Tide too strong for All-Star team

Military All Stars lose to a heavily-favored semi-pro soccer team, but the game is still a community relations success

By Matt Smith, Northwest Guardian

It wasn’t so much about the lopsided score as it was the fact the two teams played.

A hastily put together military All Star soccer team, comprised of mostly McChord Air Force Base Airmen and a few Fort Lewis Soldiers, took on the Tacoma Tide at Curtis High School on Tuesday in a community relations building exhibition, and were downed 7-1.

“They’re great guys, and they’re very competitive,” said Tide head coach Fran O’Brien of the military squad. O’Brien’s squad is an under-23 team in the United Soccer League composed mainly of graduating high school seniors and college athletes.

The game was organized on such short notice that the final military roster wasn’t finalized until the Thursday before the game, leaving only enough time for a short 20-minute practice prior to the exhibition. If that didn’t put the military team at enough of a disadvantage, the Tide also happen to be one of the best teams in its division having not lost at home in two years.

The lack of practice time and familiarity with each other was, according to Fort Lewis Soldier Tougbay Zarzar, the biggest factor in the military team’s loss.

“The chemistry was just not there,” said Zarzar. “You’ve got guys moving (on the field) and some of the guys (on our team) didn’t know each other’s names. I think if we had time to practice and play a couple games before this one we could have done better, so hopefully we can do something better next time.”

Despite the final score, Zarzar said he and his teammates were happy to be able to come out and be ambassadors of sorts for the local military installations and hope to be able to do it again in the future.

“It was a good experience,” he said. “We’re here representing Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base in the community and that’s a real good thing.”

As far as the actual game was concerned, it was apparent early on that the Tide not only were extremely talented, but it also possessed the chemistry the military squad lacked. Beau Macaluso, who also plays for the University of Washington Huskies, netted the Tide’s first goal two minutes into the game.

Cam Vickers made it 2-0 in the 16th minute when he found the back of the net from 18 yards out, shooting from the right side of the field and hitting the back left corner of the goal.

Zarzar had the military’s only real shot at a first-half goal 10 minutes later when he zipped past the Tide defense and had a one-on-one chance against the Tide’s keeper. His shot went wide right, however, and the Tide went on to score two more goals in the half for a 4-0 halftime lead.

Vickers pushed that advantage to 5-0 15 minutes into the second half after doing some fancy footwork to fake out a defender then beat the keeper with a high shot that bounced off the cross bar and into the goal.

The military squad answered back quickly with its only score of the game three minutes later when Paul Gagliardi got passed the Tide defenders, which set up a one-on-one chance with Tide keeper Max Walker. Walker came out of the box to try to intercept Gagliardi before he got a shot off, but Gagliardi scooted past Walker and scored an easy, open-net goal.

“I was glad that they scored,” said O’Brien, who played professionally in his home country of Ireland as well as here in the United States. “It was a good goal.”

The Tide went on to net two more goals before game’s end, but in the end, it was apparent both sides were glad the game came to fruition.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said O’Brien. “I think we should do it more often. It’s great seeing some of these guys come out.”