Daniel Phelps and Stephen Fung's Husky Men's Soccer Blog

Oct. 31, 2008

Fung

Phelps

Going all the way back to the Gonzaga game at home, our team was in need of a nice string of wins. We got started against the Bulldogs, beating them 2-1. This game marked the third in our five-game homestand and brought our perfect home record to a beautiful 3-0. This was the last of our pre-Pac 10 slated schedule and gave our team confidence heading into the always rigorous Pacific 10.

Two consecutive home games against the Stanford Cardinal and the then-top five ranked California Golden Bears. Our team knew that these two games would be crucial in deciding the path upon which our team would travel the rest of the year. With the visiting Cardinal making their way up to the Great Northwest, our team was looking to continue winning and improve our flawless home record. The game was hard fought, with both teams having opportunities to take the advantage. Although Stanford was successful in knocking the ball about in the back and through midfield, they struggled to produce anything that would challenge our strong backline. With the score 0-0, it was a freshman, Casey "mickey C's" McCool who came through in the clutch. Five minutes from regulation Casey found himself with the ball at his feet just inside the 18-yard box. After a few nifty maneuvers for the big lad, his shot came off his foot rising into the far corner of our newly installed European style nets. This was a big moment for not only him but our team, notching a W next to our first game in the Pac-10.

Our next test came against the Cal Bears. This game proved to be a bit different than our prior fixture. Cal, the two time defending Pac-10 champs, came up to Seattle ranked highly in every national poll. In our time here as Huskies, we had never beaten or even tied them, so we had a little extra incentive to punk them back. After falling behind twice in the game, our team proved its resilience striking back on two separate occasions, leaving the score 2-2 at the death. Although it wasn't a win, our team felt good tying such a highly ranked team.

Corvallis, Oregon was the next stop on our team's agenda. The trip down to Oregon State is always long and quite frankly pretty boring. The Beavers always play us tough no matter their record so our team knew on our way down there that we would be in for a tough game. The game went well, probably one of the best games our team played so far this year, and we were able to come away with a much-deserved 2-1 victory over the Halloween colored Beavers. This improved the team's Pac-10 record to 2-0-1, vaulting us towards the top of the league.

An always anticipated trip down to Southern California stood next for the team to tackle. Playing both UCLA and San Diego State down in Cali is never easy, but with our current run of form the team felt confident and excited to play the two teams. UCLA however proved to be too much for us on the night, pulling off a 2-0 win at their home field. This game was a bit of an aberration and in no way reflected the talent and quality our team holds. All of us, with that in mind, knew how crucial it would be to get a win over the struggling Aztecs.

In San Diego, our team played much better, but suffered the loss of two players due to knee injuries. Our captain and emotional leader George John suffered a torn meniscus early on in the first half. Being the Greek warrior he is, the man refused to come off although the pain was evident. He continued on until halftime when our trainer made George leave the game. In addition, Ty Klein, starting in place of the fallen ill Casey Cunningham, suffered a knee injury to his MCL. After losing two players early on in the match, our team did well in keeping our focus and pulled out a 2-1 victory. Once again, it was "Johnny on the spot" Raphael Cox who netted the game winner in overtime. A good result against SDSU bolstered our Pac-10 record to a not too shabby 3-1-1. Sitting atop the conference tied with UCLA, the following weekend the two So Cal teams made the trek up to Seattle.

The next game against UCLA, the much anticipated rematch, turned out to be a bit disappointing. Although our team dominated the match in every facet of the game, shots, possession, corners, etc., the only stat that matters fell in the Bruins favor. Hitting the post on a few occasions was only one case of the misfortune our team fell upon throughout the game. However frustrating this game was, our team knew it was important to keep focused on the next game at hand. Our team embodied this belief early in our next game, coming out against SDSU and scoring just a few minutes into the game. Unfortunately, we could not sustain that sort of pressure and proceeded to give up two consecutive goals. With our playoff lives hanging in the balance, our team once again rallied from behind to score once more and end up tying the match 2-2. This was not one of our best weekends in terms of results, but our team played well enough against UCLA to win and fell just a bit short of beating SDSU.

Only three games remain for us and everyone on the team knows the importance each one holds. With the upcoming week, Halloween weekend, off, we worked hard to keep up our level of play and intensity in practice. As our coach Dean Wurzberger voiced to all of the players this week, every game from here on out is a playoff game; anything less than a win is unacceptable. Heeding these words and maintaining the possibility of a Pac-10 title, we have been working ever so hard and intend to use this weekend off as a time of rest when the rest of the teams in our conference beat each other up. Have a safe Halloween and we look forward to seeing you at our final home game of the season, November 14 against Oregon State. This is the Hawaiian Connection signing off, Holla.

DP & SF

Fun Fact: Did you know, Adam Lang is not only Canadian, but is an actual descendant of Mr. Clean himself. Mr. Lang is a cleaning machine and if not for him, the house in which we all live would probably be uninhabitable with the possibility of an E. coli breakout.

Sept. 27, 2008

So we are back in action with volume two of the UW Husky Soccer Blog. Since it has been quite some time since our last entry, we do have some catching up to do...Let's start right where we left off with our big trip down to South Carolina.

Coming off of two tough losses at Portland's tourney, it was crucial for our team to come up with some big results down in the South. Our attitude as a team entering our matches was very positive. We knew that we had the potential to win both games and followed through with two huge results. In our first game we took on College of Charleston. It ended up 4-1 in our favor of course and this was a tremendous lift for our team. As a side note, one of our roommates, the Canadian Goose himself, Adam Lang netted his first and probably only career goal as a Husky.

On the following Sunday we were taking on the tournament home team Furman and similarly to our game against C of C, we made it rain on them. It ended up 4-0. Our team had a very strong showing, winning the tournament and having our captain George John being named the Defensive Player of the tournament and freshman forward Brent Richards named the Offensive MVP.

Coming off of that trip our team was riding an emotional high entering our next fixture at Portland against the purple Pilots on national TV. Unfortunately, we were not able to sustain our early lead. We gave up a garbage goal before halftime and sort of fell off the tracks after that. We don't like to talk much about our losses but believe us, we learned from our mistakes and were ready to move forward going into our Husky Fever Classic.

This past weekend was the start of our slated home games. Our team had a great week of training following the disappointing loss to Portland and was ready to take the field again to get that sour taste out of our mouths. We started off against Cal State Fullerton on Friday. It was a hard fought game as Fullerton proved to be much better than their record suggested. In the end we were able to pull out a goal on a sick header from the Greek God himself, George to the John. It should be mentioned that Josh Swett recorded his first assist as a Husky on that set piece and was the lift our team was looking for to break through in the waning minutes of the contest. After the goal, a rather rigorous celebration took place and we were then able to hold on to win our first game at home. This win brought our record back to .500, and we were looking to better that on Sunday against New Mexico.

Sunday's game against the Lobos proved to be very different from our prior match. New Mexico came out strong and vocal, hoping to throw us back on our heels. It proved rather effective, as they scored two early goals, and put us in a rather interesting predicament. Trailing 2-0 at halftime, our chances at coming back looked rather bleak. However just before the whistle, a challenge on the Big Man, Dylan "5000" Tucker-Gangnes, ended up costing the Lobos severely, obtaining a red card and having to play the rest of the game a man down. This proved to be the spark that lit the fire. Our team came out firing in the second half.

After several minutes of heavy artillery pounding on their block defense, the Lobos lost their cool and began to hack us down like lumberjacks in a redwood forest. It began with a challenge around midfield by one of their players who was in turn punished with a yellow card. Not 10 minutes later, the same player proceeded to foul GJ. The player was again shown the plastic and sent off the field.

After this uncommon turn of events, an unfathomable comeback began to lookl like more of a reality. Taylor "Da Boss" Hoss came up big with his first career goal and had no idea how to celebrate so he jumped up and down a few times and ran back to the center circle. Just a few minutes later after some more great opportunities, the tying goal surfaced in the form of a left footed rocket into the far side netting by Raphael "R9" Cox. The game then went into sudden death overtime. We brought the blitzkrieg and Raph was able to score an eerily similar deja vu type goal, smoked like a cheap cigar into the far corner. Needless to say, our team went buck wild and chased the half naked R9 all the way across the field towards the stands to celebrate with our fans. That completed our biggest comeback win in our time here as Huskies.

This weekend, Sunday at 2:30, we are taking on the Bulldogs from Gonzaga in a little Northwest rivalry match. They got the better of us last year but we do not intend to let that sort of thing happen to us at home. We will be looking to keep our flawless home record intact and would appreciate all the fan support thrown our way.

DP and SF out, Holla

Sept. 3, 2008

What's up everyone, our names are Daniel Phelps and Stephen Fung. Welcome to this year's rendition of the Husky Soccer Blog. We hope to give you all a good look into our season from an inside perspective.

First of all, we would like to tell you a little bit about ourselves. Stephen is not much of a scholar, therefore I, Daniel, will be doing all of the typing and the better portion of the thinking as well. I am the product of a military family and the oldest of four children. My father, who is currently stationed in Iraq, and mother as well as the rest of my siblings - two younger brothers and a younger sister - reside in Southern Pines, North Carolina. However, I lived in Hawaii for five years where I finished up high school and at the tender age of 16, joined forces with the flyin' Hawaiian himself, Stephen Fung.

Growing up in Hawaii Nei, Stephen comes from a very relaxed, chilled out lifestyle. Both of his parents heavily influenced Stephen's relaxed persona in that neither works full-time. He too has three siblings, an older and two younger brothers, one of which will be attending UW this fall as an incoming freshman.

But enough about us...let's get to what you have all been waiting for...George John...just kidding.

Our season starts off every year with a grueling two weeks of double-day practices, which are by no means a walk in the park. With a training every morning at 8 and another at 1 in the afternoon, these practices can wear heavily on a player's body. The excitement of the new year, re-gathering of the team and its members, and the welcoming of new players (freshmen and transfers) always helps in pushing through any difficult times we encounter.

This season, our team had quite the facelift with several incoming freshmen and two transfer students being added to our roster. One thing that the both of us find special and unique about our team is the camaraderie and tight relationships formed between all players. No matter how hard one player comes down on another on the practice field both physically and verbally, we all are able to take it for what it is, brush it off as constructive criticism and know that it is only with the best intentions of helping to better our team.

Speaking of team improvement, it was apparent that within even the first weeks of two-a-day trainings, our team was coming together and looking more the part of a top-level college side. Our first test as a team came against Seattle University. Although we didn't play our best, we still ended up with a 2-0 win with both goals coming from freshmen. Dylan Tucker-Gangnes scored his first goal in a Husky uniform as well as Jamie Finch, a redshirt freshman who missed all of last year with an injury. It was a good test for us as SU is converting to a Division I team this year.

Our second and final preseason exhibition came last Wednesday against the Seattle Sounders, arguably the best team in the A League. Although our team lost 1-0, we had a very strong showing. Everyone on the roster saw some time on the field and all players, from true freshmen to seniors, and all played well, except Fung who let in a goal. This was a good conclusion to a tough two weeks of preseason training.

This past weekend, our team kicked off our year without a bang, losing our first two games, 2-1, against 10 men giving up goals in the dying minutes of both games...heartbreakers.

The first game against Fairleigh Dickinson looked promising from the start with tall Dylan getting his head onto a lobbed cross from Bradley Keller in the opening 45 seconds. We then proceeded to let in two goals, just before halftime off of a corner kick, and another with 3 minutes left in the game. This was not the way most of us, well probably all of us, envisioned our start to the `08 campaign and needless to say we were all disappointed. Our next fixture against Virginia Tech was similar. We scored early off of an incredible diving chip header from junior midfielder Jo Jo Katz. Again, we gave up two unanswered goals, one in the first half, and the second during sudden death overtime.

However disappointing and upsetting this weekend may have been, our team has learned from our costly mistakes and intends to take South Carolina by storm - literally we may be playing in a hurricane.

We are going to make it a tradition to sign off with a little fun fact about a random member of the team, how's that sound? Here it is...did you know that senior midfielder/center back George John is a national Greek Dancing Champion?

Until next time,
Daniel and Stephen