There was to be no contentment following the match against Cypress Creek as our Spartans took their first loss 0 – 1 in district play on Tuesday, January 21.  There was a smattering of Stratford fans out for the away game mixed in with a boisterous and rowdy group of Cypress Creek faithful.  The match started innocently enough with each team taking its share of possession.  But as the half went on, Cypress Creek’s quickness started to show its edge.  Combined with a high-pressure defense and Cypress Creek’s increasing level of physical play no fouls forthcoming, it looked like our Spartans were in for a long night.  But as you might expect from previous game reports faithful reader, the Stratford defense held its own.  Nathan Siciliano, Milan Jokic and Babba Ndaye all made good defensive plays against the Cypress Creek pressure.  Alex Gutierrez also was solid in goal with a deflection of a rocket that went out for a corner and later a save off a point-blank shot fed in from a right-side run.  But it was not entirely all Cypress Creek as Stratford pulled off some good penetrations.  Jack Manke made an individual run at 18 minutes in with a shot that was out for a goal kick.  And with 10 minutes left in the half Patrick Ndaye made a nice crossing pass from left to right that was just a touch long for Will Emerson.  But the difference in the game came with 7 minutes in the half as Cypress Creek had a free-kick following a Stratford foul a few yards outside the penalty area.  The kick was well placed as Cypress got two shots off that Alex was able to block.  But the rebound after the second block bounced to another Cypress Creek player for the go-ahead goal.  Patrick Ndaye provided the rest of the Stratford offensive chances in the half with shots at two minutes to go and then right at the end.  But this was for naught as the half ended with Stratford on the nil side of the 0 - 1 score.

The beginning of the second half provided some cause for optimism as Stratford maintained possession for the first two minutes.  But Cypress Creek pulled off three consecutive possession wins just getting to the ball a little quicker than our Spartans.  Stratford’s best opportunities can near the end of the game.  With 16 minutes left, Will Emerson made a great possession win out of the left corner and got off a threatening centering pass to Jack Manke, but the shot was wide.  Stratford was able to free Francies Galdino once each on the left and right sides of the field.  But the first shot went wide and the second went right to the opposing goalkeeper.  Possibly the best chance for Stratford came with less than two minutes as Milan Jokic lined up a free kick on the right side near the corner.  Jack Manke got a foot on the feed but it was deflected up hitting the goal crossbar going out for a goal kick.  That was mostly it soccer fans, with the exception of the opposing coach getting a yellow card after vociferously complaining when the referee put 20 seconds back on the clock following a timekeeping snafu.  But that only allowed time for the Stratford fans to ponder why the ball boys were absent for the last 10 minutes of the game.  Hmm.

There was contentment, dare say joy, to be had with the results of the home game against a determined Northbrook on January 24 th at Tully.  The venue change was due to the repeated story of early day rains leaving the Backyard grass a tad soggy.  The Spartans pulled off a 3 – 0 win with all three goals coming in the first half.  The beginning of the game was unusual as it consisted of each team trading runs deep into each other’s ends but coming up empty.  The back and forth play was enough to give your humble reporter whiplash.  But the stalemate was broken with 18 minutes in the half as Patrick Ndaye made a strong left side run getting off a pass to Francies Galdino.  Francies promptly directed the ball back to the left to a waiting Jack Manke for the score.  Patrick and Jack combined for the next goal with Jack making the pass to a crashing Patrick who headed the ball in for a 2 – 0 score.  By this time, it was apparent that Stratford was starting to take advantage of the Northbrook defensive style which could be best described as anticipatory.  The dichotomy, if you can use that word in soccer, between the Northbrook defense and that applied by Cypress Creek was hugemongus (official soccer term).  Do you doubt your humble reporter’s observational powers?  The first foul in the game came with a little less than 12 minutes left in the half, providing evidence to the defensive style of both teams.  Back to the offense.  The third goal came with 3 minutes left in the half as Yuto Komiya found himself alone with the ball on the right side.  He got off the shot, which the goalie got a small piece of, but the ball still made its way into the net.  Yuto seems to have a high percentage of shots made to shots attempted.  We will have to see if that holds up.  The half ends with Stratford up with a comfortable 3 – 0 lead.

However, the dichotomy in the score seemed to be a wake-up call for the visiting team as it was a more aggressive and energetic Northbrook that came out for the second half.  They pressed more on defense and played quicker to free balls.  This had the ultimate result of balancing the overall possession more evenly between the teams.  And as you may deduce from the lack of scoring, this significantly reduced the number of offensive opportunities that Stratford was able to conjure.  The number of fouls jumped higher with this more intense level of play with Jack Manke and Milan Jokic each earning yellow cards.  But this was just indicative of the Stratford overall defensive play rising to meet what Northbrook was doing.  Alex Gutierrez had a lot of stops in goal compared to what Nick Hay had in the first half, but none were heart-stopping with the backside defensive pressure.  Well, your humble reporter is running up against the self-imposed per game word limit.  The Spartans get the bad taste out of our mouths from the loss earlier in the week with a 3 – 0 win.  This sets us up well for an away game against Memorial on Tuesday, January 28 th and then back home on January 31 st against Cy-Fair.  See you at the pitch!