[bbgunn]

Honolulu Islanders FC
January/February 2013

13 January
Friendly
Honolulu Islanders vs Honolulu Reserves
WON 4-0
We went scoreless in the first half to scare me a bit, but then we opened up things nicely with a nice win. Goals came from Canales (49), Grimm (60), Steve White (73) and a penalty by Paul (86).

After the game, I find out that we can’t really schedule any friendlies against any other teams other than our own, as our board won’t let us travel, and other similar status teams - including the amateur, eighth-division Hilo Tsunami - think it is too far to travel. Hell, even the L.A. Galaxy think it’s too far to fly out here. I guess we’ll have to wait until the Hawaiian Islands Invitational that begins on February 12th. In the meantime, I'll keep trying to find some opponents for friendlies.

1 February
A few of our better players were without contracts, so a priority was to get them signed. But we lost one: James Gabb, who was poached by the Baton Rouge Capitals. They are USL PRO; we could not compete with the full-time contract they offered him. So he’s gone. That makes us really weak at MC. Our other starter at MC, Ricardo Marin is just a kid, and there is nobody else that can play the MC position. For now, Steve White will fill the position. He's a 16-year-old wide midfielder who can play both sides and has good potential (relatively speaking), but has no experience in the MC role. I will start training him in this new position.

5 February
U.S. defeats Jamaica 3-1 in the WC qual 4th phase, a.k.a. the "Hexagonal". It is the first game of the Hexagonal. USA is tied for first with Mexico and Cuba, who won games over El Salvador and Panama, respectively.

9 February
MC Ricardo Marin goes down in practice with a torn hamstring. He's out 3 to 4 months as he needs to see a specialist. Big blow, especially with the Hiroshima game coming up in the Hawaiian Islands Invitational. This tournament involves teams from around the Pacific Rim. The quarterfinals feature us, Hilo Tsunami, FC Hiroshima from Japan, and Western Sydney Wanderers FC from Australia. The other two teams in the semi finals… i know one of them is New York Red Bulls of the MLS, according to media reports, but I don’t know the other. Anyway, we play FC Hiroshima. They are heavy favorites.

12 February
Prior to our game against FC Hiroshima, Western Sydney creams Hilo 4-0.

13 February
Hawaiian Islands Invitational - Quarterfinal
Honolulu Islanders vs FC Hiroshima
LOST 1-3
I had a bit of hope for us in the 24th minute when Thomas Grimm, standing at the top of the penalty box with the ball, places a nice through ball to Ty Paul cutting in from the right. Paul put that into the top corner for a 1-0 lead. But Hiroshima scored the next minute, again five minutes later, and it went downhill from there.
Can’t really fault that performance against higher quality competition. I tell the boys that I was pleased despite the result, and they were all elated.
With his goal, Paul was obviously the best player for us. Avilez was pretty good in GK, all things considered. On the other hand, our back line was bad. But again, better competition.
Last, attendance was nearly 18,000! Who said soccer can't work in Hawaii?

Hiroshima will play the Wanderers in the semifinals, while New York Red Bulls will play FC Seoul.

16 February
Signed 16-year-old DM Luke Garner (4 / 5) from Winston-Salem, NC. First non-Honolulu native on the roster. I hope he can fit in. I ask Kamatuka to give him a warm welcome to Honolulu, take him to Waikiki, etc. The kid is quite determined and has great natural fitness, and he has decent defensive skills and passing. Looks to be more talented than Beck at DM, so we are going to give him a run at DM. Good to get a little depth at DM. Now we need a GK, and one or two MCs.

17 February
We sold 1,000 season tickets. Not a bad start, although we have a long way before we start filling 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium.

19 February
In the Hawaiian Islands Invitational, Western Sydney beat FC Hiroshima 2-1 to advance to the final.

20 February
NY Red Bulls beat FC Seoul 3-0 to advance to the HII final against Wanderers FC. Funny… the Wanderers-Hiroshima game attracted 12,000 people, but this one attracted only 7,000. Must be a lot of tourists from Japan and Australia.

22 February
I gave MLR and hopeful MC Steve White a non-contract, as he just turned 17. What is a non-contract, you say? Well, according to the terms of the agreement, White will not earn a guaranteed yearly salary, but instead will "play for pay." He will get an appearance fee for every game he appears in, and there is also a substitute fee for when he rides the bench, and a bonus for goals. I don't have the terms in front of me, so I'm not sure, but I think he gets something like $120 for playing in a game. I wish I had opportunities like that when I was 17. The ladies are going to be lined up for the kid.
The next non-friendly game for the team is the Gold Coast Division 2 opener at San Jose Frogs on March 16. We need some more friendlies, but nobody wants to travel to play us, and the board won’t let us travel to anybody. Might have to just schedule games against the reserves and under-18s.

23 February
49,000-plus fans at Aloha Stadium watch the New York Red Bulls pound the Western Sydney Wanderers 3-1 in the Hawaiian Islands Invitational final. New York are club champions of the Pacific Rim, baby!
Meanwhile, the Invitational gives us $500 to be split among the team. Big time money, homie!
Also, we were labeled as the big underachievers in the Hawaiian Islands Invitational by the American Soccer Review. I don’t see why; did they expect us to beat Hiroshima?

25 February
I give some of my younger starters some game time in the Islanders' U18 match hosting San Jose Frogs U18. They win 2-0. Grimm had two goals and was player of the match.

28 February
GK Jorge Avilez gets a gashed head in training. Out 2 weeks. Hopefully okay by the first Gold Coast Division 2 match, but it’ll be close.

I schedule a game against our U18 team for March 2nd. It's better than nothing.