On Saturday June 7 2008, Chicago United (1-1) hosted the Cincinnati Dockers (combined with Louisville Kings as the Ohio Valley). The day started hot and humid on the lakefront with both teams looking to move forward from their previous games. The combine was coming off a hard fought traveling loss against Nashville while Chicago wanted to continue on from their strong finish against the St Louis Blues last weekend.

United came out strong with the first couple of goals. Hoyt with a great grab in the goal square followed by MacGlashan with his trademark "over the shoulder" snap. Hoyt was able to kick another couple to finish with 3 majors for the term while the combine scored a couple themselves.

The backline, lead by Frank Bradley did a great job holding up any forward thrusts and were unlucky to be scored against. Craig Miller was getting a few early touches and Neil Morrissey was solid at the last line-these three would battle hard all day. The midfield was looking dangerous with Rohan Ward dominating the ruck with great support from Dave Allen, Ryan Hayes, Billy Ulhmann and Paul Meyer. At the first break, Chicago was up 4-2 to 2 goals straight.

The second quarter found Chicago able to kick another 3 goals but missed out on capitalising on other opportunities and really could have broken the game open before half time. The Dockers/Kings team was able to make the most of their opportunities and managed to put another couple of goals on the board. The second quarter saw the weather make a huge impact on the day when the skies opened up and produced some of the heaviest rain seen in quite a few seasons. This made the ball very slippery and extremely hard to control. United's inability to make the most of their chances early in the game really kept the visitors in the match. With the wet conditions, whoever wanted it more would win. At half time Ohio trailed the United boys by 3 goals. Chicago 7-7 to Dockers/Kings 4-1

Whatever stirring words acting coach Dan Kastilahn said at half time must of sunk in pretty well as the third quarter proved to be the game breaker for Chicago. With the field slick, United rallied hard to kick 3 goals to the Docker's single goal. In these conditions this would ultimately be the difference. Some great running through the middle and stubborn defence enabled the forward line to dissolve any chance of a Ohio comeback. Deri Morgan started to gather possessions as did BJ Gambaro. The forwards were presenting themselves and Brian Hoyt was the main contributor with another 3 goals to bring his final total for the day to 7. For Cincy, Chet Ridenour was doing well but it wasn't enough. At the last break United had a comanding lead....Chicago 11-6 Cinci/Louisville 5-3.

The final quarter was pretty much all Chicago but again failed to put their dominance on the scoreboard. Drew Ehlers was able to pick up the ball in the trying conditions and score United's ony goal for the term. The workrate was there but the goals did not come. Palmer was doing his job on Cincinnati's dangerous Matt Seuling, a daunting task for anyone. At the final siren Chicago had beaten the Docker/Kings outfit convincingly with an end result of 11-13 (79) to Ohio 5-6 (36).

  Chicago    11    13    79 
  Cincinnati    5    6    36 

GOALKICKERS
Chicago:    Brian Hoyt 7, Drew Ehlers 1, Al McGlashan 1, Ryan Hayes 1, David Allen 1. 
Cincinnati:    Chet Ridenour 3, Nathan Walker 1, Tim Sears 1. 

BEST PLAYERS
Chicago:    Brian Hoyt, Rohan Ward, Bill Ulhmann, Frank Bradley, David Allen. 
Cincinnati:    Jack Jacobs, Chet Ridenour, Aaron Lietzy, Patrick Choe, Eric Floyd. 

Umpire: Michael Plant

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