Div 1 [VMSL DIV 1] Predictions, Results and Banter 2015/2016

[big gk]

Any score from Transylvania today?

 

[Stuffey]

Any score from Transylvania today?

0-0 half time , game called off by refs as the turf froze

 

[Marcus]

Olympics vs Westside?

 

[Areyoureadyforsomesoccer]

Olympics vs Westside?

Left at ht with west side one up on a pk that left olympics with 10 men

 

[Jack13]

Westside 2 Olympics 0

 

[Canucks4Ever]

Predictions this weekend? Id say the match of the week is going to be westside north delta

Despite it being much warmer inside watching Green Bay toy with Washington I decided @Marcus was right so I made sure I got over to Musqeum to see ND play the Westsiders. Sounds like I was not alone (at least for the first half) and to be honest it was probably the best game I have seen this year. Both teams were going at it hammer and tongs, clearly there knew there was plenty to play for and it resulted in a really entertaining affair. There was some strong build up play by both teams with ND looking to spread it wide to their two speedsters and Westside trying to tika-taka it through the centre of midfield. This created lots of half chances and near misses with the home side probably just shading it. The Westsiders had a pair of guilt edged opportunities to open the scoring, the first off a counter attack that resulted in a clean breakaway, but the Westside attacker ran his angle off and the ND keeper came out well to make the block. The second chance was a really nice move that started in their own end on the left, switched through midfield to the right winger who made a move and cut back a venemous ball to the penalty spot. The far side winger timed his run to perfection and forced a sensational reaction save from the ND keeper. To be fair the attacker put the ball dead centre right above the keeper, anywhere else and it likely would have been unstoppable, still a helluva save though.

ND's best chance came when the Westside centre backs got a bit loose with their switching and served up a freebie right on the North Delta strikers foot about 30 yrds out. The ND man did not seem to realize how much time and space he had, nor how stranded the Westside keeper was. He elected to shoot after only a couple of touches, still outside the 18, and saw his attempt dealt with rather easily. As mentioned, the big moment took place in first half injury time. With Ruben indicating he was tacking on one extra minute and ND temporarly down to 10 while one of their players received treatment, the Westside attacker stretched to poke the ball over the ND keeper just as he was reaching for it and then darted around him to finish into the unguarded cage. A desperate Delta defender had a rush of blood to the head though and extended an arm to deny the goal. The Macedonian in the middle had no hesitation in going to his pocket to issue the defeder his marching orders and pointing to the spot. The lad who had squandered his breakaway earlier finished clinically, followed immediately by the half time whistle.

While the sending off was no doubt great from Westside's perspective, from a neutral point of view it had to be seen as taking some of the gloss and quality off the game. Delta opted to go with 3 at the back in the second half to bolster their search for an equalizer, and they had some realatively decent opportunities. Most of their chances came from set pieces and crosses, especially given that the Westside keeper was seemingly struggling to hold onto the ball as it was getting colder. There was plenty of desperate defending and goal area scrambles, but the visitors just could not get the ball over the line. Of course committing so much forward, and already being a man down, ND was ripe for the counter attack but Westside could not convert, missing a handful of chances to kill the game off. It was pretty clear that there was going to be another goal in this game, the only question being which team would find it. It ended up being the hosts, as their pacey substitute beat his man on the left wing before taking the lone centre back out of the play with an early cross. The ND goalie was again on point, rushing out to block the strikers first time attempt, but the rebound fell squarly to the far side winger who, having been denied by the handball at the end of the first half, made no mistake in salting the game away much to the delight of the home supporters.


No doubt a huge win for Westside to keep their promotion hopes on life support. More importanly though, a hammer blow to North Delta's bid to go up as (assuming Guildford take care of Romania whenever their game is completed) they are now 4 pts off the top two. That being said this weeks MOTW has Guildford vs Columbus so it's a chance for the others to make up some ground against one or both of the leaders. North Delta has the Delta derby this weekend against surprise story of the season so far South Delta. ND are the only top 5 team SD has not taken points off, and while the North will be consensus favourites going into the game, if the South pulls off the upset then they too will be have to be considered technically in the promotion race. South Delta continued their strong play with a W over Rinos and that pushed the rather eye catching gap between the top six and bottom six to 11 points. Not sure I have ever seen such disparity in a league table.

The other big game in Div 1 this coming weekend is at the bottom between Sarajevo and Romania. Despite having remarkably only scored FIVE goals all season, a win for Sarajevo would, in all likelihood, at least temporarly vault them out of the drop zone. Depending on the Rinos/Akal result a Sarajevo win would threaten to embroil all six teams in the bottom half in the relgation battle.

 

[Regs]

@Canucks4Ever Great match report, thanks!

 

[Marcus]

Predictions this weekend?

 

[trece verde]

@Canucks4Ever Great match report, thanks!

So who gets the pizza this week then, Regs? I didn't see the expression young veteran in there at all...

 

[Canucks4Ever]

BigGK no score from Memorial last night?

 

[big gk]

BigGK no score from Memorial last night?

That is correct there was no scores. 0-0. Frustration for both sides I can imagine. Their goalie whom returned home from his spell with the Metros made two great saves and Shaheen had a guy taking down at the very top of the box in the 80th minute but it was ruled the foul took place just before the 18 I would of been fine with a pk call but obviously preferred the very good refs decision.

 

[Marcus]

North Delta 3-1 Royals. Definitely for us the best team we've played this season, we don't match up well against them. Very good team all around and honestly the scoreline could've been higher for them. We were on a good run but the lads didn't show up and fight until about the 70 minute mark when north delta was up 2-0 and made some changes, we scored a goal and put a bit of pressure on them but got caught with a ball over the top as we were pushed up and their forward buried a nice goal. Good luck to north delta the rest of the way, definitely deserve a spot going up. Reality check for our team but we will pick ourselves up and hopefully go on a another run to finish the season off.

 

[Jack13]

Westside 1 metro 0

 

[LION]

Good read Marcus.
South delta seemed to be content with sitting back and defending and trying to catch us on the counter. Had a bit of a park the bus mentality and it was hard to break down for a while. We should have barrier much more. But that's been the issue this year. Scoring goals. Really hard to replace a 20 goal scorer that we lost this season.

Really tight standings at the top of the standings. I don't think anybody is a lock.

West side on the heels and not much room for anyone to slip up if they want to get promoted. ND is still super young with 90% of the guys under 23. So if this year is not our year, lots of time to get to premier.

 

[Canucks4Ever]

An interesting mix at the top with 3 young teams (ND, Guilford and Westside) and 2 veteran teams (Columbus and Bingers). Will be fun to see which pays off in the end the experience or the youth.

 

[Canucks4Ever]

This weeks MOTW at NAP as Bingers and Guilford duke it out at the top end. At the bottom Shaheen play Rino as things have the potential to tighten up even more in the relegaion fight.

The others are all top vs bottom as the promotion chasers looks to avoid any slip ups. Upset alerts anywhere?? Akal and Sarajevo coming off big wins last week, any chance one or both keep it rolling vs ND or Westside?

 

[Marcus]

Cant really see any big upsets happening this weekend, would be interesting to catch bingers versus guildford. Might play out to a draw who knows. Sarajevo seem to be getting themselves out of trouble as well, who knows who they have signed and or recently gotten back from injury etc. Should make for an interesting final 5-6 games for everyone a lot of top of battle clashes are coming for bingers guildford north delta and columbus actually.

Bingers vs Guildford, Columbus, ND
Columbus vs Bingers, ND
Guildford vs Bingers, ND
ND vs Bingers, Columbus, Guildford

Obviously those are repeats of themselves but shows all those teams play each other at least twice in the run in so lots of room for teams to pull away or fall off. Definitely the tightest division 1 race I've seen. Westside comparatively has quite a favourable run in so I wouldn't count them out either.

 

[Marcus]

Royals 1-0 Metropolitan

 

[hornswoggle]

Guildford take all 3 points from Bingers, ND and Columbus both with victories as well.
Any score update coming out of Westside?

 

[RicoSuave]

1-0 for the young lads at Westside