Archive for: October, 2015

Schedule for Sunday Nov 1st

Oct 28 2015 Published by under Club

Sunday November 1st:

***Don’t forget, clocks fall back an hour…though you may need that hour to get to your game on time as it’s NYC Marathon Sunday***

Women’s Red @ Rovers, 11am East 6th

Women’s White @ NYC United, 4pm Randalls #44

Men’s White Reserves @ Polonia, noon at McCarran park

Men’s White  @ Polonia, 2pm at McCarran Park

Men’s Red Reserves @ NYPD-Brishna FC, 8am Flushing Meadows Field 8

Men’s Red @ NYPD-Brishna FC, 10am Flushing Meadows Field 8

The Old Boys vs Barnstonworth Rovers Old Boys, 8am Randalls #75

The Grays vs BW Gottschee Over-30, 10am Randalls #7

The Legends vs. SC Eintracht, 12noon Randall’s #10/Icahn Stadium

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Self inflicted wounds and pivotal bad decision doom Legends against title rivals Cozmos

Oct 27 2015 Published by under Legends

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 4th 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 4th.

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

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Reds Give up Late Goal on Corner Kick, Draw vs. Sporting Westchester 1-1

Oct 27 2015 Published by under Reds

CPR Reds traveled north to the Bronx for a Sunday night lights show down with Sporting Westchester, coached by the Brazilian legend Reinaldo Rei. The pregame warmups were sponsored by some guy behind the Reds bench on the street blasting reggaeton on his Honda Civic, a sure way to get the Reds ready to go.

The Reds came out hot, trying a new ultra high pressure system to try and force their opponents to make mistakes or play long into the tall Reds defense. Perhaps a similar system to the gegenpressing and Dortmund under Klopp or perhaps similar to the 2015-16 Red Bulls under Jesse Marsh. In any case, it worked out pretty well. Sporting Westchester struggled to generate much offense and only found light up the flanks of the field where their pressure was not much of a threat. The Reds however, after the first 10 minutes failed to generate much or when they did have an opportunity they struggled to finish. The half ended 0-0 with neither side having the real advantage.

2nd half started a bit differently with the Reds knocking it about a bit more. The Reds, also rather shorthanded due to gametime and location, started to breathe a bit heavier but kept pushing thru balls in hopes of finding the feet of newly signed Brad Janes or the ever dangerous Timur Mone. Finally the breakthrough came when Janes got his first career goal off the left foot on a beauty strike to put the Reds up 1-0. Unfortunately, the Reds defense couldn’t hold and succumbed to a late goal on a corner kick and a failed clearance. The Reds continued to threaten with a few beautiful swinging balls in from Blake Berg who slid up to right midfield but the Reds just couldn’t find a way to finish.

The match ended 1-1, and for some reason the Sporting Westchester team walked off without shaking hands. Perhaps a mistake they might regret in a future match.

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Results from Sunday Oct 25th

Oct 26 2015 Published by under Club

Sunday October 25th:

Women’s Red were quite short, and fell 0-3 to Fuel FC

Women’s White beat Kickers 2-0.  Goals: Ali M. and Beth K.

Men’s White Reserves fell 1-3 to Shamrock. Goal: Jorge.

Men’s White  drew 1-1 with Shamrock. Goal: Devin with a swerving free kick!

Men’s Red Reserves beat Sporting Astoria 2-1.  Goals: Luke Flannagan and Ahmed Madbowli

Men’s Red drew 1-1 with Sporting Astoria.  Goal: Quentin Albrecht

The Old Boys beat Megas Alexandros 3-1.  Goals: Brandon, Ernest (2).

The Grays had a BYE this weekend

The Legends fell 1-4 to Cosmoz. Goal: Willan.

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Schedule for Sunday Oct 25th

Oct 19 2015 Published by under Club

Sunday October 25th:

Women’s Red @ Fuel FC, 11am East 6th

Women’s White vs Kickers, 9am East 6th

Men’s White Reserves @ Shamrock, 11am St. Michael’s Playground Field

Men’s White  @ Shamrock, 1pm St. Michael’s Playground Field

Men’s Red Reserves @ Sporting Astoria, 6pm Evander Childs High School

Men’s Red @ Sporting Astoria, 8pm Evander Childs High School

The Old Boys @ Megas Alexandros, 10am Van Buren HS

The Grays have a BYE this weekend

The Legends vs. Cosmoz, 4pm Randall’s #74

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Results from State Cup games Sunday Oct 18th

Oct 19 2015 Published by under Club

Sunday Oct 18th:

Women’s Red beat Rovers 12-2.  Goals: Lauren Urke, Elena Solazzo, Sarah Kieffer,  Andrea Dart, Robin McCullough, Jill Mansfield (5), Hayley Sennott (2)

Women’s White beat NYC United B 8-0.  Goals: Jess Wall (4), Jessie (3) and Candance

Men’s White Reserves beat NY Pancyprian Freedoms Reserve (CSL) 2-0.  Goals: Tyler and Vitaliy

Men’s White lost 0-3 @ Easy Hampton (LISFL)

Men’s Red Reserves won via no show forfeit over Westbury (LISFL)

Men’s Red beat Leros (HASL) 7-1.  Goals: Timur Mone 2, Tim Lonergan 2, Andrew Fisher 2, and Andrew Snell 1 (GK! on a penalty)

The Old Boys at Garden City (LISFL) 9am St Paul’s Recreation Center (sadly, we forfeited Friday due to lack of available players)

The Grays beat Port Jefferson in PK’s (4-3) after ending 2-2 in regulation.  Goals: Matt K. (2)

The Legends fell 1-2 to Cozmos FC (CSL).  Goal: Ernest

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Legends finally play well but brought down to Earth by rampant Cozmos

Oct 19 2015 Published by under Legends

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.

”C’mon
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).

”Still
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 50th 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

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Schedule for Sunday Oct 18th (State Cup)

Oct 15 2015 Published by under Club

Sunday Oct 18th:

Women’s Red vs Rovers, 1:30pm New Utrecht

Women’s White vs. NYC United B, 3pm East 6th

Men’s White Reserves @ NY Pancyprian Freedoms Reserve (CSL), 6pm Randalls #75

Men’s White @ Easy Hampton (LISFL)…2pm Ross School Field

Men’s Red Reserves vs. Westbury (LISFL), 4pm Randalls #74

Men’s Red @ Leros (HASL)…2pm Van Buren HS

The Old Boys at Garden City (LISFL) 9am St Paul’s Recreation Center (sadly, we forfeited Friday due to lack of available players)

The Grays vs. Port Jefferson (LISFL) 12noon Randalls #74

The Legends at Cozmos FC (CSL), 2pm Bush Terminal Field (Brooklyn)

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All we do is win, Legends continue streak with 5 straight

Oct 15 2015 Published by under Legends

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

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Reds Give Up 2 Late Goals, Tie 2-2 vs. Doxa FC

Oct 15 2015 Published by under Reds

CPR Reds came out Sunday against Doxa FC who came into the game without a loss….of course also without having faced the CPR Reds.  The refs showed up late and only with 2 referees, an interesting play on their part with one AR watching the line on one side and the other as the field referee. The Reds came out shorthanded with several players away for the weekend forcing them to play undermanned with several players from the reserves who had already put in 90 min earlier that day. To make things worse, rookie speed demon Andrew Fisher went down in the first 2 minutes with a pulled groin. Neither team really controlled possession in the first half as Doxa’s strategy was the direct long ball over their CMs and into their strikers and the Reds ended up on the defense most of the first half holding strong winning just about every ball in the back. When the Reds did have possession, they struggled to work in several consecutive passes until they drew Mark Haroussea into the central midfield. Strong initial play from Lance Brune once again helped the Reds as well in the middle of the park as Brune made his triumphant return to wearing #6. The Reds were able to break through for a lead on a counter attack nicely slotted ball to Quentin Albrecht who did what he does best and finished to put the Reds up 1-0. It would stay that way until the end of the half. The first half was full of dangerous tackles and smack talking from the Doxa players and coaching staff which set up for quite the intense 2nd half.

The 2nd half started with Doxa putting 3-4 men forward and playing even more direct looking to beat the Reds over the top, forcing the back line to play an ultra conservative deep line to prevent a big gap from forming between their own goal and the defensive backs. The Reds controlled well for the first 15-20 min and #6 Brune stepped up on a wonderstrike free kick to put the team up 2-0. The Reds sat back a little more, as Chris Valentine was the next to go down with an injury to the already depleted Reds roster. This perhaps was the demise of what seemed to be a sure win. With players on the Reds starting to lose energy and the game turning even more aggressive with the referee handing out yellow cards like Pablo Escobar handing out money to the poor in Narcos, the momentum started to shift to a Doxa side who deserved nothing in the game. Doxa was able to catch the Reds defense off guard on a quick restart from a throw in and had a man up opportunity in the box and were able to slot home a goal to make it 2-1 with 20 min remaining. Doxa continued to play long but the Reds defense held off everything dropping into more of a 4-5-1 to help win second balls in the midfield. However, Doxa once again capitalized off a restart and after a failed clearance on a corner kick, received a fortunate bounce right to into the hands of Doxa player on the 6 yard box who calmly dropped the ball to his right foot and kicked it home for the equalizer. Perhaps an obvious handball call, but perhaps the hands were a part of the body in that situation with his hands hanging down naturally. In any case, the Reds ended the game in a 2-2 tie which surely felt to be a loss. One that seems obviously preventable had they had a full roster that day.

But that’s the way the cookie crumbled. The quote of the day comes from the Doxa coach who calmly approached Lance Brune after the game calling him the only good player on the Reds squad insisting that he is playing alongside a bunch of “pork chops”.

Expect if there  should be a rematch later in the season that the Reds will come out firing on all cylinders.

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