MHS boys miss big chance for upset

Play well in loss to North Plainfield

By: John E. Powers
   The Manville High boys’ soccer team had an excellent opportunity last Friday afternoon.
   The Mustangs had a chance to knock off then-unbeaten North Plainfield to take another step toward respectability and first-year coach Javier Velasco’s goals.
   But it wasn’t to be as the Canucks scored two-second half goals to improve to 4-0-1 in beating Manville, 3-1. Sophomore Erick Jimenez, shaping into one of the better players in the Mountain Valley Conference, had the goal for the Mustangs, who fell to 1-1-1.
   "We came out with 100 percent, but we came out tired in the second half, the whole team looked tired,” Jimenez said afterward. "We need to pass the ball around more. We need to improve our possession time and get the other players to get involved in the offense.”
   What Velasco is concerned about is getting a message across — that from a lesson he’s been preaching since pre-season practice began. A combination of injury, an eight-day layoff and a solid opponent were the residue of the Mustangs’ first game back.
   "We have to keep going hard, we made a couple of mistakes, there was a foul in the midfield and our guys were sleeping in the back,” Velasco said. "North Plainfield passed the ball well, especially in the middle, they were passing the ball well and we couldn’t step it up to their level. We had too much kick and run today. We get it, we give it away. We get it, we give it away, so we play defense the whole time and that’s not good. We had a couple of mistakes, some stupid mistakes."
   Velasco felt the Mustangs had the best player on the field in Jimenez, but he said it was also clear that North Plainfield had much better balance.
   "I have to work on the language problems I have. We have Polish-speaking and some Spanish-speaking kids and maybe the message isn’t getting through. I have to work on that."
   North Plainfield enjoyed the edge in possession, a key determining factor in soccer.
   "They had better possession skills than us and it hurt a lot. We take possession of the ball and we kick it right back to them,” Velasco said. "If we could have kept possession, we would have a better possession. Some players we have aren’t committed to their positions and they’re not sharpening up. I tell them that if you play offense and you lose the ball, we drop back and play defense and we organize.”
   The Mustangs were hindered by injuries to two of their leading forwards. Pawel Herdzik and Mirek Wieczorek were hurt, but played. Midfielder Landy Rodriguez also played hurt. All of them were suffering from leg injuries that slowed an already struggling offense.
   "We have to get more people involved,” Jimenez said.
   Junior Johan Osorio started the scoring, beating Mustang goalie Edgar Martinez, 5:27 into the game. Jimenez answered to tie the game later in the half. Javier Perez then put the visitors up off a free kick and an assist from Johan Morin five minutes in the second half.
   "Most of the goals were mistakes, the second goal was a free kick and nobody was ready. Everybody was doing other stuff, unfortunately it took us by surprise,” Jimenez said.
   The Mustangs were scheduled to play at Bernards Monday. North Plainfield and Bernards played a scoreless game a couple of weeks ago. North Plainfield was knocked off by Bound Brook 1-0 last Saturday and Manville tied Bound Brook, 2-2.
   "If you consider all of those results we’re really not far away,” Velasco said.