Written by: Brandon Best – Pictures by Destiny Fernandez

Sunday September 17, 2011

Starting XI: Campbell, Marks, Miller, Burstein, Wilson, DelPiccolo, Ogletree, Yarletts, Greenley, Marchant, Firebaugh

Subs: Best, Elbin, Hengeli, Bourland, Burns, Gonzalez

Commerce City, CO (Dick’s Sporting Goods Park) –

Good teams can often find themselves in trouble when playing lesser opponents, especially ones that are sitting at the bottom of the table.  Great teams may struggle a bit against these types of teams, but in the end they always find a way to prevail.  This past Sunday at the Dick, FC Denver Premier showed that they have gone from a good team to a great team in their game against cellar dwellers Saprissa. It was only within the past couple of years that a 9 man Saprissa side was able to beat FC Denver Premier, after the Green and Gray had failed to finish their early opportunities.  With the influx of talent to the FC Denver program and a culture of winning that has been cultivated by the club’s leadership, the outcome of this past Sunday’s match was rarely in doubt.

At kick off, Saprissa looked to be the more organized of the two clubs as they had good numbers on the bench and had actually put in a decent warm-up.  However, after the whistle blew, it was all FC Denver for the next 90 minutes.  Rarely did Saprissa get a dangerous forward movement going, before the FC Denver defense was shutting them.  The continued steady play of the Ian Campbell, Tom Marks, Joel Miller, Mario Burstein, and Juan Gonzalez, would stymie any attacking efforts Saprissa made, long before they could threaten the goal.  About the only hope Saprissa had on the day was that they could hit a long ball up top to a streaking forward, but that would prove fruitless as the FC Denver defense was dominating in the air.  It was only on the rare occasion when Premier failed to win the second ball that Saprissa could gain possession past their half of the field.  With the defense solid as usual, it would be up to the FC Denver offense to prove that they were a class above the competition.  For the majority of the game, Premier was able to possess the ball on all parts of the field.  Numerous dangerous opportunities were created both out of the middle of the park and on the flanks.  FC Denver players were running at Saprissa one on one, looking for quick combinations, hitting dangerous crosses, and generally running amok.  The one thing lacking was a ball in the back of the net.

The first goal of the day would start with an impressive individual effort by Michael Ogletree just past the halfway line, to dribble out of the tackles of three Saprissa players in short succession.  His pass up top to Kyle Firebaugh was also spot on.  Once the ball found its way to the feet of the Skipper, he popped it up over the defender on his back and into the path of the speedy George Marchant, who was able to convince to Saprissa defenders to jump up with him, before coming down first, collecting the ball and slotting a shot to the left of the goalie.  Soon after the goal, FC Denver Premier had a couple of good opportunities set up by Curtis Greenley and Firebaugh to go ahead by even more goals, but both opportunities went wanting.

The second half saw more impressive combination play between FC Denver players, in particular Brady Yarletts seemed to be controlling the strings as an attacking midfield player and did well to create some decent opportunities.  Kyle Burns was also a terror for the Saprissa defense while playing on the flanks.  Off of a free kick near midfield, Burns back heeled the ball to Joel Miller who sent the ball out wide, where it then found its way back into the middle of the park and to the feet of Marchant.  His low hard shot just squeezed between the keeper’s legs before sitting up in front of goal , where he could run on and finish the deal, putting FC Denver up 2-0.  At this point in the game FC Denver could sense the frustration growing on the Saprissa squad and continued to pressure their players.  Kevin Bourland would put the game out of reach for Saprissa when his high pressure up top, would lead to a poor back pass from Saprissa’s central defender.  Bourland was more than happy to show his attacking chops by intercepting the pass, pushing the ball around the keeper, and keeping it cooler than Fernando Torres when putting the ball straight into the back of the net.  With his haircut and tattoos, the only difference between the two, may be that Bourland has shown he can actually score and the 175,000 pounds a week Torres is receiving.   There would be no surprise upset this weekend as Campbell was only called on once in the second half to make a save.

Next week FC Denver will take on AC Legends at 3 in Broomfield and this author will see if he can terrorize them for a full 90 minutes rather than the 20 he was allotted the last time these two squads met.

Coach Firebaugh’s thoughts on the match:

Saprissa is a team that has given us fits before. They don’t have great talent or a star player. They just work hard to frustrate you. After 25 minutes of being frustrated I walked over to George on the field and told him that this is one of those games that we are going to scrap to get the first goal. Two minutes later, we netted the first.
We stuck to our game plan and style. We knew that we needed to dominate the center of the park and win 1st and 2nd balls in the air, and I thought we did that in the second 45. We know that we should have scored more times and done better in the final third. Its something we will continue to work on and get better at over the next few weeks if we want to be champions of this league.

Man of the Match:

Congratulations to Tyler Wilson!  According to Coach Firebaugh, the Metro State student is, “finding his niche on our team. I think we had him a little out of position early in the season and now he is starting to progress and be dangerous for us in the middle of the field”.

Sunday September 11^th, 2011

Starting XI: Campbell, Gonzalez, Miller, Marks, DelPiccolo, Woodworth, Greenley, Firebaugh, Ogletree, Marchant, Bravo

Subs: Best, Harrison, Elbin, Burns, Bourland, Kroening, Yarletts

FC Denver Premier was anxious to take on the Rapids “Development” squad at Broomfield Commons Park this Sunday.  The players were hoping to see how they stacked up against team representing the local MLS club.  When they arrived at the field they were surprised to find themselves against players whose parents had to drive them to the field.  While the age of the Rapids Development team was somewhere south of 18, they had signed up for a men’s league and their first test would be against the best men’s league team in the state.

The start of the match would see the youthful exuberance of the Rapids Development team catch FC Denver Premier a little unprepared.  While no chances ever threatened goal, the pace of the game led to a very fragmented affair for the first 10 minutes.  With neither side able to establish themselves offensively in the early going, the importance of having an organized defense and a strong effort on all parts of the field became abundantly clear.  The effort of FC Denver on both sides of the ball began to pay dividends about midway through the first half and high pressure that the Rapids Development squad had displayed in the early going, subsided to their half of the field.  With the recessed pressure, FC Denver was better able to impose their style of play and had the better chances going forward.  Michael Ogletree was unfortunate to not open up his scoring account for the season when his shot beat the keeper but was unable to beat the post.  FC Denver was unfortunate on several occasions not to open the scoring in the first half.  The stats would show that FC Denver was the aggressor as the Rapids Development team had zero corners to FC Denver’s 6 and had Zero shots to Denver’s 5.

One of the real positives to having a consistent group of players that are willing to work hard and that have a firm belief in each other is that even when a game hasn’t gone exactly to plan, there is never a sense of panic.  So it was in the second half that FC Denver took the field with the full belief that they would prevail when the final whistle blew.  As they had in the first half, FC Denver’s defense was a rock that completely took the Rapids Developmental forwards out of the equation.  Out of the back, FC Denver were able to start running at the Rapids Developmental defense and began to make better use of the wide lanes that had opened up.  Unable to keep up with the “old men” of FC Denver, the Rapids Developmental squad had to rely on their ability to grab and hold their opponents to try and stay in the game.  Too bad for them that they weren’t able to hold on to George Marchant when he unleashed a wicked shot from just outside the 18 yard box that left the keeper flailing at air.  Sensing blood in the water, FC Denver Premier kept up their pressure and absolutely closed down their opponent everywhere on the field.  This was most apparent in the midfield where Jesse Woodworth and Marco DelPiccolo were busy busting up any attack before it had an opportunity to materialize.  When you are able to hold the ball so far up the field, you are able to spring quick attacks and it was from just a situation that FC Denver’s insurance goal came.  A through ball from the FC Denver midfield looked like it would be gobbled up by the Rapids Development keeper, but the strong pressure from Kyle Burns made him wet his diaper and bumble a routine save.  Burns knew what to do when he found the ball at his feet and put the game away.  From there it was only a question if FC Denver could make it three.  They couldn’t.

Skipper Firebaugh’s thoughts on the match:

“I think offensively we struggled a little bit. Our starting front line had trouble breaking through the center of the field because the outside defenders pinched so far inside and broke up plays going through the middle. We are so lucky to have players available with such a different style of attack. When we make a substitution, it’s not only a change of players, but a change in the style of play. I think Kyle Burns, Chris Harrison, and Brandon Best make us so dangerous from the outside when they come into the game. Defensively, that’s the best I’ve seen us play in awhile. So composed and so organized. It makes the entire game easier when you have that kind of confidence in your defense. Well played gents.”

Co-Coach Elbin added:

“We forced the opponent to give us time on the ball by going at guys early and beating them. This made it a lot easier to move the ball around and get the ball into some dangerous wide situations.“

Congratulations to this season’s first co-Man of the Match recipients:

Jesse Woodworth and Marco DelPiccolo

According to Skipper Firebaugh:

“I think going into the game against a brand new league opponent can be difficult. No one has seen their players, no one knows their style… you can only assume so many things. In soccer, you can’t be too one dimensional in your attack. Especially if that one style is not working! Our opponents today did their best to play the long ball on us and it just doesn’t work when you’ve got an experienced backline like ours. The workrate of Jesse and Marco was amazing. Their defensive coverage in the middle of the pitch forced the other team to play the ball long right into the hands of our defense. I can count on one hand the amount of times the other team strung together more than 2 passes in the middle of the field. Amazing.”