After last week’s minimum squad numbers against a top flight team, this week showed a larger contingent ready to play a team more at their level.  Manhattan Celtic were always a tough opponent and the Legends had lost to them by a solitary goal in the spring.  With the unfortunate early retirement of their goalie Miller it was once again a scramble to find someone to play between the posts.  Morse had volunteered from the Old Boys but one look at him when he eventually arrived showed he was in no shape to play in that important position.  With few other solutions Resnik had prepared himself with a new pair of gloves and was ready to go at game time.  The Legends won the toss to take the sun protected bridge side for the first half but were immediately on the back foot.  The team pressed well but Manhattan Celtic were showing themselves as formidable offensively.  A couple of scrambles in the box but no lethal touch let the Legend get some breathing room.  With the ball out to the midfield CPR were able to pass the ball around and had some chances of their own before a lovely flowing move had Pattinson find Casanova wide open at the top of the box and he made no mistake, finishing and then celebrating in his typically exuberant Chilean way.

	The referee was a nice guy whose been around the block, but he’s certainly susceptible to suggestion when it comes to offside calls

The second half started exactly the same as the first, with Celtic pouring the pressure on but leaving themselves vulnerable to the counter attack.  For the most part the Legends had been able to calmly handle the ball out from the back, but in this instance discretion would have been the better part of valor.  Rather than hoof the ball up to the forwards they attempted to daintily play it out at the top of the box only to be dispossessed and have Celtic finish from the scramble from near the penalty area.  Now that they had their tails up it was all the Rangers could do to withstand the onslaught while trying to make something happen on their own.  Some good defensive work at the top took possession of the ball and spread it wide.  Morales took a shot from wide that the keeper was able to parry, but Rosenbloom was on hand to tap the ball into the empty goal.

Celtic tried to thread the needle with frustrating effect, the Referee having shown himself all game susceptible to “encouragement” regarding off side calls.  Whereas the Rangers had been unfairly punished on occasion Celtic certainly seemed to be more frustrated with some of the calls.  With his own unique style the referee was calling out how long remained in the game, giving the Legends some extra impetus to do what they needed to close the game down.  A welcome win against a tough opponent was just the tonic after last week’s embarrassment.

	Morse did deserve kudos for showing up relatively on time to an 8am game after a 16 hour bender, but lost points for not coming to the bar post game

Competition: Manhattan Celtic Masters, League Opposition

Location: Randall’s Island #72, Randall’s Island

Conditions: Lovely spring morning

Fans: 0

Result: 1:0 HT: 2-1

Goals: 1-0: Casanova, Assist Pattinson

2-1: Rosenbloom, Assist Morales

Yellow Cards: None, as Frazier is still on sabbatical and Celtic happened to be physical but fairly so.

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: As always, having a large number the day before does not necessarily lead to having that number at game time.  Teesdale was sick and Denari had late domestic issues, but at least the team had a full 15.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None.

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: None.

Old Man of the Match: An overall good performance by everyone, with good defensive pressure and nice passing.  Belizan came close once again shutting down the back along with Oli Roberts.  However the award goes to Resnik who reluctantly sacrificed himself for the team to go in goal when it was clear that Morse should be anywhere else but goal.  The aggressive sweeper keeper was expected from those who have seen him back in the day, but the game long deep kicks were a welcome surprise that took pressure off the players at the back.

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:  Resnik won his first OMoM, mostly due to playing at outside back which has an additional degree of difficulty to win that award.  Tom Pattinson took sole possession of second place in the all time assists table.

Team Bar Showing: 4 out of 15 (27%)

Team Bar Night: 3 out of 5. Extending the regular stay while hanging out with the Grays for a decent time interval.

Team (No new profiles this week): Mark Resnik (GK), Oliver Roberts (DF), Luciano Belizan (DF), Willian D’Andrea, Steve Roberts (DF), Bevan Rosenbloom, Manohar Venkataraman, Simon Mckeown, Tom Pattinson, Steve Morse, Eduardo Mazzi (DF), Manuel Casanova, Santiago Morales, Mark Edmunds (DF), Marc Walby (DF)

As it stood, the Cup game against the Over 30’s division leading NY Greek Americans was already a daunting task.  Once the schedule came out for Sunday 9pm at the Met Oval in Queens, daunting turned to virtually mission impossible.  For several days the Legends scrambled to bring in reinforcements, but on a cold, windy, miserable night in Queens they could only scrounge up a bare 11 with Resnik shouting out encouragement on the sidelines.

Having players playing in either unfamiliar roles or areas they weren’t particularly suited to didn’t help, especially given the long Met Oval pitch.  The Legends knew the opposition would be good based on their record, but the speed and technique of the youngsters was tough to handle.  Long 30 yard Crossfield balls not only found their targets but were taken down with aplomb.  The rainy conditions making the field slick actually helped the Greeks as they blew by their defenders on the wings.  The scoring started early and continued relentlessly.  The Legends were actually able to pass the ball about decently but given the conditions and the natural atrophy of their skills due to old age they just couldn’t damp the tide.  A couple of shots from outside the box and a bouncing ball evading Casanova and Venkataraman inside the box was as close as they got.

The second half was more of the same as adding insult to injury, the Greeks started bringing on a horde of substitutes.  Space did open up for both sides but the ponderous Legends were unable to make much happen in the final third. The Greeks were treating the game as a training exercise and showed no signs of letting up or taking pity on their old opponents.  As the wind whipped down the Legends valiantly tried to get a consolation but it wasn’t to be.  There were so many goals that the Legends had to actually look up the final score the next day only to wish they hadn’t.

An unreasonable ask, a heroic attempt but the result was never in doubt.  At least the Legends got some free practice in a game situation.

	Alas poor Legends, they did try against superior forces. And failed spectacularly.

Competition: NY Greek Americans, Over 30’s

Location: Met Oval, Queens

Conditions: Ugly rainy cold night

Fans: 1, Resnik who commendably came out to watch

Result: 0:11 HT: Nobody cares

Goals: N/A

Yellow Cards: There might have been someone, can’t remember

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Gabe from the Oranges was going to help us but ended up a late scratch.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: Sadly none.  If we had one more we might have been able to hold them to single digits.

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Surprisingly none, given everyone had to play 90 minutes.

Old Man of the Match: Lol.

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:  Biggest loss in Legends history.

Team Bar Showing: 0 out of 11 (0%)

Team Bar Night: N/A

Team (No new profiles this week): Mitch Miller (GK), Willian D’Andrea, Steve Roberts (DF), Manohar Venkataraman, Simon Mckeown, Franco Denari, Mike Conboy, Eduardo Mazzi, Santiago Morales, Steve Teesdale, Manuel Casanova

On a cold and chilly Sunday morning under the bridge the Legends numbers had arrived but their goalie had not.  With Miller out, Carducci had stepped in only to suffer his own old man ailment playing for the Whites the night before.  This meant El Presidente Faherty had to do a quick costume change from Photojournalist to goalkeeper.  Fortunately, the opposition were in dire straits of their own, with seven ready and the other four late arrivals changing with no sense of urgency.  The late arriving referee was keen to get the game started and so blew the whistle while Gjoa had only eight on the field.  With many years of experience the Legends knew that they had precious minutes to make their numerical supremacy count, especially against a team that matched up very well against them.  Indeed, going immediately on the offensive they were able to take advantage.  With players flooding the final third, a speculative ball from Pattinson drifted past everyone to find Hodges loitering at the far post where he converted the easiest of headers.

	With very little notice Faherty made the change with a match winning performance in goal

Eventually the final couple of Gjoa players loped onto the field and right away they exerted pressure while forcing the Legends to cough up the ball again and again.  The game plan for the Legends had been to keep things close and then take advantage of the counter later in the game as Gjoa traditionally sent everyone forward at the expense of their midfield and defence.  However, given the early lead Gjoa had quickly changed to a hyper aggressive strategy that was working.  The flipside to that is that they left themselves horribly exposed on the counter attack, and with CPR outracing the languid Gjoa midfielders it was Denari’s first career assist to provide Rainares with his first career goal.

The Legends weren’t exactly in command, but their defence was doing what was necessary before the referee felt the need to influence the proceedings with a laughably egregious penalty call.  Oli Roberts had blasted the ball clear from the penalty area but somehow the referee had deemed his follow through as too high and pointed to the spot.  The quality of the Legends entreaties were more bemusement than anger as to how a paid referee could possibly make such an obvious mistake.  The bald Gjoa midfielder took the penalty as their best player and made no mistake past the diving Faherty.

With the game unfairly tightened Gjoa used their second wind to launch an onslaught that had the Legends exerting a break but don’t bend defence ably backed up by Faherty.  One save in particular brought out groans from Gjoa and fervent cheers, as the striker trapped the cross 3 yards out but Faherty spritely launched himself across to block the shot wide.  Meanwhile the Legends were able to continually take advantage on the counter, with Mckeown superbly placing a ball up into the side netting from distance and then crossing the ball to an open Rainares who buried the ball for his second.  The Legends should have had another but this time the referee inexplicably ignored a handball in the Gjoa penalty box, one of many odd decisions that would enrage both sides over the game.

At 4-1 up there was no celebration for the Legends as they knew that Gjoa had the ability to score 3 goals, even if they would have to do so with no substitutes.  A few of the Legends themselves were starting to succumb to some ailments as the game had started to become rougher, with the referee taking a laissez-faire approach to calling fouls and Gjoa taking out their frustration on the Legends.  The second half consisted of Gjoa pressing in the final third while the Legends tried to spring on the counter attack.  Faherty was continuing to roll back the pounds and years with save after save, while the defence was stoutly making things hard for the opposition.  Gjoa were able to claw one back at the near post and looked to have an opportunity to have another penalty as Faherty clattered through a Gjoa striker, but while everyone stood around waiting for the penalty the referee pulled out his magic eight ball and decided the result of the play was a corner.  After fluffing a few counter attacks the Legends finally converted one with high defensive pressure allowing Mckeown to pull defenders towards him before laying the ball off for Rosenbloom who made no mistake.

The Legends will enjoy this victory as next week promises to be far less enjoyable as they take on the NY Greeks, leading the Over 30’s division.

Competition: SC Gjoa, League Opposition

Location: Randall’s Island #73, Randall’s Island

Conditions: Very chilly windy morning

Fans: 0

Result: 5:2 HT: 4-1

Goals: 1-0: Hodges Assist Pattinson

2-0: Rainares assist Denari

3-1: Mckeown Assist D’Andrea

4-1: Rainares assist Mckeown

5-2: Rosenbloom assist Mckeown

Yellow Cards: The Randomizer Referee booked players based on whims and fouls that were not even given at other times.  Rosenbloom received a booking after being repeatedly fouled with no repercussions, Teesdale got one for a collision of bodies and Venkataraman received one while walking away after responding to the whiny irish crybaby.

Red Cards: None

Mike D’s aka No Shows: Perhaps by the end of the season the Mike D will be renamed the Santiago Morales as yet another no show, lacking of course the late night fun and shenanigans of Mike D.  Carducci had an injury suffered playing for the Whites the night before, a perfectly acceptable reason for the late no show and also leading to El Presidente’s heroics.

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: Rosenbloom showed up and added some much needed legs and physicality on the outside, chipping in with a goal.

”Mr. Glass” Fragility/Old Man Injury Award: Several due partly to the physicality being allowed by randomizer ref.  Hahn went out with sore ski legs late in the first half and Rainares went out with hopefully a short lived groin strain.  Belizan’s collision with Resnik required him to take a few minutes to resuscitate his manhood and Teesdale took a battering in the box but kept on ticking.  The Legends will absolutely need them playing Over 30 league leaders NY Greeks next week.

Old Man of the Match: For the first time in quite awhile the OMoM was fairly clear right after the game.  El Presidente Faherty was pressed into service in goal at short notice and proved to be more than just a replacement player, with his point blank save in the first half in particularly revealing a deceptive level of agility.  Rainares and Mckeown were honorary mentions for providing some long needed attacking nous.

Old Man of the Bar: N/A

El Presidente (Old Men who don’t make it to game but come to the bar): Edmunds could be considered an El Presidente having played for the Old Boys on the adjacent field.

Statistic of the week: Pattinson is now tied for second all time with assists at 12.

Team Bar Showing: 3 out of 15 (20%)

Team Bar Night: 2.5 out of 5. Only Tier 1 made it back to the bar, meeting up with Andy Jones and Mark Edmunds for a couple.  Some Masters golf was watched, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Team (No new profiles this week): Drew Faherty (GK), Luciano Belizan (DF), Oliver Roberts (DF), Willian D’Andrea, Steve Roberts (DF), Manohar Venkataraman, Simon Mckeown, Tom Pattinson, John Hodges, Pete Hahn (DF), Steve Teesdale (DF), Eduardo Rainares, Bevan Rosenbloom, Franco Denari, Mark Resnik (DF)