2".

The Ball girls yesterday were the girls from the U-12 and U-11Milpitas X-Girls (MXG). Introduced by their head coach, Jim Marte prior to the start of the game. The X-Girls played their first season in 2002. They are now playing competition soccer in the upper Class 3 division with many of the original players still on the team. The 2 MXG teams are leaders of their respective age groups in the competitive CYSA & Norcal Premier League.

San Jose Frogs: Sergio Valle - Omar Parra, Hugo Sousa, Gavin Wenyon - Mariano Arrua, Dan Oka, Joseph Frank, Ignazio Finlay (Diego Soto Ochoa) - Stephan Clemens - Savio Carrijo (Juan Gonzales, 80), Nelson Diaz (Andrew Wiedeman, 77).

San Francisco Seals: Dan Benton - Shea Whelan, Richard Halvorsen, Doug Carr (Ariaia Berhane, 82), Yousef Samy - Mike Balogun (Shani Simpson, 86), Rawlston Masaniai, Francisco Camacho (Junior Burgos, 51), Richard Duru (Eric Lafon, 55) - Kellan Wilson (Jovan Milojevich, 84), Stephen Cordova (Carlos Diaz, 59).

San Jose Frogs 0-0 San Francisco Seals

A Question of Style