After last week’s disappointing forfeit win the Legends were chafing at the bit, which could be seen by the largest contingent in several years at the field. 17 dressed with El Presidente available to change from staff photographer to enforcer if needed. The 6pm kickoff time wasn’t optimal, but not as much a factor as the large field and the chaos of having to integrate 17 players into a cohesive unit. Hoboken had clearly added some firepower of their own and had won the previous week, so the game was not going to be a walkover.
The first few minutes showed the Legends on the attack but failing to get decent shots on target. Meanwhile Hoboken showed a cutting edge on the counterattack, and the large space available between defence & midfield helped them launch their salvos. Finally the Legends somewhat fortuitously took the lead as debutant Mckeown attempted a cross that turned into a tight angle lob over the diminutive keeper for the opening goal. Hoboken took advantage of hesitation at the back to drive home the equalizer on the break. Although the Legends were monopolizing possession in the final third Hoboken continually looked dangerous on the counterattack. A fine breakaway of their own led the Legends to taking the lead again, Carlson passing the ball down the line and across before a dropped ball allowed Tony Vamvouris to score his debut goal for CPR with a fine run from his outside midfield position. Soon after Hodges made a nuisance of himself allowing Nizam to come in and score.
At half time the hope was that everyone would be fresh enough on the big pitch to wear out the opposition, although they had picked up a couple of substitutes of their own. Indeed, the Legends started like they wanted to put the match away with a flurry of corners and attacks, but some poor decision making and some fine defending refused to allow them to stretch the lead. At least two balls were cleared off the line and another hit the post, which indeed allowed Hoboken a swift counterattack that they executed to perfection to once again bring the score close at 3-2. Finally the Legends were able to pry open the door in a rather unorthodox manner, with Solinas launching a ball that somehow contrived to fly in to the top corner. The game continued to be hardfought with a few Hoboken players as is their wont getting more chippy & physical. The Aussie referee wasn’t shy in blandishing the yellow cards but somewhat surprisingly there were no sendings off, especially when Venkataraman was taken down as the last man on a breakaway. Hoboken managed to scramble one in in injury time, and the Legends made things interesting by refusing to exhibit any common sense in passing the ball around at the back and immediately turning the ball over, fortunate in the extreme not to be punished for their stupidity.
A win on the field is always a good thing, but there is a lot of work to be done before next week’s game against Gjoa on a grass field. The lack of connection between midfield & defence needs to be addressed as does exhibiting more common sense in game situations, i.e. don’t have 7 people attacking when you have the lead unless those midfield attackers are willing to get back on defence.
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| As usual the last men standing |
Competition: Hoboken, League Opposition
Location: Randall’s Island #75, Randall’s Island
Conditions: A rather brisk autumn evening
Fans: Mrs Vale
Result: 4-3
Result: 4-1 (1-0 at H/T). Not counting 2 perfectly good disallowed goals and numerous other legal one on ones called back because the paid official didn’t understand the offside rule
Goals: 1-0: Mckeown
2-1: Vamvouris, Assist Williams
3-1: Nizam, Assist Hodges
4-2: Solinas, Assist D’Andrea
Yellow Cards: Aussie referee wasn’t putting up with any nonsense, booking Hahn (Paulista like flick out), Roberts (silly push), D’Andrea (even sillier timewasting).
Red Cards: None
Mike D’s aka No Shows: None
Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None
”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: With plenty of playing time to go around, no injuries to speak of
Old Man of the Match: Not discussed, but we should get on this next week. Belizan was definitely an honorary mention
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
Statistic of the week: Tony Vamvouris scored his debut goal for CPR after several seasons, and an excellent goal showing a great work rate and awareness of getting in the box from outside midfield.
Team Bar Showing: 5 out of 18 (28%)
Team Bar Night: 2 out of 5. Only a few out of a large number, but stuck around to watch the whole Old Boyz game and then make it to Dive 96, one of the Dives that Becker is not banned from .
Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Andrew Faherty (DF), Ollie Roberts (DF), Mark Resnik (DF), Luciano Belizan (DF), Jan Carlson (DF), Eduardo Mazzi (DF), Pete Hahn (DF), Andrew Faherty (DF, DNP), Paul Vale, Simon Mckeown, Tony Vamvouris, John Hodges, Ugo Solinas, Manohar Venkataraman, Willan D’andrea, Ante Simic, Chris Williams
