Happy New Year!

With the magic carpet still covered by snow, I took a few minutes to review the past year. We were only snowed out 5 times, and rained out but twice. We were booted off the turf several times, mostly in the spring, until we realized we can start early and still get a quorum. There were as many as 12 extra curricular games plus a charity event. We played Wednesday evenings in January, July and August. The summer evenings were brutally hot, but pretty well attended.

Almost all the regular Sunday morning games had great weather and full teams or more. Almost every game started with short sides with stragglers coming in late. With the demands on the turf field this spring, we should strive to be more prompt, ie: be on time! We should be more pro-active about starting early when there's a conflict with other teams so we don't wind up on the goose poop or Traphagen field. And lets get back to Wednesday night games.

A big plus this year was meeting at the AB&G to watch the world cup games. Our annual holiday get together at Nellie's was a hit. Please start planning to participate in this year's Thanksgiving morning turkey trot 5k race in Upper Saddle River. Thanks to Rocco for collecting fees and buying shirts. We're here to help, Rocc, just ask. I'm optimistic about next Sunday, the snow is melting slowly but surely. I look forward to playing with my old buddies and the new guys too. In the fifteen or so years I have been participating, our group has become a big part of what's good about living in NJ.

Peace. \/

Forecast for Sunday

Church?

Sunday Dec 26, Boxing Day!

26 degrees and cold at game time. Its windy and there's no sun, it's supposed to start blizzarding this afternoon. We started 8 v. 8/shoot inside the 18/ last man back, but actually got up to full sides. Alex Sheer is back, and so is our old buddy Eddie Mulane. Dino started in the white net, but then Juan took over for the rest of the game. Blue net was minded by Bobby, but I took over full time when my back started to bother me too much to run. Scoring started with Jimmy for the white, he likes the short sided games, then Ace for blue. Scoring summary as follows:

Jimmy for white 1-0

Ace for blue 1-1

Jimmy 2-1

Jimmy 3-1

Jimmy 4-1

Eddy for blue 4-2

Juan for white 5-2

Vince for blue 5-3

Eddy 5-4

Jimmy 6-4

Jimmy 7-4

Jimmy 8-4

Eddy 8-5

Vince 8-6

Dino for white 9-6

Jay for blue 9-7

Moe for white 10-7

Dino 11-7

Jelly came over to the blue when Joe M arrived,

Jelly 11-8

Jelly 11-9

Jelly 11-10

Alex for blue 11-11

Eric for white 12-11

Mo for white 13-11

It sounds like quite a slug fest, and I guess it was. The blue defense with Bobby and Shamu was inspired, but the blue keeper, (me) was completely ineffective. So poor in fact that the Ace changed his colors hoping to bag a few easy onions to end the season. I stood there shivering, just hoping the game would end. There's two feet of snow on the ground and fifty mile an hour gusts as I write this, but it supposed to warm up towards the end of the week. Lets hope for the best. Otherwise, Happy New Year.

Friday Dec 24, Christmas Eave!

30 degees plus and somewhat sunny, its actually nice when the wind isn't blowing. Slow start, but we got up to 13 v. 13. Jelly brought his son Alex, and guests Uttam and Brian joined us. No professional keepers showed up, so it was assorted players in the white net for ten minute stints, and mostly Keefs in the blue net, although Fernando took over after he pulled his hammy.

Scoring as follows:

Rocco for blue 1-0

Dimos for blue 2-0

Mario for white 2-1

Eric for blue 3-1 (with a c, #45)

Dimos for blue 4-1

Joe Bagels for white 4-2

John Limberis for white 4-3

Mario white 4-4

Vince PK for blue 5-4

Vince again for blue 6-4

Mario white 6-5

Ace (keebs) for Blue 7-5

Another for Keebs? 8-5

Papa Jelly for white 8-6

Jelly again 8-7

So it was a pretty even match. Keebs had to come over to the blue side to manage a score, he's a little off his two per game pace with only two or three games to go. Jimmy was shut down, in spite of help from his buddy Joe B. Mario, the unselfish, had a hatty. Our balls are on their last gasps, not holding air like they should. Rocculous says Santa will get us new ones when he gets back from his cruise.

See you all Sunday, same time same place. Anyone up for New Years Eave?

Sunday Dec 19

20 degrees and frosty at game time, but we started with full sides and got up to 14 v 15. Doug in for white, Steve for blu. Guest Joe and Dimos' son John joined us. Scoring started with one each for Mario and Mark Schwartz for white, followed by two for blue including a spectacular header by guest Joe off a beautiful cross by Eric. Tied at three, then tied at four until Shamu's goal for blue was disallowed due to alleged off sides. Then the mighty whiteys went all Eagles on us, with a hat trick for Jimmy, two for Ace, (keebs), one for Moe and maybe one or two more. Jay had one for blue, and blue scored on a white own goal, but the final score was somewhere around 9-6, white wins.

Next week, its same time same place, Merry Christmas everyone and watch out for the full moon on the solstice, and a full lunar eclipse on Monday.

Sunday December 12

Gametime: Driving rain and temps dropping from the 40's. We managed to field a team 0f 11 players, pretty evenly split between white & blue. Big John and Hock each scored a pint within 5 minutes of the opening whistle. Keebs, Shamu, Bobby & Rocco quickly added to the tally. As more players started scoring, we had to open up the field a bit and relocated from the bar to a larger playing surface. Vince, Joe, Eddy, Mark "I am here, stop and acknowledge me" Miller, then Doug all scored shortly after stepping onto the pitch. Scoring was fast and furious but did slow down a bit when the teams were distracted by some appetizers and pizza. Food consumed, all players continued to add pints.
All in all, a well-played match. No arguments, no injuries, and a good time was had by all.
Final score: white 28, blue 34 (Hock was high scorer).

Sunday December 5

Cold (28), windy, cloudy and flurries at game time. We still had 27 players show up. No Mario's (mary-ohs) and one guest, Uttam. Steve is back from India and in the goal for White, Doug for Blue. In a big change to our normal protocol, Blue defended the north goal! Jay and his magnificent new shoes scored twice for Blue, and Shamu added two more, one on a beautiful corner kick cross from Dan. Moe scored for White, but that goal has been protested and will be under review for a potential off-sides violation. Keeble hit the cross bar, and another ball bounced along the goal line before it was swatted away, but that's it for the Mighty Whiteys. Doug left at 10:30 so Dino came over from the white to keep for blue. 7-1 Blue. Big difference from last week.

Next week we will reconvene at Nellie's after the regularly scheduled match to reminisce.