All in the Ohana
By John Fink

"Vote early and vote often" was the cynical mantra in Chicago years ago. Well, the soccer motto du jour might have been "score early and score often" on Saturday, but United could only score early... and it was good enough to beat a game Ohana squad, 1-0. Malcolm put a perfect cross to Ben in the opening minutes, and Benny and his jets drove it past Ohana's 'keeper for the 1st tally. It would prove to be the last tally, as United played heads up soccer and controlled 75% of the action, but set a new team mark in metal (posts, crossbar) and was denied an insurance goal for the final 87-minutes. Nonetheless, a win is a win, and United stays in front of Strikers in the quest for the regular season crown (Strikers was playing Ko Am after our game; a Strikers' loss would clinch 1st place for United).

Keith made a scintillating short side save early in half # 2, and then dove to knock one away late, followed by a nice deflection/block in front by Nick to thwart a last Ohana attempt. It was one of those scary moments where you dominate, and the opposition gets just one or two chances and almost equalizes things. Keith had a couple of other nice saves where he prevented rebounds on the slick turf. It was humid to start, and intermittent rain certainly led to overcast skies and perhaps to the underwhelming focus on both sides of the ball. United must have had 15-20 great runs (mostly down the right sideline), only to see efforts snuffed, deflected, or pinged away by metal. There were also some moments of static ball-gazing, on both sides, as the game wore on and players wore down.

It all comes down to a final regular season tilt on Saturday, 3pm at Waipio against Hokulele. Hokulele has secured a top four playoff berth with its 6-0 trouncing of former-4th place International, and Real FC has now snuck ahead of International by a point, so the final week's matches do have playoff and positioning implications. Real plays Strikers in its final regular season game, by the way...

Next Game: Sat., Nov. 22, 3:00pm vs Hokulele

Team Practice: On hold.
Open Practice: Thurs., 5:15pm, Kap Park