Sunday April 29

Sunny and cool, a perfect day for soccer, where is everybody?  We started 6 v 6 with lacrosse goals on a 60 yard field, got up to 7 v 8, and that was it.  The blue got off to a good start, so I decided to keep score:

Vince, back after a long lay off, for blue 0-1
Dimos for blue 0-2
Mu-mu for white 1-2
Mario for white 2-2
C for blue (no chop) 2-3
Marlen with a great cross to the head of Vince 2-4
Jamal for white 3-4
Marlen 3-5
Frank! for white 4-5
Jay to Marlen  4-6
Jay 4-7
Mario 5-7
Jamal 6-7

and the whites may have scored after a bad call of a hand ball on Jamal, but who knows.  We were kicked off by a bunch of little kids in blue and white uniforms.

Next week we're bumped by the Waldwick Memorial 5k road race.  Watch your e mails for a new location or change of time, but I still think we should support the race and run as a team.  And after that maybe we can get back to some good old 15 v 15 no dick slam jamb grudge matches.

Sunday April 22

It rained a little last night and the forecast is for monsoon, but we need the rain after months of drought.  Start time is pushed up to 8 to accomodate some damn kids game.  We started, briefly, on the red field, 7 v 7, but a couple more guys showed up and we went to a shortened big field 8 v 8, shoot in the box.  Lots of scoring today but no official score, I would not have had enough paper to keep track.  The white team  lost a couple of players so Rocc, the scoring machine, put on a white shirt to help them out and we shortened the field some more.  The quick pass technical game never really emerged, it was mostly 4 on 1 fast breaks, back and forth.  Lets hope more guys show up next week.

Another shout-out for the Sue Zabransky Hughes 5k run in Saddle River next Saturday:
http://www.hackensackumcfoundation.org/site/PageNavigator/2012_5k_run.html

Sunday April 15

Nice at 7:30, forecast is for hot.  We're starting early to accommodate a kid's game at 10.  We kick off w/ 8 v 8, last man back shoot in the box full court, and got up to 9 v 9, but that was it.  Jordan's back for the first time in quite a while, with a elaborate knee brace, and starts things off:
Dave to Jordan, for white, 1-0
Mario defending the honor of the mighty whities, 2-0
Mario again, 3-0, starting the "even up the sides" discussion
Jordan again, 4-0
At this point Jay went down.  He tried to come in as keeper, but he finally left the game and went home.  M Miller came over to the blue side, and right after that:
Keebow for blue, 4-1
Mario 5-1
Jeff for blue, 5-2
Lazer Dave for white, 6-2
Jeff again, 6-3
Mario keeps dumping them in, 7-3
Imad for white, 8-3
Dimos to Rocco, 8-4
Imad, 9-4
Dave, 10-4
Keebow, 10-5
Rocco gets another, 10-6
Keebow, 10-7
Marlen from last week shows up for the 9 o'clock game and joins the blue team, M Miller goes back to white
Marlen scores, 10-8
Dimos hits another 10-9
Rocco again, and blue comes back from a devastating 6 goal deficit to tie it up, 10-10
A bunch of white players left the field, but the remaining few were able to hold on and maintain the tie until we got kicked off the turf.

Back to 9 o'clock start next week.  We get bounced by a 5k race on May 6, maybe we should all run the race instead of trying to find a different location.

April 8, Easter Sunday

Clear, a little windy and cool, like 40 or so as I left home, but a beautiful day for soccer.  We had a new player show up, Marlen, and our old buddy Jake joined in.  We started 10 v 10 but Imad and Jeff showed up and we played at 11 v 11, Steve in the blue net and Kevin mostly, some Snarky Mark, in the white net.  The match was pretty even and pretty hotly contested.  Kebow had some bounce off the posts and blue couldn't even get a shot off.  Finally:

Imad for white,  1-0
Then Keebs comes right back with an open net tap in for white,  2-0
Lots more struggling and the good lord has mercy on blue, Jeff scores, 2-1
Jeff again with a blast that dribbles through the sure hands of keeper Kevin,  2-2
Guest Malen from the left wing for blue, 2-3!
Me with a steal, to Joe D. for blue,  2-4!!
Marlen fished out and the white team had the advantage for a while but then:
Dimos for blue, 2-5!!!
A come from behind victory for the mighty blue pagans in spite of the best efforts of team Imad/Jamal.  Second week in a row.  No gloating, but damn what a fine win.  Damn.  I have to add a word about the stellar keeping by Steve.  Lots of OMGs!, but the score stayed in his favor.  But the game ball goes to Joe D., getting it done on both ends, really helping out team "Old and Slow" with his youth and incredible speed.

Sunday April 1

40 and overcast, we started 8 v 8, Steve in the blue net, Keith and Kevin taking turns in the white.  Joe M and Scott Skyshooter joined the game in progress and brought it up to 9 v 9.  Big field.  No Imad, no Snarker, no Bobby!  Will is up in Mass. doing what young men do.  Mario is wearing his blue shirt.  It took a while, maybe half an hour for the first score, but then:

Mario for blue, 1-0
Mario for blue, 2-0
Jay to Jeff for blue, 3-0
and the mighty whities start bitching that the teams should be evened up, after 18 months of white wins,
Jeff  4-0
so we switched it up a little, Jay goes white, Mark Miller goes blue
Mario, 5-0, hattie
Jamal, for white, from outside the box but we'll give it to him, 5-1 to break Steve's brilliant shut out.
The young Skyshooter and Frank left the game, and I guess Joe Myerjack left as well, leaving us with 8 blue and 7 white, full court.  Damn the field is big!
Jay to C for white, 5-2
C again, with a chopper, 5-3
Mu for white, I guess the fin healed up OK, 5-4
Dimos to Roccos, 6-4

And that was it.  Blue wins for the first time in recorded history, or recent history anyway.  Somebody should check the blog.  Kebow the MILF Whisperer was oh so close oh so many times, but nothing today. Oh well.  See you all next week for the annual Easter Sunday Jews vs. Pagans match.