Gallant effort by the 10 men who showed up. Legends played a somewhat boring but effective narrow and compact style, with a little possession and counter attacking mixed in. For first 15mins Gjoa had much of the ball, but were able to do nothing except launch hoping crosses or 23+ yd shots, none of which troubled the Legends defense or GK. In the 15th minute, Legends managed a nice counter, resulting in a direct free kick from the 20yd line. D’Andrea did not hit his best attempt for sure, but while without much pace, it was on target and the Gjoa GK just sort of flapped at it and knocked it to the ground where an on-rushing Klitz was the first Legend there to capitalize and slot it home into the empty net from the 3yd line. The rest of the half was much of the same. Weak Gjoa chances from outside the area, and hopeful crosses, while Legends did their best to possess a little in the middle third to make the game slightly more interesting and fun. Late in the first half the Gjoa equalizer came as the Legends compact defense was finally drawn apart leaving a Gjoa striker alone at the penalty spot to finish off a cross. 1-1 at halftime was a decent score line for the Legends who albeit were playing a fairly boring game, but had managed to get a small bit of possession, and generally prevent any good chances for Gjoa. 1-1 was actually probably fair at that point. Unfortunately, Gjoa came out in the second half with a much better game plan and some dangerous firepower up front, and fewer defenders in the back. While the Legends were able to make a few more counters and gain a little more possession in Gjoa’s half, without any of the regular strikers on hand and running out of gas, the chances in the final third resulted in nothing very dangerous. At the other end, at times Gjoa did much of what they had in the first half, but at other times were finally patient and willing to pass, earning many corners and requiring some last ditch defending, and nice saves from Vamvouris. About 65mins in Gjoa took what seemed to be just another hopeful shot from 23yds. But this one was struck well and aimed at the dead center of goal requiring the Legends to react. An unlucky deflection from the Legends backline took what was probably going to be another fine save for Vamvouris, and redirected the shot to the upper 90 and out of reach. Legends tried to pull back an equalizer in the last 20mins, but with only 10 old men the task was too big. Gjoa continued to press and ended the doubt with a goal much like the first to put the game to 3-1 in their favor in the 88th min. All in all, it was a pretty good effort by the Legends. Despite missing several key guys and playing a full 90min with 10 men, they held the league leading Gjoa to only a few good chances, and managed to possess the ball and cause some issues for Gjoa in the middle third. One can only hope that at the next meeting in the Spring the Legends will have some more firepower available, which will surely be very bad news for Gjoa if they don’t step up their game..

Competition: SC Gjoa, League Opposition
Location: Dyker Beach Park. Worst turf pitch in NYC area
Conditions: Cool Fall morning (9am) that turned very nice by mid-day
Fans: 0
Result: 1-3 (1-1 at H/T)
Goals: 1:0 Klitz Assist D’Andrea
Yellow Cards: ? maybe Roberts
Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Teesdale dropped less than 30min from kickoff. Cassidy was a Maybe as of Friday but never confirmed Yes/No.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None
”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: None. All 10 players played all 90mins

Old Man of the Match: Fantastic game by the Vamvouris twins. Honorable mention to the rest of the defense (Roberts, Lambert, Resnik) who played solid D despite the ball being in their half much of the game. Honorable mention also to Solinas who had a superb match on right wing and despite being outnumbered was able to help Legends relieve defensive pressure with some possession and attack.

Old Man of the Bar: Hodges, Pattison, and Resnik went and had a nice 2hr or so session

El Presidente (new award for Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): None

Statistic of the week: First time Legends ever turned up with less than 11.

Team Bar Showing: 3 out of 10 (30%)
Team Bar Night: 2 out of 5. Solid couple hours of beers, food, TV, and hanging with Grays.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Mark Resnik (DF), Olle Roberts (DF), Peter Lambert (DF), Tony Vamvouris (DF), Randall Klitz, John Hodges, Tom Pattison, Willian D’Andrea, Ugo Solinas

For the second successive weekend the Legends struggled to cobble together a team with enough substitutes to prevent injury.  Unlike last week however, Banatul appeared to be a team the Legends should be equipped to handle.  Their squad appeared to be one of the only ones in the division to make the Legends appear youthful & mobile, but their tactics were smart enough to recognize their limitations and play to them.  From the start they stayed compact and narrow, patiently waiting for the Legends to irritably try some hero ball.  With an eternity of time the centerbacks initially lost patience and tried to force the ball long with the eagerly awaiting Banatul players strangling back possession, however after being admonished from the sidelines the ball started to be switched back and forth to the wings.  Recognizing the lack of ambition of the opposition the full backs started to creep further forward, pushing the outside midfielders further up.  The game was played almost entirely in Banatul’s half, but the passing in the last third lacked a plan to beat the congestion.  Balls were continually booted into the box with the wind taking them out and igniting counterattacks which usually fizzled at the halfway line.  What movement there was by the forwards was stifled by the lack of space, and it was a game that sorely cried out for the missing D’Andrea to lazily glide through a few tackles and create opportunities.

With almost all the possession it was somewhat galling to go into half time at 0-0 with no discernable chances.  Management reinforced the notion of continuing to switch the ball to the wings rather than seek out low percentage distance plays, but also urged the wide players to keep the ball on the ground and attack the back line while driving the ball hard into the area, a much more potent form of attack than lobbing balls in the air with little to no hope of success.  A higher tempo was also required as this would be one of the few games that the Legends would be able to outwork & outhustle their opponents.

The cavalry arrived in the form of the prolific Pritchard and the energetic Hahn, with Pritchard almost paying dividends from his first touch.  Discomforting the goalie he obtained the ball right in front of the goal but was only able to drive the ball directly at the keeper, a sign of things to come.  With the Legends continuing to play frenetically the breakthrough finally arrived, Pritchard’s havoc getting the ball out to Kovel for a nice finish and welcome relief.  Said relief barely lasted a couple of minutes before the unspeakable happened.  A ball cleared to midfield was mishandled, but from over 20 yards out the speculative shot managed to find the top right hand corner to the glee of Banatul & consternation of the Legends.  A team that hadn’t remotely looked like scoring had managed the tie the game up before gaps could develop in their search for an equalizer.  At this point the Legends threw caution to the winds and approached the situation almost like a Cup game, with the full backs moving further and further up the field.  Although gaps were exposed at the back Banatul did not seriously look like scoring.  Unfortunately, neither did the Legends.  Ball after ball was hit directly at the solid Banatul keeper including a hard hit shot from distance by Paul Vale.  Free kicks from outside the box managed to find their way to the keeper with the threat level between 0 and 2 out of 10.  Cunning Banatul continued to waste as much time as possible, an understandable strategy given their lack of offensive prowess coupled with a laconic referee who was in no danger of adding a single second more than the 45 minutes he had signed up for.  The closest the Legends came to scoring was when Morse went down from some contact inside the box.  The whistle blew to immediate rage from Banatul only for it to swiftly be mirrored by the Legends.  As oft happens in the Cosmopolitan League, the Referee had decided to come up with his own version of frontier justice.  Feeling the contact was strong enough for a foul but not wanting to change the game by awarding a penalty, the referee stepped several yards back and awarded a free kick outside the box as a bemused Morse sat down 5 yards inside the box where the foul had occurred.  As matched the rest of the game, the whipped cross managed to make it straight to the keeper a half second before anybody could get to it.

	As per usual, the referee altered the game by pretending it was the Wild West & making up his own rules

As the whistle blew Banatul exulted while the Legends were disconsolate. On the bleachers watching the Old Boyz battle the Grays tactical shifts were planned to wring out more goals, but the bottom line is the ball needs to be put into dangerous areas with players having the ability to make something happen inside the box.  Barnstonworth this weekend should provide a good test.

Competition: Banatul, League Opposition

Location: Randall’s Island #74, Randall’s Island

Conditions: Initially brisk, turning somewhat warmer as the sun started to set before the temperature dropped severely

Fans: None, with the early showing Old Boyz & Grays more focused on getting themselves ready for their derby

Result: 1-1 (0-0 at H/T)

Goals:  1:0 Kovel, Assist Pritchard

Yellow Cards: None

Red Card: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Chris Williams thought he’d been able to avoid the vagaries of the Government’s Ebola protocol but it wasn’t to be this Sunday.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: While Venkataraman managed to gambol around daring his hamstring to act up, Tony Vamvouris had no such luck, aggravating his hamstring injury.

Old Man of the Match: The bitter disappointment after the game was palpable, with no attempt to try and paper it up by awarding anyone OmoM.

Old Man of the Bar: Morse has to be the Old Man of the Bar by not only bringing the cooler but then partially sacrificing himself to help manage the Old Boyz with Becker in goal.

El Presidente (new award for Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): None.

Statistic of the week:.Pritchard’s cameo was enough to cause havoc at the front and show the Legends what they’d been missing.  The assist continued to increase his all time totals, the only player with double figures in both goals & assists.  With D’Andrea out Resnik took over sole possession of all time caps with 36.

Team Bar Showing: 11 out of 15 for at least a beer, easy grading this week (73%)

Team Bar Night: 3 out of 5: With the Over 30’s derby going on at the same field directly afterwards Morse again produced his cooler and allowed the group to enjoy and heckle the players.  The few stalwarts lasted the whole game but the increasingly chilly evening did not help. In a close game the Old Boyz outlasted the Grays 1-0.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Mark Resnik (DF), Andrew Faherty (DF), Paul Vale (DF),Tony Vamvouris, Manohar Venkataraman, Randall Klitz (DF), Steve Morse, Pete Hahn (DF), Steve Teesdale (DF), Milan Gupta, John Hodges, Mike Cassidy, David Kovel, Steve Pritchard

	It’s hard to resist the temptation to display another beautiful sunset with the Manhattan skyline silhouetted in the back.