Wake Forest vs. Ohio State: NCAA Championship
I'm happy to inform you all that I am home safely and firmly planted on the couch for the next two hours and looking forward to watching Wake win a National Championship. We should be less than 10 minutes away from the start of the game, and as much as I wish I was there I'm still going to enjoy it quite a lot here. I'll be giving my thoughts throughout so check back throughout, but no play by play since it's on TV. Let's get it done!
39:00 - Not much of note yet. Ohio State had one set piece opportunity but covered it well. Wind looks like it could be a bit of a factor. Long shot from Ohio State - actually a pretty good shot but wide left.
35:30 - WHOA...CLOSE CALL. OSU played a great ball and had two shooting opportunities but the defense held strong (OSU probably didn't do as much with it as they should have). Lucky to get out of that 0-0.
32:56 - Well now we're in a hole. OSU goal off a corner, shot by Espinoza goes right through the legs of Franks. Not too much that could have been done, just a good shot. We've got to come up with a response now. Wake down 0-1.
34:30 - Wake responds, very nearly a goal, but Phelan or Arnoux (couldn't tell) was less than a step offsides. Exciting stuff so far.
28:40 - Yellow Card for OSU, not entirely sure it was deserved. Decent looking shot off the free kick, but nothing there. I'm thinking that being down a goal may actually loosen us up and we'll play better now. We'll see. We're already attacking better.
24:00 - love the "Wake" "Forest" cheer. Definitely our crowd. Free kick for the Deacs...well defended by OSU.
16:00 - We're working hard, but not getting much. Good free kick at the near post, big corner kick but nothing.
14:00 - Not sure why our defense is struggling so much, they just keep letting them get open opportunities without much pressure. The offense is attacking well but I'm worried we'll give up another goal.
11:31 - Not a good shot from Schilawski there. Had a wide open shot and looked like he tried to put it in the upper right corner but couldn't keep it low enough.
9:02 - We just got screwed. Absolutely a foul, the ball was not touched at all. I cannot believe we didn't ge that penalty. Terrible terrible job of officiating. He blew that one.
8:00 - Well Schilawski just got a little lazy - probably pissed off about the no call on the foul in the goal, which I can understand, but that does us no good. I'm still very very mad.
Half - Tough half for the Deacs. I'm not even sure we had many shots even though it seemed like we had lots of offensive opportunities. We definitely got screwed by the refs, but the fact is that OSU has still played better than we have. OSU plays physically and works hard to keep us from getting good offensive opportunities. On the other side our defense has not played well at all and OSU was able to capitalize. We're not out of it, but we've got to come up with something. Don't want lose an opportunity like this. Deacs down 1-0 (Basketball update - Deacs up 66-54 with a few minutes left in the game against Bucknell).
43:00 - I really like the fact that Schilawski went ahead and shot that instead of doing something cute with it. That's what we're going to need to do this half - take the opportunities we are given. This game still has a couple goals in it.
39:00 - Well we blew that Corner kick opportunity. What are we doing out there? I'm starting to feel like I'm watching our basketball team right now.
32:30 - Big corner here. Let's actually hit one here....we did but nothing. Phalan got a foot on a shot from the 18 but way high.
30:27 - Free kick here, important set piece. deflected by the wall and still nothing. We're absolutely struggling here, but Edwards is on his way in we'll see what we can get.
28:20 - Well of course there was no call in the box, although this time it was probably the right call. I guess soccer refs don't do make up calls. Frustration yellow card there - missed who got it.
27:15 - finally a cross from the Deacs, got a head on it but not quite enough. We need more of that to get back in this game. The announcers keep talking about needing Marcus Tracy to do something for us, but I'm ont sure he's going to be the answer. I guess when you've only seen one game you can only go off of that performance, but we've got much more firepower than just Tracy.
26:00 - Decent opportunity for Arnoux there (maybe Bone) but OSU's goalie did a good job coming to get it. Still not getting to much on goal.
23:59 - THERE IT IS!!!!! Marcus Tracy on the goal with the assist from Cody Arnoux. Beautiful job capitalizing on the OSU mistake. Time to go get another one for the win. This could be a huge momentum shift.
22:20 - And.....a TV timeout. Still ridiculous, but if that's what it takes to get these games on TV then I guess I'm okay with it. Anyway great goal (although it looks like the assistant made the wrong call on the ball still being in. I guess that's the make-up call we needed. Marcus Tracy was very stoic with his celebration, definitely looking for another one.
18:12 - Wow, definitely looked like it was going to be another goal, but on the replay it looks like the goalie actually got a hand on the initial almost-shot. Great play by him, even though I still think we should have been able to take the lead there.
15:44 - Great offensive series there for the Deacs but nothing came of it. I like the effort and the way we controlled the ball. got a good header opportunity. We may still have one in this.
12:47 - GOALLLLLLLLL....Schilawski on the pass from Tracy. Great Great shot, and even more impressvie job by Tracy to get him the ball. I don't konw what Ohio State's goalie is so mad about, but he was really pissed. Amazing goal, now lets put the clamps on.
9:45 - Jules Valentin got cut bad in the face by a terrible high kick on OSU's goal scorer Espinoza. That hurts very badly. I think that should have been a red not a yellow.
5:02 - WOW, TRACY MISSES JUST LEFT ON A WIDE OPEN NET. Looked like a goal for sure on a great run by Schilawski do get the ball to a wide open Tracy. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite us.
3:38 - Almost another goal. Wow. Great play by the goalie this time.
1:12 - Brian Edwards on an incredible catch there off the corner. 1 minute to go. Let's finish the job.
FINAL - WAKE FOREST 2007 MEN'S SOCCER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. GO DEACS!
