La Familia and BOC Saints split points in SoCal Premier division 2 play.
Pre-game
In match week 9, La Familia is the hottest team in D2, placed first in the North division. They were on a 6-game winning streak before their first-ever competitive match against the Saints. The Saints joined the league recently in the season at match week 8, where they lost to IEFC reserves 2-3 in their opening match. Below is LAF’s stats.
Match Recap
Both teams were ready to face off on a cold November evening at the Ralph Lewis Sports Complex in Fontana, Ca. From the beginning, both teams played with high intensity, with the Saints’ high pressure off the ball plus playing the counter while La Familia connected passes and got to the final third more than their opponent.
Yet in the 9′, the Saint’s breakthrough first with a goal from a free kick 20 yards out. The goalscorer shoots a quick mid-height shot to the right and beats the keeper for the boys in black to take the lead.
La Familia had many golden opportunities to tie it up through the rest of the first half. On the 16′, the Saints goalkeeper fumbles a clearance, resulting in one of their defenders beating a forward to boot the ball, hitting the keeper in his abdomen.
Another La Familia chance on the 30′ where the Saints made a bad back pass to thier keeper and a LAF striker gets a open net shot which went wide. In the 37′, LAF makes a great slicing pass in the middle of the Saint’s defense for a LAF striker to be 1v1 against the keeper, and his shot goes wide. The half ends with the boys in black on top 1-0, but LAF has been knocking on the door.
The second half kicked off, and the pace continued from the first half, where LAF connected to reach the final third while Saints played defense to pounce on a turnover for the counter-attack. On the 56′, La Familia finally got their tieing goal. They won a free kick outside the box, where a LAF player sends a cross to the box, and the goalkeeper punches it. However, the contact resulted in the ball going back toward his own goal, and the ball ended up in the back of the net for the game to be tied.
Shortly after the blunder by the Saint’s keeper, he was subbed out. The game remained back and forth between the two teams with high intensity from both sides and minimum fouls. As the game moved toward the end, the game got severely choppy.
Questionable calls were being made by the center referee and line judges on certain fouls and lack of bookings. As the game moved forward, the center ref decided to manage discipline with players on both sides protesting and giving them lengthy verbal lectures.
These long pauses in the game sabotaged the high intense pace for both sides as the frustration from both coaches came to life with them sharing their thoughts towards the officials and each other with strong words. From there, the game turned into a soap opera.
Red and yellow bookings everywhere, from players and spectators, tedious substitute rules, and the center ref was correcting all badmouthing with significant times taking away from the game. But at last, the match would end with no one breaking the tie, and both sides left very emotionally with a disappointing result.
Post-game
La Familia would remain comfortably in 1st place in the north standings and retain an undefeated record. Their next match will be on the road vs. SoCalroof.com FCUK. Meanwhile, Saint’s record for their first point of the season against the top team in the division gives them hope despite starting late. For their next match, they will host Fontana Legacy.
11/25/22 update
According to SoCal Premier president Matt Morse, BOC Saints have withdrawn from the league following this match. Thus this result is void from the standings, and the team will no longer be counted.