Not in their first game they weren't - N. Coquitlam 2-1 over Astros.
Green Devils 2-1 Surrey Dynamo
Harps 1-0 Goo Boys
Spurz 3-0 Siaron
Maplewood 2-0 Dawgs
One of Siaron's crankier boys picked up the "lose your mind" red card of the month, trying to slide into one of our guys (Tommy) with both feet up from 5 metres away. Realizing he wasn't going to make contact with his intended target, he grabbed the ball, got up, and threw it at him. I could see this as revenge if it was against someone who was involved in prior shenanigans, but with the exception of putting a free kick into the top corner of their net over the head of the Dread Pirate Roberts, Tommy hadn't been involved in anything previously.
Not too bad of a first effort otherwise, with just a bit of other asshattery that resulted in one of our guys getting his collarbone broken and another smacking his head against the turf when chopped from behind. Could have easily been about 3 goals higher without some rather dubious imaginary offsides.
Yeah, I guess Spiffy didn't have his Dawgs organized, or else they've lost some bodies by going down a division. Don't know yet if Maplewood has made any substantive changes to their roster.
NCU 1 Eagles 0
Dawgs 2 Dynamo 2
Goo Boys 3 Maplewood 2
Green Devils 5 Siaron 0
Astro 1 Harps 3
We had a bye, so need to wait until next game to make up some points.
Eagles vs. Spurs
Dynamo vs. Goo Boys
Harps vs. NCU (tie)
Siaron vs. Dawgs
Maplewood vs. Astro (tie)
Bye: Green Devils
ps - getting a red card for losing your mind gives you 2 games off, according to the New And Improved Most Excellent Site.
Okay, couldn't wake up @united fc to provide a game review, and he's off to Srbia so we'll have to do without him. Lost the following game to NCU 1-0 on a bad kung-fu kick from their striker with cleats up about chest high, despite outshooting them by 20-5. Coach Howie mandated shooting practice, so the boys made up for it last weekend with a 2-0 win over Green Devils.
No thread for it yet, but best line of the week was from last night at Van Tech as Kuschy bundled Hibs' 5th past Jurassic's keeper in over 40's. Bombastic bench to Haji: "hey ref, that one doesn't count - the ball's too flat!"
Spurs 3 Dawgs 2. Scoreline a bit flattering as they got the 1st one on a brain fart. No life in this at all until the 2nd half after another one of Coach Trece's verbal arse-kickings when we scored 3 in a row. Could have been 4 but their keeper couldn't get out of the way of my shot quickly enough. Scared all of us about 2 minutes after that when he came out to try to block me again and caught my knee off the side of his head when he dove for the ball at my feet. Clocked himself hard enough that he had to leave the game - hope he's okay now. Dawgs got one back on a missed offside to make it appear closer.
Nice to catch up with Coach Spiffy from the Dawgs after so many years.
Other results had:
NCU 1 Devils 1 - this let us leapfrog both of them and take over 2nd
Harps 9 Siaron 1 - not much of a game according to Rory.
Goo Boys 4 Eagles 1
Maplewood 1 Dynamo 1
Astro - bye
Next weekend:
Eagles vs. Astro
Dynamo vs. NCU
Spurs vs. Goo
Siaron vs. Maplewood
Devils vs. Dawgs
Harps - bye
Eagles 2 Astro 0 (missed this one)
Dynamo 1 NCU 3
Spurs 6 Goo 1
Siaron 2 Maplewood 2 (missed this one) gives Wilkie's boys a chance to climb out of the basement.
Devils 2 Dawgs 0
Top 4 within 2 points, then a bit of a gap.
Spurs vs. Goo: 2 lucky goals according to Fletch, and then they got 1 back. One more for us before the half. Added 3 more lucky goals and missed at least a couple more sitters that were easier to score than miss. Also managed to defeat the cooler.
Next week: Dynamo vs. Siaron (home field advantage) Harps vs. Eagles
Goo vs. Devils
Astro vs. Spurs
NCU vs. Dawgs
Maplewood - Bye
More games played since my last post, but didn't feel like talking to myself again until tonight, so I spared you all that...
Fack, is anyone else here playing at this level? Last week was a slightly one-sided effort over Siaron after we gifted them one five minutes in. Woke up and pumped in 4 straight; should have been more but the foot was taken off the gas in the 2nd half as Coach Howie let almost everyone take a turn up front. Off this weekend with a bye (maybe we'll all be?), but things are still fairly tight at the top of the table, with 5 points between 1st and 4th:
Team GP Pts
NCU 11 26
Devils 11 24
Harps 11 22
Spurs 10 21
Games this weekend:
Eagles vs. NCU
Dynamo vs. Dawgs Harps vs. Astro
Siaron vs. Devils
Maplewood vs. Goo (tie)
Spurs 3 Eagles 1. Eagles are the type of team that give Persian soccer a bad name. Skilled, but chippy, whiny, and full of flopping and insults. These are the kind of guys who will elbow you in the side of the head and then roll around clutching their elbows because they're pretending you've hurt them. Bunch of biatches.
The Bald Macedonian was more interested in letting his rogaine dry than actually paying attention to the play and managed to miss:
a) two sure penalties in the 1st half with the same player getting chopped from behind in the box twice within 30 seconds...
b) a nice punch to the head by their keeper on our centre mid well after the play...
c) another not-given peno in the 2nd half on our guy who was in clean and had both feet taken out from behind...
d) the aforementioned elbow to the side of the head.
He did manage to give offsetting yellows after being told to pay attention to the game, but that was about as clued in as he got. Not the best of showings.
Devils with a 2-1 win over the same Eagles move into 2nd at least temporarily, but tomorrow Harps have Maplewood (and should win), and we have a critical one against NCU. Winning this one would really tighten up the top of the table, as it would leave only 2 points between the top 4. Interesting times to come...
Spurs 2 Dawgs 0 with a rare sighting of Dezza actually on the pitch. Two ugly ones for us, and far too many easy chances gone begging. Getting crowded at the top again...
Assuming that this season goes 20 games, there are still quite a few teams with a mathematical chance to catch NCU for the top of the table. Realistically though...
Hi trece! That was my first game of the season. Our regular GK was away so we had 2 guys split the time in net. One obviously did better at it than the other.
Not going to trash either because I know both of them and they're both decent guys. However, like I was talking to Marcus about afterward, you guys really need some younger bodies. We can't all play at this level forever (except me, and I was out sick ).
Logjam at the top again. 3 points between 1st and 4th...
Team GP W T L F A +/- pts
Green Devils 14 10 3 1 33 10 +23 33
NCU 16 10 3 3 31 18 +13 33
Harps 14 10 1 3 40 16 +24 31
Spurs 14 10 0 4 35 16 +19 30
Dynamo 16 6 7 3 29 23 + 6 25
Goo Boys 15 6 3 6 30 33 - 3 21
With a 20 game season there are still a lot of contenders; even the Goo Boys aren't completely out, although we did nudge them in that direction with a 4-1 scoreline yesterday. Devils helped their cause with a 2-1 win over Bulldogs, and Dynamo managed to take points away from NCU with a 2-2 tie. Harps had a bye week, so that's how things got tighter. This could be a last man standing situation for the promotion spots.
Next week has: