Football Champions

Tonight I’ve decided to try something new. I’m typing up this blog entry and will post it once I get home (I’d have posted it from here, but I can’t get any WiFi signal here at Haws Field). Hopefully this goes pretty well.

After last weeks loss, BYU coach Chris Watkins talked about using the remainder of the season to get younger players some time as the Cougars build toward next season. Given the rivalry between these two teams you’ve got to think that the grooming process might have to wait for another game. We’ll see how things look when we get to game time.

Okay, BYU’s starting lineup seems like it’s pretty seasoned. It looks like the rivalry trumps last week's comments.

Game starts

At five minutes in, the game has been fairly balanced BYU has had a bit more posession, but Ogde has looked more organized. I still think BYU loses too much posession on the long balls they tend to play out of the back.

Jordan Cushman is taking the right side corners tonight.

Drew took a bit of a knock in the 12th minute, but game back onto the field quickly and doesn’t seem ot have lost a step.

Fifteen menutes in and things are about the same, BYU seems more energetic but not as crisp as Ogden.

BYU is starting to look like they’re getting it together. Their passing is more crisp and they’re winning more balls and creating some chances.

at the thirtieth minute BYU is controlling most of the possession, but can’t put the final touch together. They look pretty solid on defense though, when Ogden does gain control and pressese the attack. Steve Fellows almost put in a beautiful cross by Zach DeFrancis, bu the effort goes just wide.

I can’t tell if BYU’s problems are chemistry or concentration. They show flashes of great play, putting together good passes and nice control, but then drop a cross into a slot without a runner coming on to it.

Ogden puts a nice attack together with about nine minutes left in the hald, but it comes to naught as the shot is over the crossbar. The Outlaws continue to come on strong as time is winding down, they’ve put together three or four good attacks while allowing BYU only one.

Maybe I spoke too soon, with about two minutes left, BYU get’s a great run from Steve Fellows resulting in a corner kick. Derek Taylor gets on the end of it, but puts a header high and left. They take the ball back just past midfield and drive again, only to see a beautiful ball go just left of the goal.

Britton Osborn earns a yellow with a minute left on the clock, but Ogden isn’t able to capitalize. Brit continued to jaw at the ref, and could well have drawn a red.

End of first half.

Overall, the center ref has been a bit hesitant to call anything, but the game hasn’t gotten out of control. Neither team has been able to put their stamp on the game. It's been great fun to watch so far, I'm looking forward to a strong second half.

Second half starts

Ogden has owned the game in the early minutes of the second half, controlling posession and forcing two corner kicks.

BYU is able to take back some possession and go on the attack, though Zack DeFrancis put the final shot wide.

(BYU) Curt Graham goes in for Derek Taylor in the fifty-second minute. The substitution pays of moments later as Curt puts the ball in the back of the net.

0-1 BYU

The Ogden bench is steaming abut what they’re claiming are non-calls. But they manage to put a sitter over the crossbar when it’s dropped in their lap. You can complain about the refs all you want, but you have to make those shots if you want to win a game.

Play has evened out a bit, both sides are attacking well and looking dangerous.

Ogden makes a double substitution, let’s see if it pays off as well from them.

BYU counters with a substitution of their own, brining Steve Magleby on for Jordan Cushman.

Ogden has been on the attack, but is a call or two and a big save from Brandon Gilliam from equalizing.

BYU just dodged a bullet with a goal line clearance on a a shot by Ogden 21. Ogden earns a corner from the clearance though.

BYU subs their captain off, with #26 going on in his place. It looks like a trade for fresh legs and a bit of height.

Ogden equalizes on a beautiful cross to an unmarked Kyle Christenson.

1-1 Ogden

BYU gets it right back on a quick goal by Steve Fellows (assist Brit Osborne). One of the Ogden players had stepped out of play with an equipment problem and BYU struck fast.

1-2 BYU

BYU nearly picked up another goal as Steve Fellows drove a nice pass just beyond a driving Zack DeFrancis.

Another sub on both sides are standing on the side just waiting to be signaled in. BYU’s Zack DeFrancis is coming of and being replaced by Jace Green. While James Jarmillo is being replaced by Zach VanWagenen for Ogden.

BYU misses wide left on a nice shot by Jace Green. Brit Osborn is coming off and Scott Heaton replaces him after the shot.

Steve Magleby is able to take a shot, but it’s a low roller that’s easily stopped by Ogden’s keeper.

BYU has controlled the last 10 minutes or so of the game at the end of regulation. The ref has indicated 3 minutes of stoppage time, and the Ogden bench is going crazy.

Jace Green gets another great chance, but the Ogden keeper is able to touch it wide.

End of game

This was a very fun game to watch. The Ogden coaches and players are obviously still unhappy, but I don't think either team was unduly favored by the ref tonight. As usual, there were more chances left on the field by both teams than potential scoring opportunities lost to bad calls or non-calls.

There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, and it’s finally percolated long enough that I wanted to get it out in front of everyone to see what you think. We’ve got two solid PDL teams here in Utah (and could probably support a third in Salt Lake City if it came to that). They play a pretty fierce rivalry (even if it’s been a bit one-sided so far), but I think there’s a way to get the clubs, and their fans, a bit more involved.

What we need is … ‘the Utah Derby’. A fan supported cup awarded to the Utah PDL team with the best record against in-state foes each year. It wouldn’t take much more than a handful of fans from each team (or maybe a sponsor or two) to kick in some money for a trophy to get this started. I’d like to think that the teams themselves would be interested.

This is certainly something that’s done in other parts of the soccer world—heck, the Rocky Mountain Cup even includes a Utah team. Making it happen along the Wasatch Front could be a great way to build an even better rivalry between Ogden and BYU, give more fans a reason to travel to the nearby away games, and maybe even put some more fans in the seats if we can get the local press going on it.

So here’s what it comes down to, if this is going to happen we’ll need to start organizing now for the 2008 PDL season. Anyone else want to get involved?

The simple recap:

It wasn’t a pretty game, but we came away with three points.

The longer story:

For the first two-thirds of the game, neither side really looked like they wanted the win. Ogden played a very tightly packed, defensive game while BYU spend a long time playing around the wings and probing for an exploitable weakness. Both sides managed to create some chances, but weren’t able to capitilize due to poor finishing.

A BYU triple subsitution in the 55th minute led to some crisper, more energetic play and, eventually, a goal in the 69th minute by Tyson Miller (assisted by Brock Trejo). Coach Watkins said “[O]ur subs came up big for us. We have come to rely on them.”

I’ve heard several people call Trejo the best player on the team, and on this goal he showed why he gets such praise. He took possesion of the ball in the box and drew the goal keeper and a couple of defenders, then cooly dumped a pass off to Miller who was wide open less than ten feet from the open goal.

Once again the ref didn’t do a very good job of controlling the game. There were a number of missed or bad calls early on, and only when the match got close did he really start to enforce things. Even then, there were two ref’s decisions that could have cost BYU the game.

1. The first came around the 70th minute (I didn’t catch the exact time), when Ogden substituted Ken Hickman onto the field even though he wasn’t on the sub list. Coach Watkins spent some significant time trying to get the refs to call this, but seemed to be warned that if he kept it up he’d get tossed. Not a good call by the officials involved, we’ll have to see what the USL does about it.


2. The second was a Yellow Card awarded to Zach DeFrancis (last week’s PDL Player of the Week ) in the 81st minute. The call really seemed like a reach for what looked like a pretty minor foul. It was compounded a minute later when DeFrancis was awarded a second yellow (this one deserved) and ejected.

With this win, BYU is 11 points ahead of FC Tacoma in the standings. Tacoma has 12 points still available in their season so a Tacoma loss or tie, or a BYU win in any upcoming game will clinch the division for BYU. Tacoma faces the Cascade surge on Friday and the Yakima Reds on Saturday—what can I say but ‘Go Cascades! Go Reds!’

BYU will face Ogden again when they travel to Ogden on Saturday to play the final game of their intra-Utah series (which BYU leads 2-0-1). Given the history between the two teams, this should be another close fought game.

Dan Rasmussen, over at the Deseret Morning news has written a piece on the BYU-Ogden game tonight. It includes some background on the two teams (more on BYU than Ogden), as well as notice that it will be on BYU-TV—a channel that appears on a lot of cable/dish line-ups. So if you’re interested in watching a USL game tonight, it just might be possible (July 11th, 7PM MDT).

I may record the game to watch again later, but I should be there for another (I hope) BYU win.

Last night we headed out to BYU’s South Field along with 800+ other folks. It turs out that BYU passed out some kind of flyer at the July 4th parade earlier in the day and pulled in a huge crowd in comparison to the others I’ve watched. There was even a significant Ogden contigent there—I guess since they’re only about 2 hours away that shouldn’t surprise me. BYU really blew it though, by not opening there concession stand. As hot as it was, they would have made a killing.

The game itself was pretty physical (27 fouls and 5 Yellow Cards) and really poorly ref’ed with a number of phantom and non-calls. I don’t think Ogden can complain too much about the calls though, as both teams seemed to be hit equally by the bad officiating.

Ogden controlled the first five to ten minutes of the game, but weren’t able to capitalize on it. BYU finally settled into the game, and started to win more possession and Ogden started to play more of a counter-attacking game. The first score came on a quick counter in the 23rd minute with Kyle Christensen putting the ball into the net. Zack DeFrancis equalized for BYU in the 42nd minute and the teams were tied going into the half.

BYU opened the second half scoring with a header by Brock Trejo off of a free kick in the 56th minute. Ogden’s Matt Broadhead converted a questionable penalty kick in the 65th minute to even the score again. Zack DeFrancis scored the second goal of his brace just a minute later to put BYU ahead for good. Brock Trejo scored his second goal of the night in the 76th minute, on another set play. Second half subs David Clark and Steve Fellows added goals in the 83rd and 87th minutes.

In my view, Trejo was the man of the match, with stiff competition from DeFrancis and Richie Bindrup. I hope one or more of them gets a nod from the PDL player of the week for their efforts.

(I should be posting pictures later tonight, I just didn’t get to downloading them this morning.)