RYE – Field Hockey New York

There was no time for un-dusting the outdoor sticks and shake off that winter blues. On this beautiful spring day Rye I had to open the 2nd half of the season right away with a crucial match-up against the ever improving NYC Fieldhockey Club. Still unbeaten this season Rye was the favorite, but NYC seems to be improving rapidly and as the young club grows has proven to become a stumbling block for any team in the league. Going into 2010, Rye has to digest the departure of Thibeau Nerincx and Amr Halim, who both left the US over the winter. But the club was fortunate to attract a number of new players over the recent months and is expecting more to move to NY over the coming weeks, and join the two squads. Newcomers for this game were Noni Singh (India) and Christian Kalasch (Germany), both strongly indicating their ambition to become regulars for Rye I. Due to absences and injuries Rye’s keeper position called for an emergency solution. New Australian Liam Von Thien gave his goalie career debut and mastered this task not only successfully, but partly even spectacularly; thanks to Liam for helping out!

Rye started the game as if there had not been any winter break. With fast paced game they quickly took control of the game. The first dive into the circle led to the first short corner, and Noni Singh delivered his welcome gift with a nicely placed flick in the left low corner. Only a few minutes later Rye’s second opportunity made it 2-0: Stutz missed the first shot but recovered the ball at the far end of the circle. His backhand shot found ideally positioned Tabassam, who easily deflected past the NYC keeper. Things got even better for Rye 15 minutes into the game when Sukhi Singh’s break through was only insufficiently stopped by the NYC defense and Stutz was able to profit from the keeper’s rebound to make it 3-0.

Against most other teams this quick result would have prepared for an easy cruise, but at this point NYC managed to step up their game and Rye began to make critical mistakes in the defense, eading to several shot corners, and eventually to 2 NYC goals. When Cheetham buried a beautifully taken penalty shot past NYC’s keeper things were looking up, but even before the half-time break NYC used another Rye defending mistake to narrow the gap to 4-3.

Rye started the second half with a focus on clamping down on defensive mistakes. The game wore on back and forth, but it was now NYC putting pressure on Rye, and only thanks to Chris Cheetham’s resolution and Liam Von Thien’s alertness NYC was denied to equalizer. The NYC pressure opened up counter-attack opportunities for Rye. For the goal of the day Stutz took possession of the ball in midfield, rushing through 3 NYC opponents towards the NYC defense, and found Tabassam in the circle. “Tab” barely took control of the ball and delivered a beautiful backhand flick to make it 5-3, giving a tiring Rye some breathing room; or so everyone thought. 2 Minutes later NYC closed the gap again after renewed confusion in Rye’s defense. The suspension was over after Noni Singh converted his second short corner and secured Rye a crucial win on the way to the championship.

Rye I: Liam von Thien, Chris Cheetham (1), Noni Singh (2), Lennart Cherifi, Peter Jones, Matt Hogben, Alex Anich, Jaspreet Singh, Sukhi Singh, Christian Kalasch, Patrick Stutz (1), Akhlaq Tabassam (2)