After a strong second half last week the Legends were hoping to learn from the experience against Comzos in the more important league match.  With some squad members missing Marko Guzijan & Matt Shapiro were drafted in to bolster the defence, and a lengthy midweek tactical email was reasserted before the game.  Although the Legends started okay, the Comzos appeared somewhat sluggish with none of the quick closing down and rampages down the line that happened the previous week.  CPR was still not following the tactical game plan with midfielders wandering far too upfield without making it back, but initially they weren’t punished for their tactical naivety.  In fact the Legends were able to take the lead when a lofted corner from Mckeown found D’Andrea at the penalty spot, and this was one occasion when his slow deliberation was rewarded with a calmly struck shot hitting the back of the net.

Soon after, disaster struck.  A lofted ball landed neatly between Telly & two defenders inside the 6 yard box.  A bumbling game of hot potato resulted in the opposition striker gleefully stepping in and tapping the ball into the net from 5 yards, an unfortunate mistake for a defence that has mostly been rock solid this season.  Worse was to come, as despite all the entreaties to get rid of the ball quickly it was held too long in central midfield and predictably stripped.  This led to a counterattack where the cross coming across was buried in the net by Hahn, the first own goal in several seasons for the Legends at the worst possible time.

The Legends hadn’t played particularly well, showing no real ability to learn from their mistakes.  Having said that, they certainly didn’t deserve to be down a goal at the half.  In the hope that something stuck the talking point were reiterated and the Legends did appear to raise their game a little.  Unfortunately they were unable to adjust to the refereeing, which consisted of mostly allowing all physical contact to go unmolested with the odd random generator to pick a decision.  Up to the half the most egregious decision had been a blatant foul on Nizam which resulted in the opposition backing up to form a wall only for both teams to stare bemusedly at the referee for apparently seeing something the 22 players on the field hadn’t and indicating the opposite decision.  This type of tomfoolery happens every week in this league, but the egregious offside third goal for Cozmos was the backbreaker for the Legends.  As contractually obligated, yes its hard for a single referee to call offside but in this case it was so egregious that the referee couldn’t even point to the person playing the offside striker on.

The third goal broke the back of the Legends spirit while filling Cozmos with confidence.  As the more physical team they benefitted from the referee letting play go, but CPR was unable to match that physicality apart from Shapiro.  CPR attacks petered out in the box with few shots on goal to challenge the keeper.  Meanwhile Comzmos went from strength to strength, scoring a 4^th and spurning a few other gilt edge chances for a final 4-1 score.

The final score was not indicative of the game as pivotal moments hurt the Legends.  Having said that, CPR needs to learn how to be more disciplined and communicative while conjuring up more scoring chances.  They should gain more time on the ball for the upcoming game in the enormous wasteland of Field #10 at Randalls Island.

Competition: Cozmos, State Cup

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

Conditions: Lovely afternoon

Fans: 3.5 (Mrs Telly, Telly dog, 2 Mini Roberts)

Result: 1-4

Goals: 1-0: D’Andrea Assist Mckeown

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: None

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: Simic, whose knee injury apparently recovered late

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Fortunately none after the previous week

Old Man of the Match:  Despite conceding the 4 goals Belizan put in a sterling performance to push his record OMoM collection to 7.  Honorary mention to Enticott for tireless thankless running up top

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): Eagle eyed Resnik saw Paul Vale walking the dog and corralled him in for a couple of beers.

Statistic of the week:  After a dry spell D’Andrea nets his first of the season to break a tie in all time Legends goals with Venkataraman.  Belizan pushes his all time OMoM awards to 7, way ahead of Sean Street in 4^th.

Team Bar Showing: 5 out of 17 (29%)

Team Bar Night: 2.5 out of 5. The late game time didn’t help, but decent longevity to finish off Cowboys vs Giants & see the Red Bulls clinch the Supporters Shield.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Luciano Belizan (DF), Steve Roberts (DF), Drew Faherty (DF), Mark Resnik (DF), Matt Shapiro (DF), Pete Hahn (DF), Marko Guzijan (DF), Simon Mckeown, Tony Vamvouris, Tom Pattinson, Ante Simic, Ugo Solinas, Manohar Venkataraman, Willian D’Andrea, Hakan Nizam, Rich Enticott

The Legends have flattered to deceive this season, playing well only fitfully yet managing to rack up the victories by playing about 10% better than their opponents in each game.  It was very apparent that these two weeks playing in the Cup & league against a Cozmos team laying waste to the league would be a sober wake up call.  After having large squads to choose from on game day the Legends fell back the other way, struggling to get a team together and benefitting from the Old Boyz forfeiting due to their own numbers issues.  The addition of Subah, Stower & Morse would provide some brawn, outside relentlessness and calm possession respectively.  On the flip side, Subah’s relaxed Liberian approach to the concept of time almost caused a disaster as Management arrived right at game time only to find the referee & Cozmos had similar approaches to punctuality.

	Subah may live his life in Liberian time, but this is a real problem when you are driving management with the passes & roster to the game.

From the beginning it was clear that this was a very different proposition than any the Legends had seen so far this season.  The Cozmos team were fit, fast, athletic, technically adept & ruthless defensively.  CPR were immediately on the back foot as the opposition rapidly passed their way through the team in all spots, down the middle and the flanks.  Meanwhile when CPR had the ball there was no characteristic time to look around for options as they were immediately swarmed with the Over 36 version of gegenpressing.    The downward spiral of players nervously receiving the ball expecting the pressure resulted in almost continuous possession for Cozmos, which they finally converted with a ball across field finding a player at the far post who buried the shot.  Soon after, a Cozmos player received the ball at the top of the box & unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner and the Legends looked in real danger of being routed.  Fortunately the panicked yelling started being more focused and all the Legends belatedly realized they were going to have to contribute a lot more defensively than they were used to.  The energy level rose if not the possession, and this was enough to frustrate Cozmos.  Meanwhile attacking chances were few & far between, limited to a shot into the wall from Pattinson.

The half time talk in no uncertain terms told the team that the needed to continue to work hard, but as it was a cup game they would be attacking a lot more as the half wore on.  In a cup game, losing 2-0 or 6-0 was irrelevant as the strategy was to reduce and then eliminate the deficit by throwing more players forward.  Gaps started to show up in the Cozmos possession game as the Legends started to gain a real foothold.  Roberts & Roberts stood strong & the Legends started creating more chances on the counter.  An initial chance went begging as the keeper dropped the ball off a free kick only for Ollie & D’Andrea to get in each other’s way at the far post with the goal gaping.  Unfortunately this chance wasn’t the most egregiously missed as the Legends sprung the offside trap to perfection.  Stower carried the ball from the wing with 4 attacking teammates in the box to choose from and zero defenders who were all still complaining to the referee.  However the overwhelming stimulus of 4 players screaming for the easy pass & open goal proved too much as Stower instead picked Door C, passing the ball too close to the keeper instead.  This was the most egregious example of gallows humour on the sideline since Casanova launched his penalty into orbit over the Triborough bridge several seasons ago.  To their credit, the Legends continued to work hard on the counter and this time Subah rescued another potentially disastrous mess on the counter retrieving Stower’s pass to bury it in the net.  Cozmos for the first time looked legitimately disturbed and resorted to timewasting, no doubt for the first time this season.  The Legends huffed & puffed but ultimately couldn’t score the equalizer and take the game to penalties.

It was a good natured physical game, the question is whether the Legends have learned anything from this question and whether they are smart enough to implement those lessons (Hint: There is a clear explicit blueprint to beat this team, the question is whether the Legends are smart & disciplined enough to follow it).

	The pressure of a 5 on 0 counterattack was too much for the Legends & Stower, the loud noises resulting in no goal

Competition: Cozmos, State Cup

Location: Bush Terminal Piers Park, Brooklyn

Conditions: Brisk afternoon

Fans: 3 (Mrs Morse, Mrs Telly & alumni Cory Caouette)

Result: 1-2

Goals: 1-2: Subah Assist Stower

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Chris Williams with a late game time notification due to work

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: The speed of the opposition caused the Legends to have to run much more than usual, resulting in hamstring strains for Venkataraman & Steve Roberts

Old Man of the Match:  Another solid performance marshalling resources made Ollie Roberts the OMoM

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:  Resnik gets his 50^th cap to add to over 50 for the Old Boyz & Metroboyz

Team Bar Showing: 8 out of 14 (57%)

Team Bar Night: 3.5 out of 5. A good showing at the bar including a first for Telly Vamvouris

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Ollie Roberts (DF), Steve Roberts (DF), Drew Faherty (DF), Mark Resnik (DF), Steve Morse (DF), Simon Mckeown, Tony Vamvouris, Tom Pattinson, Neil Stower, Manohar Venkataraman, Willian D’Andrea, Hakan Nizam, Ernest Subah

It has been an interesting season so far for the Legends.  Bolstered by recruits both internally & externally, the Legends are still feeling their oats and are yet to put together a coherent half, let alone a good game.  Having said that, winning ugly is still winning and this is what CPR has managed so far for the first 5 games (including the first game forfeit).  With the worst 5-1 win in history behind them last week, the Legends were going to have to up their game considerably against a typically hard working Shamrock team.

Although CPR had a smaller contingent than usual, it was still a healthy 15 who were showing up as opposed to the 12 for the Shamrocks.  On one of the biggest fields that they will play on, the Legends were going to need every one of these substitutes.  As expected given the field size, most of the action was taking place in the middle.  An early foray down the right led to the game’s first goal as Pete Hahn rampaged down the right before finding Casanova in the box.  Smartly taking his time, Casanova passed the ball to Solinas who sweetly struck his one touch shot right into the side netting.  Unfortunately from then on there was not much to speak off regarding action.  Duckie for the Shamrocks went off injured which resulted in the opposition having to play the enormous field with no substitutes, already missing their top 3 strikers.  Unfortunately the Legends were having difficulty stringing too many passes together and were unable to take advantage.  With no pace up top, through balls on the long field were out but there was also difficulty advancing the ball down the wings.

The second half saw the Shamrocks valiantly chasing the equalizer, spurning several decent opportunities with Telly Vamvouris stopping the rest.  Meanwhile the Legends were barely making any headway at the other end, with an xG map that was surely as ugly as any (best guess would be 0.4).  The one part of the Legends that has been strong all season has been the defence, especially Telly in goal & the rotating centerbacks of Roberts, Roberts & Belizan.  They managed to do just enough to bail out the sputtering offence on what should have been a more comfortable win against a side with no substitutes on a big field.

Complaints are over as of the next two weeks, as first the Legends play Cozmos in the State Cup followed by Cozmos again in the league.  This team has been laying waste with 30 goals scored and only 5 conceded, so we will see if the Legends penchant for playing to the level of the opposition results in the quality being raised a notch.

Competition: Shamrock SC Legends, League Opposition

Location: Randall’s Island #10, Randall’s Island

Conditions: Lovely morning, perfect for football

Fans: 0

Result: 1-0

Goals: 1-0: Solinas Assist Casanova

Yellow Cards: Nizam with a magnificently executed professional foul, running neck & neck with a Shamrock player for half the length of the field

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: None

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None, although evite response is still very spotty

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Pete Hahn & Jan Carlson with muscular injuries, the long pitch not helping

Old Man of the Match:  With only a couple of brief appearances at the bar, not enough quorum to vote.  Again.

Old Man of the Bar: Two Tier 1s had another stellar session at the bar, seeing off several teams (Venkataraman, Faherty).

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

Statistic of the week:  None to speak of

Team Bar Showing: 5 out of 16 (31%)

Team Bar Night: 3 out of 5. Only 5 at the bar, but the Tier 1s longevity bumped this up slightly above average.  Good showing by the Reds (Coffee boy) as well as Old Boyz/Grays.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Ollie Roberts (DF), Luciano Belizan (DF), Pete Hahn (DF), Steve Roberts (DF), Drew Faherty (DF), Eduardo Mazzi (DF), Jan Carlson (DF), John Hodges, Simon Mckeown, Tony Vamvouris, Ugo Solinas, Tom Pattinson, Manohar Venkataraman, Manuel Casanova, Hakan Nizam