Travelers (3) vs Harvey Surveying (3) - part II

May 30th, 2007 - Abbe Road, East Windsor, CT

The Good: Well at least we didn't lose. We were losing 3-0 and a lot of people thought we were gonna run out of time and Harvey was gonna walk away with the win, leaving us near the bottom of the standings. But we didn't give up in a rough, tough and physical match.

The Bad: We didn't win either. We spot them 2 goals in the first half, and then start the 2nd one off slow and let them get another. We NEED to play the full 90 mins. We need to forget the ref and play our game. I can go on and on, but hopefully we've learned our lesson. Leave the refs alone. Play 90 mins.

The Ugly: The cut on Derek's left eye. Gordon's right knee. Their fouls in the penalty area, and ours, and all the ones the ref missed. Like I said it was a physical game and I'm happy to have got at least 1 point from them after the 3 goals we gave up. Before the game I seriously thought we'd win. Maybe we were over confident.

After their big guy got the red card you saw how that their offensive was in MUD. They did nothing. They rely on him way too much. Derek (or any other volunteer) get sucker punched in the 1st half when we play them again. Mentally I think we knew we had a man advantage and we stopped KICKING it forward and actually built up an attack and created quality scoring chances. We don't need to be a man up to do that!

For some strange reason the schedule says we need to play these guys again! I hope we REMEMBER that in both of the games this year when we stop their big forward they are a different team and easier to attack on. NEW GUYS - this is the team that beat us in a PK shootout in last year's playoffs. So we've tied them in the last 3 games we've played, ALL of which we have come back from 2 goals down.

I was talking to my dad this morning and I told him about our situation. Slow Start, Strong Finish. He said it's a classic case of our team having more endurance than the other. Or in our case a deeper bench. How do we get past the slow start? Get to the game early and warm up. If you haven't broken a sweat you're not warmed up. RUN RUN RUN, we have the players, they don't let's run harder in the 1st half and avoid the opposing teams early goals. I can't stress this enough.

As always all feedback comments are welcome.

Record:
1 - Win
2 - Lose
2 - Tie

Goals:
2 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)
1 - Gordon Hines (pk)

Goals to date:
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
2 - Gordon Hines (1 pk)
2 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)
1 - Derek Cedar
1 - Kalee Moore

Soccer Tennis

This Memorial Day weekend I spent on Block Island, I am fortunate to have great friends to spend the weekend with. If it was up too me, or if I was filthy rich to pay off all my friends, I'd spend Memorial Day weekend and the rest of the summer all the way to Labor Day weekend there. We drink, fish, laugh, play, swim, hike, SCUBA, bike, joke, off-road, etc.. It's becoming a tradition dating back to the late 1900's. Real late, like 1990's. I hope that some day when we are old, grey and bald we are still going to Block Island for Memorial Day Weekend. Or even better when we retire (young) we can stay there for the whole summer.

Usually we get into some intense Croquet matches. We send people down the hill, become poison, and just smack balls around. I have no idea if we are playing by the official Croquet rules, but I do know we are playing by the Block Island rules and that's fine by me. A friend of mine, Dan, even went to Croquet camp to get better - JK. Another year we had a great Ultimate Frisbee game. That was a little too physical after a weekend of drinking. So we stick to Croquet. This year we set up the Croquet court but we broke out into a Soccer-Tennis match! Go Figure. My brother and I are really the only Soccer players of the bunch, so we couldn't be teammates. So he got Dan, and I got Nick. They are athletes in their own right. They both grew up playing mainly basketball, and remain active in that and other sports. They held their own, but their juggling style was a lot like Hacky-Sack. Anyway we had 8 fun matches. We used the benches from the picnic table as the net and our sandals as out-of-bounds markers. To my surprise Dan & Nick loved the game and the others who were watching actually like it too. Kevin actually ref’ed one of the games - it was controversial since he was taking sides with whom ever got him beer, and complimented him the most. The house we stayed at sits on top of a hill, so our soccer ball (size 4) was constantly going down the hill. We took turns sprinting down there and back up. The non spiriting players drank beer, and complimented Kevin. In the hot sun, and all the spriting the beer was very refreshing. The only thing that was missing were ring girls (to announce the score and stuff like that), ball girls (to fetch the ball down the hill), and waitresses (to fetch the beer). Well wives and girlfriends were present but they were too busy cleaning and cooking. I mean reading and gossiping. It was an awesome afternoon, I was happy to show stereotypical American athletes how simple and fun soccer can be. We played by my brother's (Lou) rules. He coaches a u-12 girls premier team and uses soccer-tennis to improve their soccer skills. The official rules of the ASTO are posted on their site - http://www.soccertennis.org/. But like I said we didn't use a tennis court or anything fancy, we used a picnic table bench and sandals. It was a laid back, stress free, and Nick and I still owe Lou and Dan a drink for losing.

We're going back to Block Island again in August for a whole week. Hopefully we'll play more Soccer Tennis. Maybe I can introduce my friends to Brazilian style Volleyball. That's Soccer-Volleyball for those who don't know. And if my dreams and wishes come true, there'll be girls with thongs playing with us - lol.

Champions League Final

AC Milan - 2
Liverpool - 1

AC Milan exacted revenge over Liverpool's stunning comeback from the 2005 Champion's League Final. And they did it in a most uneventful manner. This recap is coming from my memory so some of the facts might be a little distorted. Liverpool completely outplayed Milan in the first half. Milan looked lackadaisical out there. Liverpool completely controlled the midfield, taking Milan's superstar Kaka completely out of the game. Milan's left back, Jankulovski, was in no man's land for most of the first half and Milan was lucky he didn't cost them a goal. Liverpool kept coming down their right side and playing balls to the middle. Kuyt and Gerrard had some good opportunities on goal but failed to capitalize.

Liverpool's manager, Rafa Benitez, made sure Kaka wasn't going to beat them. He had Xebi Alonso and Javier Mascherano trailing him closely. But just before the first half was about to end, Alonso made a lazy tackle on Kaka just outside the 18, right in front of the goal. Milan's dead ball specialist Andrea Pirlo lined up to take the free kick. Liverpool's keeper lined up the wall. Pirlo takes the kick and drives the ball low and hard towards the right side of goal. But wait!! That little pest Inzaghi breaks off the wall and deflects the shot and it goes into the goal. The keeper had already commited to the post and the ball trickled through his toes into the middle of the goal. Milan is up 1-0!!!

Note: There's no way in hell that goal should have counted. The Referree and Linesman were sleeping on this one. (And this is coming from an Italian fan). The ball clearly deflected off of Inzaghi's shoulder/arm.

The second half played out the same way as the first except with Milan holding a lead, they started out even more conservatively, if that's even possible. So much so, that I dozed off a couple times. I did wake up for the good part of the 2nd half which was at the 75 minute mark. Milan controlled the ball and kept it away from Liverpool with some brilliant passing. They kept the counterattack alive long enough for Kaka to get a ball in the middle. Kaka waited for the defense to commit and slipped a beautiful through ball to a perfectly timed run by Inzaghi. It was one on one with the keeper and Inzaghi made a textbook move toward the outside of goal and slipped the ball under the keeper's dive. 82nd minute, 2-0 Milan!! Milan looks like a sure thing to win, but uh oh, in the 89th minute Liverpool gets a deflected header in off a corner kick to cut the deficit in half. Will we be reliving the 2005 final?? Sorry Liverpool fans but Milan holds on for the win. Just as Milan outplayed Liverpool for most of the 2005 final and lost, Liverpool outplayed Milan for most of the 2007 final and lost. I give credit to Milan for being mentally focused and sticking to Ancelotti's gameplan.

I do not give credit to Liverpool's gameplan. This is were Rafa Benitez made his tactical errors. He started Zenden at less than 100% and stayed with him for a good chunk of the 2nd half when everyone could tell he wasn't playing well. Down 1-0 he also waited way too long to bring in Mr Roboto, Peter Crouch.

All in all, it was a well-played tactical match with not very much excitement. I'm happy that an Italian team won. Looking forward to some Euro 2008 qualifying matches.

Travelers (0) vs Volvo Aero (5)

May 23rd, 2007 - Falcon Field, New Britain, CT

Yes you read the score right, we got crushed. They had 2 full lineups, while we had 2 subs. So what do they do? RUN RUN RUN, we aren't in shape to run like they did. Their overlapping on the weak side KILLED us. They were good at switching the point of attack and taking advantage of their over lapping player. Granted we are still out of sync, We're Travelers aren't we supposed to be in-sync. We had bad touches and passes which made them look that much better. We had players playing out of their normal positions, that didn't help much. But all-in-all I think we can walk-away from this game and take a very valuable lesson. We need more players, we are a team, we can't do it alone. Even with 11 we need subs, we're not professionals who train all day so we're not in shape. You must know your role, granted we were short players and we had offensive players playing defense and vice-versa, but when we are at full strength, don't sub in for a defender if your not a defender.

Anyway we had some good moments like Andrew (Holl) great BALL trap, ouch! Poor guy took one square in his jewels and as he's on the ground the ball gets passed at him. So he gets up to play it and basically get's run over by the defender - that was funny, just stay down. Your boys are more important than the ball esp. since it was already 5-0 at that time and probably less than 15 mins to go. Well it was 4-0 at half and we played a lot better in the 2nd half. We eliminated a lot of mistakes, (but still made some) and we ran with them when they tried to over lap. Offensively we created some chances, Zehnder made their goalie reach for a save that was good for a corner kick. We will meet this team again at the end of June - let's remember this defeat for that game, and for all the next games as we need to win a few to stay above .500 This year there's 10 teams in the league, which means 2 are NOT going to the playoffs. Let's not be one of them. Before the season started I thought anything short of the semi's would be a failure. I still believe that.

As always all feedback comments are welcome.

Record:
1 - Win
2 - Lose
1 - Tie

Goals to date:
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
1 - Gordon Hines
1 - Derek Cedar
1 - Kalee Moore

Travelers (2) vs Harvey Surveying (2) - part I

May 21st, 2007 - Abbe Road, East Windsor, CT

We started off slow, we started off with no subs, we started off with me playing with cargo shorts! WE STARTED OFF bad. After we settled down and played half way decent it was already 2-0 HARVEY! That big guy had both of their goals. New guys don't know this but the old guys should have learned by now, you stop him you stop this team. The first 15/25 mins of this game was horrible. They were on an all out attack to take advantage of us having no subs and it worked. They created chances, we barely had the ball in their half. Once the subs showed up it was like we settled down and relaxed. Granted people we have work, traffic, Whirly Ball, and god knows what else to deal with, but if we want to be a good team we need to plan ahead and get there early. This game is 90 mins - ask Milan in 2005 what 6 minutes did to their Champions League final in Turkey vs Liverpool. Anyway.. The rest of the 1st half.....

We started passing, rather than just kicking it forward. We took shots. I thought we were gonna get one back before the half. It would have been real nice. At half time I said a few things, other added to it. Basically it was spread the field, it's a big field use it to our advantage. If we spread the field our skill our speed doesn't have to be perfect. In other words the more room you give yourself between you and the defender the more room for a bad touch you have. the more time you have to react to a bad pass. Until we are in perfect form the more room you give your self on offensive will make a difference. Opposite on Defense, we can't give them room to receive, settle, turn, look, pass, shoot etc. We need to be on them before the ball is even passed to them.

2nd half...We did those things, we created a lot of chances on goal, and we even scored twice. Both goals were scored by applying pressure on their defense and we got the rebound on one goal, and took advantage of one of their mistakes on the other. But the build up and the attack on all the other chances came from basic passing to the open man, NOT just kick the ball up. We create chances had about 8 corner kicks, 2 cross bars, a break away. Defensively we shut that guy down (for the most part) Tony had a few sweet saves. A few too many in my opinion. I like it when our goalie is bored.

As always all feedback comments are welcome.

Record:
1 - Win
1 - Lose
1 - Tie

Currently 7th out of 10 in the standings, but we have a make up game. Check out the site for more information. http://eteamz.active.com/hiisl/index.cfm

Goals:
1 - Derek Cedar
1 - Kalee Moore

Goals to date:
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
1 - Gordon Hines
1 - Derek Cedar
1 - Kalee Moore

Soccer is great...

..it can inspire people to feel young again.

A striptease by 72-year-old actress Sofia Loren could be one of the more outrageous ways that Napoli fans will celebrate if the team is promoted to the Italian top flight this season. Loren, a movie sex siren from the 1950s and 1960s, is a big fan of the Naples club who have fallen on hard times since winning their first Italian championship 20 years ago. "I hope that Napoli win these last few games. You watch if we go up I will do a striptease," she told Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview Tuesday. "The fans have a total passion, the city deserves promotion." By buddy then also reminded me that she's the hottest 72 year old. What I would give to be in Naples when they, I mean, should they get promoted to Serie A. I don't want to jinx them. Not because I want to see Sofia Loren strip, because I want to party with all the twenty something girls that will do more than just strip.

..it can be played by anyone

This guy is having so much fun playing soccer. If he was playing football he'd be a lineman, forget hockey. Do you think he has any vertical leap for basketball? I'm sure he could play other sports but he's definitely having the best time playing Soccer.

..It can be played anywhere

Beach soccer is great because there are girls in bikini's there! You can go to any spot on this earth and play soccer. Do you think you can go to a remote place and find a basketball hoop? I don't think so. I'd love to see a Jamaican Ice Hockey team in the Olympics. And then the coach, for the movie, could be played by Adam Sandler.

..It can be used to explain science and things from out of this world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/images11.html

The links are there for your reference not soccer related but this image is ALL soccer.... It's what the astronauts did once they landed on the moon. The soccer field is UNIVERSAL and used to compare the area that they covered while on the moon. I think they (NASA) did it because they are all rocket scientist and know that Soccer is awesome. Plus intelligent life from outer space play Soccer. FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) just announced that they are joining FUFA (Fédération Universe de Football Association) and sending ITALY (current World Champions) to represent Earth FC in the Universe Cup.

..Sex, porn, and hot chicks!

Is there such a thing as a Baseball Mom or Basketball Mom? Or any other sport Mom? Nope, because they are ugly. But there are a few porn sites all about Soccer Moms, because they are all HOT! I'm not gonna give you links to them because I don't know them. I also know that Soccer Chicks are hot! WAG's (Wife's and Girlfriends) are always HOT. Do you think that the female Aliens will be hot? Imagine at the Universal Cup all those hot aliens! OK that was a little wired let's just stick to humans like Heather Mills. Yeah she's HOT.

http://www.heathermitts.com/gallery_model.htm

So I gave you a bunch of reasons why soccer is great, I hope you all agree and convert from your other sports. I almost forgot to let out a huge secret. The S in ESPN stands for Soccer (Entertainment and Soccer Programming Network). Same with the S in Adidas (All Day I Dream About Soccer)

Travelers (3) vs HO Penn/HS United (2)

May 9th, 2007 - LP Wilson, Windsor, CT

Well at least we won.... 1st half we scored 2 goals, by applying a little pressure to their defense. Both goals were created by simple passing that easily beat the defenders. The first goal (PK) was well converted by Brian Zehnder. The 2nd was a great run by Gordon Hines set up by Andrew Thompson. Their lone goal in the 1st half was our defensive disaster. After they served the ball into the box from the corner kick we did a poor job clearing it. I don't care if we give up another corner but that ball HAS TO GET OUT of the middle where it can bounce around and go in. Tony Lombardi - you’re the boss back there - you have to yell and yell and yell at them. I don't care if you hurt their feelings but the defense has to know that that ball has to GET OUT.

The 2nd half in my opinion was our better half. We controlled the game and the ball a lot more than they did. We were clearly the better team in the 2nd half. We created more opportunities, made better decisions with the ball, but their goalie came up big a few times. The post got in our way and one guy even cleared the ball away off the line from Mark Basile's great header. Brian Zehnder took the lead in the team's scoring with his second goal of the game and of the season. It was a blast from about 20 yards into the far corner. The one bad thing from the 2nd half was the way they scored their goal. They took the ball and passed and ran right by half our team. We fell asleep for 1 minute and they took advantage. We must be on top of our games for the full 90 minutes. It ain't over till it's over. It ain't over till the fat lady sings. etc. etc.

We won! We got 3 points! We still need practice since a lot of our touches were off. I will send out an invite for next week's practice and game. All comments are appreciated both negative and positive.

Goals:
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
1 - Gordon Hines

UEFA Cup

All Spanish Affair....
RCD Espanyol (ESP) vs Sevilla FC (ESP)
May 16th - Glasgow, Scotland
Can Sevilla win a 2nd striaght UEFA Cup? Or will Espanyol take it this year? They met in Sevilla on April 29th with Sevilla winning it 3-1, but that was only a Primera Division game - this time it's for the UEFA Cup! I think that Sevilla will win but it will be a closer game than that 3-1 match last month.

Will Espanyol's attackers Walter Pandiani (11) & Luis García (6) find the goal to surprise Sevilla? Maybe once or twice but not enough to win.

Champions League Final

REMATCH!
AC Milan (ITA) vs Liverpool FC (ENG)
May 23rd - Athens, Greece
The last time they met in a Champions League final was 2005 - Milan was winning 3-0 at the half, Liverpool came back to tie it and eventually win it all from the PK spot. Some regard it as one of the best games ever. This time with Maldini, Costacurta, & Cafu all close to retiring (hopefully to the MLS) I think Milan comes away with the victory.

Did you know that Spanish teams have won the Champions League Finals a record 11 times? Whos' 2nd? There's a tie (10) between Italy and England - So who ever wins it all this year (Milan) will also bring their country's total to 11 and tie Spain for the most Champion League trophies.