First, a game report (by Kyle) from the 1-1 tie vs Internacional: Well, it certainly wasn't a pretty game but we battled hard today and came out with a well-deserved point. We had trouble keeping control of the ball, and went stretches where Inter controlled the play but we managed to keep them to the outside and limit their chances. Lots of credit to the defenders today and to Matt for only allowing one goal. We played with a little bit more composure today when we had the ball, but that's still definitely something that needs to improve. There were still a few too many times where we just made wild kicks instead of calmly rolling a ball out to the wings. But, like I said after the game, it's still a work in progress and there definitely has been progress thus far, so good work guys!

James Roksa scored our one goal off a rebound on a scrambly play in the box; probably about 30 minutes in. Internacional responded shortly thereafter. No scoring in the second half.


Dirtybirds game:

0-0 for 2/3 of the game. A pretty clean and friendly game for most of it.

Matthew was in net and had many many saves — but was a bit blinded by the sun and mishandled the ball which they pounced on for their only goal.

Shortly after, their #16 cut down Geoff  from behind with a pretty brutal tackle.  

The whistle blew. We were thinking red card.

Geoff took exception to the tackle and turned to face the player. The ref and the Dirtybirds saw things differently than we did at this point.

When the ref got there, #16 got a yellow for a "reckless tackle."
Then he turned and asked Geoff for his name and jersey number. I thought this was perhaps for when he wrote up the Yellow card, he'd add the detail of who was fouled.

No... he was giving Geoff a RED for "attempt to strike."

The game got a bit chippier after that, with some solid contacts. Late in the game, we had multiple chances to knock in a goal... but didn't quite get it done.

James was taken down in the box and has a separated shoulder. All we got out of it was a corner kick.

A great effort, considering no subs and a few players working in unfamiliar territory.