The abundant squad available for each game as a result of recruiting and a newfound dedication continued with a full 18 for Sunday.  Sickness, a large squad and a very predictable Mike D pruned a couple of people out but Coach Becker still had 17 dressed and ready to choose from.  On a surprisingly hot day those substitutes would be needed against a Partizani side who CPR suffered an extremely frustrating loss against in last year’s season opener.

CPR started the game like they wanted to erase last year’s result from existence.  It certainly ranked up there with one of the finest spells every played by the team, high praise indeed.  With their new attacking options the Old Boyz launched wave after wave of attacks and were soon rewarded with a penalty for a clumsy challenge in the box.  Father of 3 days Dan Hollins strode up to the penalty spot as the team’s designated penalty taker but there was to be no celebration (yet), as the goalie dived to his right and made a smart save.  For the moment CPR kept their composure and in quick succession won another penalty.  This referee’s decision was far stranger.  Not the penalty, which could be in the dictionary as the definition of a handball, but the fact that the defender so blatantly grabbed the ball that it should have been the simplest of red cards instead of the mere booking he received.  Rampant speculation on the sidelines finally settled on the fact that the referee wanted to take it easy in an Over 30’s game and after awarding a second penalty, regardless of what the rulebook said about a deliberate handball in the penalty area.  This time Bustamante stepped forward and stroked a splendid penalty right into the side netting for the lead.  Very soon after an astonishing blunder by the keeper gave Stower the ball outside the box on the right, but the finish was still superbly struck over the keeper for a 2-0 scoreline.  A Partizanian’s vocal and continual insolence to the referee practically begged the referee to send him off, so justice was served and the opposition was down to ten men.

It was now that the Old Boyz started to slack.  Perhaps they confused their hard graft and good play for weakness on the opponent’s part, but that was certainly not the case.  The midfielders were good and the strikers were excellent, demonstrating this on a counterattack that finished in a good goal that was fortunately ruled offsides, some veteran shouting from the Old Boyz perhaps influencing the referee as much as an out of position offsides Partizanian who wasn’t impacting play.

At the same point the Old Boyz started to lower their standards, so did the referee.  The decisions started becoming more and more inconsistent, with a second poor decision this time favouring Partizani.  A superb diving stretch from Resnik got to the ball and hit it off an opposing midfielder only for the referee to award a free kick to the consternation of everyone in a CPR uniform.  The Old Boyz had an abundance of people back to protect the goal just before the half, but unfortunately Hollins header could not have been worse placed to hand the opposition a lifeline going into the second half.

	Everybody knew Hollins was going to celebrate little Maddy’s birth, but doing it after scoring the own goal was poor form.

With a 2-1 lead in the hot sun with 6 substitutes against a ten men side it shouldn’t have been a problem for CPR, but long time Old Boyz watchers could sense a ripple of disquiet running through the side.  Coach Becker significantly tightened up his rotation, and although CPR were getting acres of space on the attack they were not utilizing it particularly well, and worse they were exposing themselves on the counterattack to a highly competent attacking team.  Sure enough, a throw in deep in Partizani territory was cleared and the resulting attack claimed a tying goal.  In keeping with the vast number of counterattacking goals scored against the Old Boyz over the years it was not an excess of attackers against defenders but poor marking and awareness that was the culprit.

Although not completely unraveled CPR was certainly on edge.  With a referee that seemed to use a randomizer on making decisions and a capable and fired up opponent it certainly had the makings of a draw and/or loss.  Fortunately on one of his many forays down the left, Stower was able to fight his natural tendency to hoof it into the box in lieu of playing it on the ground to Heitkamp who finished superbly.  Having taking the lead again the Old Boyz showed a disappointing lack of professionalism in not killing the game off.  For such a veteran side, the concept of the clock as an ally seemed to be utterly alien to some members.  Running after throw ins, berating the referee for not starting the game quickly enough, continuing to have midfielders attack instead of just keeping the possession allowed to them, none of these were signs of a Championship winning side.  If they plan on having lofty goals, the Old Boyz certainly need to start playing with a basic footballing intelligence that sometimes eludes them.  The Metroboyz on the team longed for Peter ‘The Human Rain Delay’ Hiatrides, who could make watching to fetch the ball for a throw in seem like a man headed mournfully to the electric chair, and just as rapid.  Perhaps not coincidentally that Metroboyz squad won two titles.

CPR never looked comfortable with the lead despite the heat slowing the game to a crawl, and with both teams enjoying unchallenged possession it was Partizani who almost made it count, a counterattack bringing a sluggish defensive response from the CPR team who were only saved literally by Vamvouris, whose alertness to deflect the ball onto the post was critical in saving the win.

With the win assured and the game over that would normally be all she wrote except for one of the most bizarre post match scenes in Old Boyz history.  A couple of random Partizani players apparently had never heard banter on the field judging by their reactions, or perhaps were just plainly psychotic.  They walked over to the CPR sideline with the clear intent to start a physical altercation with Stower.  They were trailed by most of their team, some of whom were appropriately sheepish about this embarrassingly childish display.  This wasn’t run of the mill handbags either, a couple of these psychos clearly wanted to throw punches.  Shockingly Stower just kept walking further and further away, afterwards correctly pointing out that this was not going to end well for anybody if he stayed in the vicinity and it went down the way it looked like it could.  Meanwhile the referee tied a neat little bow across an abysmal performance by standing observing everything from 20 yards away when a red card or perhaps two would have resolved the issue.  Or got him pulverized, one or the other.

So the Old Boyz made it difficult for themselves, but the fact is they have 7 points from 3 games to lead the division.  One hopes the team’s growing pains are resolved over the remaining 13 games for a title that clearly appears to be within their grasp.

	You crazy Essex Boy. I’m going to my car, get my other gun, shoot everybody’s ass.

Competition: FC Partizani

Location: Randalls Island #74, Randalls Island

Conditions: Surprisingly hot day

Fans: 1 + Dog

Result: 3-2 (2-1 at H/T)

Goals: 1:0 Bustamante (pen)

2:0 Stower

2:1 Hollins (og)

3:2 Heitkamp Assist Stower

Yellow Cards: None

Red Card: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Manuel Casanova.  Apparently Marie Claire really didn’t want Daddy to play Sunday, because she unlocked his phone, logged in to the car rental company website, scrolled down to the reservation & cancelled it.  That is one smart little 3 year old.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: No injuries due to the vast amount of subs available for use.

Old Man of the Match: A solid attacking performance was put in by Stower with a brilliant goal and continual space on the left, but although he didn’t have a lot to do it was Telly Vamvouris in a landslide for his game saving save onto the post in the dying embers of the game.  This makes it 3 different rookies to win OMoM in the first 3 games of the season, a testament to the strong class of 2011-2012.  It also puts a lot of pressure on Breslin to get himself fit and keep it going for next week.

Old Man of the Bar: Nobody who stood out.

El Presidente (new award for Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): Shafranek came in for another stop on his grand farewell tour.

Team Bar Showing: 11 out of 17 (65%)

Team Bar Night: 3 out of 5: A good amount of people arrived and stayed for a few hours, which is solid.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Mark Resnik (DF) , Lars Murray (DF), Steve Morse, Steve Teesdale (DF), Andy Jones (DF), Mark Edmunds (DF), Gavin Hamilton (DF), Neil Stower, Dan Hollins, Steve Heitkamp, John Hodges, Paulo Bustamante, Manohar Venkataraman, Willian D’andrea,  Hakan Nizam, Mark Becker (Coach)

by John Hodges

With perfect conditions of 65 degrees and sunny, and an ideal start time of 10am, as expected there was more than a healthy turnout by the squad for this week’s match, including a few wives, girlfriends, and even a nanny (a new Old Boy term has been coined – “WAGANS” for Wives and Girlfriends and Nannies). The referee, who the Old Boys know all too well after his post match redcard to Becker last year (something about “being the worst ref in the history of the league…”), was not in the mood for any antics or chit-chat with the Old Boys. The match started promptly on time, and at game time 15 players were ready to go with only Casanova and family arriving on “Chilean time” a few minutes after kick-off.

The Old Boys put together a great team effort on Sunday to earn their first win of the season. The first half started out well with Becker employing the feared triangle formation which had already proven effective in the Old Boys’ first match of the season. Hollins, Heitkamp, and Bustamante moved the ball around well in the center of the field and effectively used Stower and Morse’s contributions on the wings. Nizam started up top as the lone striker and was also able to get free often to help form an effective early attack.

This year’s O30s Barnstonworth team was not too different from years past with a few talented players in midfield who liked to send the long ball to their strikers making long runs. Although the Old Boys had the vast majority of possession and the ball was mainly in the Barnstonworth half, their strategy of counterattack did provide some challenges to the Old Boys defense. However, Vamvouris was rarely tested and was steady all day in goal, and the best chance of the first half clearly was a Nizam header that was spectacularly saved by the Barnstonworth keeper.

After a positive team strategy discussion during the 0-0 halftime break, the Old Boys didn’t need to make many adjustments and were confident that they would be able to break down the Barnstonworth defense in the second half. In addition, it was also clear that the opposition’s limited number of players (only 1 sub) were getting tired and happy to sit back for a 0-0 draw. The Old Boys were the first to score after some great teamwork sent the ball up the right side and played a nice cross into the box, with Heitkamp finishing with a very impressive long, top-corner volley off the weak defensive clearance. However, Barnstonworth was quickly able to respond when too many Old Boys were busy arguing with the referee whether or not there was a Barnstonworth handball and too few Old Boys were getting back in the box to help defensively.

Despite a 1-1 tie and several yellow cards flying the Old Boys way, the Old Boys still were clearly the better team and were consistently able to stop any further Barnstonworth threats with good team organization and solid defense from Shafranek, Brindley, Resnik, Kass, and Teesdale (and Edmunds until he had come off injured). Good defense translated into several offensive opportunities with Heitkamp able to put away two more good opportunities in the middle of the second half. The Old Boys kept their composure and quietly killed off the remaining moments of the game. The final ended a very fair 3-1 with the Old Boys deserving their first victory of the season and Heitkamp picking up an impressive hat-trick (no vote for Man of the Match was even needed….).

	Regardless of how it may seem, the food & beer at Central Bar ain’t free. Early leavers make sure to cough up enough for the bill and not screw the Marathon Men at the end.

The team showing at the bar was also very impressive with all the proper incentives in place (an early finish, the end of the Chelsea-Man U game to watch, and both women’s’ teams also playing at 10am). The only poor effort of the day was that the Old Boys need to do a better job of rounding up their cash contributions to the Central Bar bill in the future so that Resnik and Hodges are not left covering the sizable cash shortfall again and Rosie gets the nice tip that she deserves.

Competition: Barnstonworth Rovers Old Boys
Location: Randalls Island #75, Randalls Island
Conditions: Sunny, Picturesque
Fans: 9
Result: 3-1 (0-0 at H/T)
Goals: 1:0 Heitkamp Assist Teesdale
2:1 Heitkamp Assist Nizam
3:1 Heitkamp Assist Bustamante
Yellow Cards: Brindley, Casanova, Teesdale, ..maybe a few more
Red Card: None
Mike D’s aka No Shows: None
Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None
”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Breslin pulled his other hamstring, Edmunds his other groin
Old Man of the Match: Heitkamp (in a landslide)
Old Man of the Bar: None
El Presidente (new award for Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): None
Team Bar Showing: 11 out of 17 (65%)
Team Bar Night: 2 out of 5: No one stayed past the first NFL games
Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Mark Resnik (DF) , Alex Kass (DF), Steve Morse, Scott Brindley (DF), Steve Teesdale (DF), Mark Edmunds (DF), Scott Shafranek (DF), Neil Stower, Dan Hollins, Steve Heitkamp, John Hodges, Manuel Casanova, Paulo Bustamante, Declan Breslin, Hakan Nizam, Mark Becker (Coach)