Subject: Voyageur Cup - Season 14

A couple decent matches in the final 4.

Valiant's first two goals were both 50-50 headers. Always consider those ones pretty lucky. The result on the scoreboard should have been closer.

The Ruutel injury was disappointing for 3rd party fans. :S Striker is a position without much depth on B&O. Goals were going to be hard to come by after that. Game still managed to be pretty interesting.

So a match-up we've seen before in the final. Should be good. :)

Well, our game was closer than I thought even tho it was vs your reserves!

But nothing lucky about Broussard's headers! Barring the penalty, the remaining 4 goals were all Broussard headers from almost the same spot with Wawrzak frozen to admire the beauty of the goals. The difference is the quality of the players. Broussard is rated at ~$2M whereas my Ds come in at $800k to 1.1M. With Wawrzak, Cochran and Urs all rated at Magical D and Outstanding speed, it's kinda scary to think what Broussard's skill levels must be! :))

When watching goals like that, I wish SK could give keepers the capability to come off their line and clutch or punch the ball clear. But Hederman just stays glued to his line taking pictures with his phone to show his grandkids!

Should be an exciting final. May the best team win!!

Don't think I can say those were my reserves. Only 3 of the starters are players I don't consider amoung my best 11 (and of those 3 Parise is NT). You saw pretty close to full power, and your team acquitted itself well. The margin was inflated IMO.

Broussard did play well ... he actually only has 1 skill above brilliant. For me, one of the real key differences in the match was the quality of the service from attacking positions. Sierny and Ortiz provided some high quality crosses. The cross for the 4th goal is one of the nicest I've seen in some time.

Each time I watch your squad play I'm impressed with Urs. He was stalwart again in this one ... had the two toughest tasks marking Ortiz and Broussard, and performed admirably.

I fully agree with your keeper suggestion. :) Goalies can come off their line to challenge strikers ... one would think they could be tweaked to do the same for crosses. Would be hard on guys like my Fourrier who aren't super pacey.

Now you mention it, you were much closer to full strength than I realized. I feel better now about my showing! I was overly influenced by the absence of Biron and Curley up front and the similarity of our ratings. And I see now that you normally split Boutet and Kampa in both league and cup. Also, I didn't give Broussard enough credit ;)

Btw, talking of keepers leaving their lines, in the other game, I wonder how many people noticed that weird move by DBR's Clemens rushing out in the 72nd minute. I thought it looked strange because Iginla was collecting the ball near the bye line but Clemens was headed upfield, away from the ball! He actually passed inside another B&O player and, when Iginla got the ball back, he could have tapped it into the wide open net. Instead he tapped it straight to Clemens! Was Clemens crazy or does he have anticipation superpowers?!! Maybe, SK was experimenting with keepers anticipating crosses ?!!.

I really hope they implement keeper tactics soon, they did say that it was on their list of things to add soon. It is really important to my style of play, and I have been adjusting my tactics to try and compensate, but I would rather have an aggressive keeper take care of the crosses than push my wingbacks wide and create a seam in my defenses. Anyways, soon I hope.

It seems to me that keepers staying on their line makes these crosses a higher probability chance to score. If the striker wins the header he has most of the net to shoot at. On a 1 vs. 1 break, the keeper rush out cuts the angle "shrinking" the net.

So ... final tonight. I think this is the "mode" of Voyageur Cup match ups. The last one wasn't great, but DBR seems to have kept their front line players back for the final this time, so it should be better.

The LeBlanc injury doesn't help the Rover cause. My sense is that LeBlanc is one of DBR's best technical players. He has been a handful in recent meetings. There are some capable stand-ins ... maybe Dudic?

VFC gets a boost with the return of Mannila and Holden from injury. Though not starting, both Curley and Biron came off early on Sunday and are expected to make appearances.

Pretty good cup final. :) I think that's the first time my club has played overtime in Sokker.

Two distinct halves. Thought Valiant was the stronger in the first half, while DB Rovers had their tails up in the second. DBR defense made some unfortunate clumsy mistakes in the overtime which VFC was able to capitalize on. None of the OT goals were very pretty.

Rovers covered the absence of LeBlanc well - Nesta was effective down the left side (coincidence there was an ebb in his team's play after he was injured?).