With a few of the stalwarts hurt or unavailable the Legends once again tried to beg, borrow but not steal players.  Unfortunately unlike midweek the Bat signal did not result in any caped heroes arriving.  Facing an expectedly strong Shamrock side the Legends would only have 10 players, and even those barely made it due to unexpectedly grim traffic from Manhattan.  Until Conboy arrived the Legends started in a 5-3-0 formation with Venkataraman tucking in as a fifth defender on the right hand side.  Although Shamrocks naturally had the vast amount of possession the Legends were able to keep them at bay without too many last ditch tackles.  Once Conboy arrived and Mckeown was pushed as a solo striker CPR had a bit more time in the midfield.  Inevitably though Shamrock’s pressing paid dividends as they were able to steal the ball inside the box and score their first goal, soon followed by a second.  The rout appeared to be on but on a 2 and 0 breakaway Telly Vamvouris did just enough in goal to force an offside pass.  At least that was the charitable interpretation, whereas another referee might well have sent Telly off for a foul or allowed the goal to stand.

0-2 at half time was as good as the Legends could have hoped for, but the Russian Roulette of the high defensive line populated by 40 somethings was asking for trouble.  CPR was also caught in a no man’s land of chasing the game to get a goal and get back in while inevitably opening up holes in the back.  The beginning of the second half saw the Legends come out very strongly but unable to get the final killer pass or shot on goal to challenge the keeper.  Both D’Andrea and Conboy were able to take on multiple players but eventually ended up overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers.  Fatigue was also starting to become a factor as the inevitable third goal finally came on a counter.  Gaps were starting to open up all over the field and all the Shamrock players were trying to get in on the action.  Two goals in quick succession put any remote doubt of the result to rest, and all that remained was for the Legends to not allow a cricket score while trying to grab a consolation back.  They had one glorious opportunity where Mckeown found himself one on one with the goalie who made a creditable save given how little he had to do.  Meanwhile CPR allowed a total of 6 goals and avoided a couple of other open opportunities while eliciting some quality saves from Telly.

A disappointing score for numerous reasons, not least the fact that showing up with 10 players was always going to make getting a result unlikely.  Combined with Barnstonworth’s large win over Gjoa the Legends are now out of playoff positioning and will have to hope they can rally far more squad players to the cause if they are going to avoid an empty season.

Competition: Shamrock Rovers, League Opposition

Location: St. Michael’s Playground, Queens

Conditions: Moderate afternoon

Fans: None

Result: 0-6 HT: 0-2

Goals: N/A

Yellow Cards: N/A

Red Cards: N/A

Mike D’s aka No Shows: N/A

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: N/A

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: The vicious scything of Conboy fortunately happened right at the end of the game but will see him out for a few weeks.  He was barely able to walk the next day.

Old Man of the Match:  Solid performance by everyone considering the obstacles, but nobody stood out.  Tony Vamvouris appears to be making the defensive midfield position his own.

Old Man of the Bar: Good performance by Tier 1, but not OMoB worthy.

El Presidente (Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): Paul Vale was summoned from his Upper East Side lair with minimal notice (sans cravat).

Statistic of the week: Nothing notable

Team Bar Showing: 4 out of 10 (40%)

Team Bar Night: 3.5 out of 5. An initial tired crew of 4 started to gather steam with some shots and especially the volcanic arrival of Paul Vale heralding more shots and beers.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Mark Resnik (DF), Tony Vamvouris, Bevan Rosenbloom (DF), Steve Roberts (DF), Willian D’Andrea, Manohar Venkataraman, Drew Faherty (DF), Simon Mckeown, Mike Conboy

The struggle to cobble together even 11 players continued for the Legends.  After casting their net far and wide they looked to have 13 until the Mike D of Randall Klitz.  Fortunately their 12 looked very healthy in comparison to the 8 players that Barnstonworth scrounged up.  The 7pm start time might have been early for the average New York worker, but no less to blame was the bitterly cold and windy night that encouraged everyone to get the game started and moving as quickly as possible.

With no idea of whether Rovers reinforcements were on the way, the Legends started at a quick tempo and tried to press to keep the pressure on.  Although ostensibly a 4-4-2 Swinkels was privately encouraged to attack as the formation became an unofficial 4-3-3.  Despite being severely outmanned Barnstonworth showed some nice touches and dribbling ability but due to the sheer force of numbers were simply unable to get out of their own half.  After some near misses CPR finally struck with a nice finish from the outside of the left foot by Mckeown.  Soon after a corner caused some confusion at the back for Rovers presenting Swinkels with the easiest of tap ins.  After a couple of strong runs on the left Swinkels was rewarded again with sliding the ball through the keeper after the initial save.  A pass down the middle from D’Andrea set Mckeown free for another smart finish, and D’Andrea finished off the scoring for the first half.

A couple of reinforcements did arrive for Rovers at half time and so the Legends were now facing 10, still with a one man advantage.  Their initial break occurred when the referee seemed oblivious to a player several yards offside who then marched down half the field to score while CPR players stood around bewildered at such an obvious blunder.  The goal now gave Barnstonworth some hope and they quickly scored a second on a great counter, aided by Legends greed and the perennial lack of football situational understanding that afflicts some of their players.  Having 7 players in the penalty area when leading 5-1 allowing a counterattack is simply foolish.  Fortunately the game was opening up in both directions and a Man of the Match performance by Tony Vamvouris was capped by an admittedly wind assisted lob from outside the box.  At this point the 4 goal lead looked safe, although Telly Vamvouris made his own excellent save on yet another counter attack by Barnstonworth.

Regardless of how it came about, a first cup win was most welcome and allows the Legends to play another game in the usually sparse spring.  Goals scored are always good for the confidence and hopefully the Legends can do better rallying players and playing well the rest of the Spring.

Competition: Barnstonworth Rovers Veterans, League Opposition

Location: Randall’s Island #75, Randall’s Island

Conditions: Freezing windy evening

Fans: None

Result: 6-2, HT: 5-0

Goals: 1:0 Mckeown

2:0 Swinkels

3:0 Swinkels

4:0 Mckeown Assist D’Andrea

5:0 D’Andrea Assist Hodges

6:0 Tony Vamvouris

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Randall Klitz was supposed to be the prodigal son briefly returning but never showed.  Fortunately he was not needed.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Very fortunately none.

Old Man of the Match:  Lots of candidates but Tony Vamvouris in a very disciplined defensive midfield position gets the nod, with his goal while the Legends were starting to be pressurized ending any real threat of a Barnstonworth comeback.

Old Man of the Bar: None.

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

Statistic of the week:  Tony Vamvouris gets his debut Old Man of the Match.  Mckeown continues his prolific goal scoring, rapidly rising up the all time charts with 17 goals in 23 matches.

Team Bar Showing: 4 out of 12 (33%)

Team Bar Night: 2 out of 5. Made it to Dive 96 for a quick bite and a beer.

Team (No new profiles this week): Telly Vamvouris (GK), Mark Resnik (DF), Eduardo Mazzi (DF), Tony Vamvouris, Bevan Rosenbloom (DF), Steve Roberts (DF), Willian D’Andrea, Manohar Venkataraman, John Hodges, Drew Faherty (DF), Simon Mckeown, Ronnie Swinkels