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LSST E-News

June 2008  •  Volume 1 Number 2  •  Archive

LSST Soccer (aka Football): Where East Meets West

Phil Marshall, UCSB, Strong Gravitational Lensing Collaboration Chair

Klaus Honscheid retains control against aggressive (and well dressed) opposition, Kem Cook.

The East Coast Hurricanes held the West Coast Earthquakes to a 1-1 draw in the inaugural annual LSST East v. West football match. With the University of Illinois sports center venue packed with literally dozens of players and fans, an enthralling battle was played out in the evening sunshine, with many players rediscovering their touch of old and some young talent beginning to show. It was a game of two halves—while the bruising West players started and finished strongly, the East controlled the middle part of the game, and survived to hang on for the tie.

The West dominated proceedings early on, with veteran forwards Kantor and Gilmore harrying the East’s defense. David “Beckham” Kirkby came close with a wickedly-curling trademark free-kick, that narrowly failed to clear the defensive wall; cat-like Jordan Raddick in the East goal pulled off a remarkable double save as the ball squirted loose for Silvestri; Andy Connolly provided a master class in attacking wingback play as he launched long-range shot after long-range shot in the general direction of the East’s goal; but despite some clever build-up play from Becla and Delgado in midfield, the West was unable to capitalize. Instead, the East team gradually worked its way into the game, with the ever-energetic Gawiser, and the triple man-mountain of Wood-Vasey, Krabbendam and Honscheid gaining the iron grip on the midfield, and international Frenchman Jacques Sebag showing his trademark stylish creativity, that would eventually see the Hurricanes through.

The deadlock was broken shortly after half-time, with the ball breaking free on the edge of the East penalty area for Marshall to lash home a 25 yard drive. The response from the East was immediate, and personified by full-back John Thaler who would be stopped from getting the ball by no one (least of all his own team-mates). After a short break for Baker’s resulting head injury to be treated, the East’s midfield started to gain the upper hand, with the much-feared winger Chuck Claver causing all sorts of problems down the right wing. Lupton, holding the ball up well as the lone striker, found the strength to hold off the West defense, in particular riding a vicious challenge from his nemesis Phil Pinto that left him with a lump the size of tennis-ball on his shin. Match referee Suzy Dodd (who turned in an impeccable performance with no complaints from either side) insisted on letting the game flow though—and rightly so: the Hurricanes were hitting their stride.

First Annual LSST Soccer Game. West 1, East, 1. (Click for larger image)

Mid-way through the half their efforts paid dividends: set free by Wood-Vasey down the right, Claver played a cleverly threaded pass into the center that bamboozled the West’s backs—Rob Sparks sprinted through to slot his shot into the far corner, and the crowd (on both sides) went wild. This was to be their last opportunity though: a trio of Ivezic, Cook and Jagatheesan worked hard to come out from the shade of the trees at their end and set up shop for the remainder of the half—Andy Becker in goal provided a safe pair of hands throughout. In front of them, the energy of the younger West players began to tell: Srini Chandrasekharan, playing in his first match at this level at the tender age of just 25, came agonizingly close to scoring the winner in the dying minutes, his acrobatic volley flying inches over the crossbar.

WEST:

  • Andrew Becker (Washington)
  • David Kirkby (UCI)
  • Francisco Delgado (NOAO)
  • Jacek Becla (SLAC)
  • Phil Pinto (Arizona)
  • Jeff Kantor (LSST)
  • Kirk Gilmore (SLAC)
  • Nicole Silvestri (Washington)
  • Phil Marshall (UCSB)
  • Kem Cook (LLNL)
  • Zeljko Ivezic (Washington)
  • Arun Jagatheesan (SDSC)
  • Srinivasan Chandrasekharan (NOAO)
  • Andy Connolly (Washington)

EAST:

  • Bill Baker (UIUC)
  • Eric Gawiser (Rutgers)
  • Jon Thaler (UIUC)
  • Jordan Raddick (JHU)
  • Kevan Hashemi (Brandeis)
  • Klaus Honscheid (Ohio State)
  • Michael Sivertz (Brookhaven)
  • Michael Wood-Vasey(CfA)
  • Robert Lupton (Princeton)
  • Scott Stuart (MIT)
  • Victor Krabbendam (NOAO)
  • Jacques Sebag (NOAO)
  • Robert Sparks (NOAO)

ATTENDANCE: 37.314

REFEREE: Suzanne Dodd (Caltech)

The editor apologizes to any indignant players whose exploits are either misrepresented or neglected in this article. Such oversights are unintentional. Feel free to contribute rebuttals or alternative narratives to the author.

 

LSST is a public-private partnership. Funding for design and development activity comes from the National Science Foundation, private donations, grants to universities, and in-kind support at Department of Energy laboratories and other LSSTC Institutional Members:

Brookhaven National Laboratory; California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Columbia University; Google, Inc.; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Johns Hopkins University; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology—Stanford University; Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; National Optical Astronomy Observatory; Princeton University; Purdue University; Research Corporation; Rutgers University; Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; The Pennsylvania State University; The University of Arizona; University of California at Davis; University of California at Irvine; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pittsburgh; University of Washington

LSST E-News is a free email publication of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project. It is for informational purposes only, and the information is subject to change without notice.

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