James Lick High School, San Jose, June 2, 2008

With a team still under construction (some new plaers are still expected in their roster), the Frogs were hosting last year's Southwest Divison winner, El Fresno Fuegeo, only 8 days after their trip to Fresno where they lost 2-0 to the same team.

With 10 point each before the match, both teams were sharing the 3rd position, 4 points behind the leaders (San Francisco Seals) with one less match played for the Frogs.

San Jose Frogs at half time. On te bench, from left to right: Richardo Dorrego, David Frank and Savio Carrijo. N°15: Omar Parra

Both teams being very ambitious, the match started with a great intensity. Both seemed able to score at any moment from the first minute. No one dominated the first half. The ball was moving quickly forward on both sides and the best chances were created on some of the many corners and free kicks. However, Fresno had the best opportunities in the first half.

The Frogs were playing with their usual 3-5-2 with Savio Carrijo in free position behind the two forwards in charge of play making. The Brasilian offensive midfielder didn't have much impact in the first half and the player who created th most interresting situations for the Frogs was Mariano Arrua who after a bad clearance by the Fuego 's defenders, controlled the ball and took a shot with his left foot which went just wide right (34th)

After the break, the two teams continued to quickly move the ball forward with a difference on the Frogs' side: Carrijo touched the ball much more often and managed to find some space to have time to control the ball and find some good passes in the runs of his forwards.

Unfortunately, the efforts of both teams were often cut by too many fouls.

After 70 minutes, the Frogs seemed to be in a good period and had a few really good chances...It is this moment that Fresno chose to score: Pablo Campos received a ball in the center, about 25 yards from the goal. With all the Frogs' defense regrouped in front of him, he faked a pass to the right to his team mate who coming fast toward the box. Anticipating the pass, all the defenders back up, leaving Campos the time to throw a powerful shot right on the bottom of the bar. Sergio Valle (Frogs' goalkeeper) couldn't touch the ball which bounced behind the line (0-1, 74th). Campos didn't forget to come celebrate his goal near the stands where the little group of Fresno fans (about 10) were seated.

The begining of the second half was constantly interrupted by fouls. After the goal, the substitutions continued to constantly cut the intensity of the game. The Frogs didn't create any dangerous situations in the following minutes and the crowd started to think that the Frogs wouldn't come back.

However, one of the Frogs' substitutions had an immediate impact on the game. Aman Kebreab, coming back from an injury, came in in the 80th minute. 4 minutes later, his acceleration on the right wing left Fresno's defenders 2 yards behind him. He crossed the ball to Savio Carrijo who missed his shot at the penalty spot. But Mariano Arrua, who seemed to be everywhere today, still had gas in his tank. He had followed the action and was there to recover the ball missed by his team mate and just had the keeper to beat...Which he did perfectly (1-1, 84th)

10 minutes after coming in, while the 4th official was announcing 4 minutes of stoppage time, Aman Kebreab had to leave the field, injured again but with a mission accomplished!

Both teams tried to win the match in the last minutes, but no one could complain about the final score (1-1) which reflects the fact that both teams could have won but none deserved to lose.

After the gme, Jorge Espinoza (Frogs' head coach) seemed happy with the performance of his team: "It's never easy, they are one of the best teams in the leaugue and thay wanted to get us down, but we had some good chances" he said. As new players are joining the team late in the season, he didn't appear too worried about lack of chemistry: "It's amazing when they come, play and get connected right away. That's what happens and makes us very hard to beat. We didn't give Fresno a lot of opportunities."

Thierry Heumann (email)

Lineups:

San Jose Frogs: Sergio Valle - OmarParra (Danylo Aylon, 56th), David Frank (C.), Gavin Wenyon - Marriano Arrua, Dan Oka (Eric Espinoza, 59th), Stefan Clemens, Richardo Dorrego (Ignacio Finlay, 78th) - Savio Carrijo - Nelson Diaz (Michael Lawler, 76th), Jose Munoz (Aman Kebreab, 80th (Sylvester Kaar, 90th)).

Fresno Fuego: Ryan Kenny - Paul Rivera, Jose-Luis Delgadillo-Servin, Jaime Calvo, Adan Arteaga (Demetrius Harvey, 90th)- Stephen Sifuentes (Robert Rodriguez, 23rd), Shawn Grieco (Brandon Cave, 46th), Orlando Ramirez (C.), Adrian Alvarado - Fabricio Codeceira, Pablo Campos.

Officials:Jennifer Bennett, Vicente Cortes, Veronica Regan .

Goals:

SJF: Nelson Diaz (9th, Assist: Sergio Valle), Savio Carrijo (72nd, Assist: Nelson Diaz)

VCF: Lee Stevens (PK, 50th)

Yellow Cards:

SJF: Mariano Arrua (26th), Omar Parra (49th), Richardo Dorego (77th)

Fuego: Fabricio Codeceira (24th)

	Shots Half1 Half2 Final San Jose Frogs 5 2 7 Fresno Fuego 3 2 5
	Fouls Half1 Half2 Final San Jose Frogs 5 1 10 Fresno Fuego 5 5 9
	Corners Half1 Half2 Final San Jose Frogs 4 2 6 Fresno Fuego 3 4 7

Stats: USL