Sideline Shindig

by Marissa Blackman Tonight Wilmington Hammerheads FC took the field for the nineteenth time this season. The club played against Louisville City FC. The initial pace of the match was rather fast. Both teams had stretches of possession but, for a time, neither was able to maintain total possession for very long before the opposite club took the ball. Before halftime, each club took control of the game for a period. Wilmington played well throughout the first half. The club forced consecutive corners, and, with two forwards up top, the team really pressed for a goal. There were also great clearances from the Hammerheads, especially from Martinez and Moose. When Louisville broke through the defense, goal keeper Andre Rawls successfully guarded the net. The team's effort came to fruition when Brian Ackley converted a penalty kick, scoring the first goal of the game. After the goal, the Hammerheads seemed to sit back a little, which could have been strategy or the result of pla

by Marissa Blackman Wilmington Hammerheads FC is about to play it's nineteenth match of the season against Louisville City FC. The clubs have only played each other once before in a May match which resulted in a 3-0 win for Louisville. The two clubs are statistically very different. Louisville is third place in eastern conference standings and has won most of it's matches. Wilmington is twelfth place in standings and has lost the majority of matches. Louisville has scored 32 times (averaging 1.88 per game) while conceding only 15 times (averaging .88 per game). Wilmington has scored only 11 goals (averaging .61 per game) and conceded 24 goals (averaging 1.33 per game). In the past month, Louisville defeated the Richmond Kickers, Charlotte Independence, and Pittsburgh Riverhounds. In the same time span, the Hammerheads tied St. Louis FC and lost to both the Harrisburg City Islanders and Charleston Battery. There's no debating the fact that tomorrow'

Wow…just wow. This writer was blown away by the USWNT’s performance in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. The USA routed Japan 5-2 in the final at BC Place in Vancouver, with four of those goals coming in the first 20 minutes of the first half. The game started out with a bang-- in the 3 rd minute a corner by Megan Rapinoe was taken beautifully by Carli Lloyd with the outside of her boot to give the US an early lead. But Lloyd didn’t stop there, oh no. Two minutes later in the 5 th minute, another corner found Lloyd capitalizing on a scramble in the box to put home her second goal. The USWNT took advantage of a shell-shocked Japanese defense, and in the 14 th minute Lauren Holiday won the ball after a Japanese defender lost control of it. Holiday then volleyed the ball home to put the US 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes. Then, in the 16 th , Carli Lloyd scored possibly the goal of the tournament. She also made history by scoring the first ever hat-trick in a W

by Marissa Blackman Tonight's match between Wilmington Hammerheads FC and Harrisburg City Islanders did not lack in entertainment. The match had potential to end in the favor of either team down to the final minutes. From the kickoff, Harrisburg kept possession and had most chances. Although many of those chances were either cleared or well wide of the goal, Harrisburg was so relentless that the ball barely ventured to the right half of the field for the Hammerheads to even make an attempt at a shot for most of the first half. This trend continued down to the 40th minute. At that point, the Hammerheads began having longer strings of possession and converted well placed passes into a few good chances. In the second half, the Hammerheads were able to retain more control of the game. Harrisburg had significantly less opportunities to take back to back shots, and the Hammerheads created decent goal scoring opportunities. It was after one of said goal scoring opportunities that th

by Marissa Blackman Four points separate Wilmington Hammerheads FC from the Harrisburg City Islanders, the Carolina club's latest opponent. Sixteen games into the season, Wilmington has attained 2-8-6 record, and Harrisburg has accrued four of each possible result in twelve matches. The last time the two clubs met was back on May 2nd when Harrisburg defeated the Hammerheads 4-0. Since then, the Islanders defeated New York Red Bulls II and Charlotte Independence, and tied with St. Louis FC and Rochester Rhinos. In the midst of those games, Harrisburg lost by a mere one goal deficit in a thrilling battle with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds that resulted in eleven goals. Throughout the season, Harrisburg City Islanders has proved to be a team that knows how to score. The Islanders have hit the back of the net twenty ones times, and the only teams that have scored more have also played at least two more matches than Harrisburg. Though the Hammerheads have played four more games than

In a hard-fought match, the USA triumphed 2-0 over Germany to secure a spot in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. The semifinal in Montreal was an incredible match, #1 Germany versus #2 USA duking it out in a high-energy, high-stakes thriller. With a handful controversial moments, there is no shortage of talking points. Starting out the match, US coach Jill Ellis finally switched to a 4-3-3 formation, a move which was widely called for by analysts and pundits. And it would seem to work out; with Carli Lloyd in a more offensive position, the US attack clicked much better than it had been in previous matches this tournament. The first 10 minutes of the first half were very fast paced, and this tone would continue throughout the game. Both teams pressed high and put on a lot of pressure, forcing a lot of turnovers. The first half was very much an end to end affair, with both sides attacking and counterattacking at high pace. The first great chance of the game was in the 15t