Finalists set in USAREUR,
USAFE soccer tournaments
By Rusty Bryan, Stars
and Stripes
Raymond T. Conway / S&S
Mannheim's Horace Cooper, foreground, jumps over a Heidelberg defender to head the ball
during semifinal action at the USAEUR soccer tournament Saturday in Mannheim. |
MANNHEIM, Germany — We won’t know who’ll get the championship trophy in
the USAREUR soccer tournament until Sunday afternoon, but the Giessen Knights wrapped up
the grit award Saturday.
Playing their second overtime game in two days, the Knights eliminated defending
champion Wiesbaden 1-0 on a perfectly struck volley by Volda O’Connor with two
minutes to play in the second overtime.
Prior to O’Connor’s rocket, the Knights had played a deep and talented
Wiesbaden team to a standstill for 118 minutes, despite being a man short for the last 45
minutes of that period.
"It’s all about defense," said Giessen’s Jon Soltz.
"You’ve got to stay behind the ball."
Good advice, but Soltz’s maxim assumed even more importance when Giessen striker
Christopher West received a red card with 35 minutes left in regulation.
West had been attempting to slip between a couple of Wiesbaden defenders while trying
to run onto a pass from teammate Gary Arturo when he became the filling of a Wiesbaden
sandwich and was sent sprawling into the penalty-box turf. When the referee signaled
"play on," West expressed his disagreement with the non-call in terms more
graphic than the rules permit. He’ll miss the rest of the tournament.
At the time, West’s lapse appeared to have left his team, which until that time
appeared to have been forcing most of the action, with too steep a hill to climb. Giessen,
after all, had advanced to this game on a 4-2 shootout victory over Ansbach and now had to
find a way to beat stellar Wiesbaden goalkeeper Brett Welter while playing 10-on-11.
Worse, they’d have to do so without West, whose goal with 15 minutes to play on
Friday against Ansbach had tied that game at one and forced overtime.
Raymond T. Conway / S&S
Heidelberg's Douglas Saunders, left, tries to keep the ball away from Mannheim's Charles
Lougens. |
It turned out, though, overcoming all that was all in a day’s work for the
Knights.
"We dropped a forward, played midfield defense and looked for a chance to put one
in," Giessen coach Ray Rivera said.
"We’re battle-hardened," Soltz said. "Last year, we didn’t
even get to play in this tournament because we were deployed to Kosovo. We played Greek
teams, Russians teams, anyone."
Many of the Giessen players also play for German clubs, Soltz said, adding to the
experience level of his team.
"We wanted to get into another shootout," he said. "We know what to do,
and we have the best goalkeeper in the Army behind us."
That keeper is Momar Samb, who is as active and agile as he is tall (6 feet, 6 inches).
His intimidating presence in the nets was largely responsible for Wiesbaden’s
inability to finish plays.
Wiesbaden’s shooters, who had enjoyed a field day in Friday’s 4-0 rout of the
combined Grafenwöhr-Vilseck team, seemed reluctant to let the shot go against Samb,
instead trying to dribble into perfect position or make an extra pass. Both mistakes
allowed the Giessen defenders time to repeatedly recover and clear the ball.
Giessen was just as ineffective against Welter until the final going. The decisive blow
came after Welter had been forced to slap a Giessen corner kick over his end line, setting
up another corner from the other side. The cross was deflected downfield by the Wiesbaden
defense and came bouncing knee-high toward O’Connor, who was standing just outside
the box. Timing his strike perfectly, O’Connor hammered the ball into the right side
of the net as Welter could only watch.
Mannheim 1, Heidelberg 0
Next up for the Knights, at noon Sunday in Woods Stadium on Benjamin Franklin Village,
is the title game against spur-of-the moment host Mannheim.
The Mustangs, too, won a tough, defensive semifinal.
Charles Lougens, off an assist from John Escobar, rolled the game-winner into the lower
left corner of the Heidelberg net in the 62nd minute, and the defense, organized and
anchored by sweeper Charles Bondurant, took over from there, helping goalkeeper
Chukwuemeka Wackey post his second straight shutout in this event. The Mustangs eliminated
Vicenza on Friday, 3-0.
Incirlik, Mildenhall in USAFE finals
RAF ALCONBURY, England — A pair of hat tricks meant a pair of victories — and
a trip to Germany — for two Air Force community soccer teams Saturday.
Yuri Alexander scored three times to lead Incirlik Air Base of Turkey past Ramstein Air
Base 3-2 in one semifinal. RAF Mildenhall’s Andy Hackett equaled that feat — and
scored the game-winner — in his team’s 3-2 victory over RAF Lakenheath.
Michael Doorbal Jr. had two goals for Ramstein. Tim Welde scored for Lakenheath, which
also benefited from an own goal by Mildenhall.
Incirlik and Mildenhall meet for the championship Sunday following the third-place game
at 11 a.m. between Lakenheath and Ramstein. Regardless of the outcome, Incirlik and
Mildenhall travel to play against the Army’s top two teams in two weeks.
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