Bay Area Ambassadors drop three points on the Road.

The Bay Area Ambassadors started the 2012 NPSL season on the road facing the upstart San Francisco Stompers.

Having already faced the Stompers two weeks ago in a US Open Cup Qualifying match, the Ambassadors, under pouring rain took care of business at home that night and defeated the Stompers 8-0.
Conventional wisdom would indicate that a second meeting might produce similar results, but the Stompers would have none of it, as they defended their home turf and defeated the Ambassadors by a margin of 1-0 at Pacifica's Terra Nova High School.

The game was a duel of two Bay Area teams looking to make their mark on the 2012 season.   With one foot in the door for the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, the Ambassadors arrived in Pacifica with momentum on their side.  However the game would decide where that momentum would head.

The first half of the game was a battle of two teams trying to figure each other out, both teams pressed, both teams defended but little came in the way of scoring threats.  The Stompers had one of the clearest opportunities to go up 1-0 and squandered it by sending what seemed a simple one on one with the keeper, through the football uprights.

Later in the half another opportunity sailed wide right of another potential scoring opportunity for the Stompers. The he rest of the half would be a back and forth tug of war for possession and balls sent into the corners only to yield little results for either team.
With about 15 minutes left in the game, the game was stopped due to the stadium lights not coming on.  Both teams used this opportunity to hydrate and talk some things over.

Just as the half was to expire in the 43rd minute, the Stompers would find themselves deep in the Ambassadors third of the field and a poorly cleared ball by the Ambassadors bounced around in the box spelling disaster for their defense.  Andrew Barrett who happened to be in the mix of it all capitalized on the loose ball as he dove head first to put the ball in the net and send the Stompers to a 1-0 advantage at the half.

In the second half, things started to heat up on the physical side of the ball.  Multiple challenges were disputed by both teams with players on both sides trying to establish their dominance on the ball.  After a few instances of hard fouls and no cards, it was evident that the game would take on another dimension.

Roughly midway through the second half the Stompers would go down a player after a poor challenge in front of the referee left him no option but to reach for the red card.  The Stompers would be down a man the remainder of the game as the Ambassadors sought to find the equalizer.

The Ambassadors went all in as they tried to press the Stompers and force them back into their half of the field and despite the man advantage could not find the back of the net.  The Stompers cleared all balls that came into the back and hoped to capitalize on any backline mistake by the Ambassadors to no avail.

The Ambassadors will now look to next Saturday to regain the momentum they built up from US Open Cup qualifiers as they face another team from the qualifications stages in the Sonoma Sol.  After a 3-3 tie at Sonoma, this game will have carry the extra weight of 3 points on the line and a Sonoma Sol team that was eliminated from US Open Cup contention.

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