David Castellanos scored his second Thunder goal early in the match and Freddy Juarez scored his first for the team late in the 2nd overtime for the Open Cup victory.

The game started just right for the hometown team. Movement, teamwork, pace, variety. And more importantly a goal. But then it went wrong again. The Thunder went back to that "road" mentality I have been beating to death lately. It has cost them 3 games in a row to the loss column.

Tonight they played a far inferior opponent in the Boulder Rapids Reserves of the PDL. The D stands for developmental league. These are guys in transition. Guys looking for experience and a learning situation. Mostly made up of college players on summer break. The thing they have going for them in a US Open Cup, single elimination style tournament, is that they can go for broke. Nothing to lose, as the old saying goes.

It was nose to nose for 3/4 of the match. And it took until late into the second and final overtime for the Thunder to finally knock down the little guy.

No ball possession was taking place on the field. No patience either. Or rhythm, or decent passing, or timely passing. Our boys tried to bully their way to the goal.

Boulder just held their ground and hoped for a crazy mistake. They played very hard and deserved a big round of applause for their game.

Boulders keeper made several great saves to keep his team in it, but he also played like Moses. Like the biblically famed Moses, this keeper had a stone tablet in each hand which prevented him from holding on to anything else, like a ball. If the Thunder would have bombarded this guy with shots they would have routed Boulder on rebound goals alone.

Joe Warren saved his team too. He made several great saves and never lost his focus.

It wasn't a lack of effort on the Thunders part that nearly cost them. David Castellanos, Marco Ferruzzi, Jay Alberts, Dustin Branan, Chris Brunt and Warren all played very hard. Subs Zafer Kilickan and Freddy Juarez did too.

As a matter of fact those two (Kilickan & Juarez) linked up with Ferruzzi for the game winner. It came in the 116th minute on a swift counter attack. You could really sense it was building to this ending, but you were never really sure if that volcano would finally erupt or not.

In the end it did erupt, and it felt like a great relief to teams and fans a like. After the game we ran into Zafer and he said something like.... "We all want to win so badly, and we push and push, maybe too hard. We need more balance in our effort, sustained and varied......" or something to that effect. I know exactly what he means and so do all his teammates. Its just not always as easy as it should be.

Other match reports:

Minnesota Thunder Home Page

Boulder Daily Camera

Minneapolis Star Tribune
(includes a fantastic quote from Marco)

St Paul Pioneer Press