Spring 2010

What a season!

Spring 2010 was one of the best on record. We made it all the way to the championship game, and until the last 20 minutes of the match, looked in decent position to win the division. We were just a few plays short. That's the nature of competition. As I said in some blog post or email, there 8 other teams in the division - some 200 players - who didn't make it as far as we did. We were good. Yes, we had 3 losses, but we rebounded and put together a great end-of-season run and playoff campaign.

Our quality was impressive. We had a flow in our attack that was new. Sure, we're not great at lateral movement yet - switching fields and moving up the wings - but we can move the ball effectively. The pinnacle in quality was the kickoff of the second half in the quarterfinals versus Taz Devils. We linked about 6 efficient passes together and scored directly off the kickoff. The other team never touched the ball. Read about it here.

Here are some facts about spring season:

• We were 4-3-1, a .571 record. Given that we were 2-3 in Week 5, this is excellent. We accelerated out of the relegation zone all the way to the championship game. I don't put much stock in the forfeit win affecting our season. I think we would have shown well against Lost Tourists.

• We scored the most goals of any team (22 regular season, 31 overall). I think it's a club record for us to finish first in this category. I'm not sure what our highest goal total is in a single season. In the Montgomery County league, circa 2004, when Chris and Justin lit it up, we probably exceeded 22 goals by a substantial margin. Of course, that league wasn't as competitive as CCSL.

• Our GD this season was +6 in the regular season, which is solid. In our last five games, we outscored opponents 19-10. Take away our 3-1 loss in the last game and that looks crazy (18-7). Since we are not traditionally a big scoring team, be happy. We also did it on the strength many players, both men and women, instead of one dominant goal scorer like many of the 1st Division and Premier teams have.

• Due to our playoff run, we beat most of the teams in the division. The only teams that we didn't beat were Tsunami (Game 1), DC Thunder (tie in Game 8, although we were headed for victory before our game was scratched by lightning), and Little Urban Achievers (championship game). We avenged our regular season losses to Taz Devils and Itchy & Scratchy in the playoffs.

• We played in our 3rd league championship game, and our 5th overall if you count tournaments. We are 0-5 in those matches. That's got to change! Spring has been our season in CCSL. We had a chance for the playoff title in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, and Spring 2010.

• We scored three times off set pieces. Adrian's dominant free kick and Chris' once-in-a-lifetime score directly off a corner in the semis were highlights.

• No game got beyond our control. That has been a problem in past seasons. At one game, we'll just not show up and end up losing by 4-5 goals.

Here are the results for the season:

SPRING 2010 (4-3-1, .571)




2nd Place in Division Playoffs




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2-1 loss to Tsunami on 3/28




4-1 win vs Celtic on 4/18




3-0 win vs Lost Tourists on 4/25 (forfeit decision)




3-2 loss vs Itchy & Scratchy on 5/2




5-2 shorthanded loss to Taz Devils on 5/9




5-3 win vs Diplomats on 5/16




4-1 win vs DC Divided on 5/23




1-1 tie vs DC Thunder on 6/9




PLAYOFFS




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QUARTERS - 4-1 win vs Taz Devils on 6/13




SEMIS - 4-1 win vs Itchy & Scratchy on 6/20




FINALS - 3-1 loss to Little Urban Achievers on 6/27

Read the game reports for each game here.

Not pictured in the team photo: Alec, Carlos, Anna, Andrea, Katya, Liam, Jackie, Tracy, Mike, Ermy.