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.
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| 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
