RecapSummer 2018Dynomutt vs Blue’s Clues

Another game at Sepulveda Basin, a field I have yet to set foot on, and I don’t think I will be there this year either as my team doesn’t play there.  Eventually I’d like to see it.  This is a good time to give a shout out to Chuck Bender who booked that field, and in fact booked every single field that we’re using these days in Summer League and Winter League.

Chuck gets things done in a way that’s honestly admirable.  He works super hard to get these fields.  And he loves to give cupcakes to the field contacts.  Reminds me of when Michael from “The Office” said the most important thing a client can receive is a gift basket of food.

And now to the recap.  This is Bryan DeVore of Blue’s Clues:

Monday night: Blue seeks to continue their upward trend. Read the scores, read the recaps. Tell me that’s not what it looks like. You’re oh so wrong about this team. Fair warning; watch out!

Steve, the aptly named co-captain of Blue, was missed dearly, but in his absence, we went radical. We taught a zone and were able to get a couple 7 on 7 possessions before game time. Yes, you read that right. We had subs for our possessions.
Dynomutt wins the flip and smartly chooses to start on D. We have no chill and immediately turn it. Quickly down 1-0. We turn it again and force Dynomutt to work hard to score, but their smooth handler resets waiting for a cutter to open up allows them to score. 2-0 Dynomutt. After a battle on the third point, we finally hold.

Awesome. Z TIME! Dynomutt has all of the patience in the world, but we force maybe 30 throws. They get a little impatient and take a shot at the endzone that is too short. While working it up the field, they get a good D and Blue can’t last in the zone and they end up taking the point. Our spirits are bolstered by the way that we made them work on D.
We drop another to go down 4-1. Dan starts to dominate in amazing fashion. Possession saving layout grab. Less than a minute later, lays out again to prevent a surefire goal. Somehow we end up at 6-2. You think this is going to be a blowout? Don’t blink.
All of the small pieces start to come together. We get some strong D points and the zone generates turnovers. Our offense looked smooth. After a 6-1 run, Blue takes half 8-7.
At half, we talk about some of the things that Green did really well that we want to emulate. It doesn’t work very well. Green scores 3 in a row to run up 10-8. We battle with all of our hearts, but some turnovers close to our goal line combined with Green’s ability to keep possession allows them to hold on offense and score a pair of breaks.

Credit to Dynomutt for a fun, spirited game and for bringing their A game, but Dennis Green said it best.

Shoutouts: Veronica, who helped tape my foot pregame.
Dan and Russell with some chilly zone handling.
Jessica who had some great Ds and was pivotal in the handler possession game.
I didn’t get to learn as many names from Green as I would have liked, but there was a dude who I think played for Cal Tech and had 2 or 3 sick grabs.
Stephanie scored her first goal and showed that she is going to be an absolute monster on defense by tourney time.
Alexandra was open on every cut she made! I am so excited to see how much she dominates our offensive set this year!
Chris, who said he wasn’t a handler, was absolutely a rock in the backfield.
Malachi had some sick throws to beat the junky looks that Green threw.
Everyone on Blue that played zone for the first time tonight and were phenomenal!

Robin Hood time: Dan and Andrea were a strong presence and fit in super well to the Blue’s Clues crowd. Hope to drink with both of you again soon! We finally had a strong showing from a game that shared our field and were able to mingle with Xavier, Chris, and Greg Preston. I was appalled that Greg introduced himself to new friends by using his first name. In honor of Greg, I withheld all nicknames from this recap.

I’ve always been confused by that Dennis Green quote.  At first it sounds like he’s complimenting them, saying “we knew they were gonna be good”.  But on repeated listenings, I really think it sounds like he’s insulting the Bears, am I wrong?  Like he’s saying “we knew they aren’t good, and we let them win“.  He says “crown their ass if you want to, but they are who we thought they were” which I’m pretty sure is saying they’re not as good as you think they are.  I don’t know.  It’s really tough to tell.

What is also tough to tell is Greg refusing to use his nickname Cubby.  I am appalled as well.  Cubby is too good a nickname not to use all the time, in every instance in his life.

It’s not like ATM, who got his nickname getting held up at an ATM machine, so it’s a bad memory he’s trying to get rid of.