The travails of management entailed going from barely enough for a team with no goalkeeper the day before the game to ending up with 17, and that didn’t include Teesdale who did yeoman’s work in bringing the balls to the field before heading back to work (nobody tell him that we could have gotten by without the balls). 4 Oranges which included Doug Breckner as a sorely needed keeper ensured the squad looked good to have a chance to win only its second ever cup game in 13 chances. Gjoa had also brought along a decent sized squad along with several supporters, the only thing missing being the referee. With CSL referees not known for their punctuality every person in yellow that wandered by the field brought an expectant look only for everyone to be disappointed (coincidentally, also a trait shared by most CSL referees). Finally when it was clear there would be no lazy late referee arrival the managers gathered together to try and plot a course forward. Fortunately Mckeown volunteered that he would be okay to ref, and a Gjoa player happened to have a whistle with him. With that combination the game kicked off.
The Legends started strongly and within a few minutes Conboy had two good chances that provoked some excellent goalkeeping to keep the tie level. The Legends were putting the pressure on and causing mistakes and much gesticulating from the opposition. The Legends had a few more half chances before Gjoa’s strong possession game started to change the dynamic. CPR had the better chances but Gjoa had more of the possession in the final third without every really troubling Breckner.
The Legends had played a decent half, but as it came to a close the players unfamiliarity with each other as well as a tendency for ball chasing had opened up some yawing gaps across the midfield. Against a team like Gjoa with the ability to play quickly and through, that was a dangerous failing that needed to be addressed. With more discipline in the second half, the Legends once again started putting pressure on Gjoa although this time they only had 2 clear cut chances but with more attacking pressure in the final third. As was traditional, Gjoa’s midfielders started playing more and more attacking leaving their defence further and further open but also making them dangerous on the counter attack.
Finally with the game seemingly headed to penalties, a corner resulted in a Conboy header arrowed straight into the goal before a defender’s thigh and then hand intercepted it. Despite the Legend’s Mckeown blowing for an almost last minute penalty, the opposition were silent to confirm the veracity of the call. Resnik somewhat surprisingly had D’Andrea take the penalty, and although it wasn’t one of his better ones it was good enough to do the job. Gjoa caused a couple of late scares but in the end the Legends edged their peers for a first round win.
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| No not that Doug, the other Doug! Goalie Doug! |
Competition: SC Gjoa, League Opposition
Location: Randall’s Island #82, Randall’s Island
Conditions: Decent early spring afternoon
Fans: 0
Result: 1:0 HT: 0-0
Goals: 1-0: D’Andrea (pen), Assist Conboy
Yellow Cards: To nobody’s surprise, Frazier earned yet another booking to add to his jaw dropping never to be equaled streak of 9 consecutive games with bookings to start a career. Adding to the level of difficulty was getting a booking when your teammate was refereeing the game, making the fouls so egregious and cumulative that Mckeown had no other option.
Red Cards: None
Mike D’s aka No Shows: Teesdale will get a pass this time having driven all the way to Randall’s to hand the balls over before going back to work. Fortunately we had a lot of players this week.
Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: Mckeown showed up despite the flu only to have to referee the entire game.
”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Fortunately there were enough substitutes that only Belizan had to play 90 as a field player.
Old Man of the Match: Some good performances, with Belizan as usual with stellar work at the back marshalling the defence with his speed and agility. However in this case he was edged out by his running mate Pete Hahn who not only stuck a boot in at the back when necessary but was consistently an offensive force that constantly worried the opposition on his side. Strong honorary mention to Mckeown, who came out to play and ended up refereeing 90 minutes and doing a stellar job, upper tier compared to most CSL Referees in both our and Gjoa’s estimation.
Old Man of the Bar: N/A
El Presidente (Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): None.
Statistic of the week: D’Andrea stretched his overall all time goal lead to 28.
Team Bar Showing: 5 out of 17 (29%)
Team Bar Night: 2.5 out of 5. Time to adjust to the new normal, which is that getting 5 people back to the bar is decent (would have been 6 if Conboy had found parking). Stepping the toe in to the water at Bloom pub will help for bringing folks back to the future with a location in midtown a block away from the 59th street trains.
Team (No new profiles this week): Doug Breckner (GK), Mark Resnik (DF), Luciano Belizan (DF), Willian D’Andrea, Steve Roberts (DF), Bevan Rosenbloom, Manohar Venkataraman, Simon Mckeown (DNP, Ref), Franco Denari, Tom Pattinson, John Hodges, Tim Frazier, Mike Conboy, Pete Hahn (DF), Jason Cyrus, James Carrico (DF), Gabriel Cowles (DF)
