On a dark and rainy Wednesday, Octopi took to the field in a semi-final match against the undefeated English/Irish soccer squad Nomads FC. It was the same team who’d broken the back of yours and my favorite urban rec soccer team in the first game of the season in a 6-2 slaughter.
The pink shirts knew they were up for a challenge. Casting themselves as the underdogs, the Octopi steeled themselves for battle. When the whistle was blown it quickly became clear that pink would be the underdog of this match. Nomads FC were just as skilled, aggressive and quick as the team had remembered. There chatty British lilt could be heard throughout the field as they communicated as well as anyone in the PR industry could dream. Fortunately, after a season of playing together Octopi’s own team had melded significantly.
It was a hard fought battle throughout the first half with the Nomads pressing in every which way while Octopi’s defense struggled to contain them. The ball rarely left Octopi’s half and forced strikers John Horn and Erin Loxam to drift back to mark orange’s midfielders and they pressed ceaselessly. Despite their pressure, the Nomads were unable to capitalize until late in the first half. After hammering countless balls over or far to the left of Octopi’s goal, the Nomads finally hit pay dirt with a long throw in that seemed to span half the field. After a few random heads, the ball somehow found its way into the goal putting the Nomads up a point. Later in the second half, Nomads managed to capitalize on a quick turnover close to Octopi’s box. It was 2-0.
That’s when Octopi really started to turn it on. Slowly by surely they ground their way towards the Nomads like the British Army in some godforsaken battle of World War 1. After a series of failed starts, defenseman Kurt Heinrich managed to make a run for the Nomads’ half. Tracked by three orange defensemen, he flipped the ball to the other side of the orange’s box with a long cross. Streaking in from mid-field like a F-16 was striker Erin Loxam, who was hungry to take advantage of one of the team’s first scoring opportunities of the game. Loxam, as she always seems to do in a pinch, managed to be there exactly when she needed to be and was able to pound the ball past Nomads’ chippy goaltender. The score was now 2-1 and Octopi was energized. They continued to hound Nomad players with the ball and run like demons, but with only four minutes left in the game, there was simply not enough time.
The end result of the spirited match was 2-1. Nomads FC will proceed to the final leaving Octopi to contest for third place.