JFK Memorial Tournament: May 17-18, 2008

mens report ... by Steve Moulton

Game 1: CFHC 3 - 0 Bermuda
Ensuring not to break with tradition of previous tournaments, we got off to a pretty slow start in Game 1, it seemed to be taking us a long time to adjust to competitive hockey and the first half was pretty sloppy all in all. We managed to get the goal our pressure deserved shortly before the break with Steve finding Derrek from the right wing who in turn set up Shahid who finished from 8 yards out. The second half was an improvement as we found our rhythm a little more, goals from Klaus and an emphatic short corner drag flick from Derek sealed the contest.

Game 2: CFHC 2-1 Brooklyn All-Stars
For whatever reason this is the game I remember the least about over the weekend. We scored early and dominated the first half but they got one back with pretty much their first chance of the game about 10 minutes before half time. Brooklyn were made up of players from 3 of the NY teams, Big Apple Flickers, Tri-State and the Islanders and they played a little like a group who had a lot of highly skilled players but lacked unity, so while being dangerous we had the bulk of the possession and the chances. We missed a hatful of chances in the second half and 2-1 should probably have been 5 or 6, what it showed though was that we were starting to click and create chances which we had struggled to do against Bermuda.

Game 3: CFHC 6 - 2 DC Dragons
DC came into the game with 5 yellow cards and a red in their first 2 games, and we were determined to use their lack of discipline to our advantage. They had plenty of talent in their squad with a combined 100+ USA caps in their midfield, but they seemed more interested in contesting every decision than actually playing hockey. We came out hard and goals from Steve and Shahid in the first 5 minutes set the tone. From there we kept pushing hard and by the break we were cruising at 5-1, further goals coming from Julian, Klaus and another from Shahid. In the second half we pretty much consolidated our position and took the foot off in light of future games, but not before Julian had scored a beautiful goal, undercutting the ball into the top right corner from the left of the circle.

Game 4: CFHC 2 - 3 Rye
This was a real heartbreaker at the time, but looking back I'm really proud that it took a last minute goal for the tournament champions to beat us. After a very tight high tempo first ten minutes that belied the fact it was 8am on a Sunday morning, Derek crossed from the right to Faizal who was hacked as he prepared to shoot, a no-doubt penalty! Shahid put it away cooly to give us the lead. Rye, the only other unbeaten team on Saturday responded, but it took a questionable short corner for them to level the contest shortly before half time. The pressure continued in the second half but it certainly wasn't one way traffic, we always looked dangerous on the break and at the back, Simon and Richie were more than a match for probably the best striker in the tournament. With five minutes to go, Rye took the lead but CFHC rallied and Steve deflected a free hit by Derek from just outside the D two minutes later to make it 2-2. While it would have been a well deserved draw, we couldn't hold out and a deflected cross from the left found the goal with virtually the last touch of the game and we went down 3-2.

Game 5: CFHC 0 - 7 Toronto Lions
So this was physically just a game too far. Toronto were just too fast and fit for us. We got off to a bad start, conceding early which seemed to affect our confidence. Rye had shown that the way to compete with Toronto was to keep it very tight for 10-15 minutes and frustrate their attacking flair and gradually they become impatient. We weren't able to do that and it was a rough 50 minutes for us. To be fair to our guys, the scoreline may suggest that the towel was thrown in but that definitely wasn't the case. For our fifth game on a hot Sunday afternoon, everyone kept working as much as they could, but we just couldn't match their speed unfortunately. It was a disappointing way to end what had been a great weekend, but I don't believe it detracts from the progress we had made earlier in the tournament and it serves as an example of where we need to get to next year. If we can compete with Rye and Rye can beat the Lions twice over the weekend (the final ended 1-1 and Rye won on strokes) it means that we aren't that far away despite the one sided scoreline.

Overall it was a really satisfying weekend to come third in a tournament of this quality. We played excellent hockey at times, with great passion and in a tournament with a lot of discipline problems we had one green and one yellow card in the 5 games something everyone should be proud of.