Saturday, October 10, 2009:

Good morning to all! I hope this email finds everyone having a great start to the week-end as we are! Last night was a fun game to be a part of, not to mention it was my wonderful wife Marie and my 25th Wedding Anniversary! It was 25 years ago that we got married and then had a soccer game that evening, in which we won. We did not win last night, but we did not lose either. Trinity University came here ranked 12th in the Nation and we showed them for 110 minutes what real soccer is all about.They are a very physically talented team, with great technical ability and tremendous speed at every position. If you were there, you got to finally see our team learn the meaning of "Battling" until we got back to our locker room after the game. We have borrowed this "battling" phrase from the German National Teams, who never say it is over until they get back on their bus. This phrase was coined by the Netherlands player Ronald Koeman about how hard it is to beat the Germans! It was such a pleasure to watch these young men battle for 110 minutes and never say it was over.

Let us get to the game itself. The field was quite wet, put very playable and fast. We could certainly play our style and Trinity obviously played there usual long ball style of by-passing the midfield and sending the ball from the back directly to the strikers up front. We were ready for this and held them to a 0:0 halftime score. As each minute ticked by, we gained more and more confidence and knew that we were not going to lose this game. We gave up a goal in the 48th minute and that would be Trinity's last shot on goal for the remainder of the game. Tony Crocker hit a great shot that hit the crossbar midway through the 2nd half, that would have tied the score. Later in the half, Tyler Evans was pulled down by the goalkeeper and Tyler was the one called for the foul. It was clearing a penalty kick for us and the linesman had it right, only to be overruled by the center referee. We did not panic and kept pressing forward until the 80th minute, when Nico Reitmeier sent a beautifully played ball through to Kyle Sherrin, who finished it with great composure in the back of the net, to beat the keeper and knot the score at 1:1! In the first overtime, not much happened, as neither team took at shot on goal. But, in the second overtime. it looked like we would get the winner, when Tony Crocker took a great shot to the corner of the goal, only to see the Trinity goalkeeper stretch his 6'4" frame fully, to just tip the ball wide of the post. It was a great shot and and a great save for them to preserve the tie. Both teams had 4 shots on goal, which really makes the final score corrrect at 1:1. That result was a fair result for both teams in my opinion.

Last year, Trinity beat us 0:7 and it could have been worse. With hard work, a team of dedicated players who believe not only in themselves, but each other and a "battling" attitude to the finish, this team is poised to do great things this season and beyond! We finally 'Know" we are going to win, everytime we step on the field, instead of hoping and thinking we can win! This type of relentless pursuit of excellence that is being shown now by our team, is even more reason for our turn around from last year. Let us know that it will continue.....

Tomorrow (Sunday) at 11 AM, we will play Southwestern University from Georgetown, Texas. They have a talented team, especially with their 6'4" striker up front. This will be a great test for us, to see how we respond to finally getting it. The it being, "knowing" we will win and "battling" until we arrive back in our locker rom or on our team bus!

Have a great week-end and come see us win tomorrow.

Best regards,
Coach G from Birmingham, Alabama