Courtesy: Daily Pacific News


Dickson's hat trick sparks rally for Strykers

By Brett Maluwelmeng

August 3, 2008

Christian Dickson scored two of his team's three second-half goals less than 30 seconds apart as the Paintco Strykers defeated Crushers Orange 6-5 last night in the 2008 Guam Football Association Men's Futsal League at the Guam sports complex.

After the Crushers took a 5-3 lead into halftime, the Strykers had a goal taken back as Hiro Asoshina's indirect free kick failed to touch anyone on its way to the goal with eight minutes gone in the second half. But with nine minutes left to play, Dickson slotted home from close range to halve the deficit before benefitting from a goalkeeper mistake to find the net again and level the score with 8:35 left, completing his hat trick in the process.

Game winner
Teammate Tatsuya Kawauchi then fired a shot into the top right corner with just a little over two minutes to play to complete the comeback.

In the first period, an own goal by the Crushers less than two minutes into the game was canceled out by Edwin Cruz eight minutes later. Kevin Knaeble then put the Crushers ahead from the penalty spot with 11 minutes left. Dickson then toe-poked home his own rebound to equalize, but Knaeble put the Crushers ahead again less than a minute later.

Kawauchi notched his first, one-timing a kick-in into the bottom left corner to knot the match once again before a Kevin Cruz turn-and-shoot put the Crushers up 4-3 with just under six minutes remaining.

Questionable goal
Knaeble completed a hat trick thirty seconds from halftime when his shot was ruled a goal, enraging the Strykers who thought the ball had not fully crossed the line. The Crushers had a claim of their own earlier in the half when a goal-bound shot seemed to be stopped by the hand of a Strykers defender, but no call was given.

Strykers keeper J.R. Campos finished with 20 saves while Crushers counterpart Eric Coates had 13 saves. The result leaves both teams at 1-1.

In the day's other games:

Crushers White 9, Community First DeYo 4: Ali Albajal had a hat trick while Jesus Leon Guerrero and Kamal Abdullah each added a brace as the younger Crushers team improved to 1-1. Jon-Carl Peterson and Bem Mairu added the other scores. DeYo, who got two goals apiece from Arjay Valencia and Paul Alger, drop to 0-2.


Cobras 6, Inter FC 5: The Cobras (2-1) survived a late rally by Inter and were led by four goals from Ashton Surber, who also leads the league with 13 goals.





Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com