Coffee Town uses O'Hara's 6th strike of the new
season to top Portland 1-0
Seattle - In a game that featured long stretches of lackluster play, there was plenty of drama at Memorial Stadium Saturday night, as Coffee Town de- feated visiting Rose City 1-0.
Tommy O’Hara notched the game winning goal for the Blokes in the final minute, when a direct free kick by Jason Haagen bounced off the right post of the Rose City net.
“I don’t know how Haags snuck it past the wall, but the rebound came
straight to me and all I saw was net,” said O’hara who tallied his team-leading sixth goal.
Haagen, who gave up a promising soccer future six years ago to play
football at Washington State Univ-ersity, was seeing his first action with
Coffee Town since signing a contract last week.
“I had a blast,” said Haagen, whose three free kicks were all anyone was
talking about following an otherwise unremarkable game.
“Obviously I’m rusty, but the leg is as strong as ever, and I think they found
that out tonight.” he said with a smile.
Rose City defender Milo Tester certainly found that out shortly after Haagen
entered the game late in the second half.
“They had been shutting down our attack with very physical play, and
we’d taken just one shot on goal,” Haagen said.“I just wanted to bring some energy, and maybe soften up the defense.”At the 81minute mark, when the Blokes were awarded a direct free kick outside the penalty area, Haagen took aim on the 6-5 Tester.
“He was the biggest target in the middle of their wall, so I just drove one waist-high,” chuckled Haagen.
The impact to Tester’s midsection drew a gasp from the 15,400 in att- endance, as well as some noticeable smirks from several of the Blokes.
It also drew the ire of Rose City coach Milt Papas, who shouted at length
towards the Coffee Town side as play continued.
Four minutes later, as play intensified, Rose City defender Jack Sherwood
was whistled for an aggressive tackle on O’Hara. That gave Haagen
another free kick from roughly the same spot.
“There was Milo, big as life, in the middle of the wall again. So this time I aimed a tad lower, and drove it as hard as I could,” Haagen said.
This time Tester’s knees buckled, and he nearly went down from the impact
of the booted ball, which was cleared out of bounds.
Play was stopped as medical per-sonnel attended to the big defender who refused to leave the game.
​
By
Rick
Lukens
The next few minutes were filled with chippy play between the rivals. Theninside the final minute, there was one last whistle. Sherwood wasyellow-carded for a punch to Haagen’s ribcage, setting up Haagen’s thirdfree kick.As the ball was placed at the top left-center of the area, Haagen looked forTester.“He had moved from the middle of the wall to the far right end,” Haagenlaughed.“When I made eye contact with him, he pivoted sideways away from me, to allowme to see that right post, and I fired away.
“I thought I could sneak it just inside, but it caught the post. Their keeper dove, so Tommy was there with a wide open net. It felt great,” Haagen said.
There may have been a few seconds of clock time remaining, but the game ended there for the Blokes’ seventh win in ten games.
The Rose City side went immediately and without comment to their bus, but not before filling a large ice bag for Tester. “I feel bad for him, that’s a three hour bus ride,” Haagen deadpanned.
“I hope he has something soft to sit on.”
After being checked closely throughout, O'Hara scored his game winner in the final minute.
​A player to remember: Eusébio da Silva Ferreira
The great Portuguese striker’s unforgettable 1966 World Cup.
By
Tony
Ventrella
If England were the winners of the FIFA World Cup, it was Portugal who boasted the tournament's outstanding individual performer. In their first finals appearance, Otto Gloria's side went all the way to the semi-finals inspired by the brilliance of Eusebio.
This was never more apparent than in an unforgettable quarter-final against Korea DPR where the star, Benfica striker and reigning European Footballer of the Year
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virtually single-handedly rescued his team from defeat, scoring four times as Portugal fought back from three goals behind to win.
The hosts apart, this Goodison Park quarter-final featured arguably the two best-loved teams of that English FIFA World Cup. The Portuguese, with the stars of Benfica's great 1960s team, had already earned a place in the Liverpool crowd's affections with thrilling wins
over Hungary and deposed
champions Brazil.
As for the Koreans, unknowns
from a country shrouded in
secrecy, they had provided
the shock of the tournament
against Italy in their previous
match, Pak Doo's goal at
Ayresome Park catapulting
them into the quarterfinals
and sending their opponents home to a barrage of rotten tomatoes.
If the Koreans' victory over Italy had awakened the world to the fact that the Asian team could play, it seemed some of Portugal's players were still taking the message on board when the minnows hit them with a sensational strike in the first minute. After a cutting move down the right, the ball came to Pak Seung Zin in the middle and he let fire with his right foot.
Amazingly, the ball picked up speed, soaring past Jose Pereira, off the underside of the crossbar and in. The Koreans piled onto the scorer in celebration.
After Eusebio had misplaced an effort at one end, the Koreans broke with a swift counterattack to the other. When Pereira misjudged the ensuing cross looped in from the right, Yang Sung Kook, coll-ecting the ball at the far post, slammed it low cross
across the face of goal and Li Dong Woon stepped in to score the Koreans' second on the half-volley.
Two goals ahead after 22 minutes, the lyrics of the Asian team's song - played in place of their national anthem, which for political reasons they could not use - were beginning to sound prophetic:
"We can beat everyone, even the strongest team."
After the restart Eusebio angrily sizzled a free kick past a post but three minutes later it was 3-0.
Yang Sung Kook, attacking up the left, played a pass in-side to Pak Doo Ik who fired a hopeful shot at goal.The strike deflected back into the path of Yang Sung Kook, who had continued his run, and after working a shooting position, he buried the ball into the far corner.
Three goals down, Portugal goalkeeper Pereira had his head in his hands while team-mates looked at one another accusingly. Yet within two minutes of the restart,
Eusebio's fourth goal of the 2nd half knocked Korea out of the tournament.
Eusebio had given Portugal a glimmer of hope. Antonio Simoes picked out his Benfica colleague ghosting past his marker and, breaking into the box, Eusebio found the top corner. In no mood for celebration, the No13 dug the ball out from the back of the net and raced back to the center circle.
Suddenly it was a different match. Only once before in FIFA World Cup history had a team won from 3-0 down yet the North Korean defense was now struggling to contain the player, they called the
"Black Pearl".
With the half winding down, center-forward Jose
Torres broke clean through on goal only to have legs taken from him by a defender.
Israeli referee Menachem Ashkenazi pointed to
the spot and Eusebio stepped up, ramming it to the top corner before again retrieving the ball urgently from the back of the net and heading back to the center-circle.
Trailing 3-2 at the break, Portugal were level by the 56 th minute. Starting a move off in his own terr-itory, Eusebio set off immediately on a run toward goal, freeing himself of his marker in time to meet Simoes' through-ball and fire a shot past Li Chan
Myong.
Three minutes later Eusebio made it 4-3, picking himself up and converting his second spot-kick of the afternoon after an exhilarating run down the left was ended illegally inside the Korean box. With the Koreans out of ideas, Eusebio's corner then
supplied the final goal as Jose Augusto joined him on the crowded score sheet.
A young English boy could be seen chasing Eusebio around the pitch at the end, waving a newspaper and begging for an autograph.
His heroics had earned Portugal a place in t hesemi-finals and although defeat followed against England, he would finish the finals with nine goals and the Golden Shoe, and the Portuguese with third place.
The Koreans too departed as heroes, their achievements as Asia's first FIFA World Cup quarterfinalists to be long remembered and sur-passed only in 2002 when their southern neighbors reached the semi-finals on home soil.