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March 22, 2002

The ladies of United Quest traveled to Pinckneyville Park Friday evening to take on the Norcross Soccer Association's U13 Magic Gold team. They played the match in grueling, near-freezing weather that saw both teams running to stay warm and hoping for a quick end to the game. The match was delayed due to missing officials, and the girls saw their warm-up turn into a cool-down while the officiating crew was sorted out. Once the match was underway, it was evident that the ball was rock hard and fairly unresponsive to the strongest of kicks. With a young, inexperienced center ref calling the match, things got physical early and didn't let up for the entire match. The ball and the girls' bodies flew in all directions. The resulting soccer wasn't exactly pretty, but it was evenly competitive throughout the first half as each team saw chances develop and evaporate with unsettling regularity.

After seemingly establishing some offensive momentum during their first two matches, the United girls fell prey to the aggressive style of the Norcross team and failed to generate any consistent attacks at the top. The Quest midfielders were scrappy and played the ball up several times, but no player could get into a rhythm with the constant contact and bumping from the Magic defenders who seemed to come into every play with their forearms extended. To their credit, they realized that the young official wasn't going to call anything, so they continued to raise their level of aggressiveness throughout the game. Unfortunately for some of the Norcross players, their own wild style led to several ugly collisions that left Magic players in a heap on the rock hard turf. After watching the ugly style of soccer from their defensive positions for nearly the entire first half, the United defenders became determined to advance the ball at all costs in hopes of generating some fire for the Quest offense. Unfortunately, when the thrusts with the ball turned into even more unruly collisions in midfield, the compressed Quest defense couldn't get back in time to stop a fluke-ish breakaway that saw a fairly weak shot get past a sliding Quest keeper, hit the left post and carom out across and away from the goal only to roll slowly down a sloping turf right in front of the goal to hit the right post and slowly spin into the goal. It was a slow-motion, cinema-like game experience that was almost Hitchcockian in nature as spectators could see what was happening, couldn't believe it, yet were powerless to do anything to alter the course of events. Only after the ball lightly nuzzled the inside of the goal net did real time action resume as a Quest defender darted into the scene too late to stop the ball. Norcross were up 1-0, and the goal would prove to be the only one needed against a weather-bitten Quest side. Before the half ended, Norcross would once again benefit from a Quest thrust on their goal which included all of the defenders pushing aggressively forward and an advanced midfield dispossession of the ball that led to a Magic counter attack. The resulting breakaway resulted in another tough situation for the United keeper who just missed a well-placed shot into the corner of the net. The halftime score would be 2-0 and the final score would remain the same after thirty-five more agonizing minutes of punishing cold weather for the girls on both teams.

The United girls picked up their level of play in the second half, but never quite got the ball rolling in their favor, and the match mercifully ended with the same 2-0 score.