A cup game against opponents who had been previously beaten by the Old Boyz looked promising, but with CPR there was no sure thing. The previously dreadful Con Ed field had been completely resodded and was now an actual respectable grass field. The slow style of play should have benefited the Old Boyz in keeping possession, but as usual despite having an abundance of room on the wings instead of working the ball back towards the middle of the field they kept lobbing the ball into the area for one of the numerous defenders to clear. Bustamante did hit the post from a nice run, but was unable to build on it after pulling his hamstring on a run down the left hand side.
Plenty of domination but no conversion, pretty much the story of the season. In the second half there was even more room down the flanks, but Partizani started attacking with purpose themselves. A breakthrough came for CPR with new on call player Michael Gleason taking advantage of his surprise debut start ahead of the veterans by smashing a ball on the turn into the upper 90. Another deep cross found Walby all alone on the far side and it took a great effort by the keeper to turn the ball onto the bar and away.
Numerous wide open opportunities on the flanks were wastefully squandered, with the simple pass somehow escaping players no matter how much time they had. Leaving a competent attacking team like Partizani a chance was never a good thing, and almost inevitably one of their two strikers in the box finished despite being surrounded to tie the game.
Although the game went straight to penalties none had been practiced before the game, and neither were all the penalty takers on the field at the usual early whistle. Partizani missed only one of their penalties while CPR had one missed (Hollins) and one saved (Stower). Jones & Morse finished both of theirs but it was not enough. As disappointing a loss as the Old Boyz have had in a long time, and their first this season.
Competition: FC Partizani, Cup opposition.
Location: Con Ed field, Queens
Conditions: Nice autumn afternoon
Fans: Edmunds & Mrs. Telly were in attendance.
Result: 1-1 (0-0 at H/T) Lost on PKs 4-2
Goals: 1:0 Gleason
PK: Andy Jones
PK: Steve Morse
Yellow Cards: None
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: Paulo Bustamante limped off with a hamstring injury that looks sure to put him on the shelf for awhile, a tough blow for the Old Boyz.
Old Man of the Match: Lars Murray turned back the years with a vintage performance. Anyone would think he was only in his early forties, the way he closed down his side of the field and distributed the ball. An honorary mention to the new guy Michael Gleason with some good running and a great debut goal.
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, although Edmunds did make it back to the bar.
Team Bar Showing: 5 out of 15 (33%)
Team Bar Night: 1.5 out of 5: Only 5 guys showed up at the bar, pretty tame couple of hours.
Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Alex Kass (DF), Scott Brindley (DF), Steve Morse, Andy Jones (DF), Lars Murray (DF), Mark Edmunds (DF), Drew Faherty, Neil Stower, Dan Hollins, Paulo Bustamante, Manohar Venkataraman, Michael Gleason, Mike Conboy, Mark Becker (Coach)