[VMSL Division 2] Predictions, Results & Banter, September, 2007

[bonefish]

1 week to go and let the games begin. Lots of changes this year from new teams to the addition of a third division etc etc. The JB's have just gone through a huge churn and will be challenged early as there will most likely be some growing pains with the new personnel. Best of luck to all.

[Oggy]

Schedules are up on The Excellent Site. Of course, the labor situation makes many games highly speculative. No goals or mowing on many grass fields, and rumor has it that it would take until October for them to catch up with the backlog of work, even if the strike was settled today. Just a rumor, though, and any more reliable info would be good.

[Teelay]

Mowing of the grass is not as big a deal as the posts. I say the home teams have 5 or 6 guys bring their mowers to the field on game day, and it will take 20 minutes to get the grass to okay standard.

bonefish - ditto with PG Rangers. We have a whole new look this year. It will be interesting to see how long it will take us to get up and going. Judging from our brutal practices and militant style coaching, we'll be in top form in Week 1

[Yomama!]

I've been in Croatia for the past month and I have no idea what's going on with NK Hrvat. Judging by the practices I attended before I left, we may be short a few guys.
Watcher? Can you enlighten me on our status?

[Oggy]

Went by South Memorial NW today. There was some kind of summer league cup final, and the field was nicely mowed and lined. Should be playable next week. Other Memorial pitches were jungles.

[Teelay]

Yeah I was in the Endowment Lands today and drove past Trimble. Grass was pretty long and no posts. Wouldn't be playable in that state - even with posts. I would volunteer to put up posts if it came to that.

[star #1]

How come no Div 2C games are posted on the weekly schedule?.... they have every other division up.

[Oggy]

Originally Posted by star #1

How come no Div 2C games are posted on the weekly schedule?.... they have every other division up.

Probably because all 2C games are scheduled to take place on grass parks that have no goalposts and/or haven't been mowed. You could ask the league, though.

[This Bud's 4 You]

LETS GOO GNNNNNNNNNN!!

[Oggy]

Quite a few games postponed already this weekend, in all Div. 2 groups. Grass fields are understandable, given the squabbles, but why is Point Grey closed? Is the track construction dragging on longer than expected?

Should be interesting to head down to Holly Park turf on Friday after running around in waist-deep grass and weeds in Vancouver. I haven't seen a ball actually roll in what feels like months.

[Oggy]

Answered my own question today. The track at Point Grey has just been painted. Hopefully it'll be ready for next week.

[bonefish]

With only 8 out of 15 matches are scheduled to be played, the season looks to starting with a slow sizzle. However, there still are a couple of good games on the books.

2 ‘A’ Rangers FC 'A' vs Yaletown FC: MOTW These 2 former group C teams were very close in caliber last season. Rangers have the edge in workrate and Yaletown had an awesome keeper and the Big OB as a first class striker.
2 ‘A’ Aryana FC vs PCOV "A": PCOV finshed off the season with a string of wins to take them to 6th/30 in the Bonefish Combined Rankings(BCR). Aryana were 28th/30. It is a new season so this game will be all about the summer signings(or not)
2 ‘A’ C-Lects vs Bosna SC: C-Lects experienced a free fall last season but Bosna were worse. Bosna teams in the past have been able to field competitive sides. Will it be a return to glory for either of these teams?
2 ‘A’ UBC Metropolitan vs Norvan JB's: A retooled Norvan team will be facing an uknown horse in the opening race of the season. Who is Metropolitan and what kind of identity will the new Norvan JB's forge for themselves?
2 ‘B’ Point Grey Rangers vs West Van Royals: PGR is back baby...in name that is. WV Royals are a Jekkel and Hyde performer who can steal points from top teams and PGR are the quintessetial Forrest Gump box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Winner will be the team that takes their anti-I am my own worst enemy prescription at gametime. Go get em SharpY!
2 ‘B’ Shaheen FC "A" vs Squamish FC: MOTW Selected as MOTW for 2B based on this being Squamish's first VMSL game in over 5yrs. The Squamish area has a suprisingly good talent base and it will be interesting to see what type of team they field. Shaheen
2 ‘C’ Green Devils FC vs PCOV Europa: MOTW Green Devils finished 4th/30 in last years BCR and have a very compentent team. I believe they also have some history with the Europa squad who I think they have faced in summer competitions. This game should feature good pace and skill.
2 ‘C’ C-men Lions vs GN Sporting Club: This game is the SOTW(sideshow of the week) with its byline of FVSL meets VMSL. GN have jumped of the FVSL train and will get their first taste of Metro soccer with the C-Men(Pun intented). The C-Men finished 22nd/30 in the BCR tables but team discipline or the lack therof were a contributing factor with some untimely suspensions. There first match will be a very tough test.

All the best to the boyz in Div 2. Lets have a great year.

Bonefish

[dezza]

I don't think PCOV Europa has anything to do with the summer league team Europa... These guys played D2 CAT last year and were young, but nothing great. Should be an easy win for the GD's.

UBC Metro I think will be a mixed bag. I know they have a couple U21 players from Port Moody Gunners (last year's BC champs) and Westside, but I would be surprised if they have any depth past the starting 11.

Good luck to everyone!

[bandcamp]

Is the UBC team a place to play for guys who aren't good enough for the varsity team? Notice they're playing at Todd so must be affiliated with the school somehow...

[dezza]

As far as I know it's not actually affiliated with UBC. Also, I think the Todd Field usage was just wishful thinking on their part. Originally the schedule showed all their home games there, but then they all switched to TBA. I think the one game the excellent site still shows there is a mistake.

[Oggy]

Originally Posted by bonefish

2 ‘A’ Rangers FC 'A' vs Yaletown FC: MOTW These 2 former group C teams were very close in caliber last season. Rangers have the edge in workrate and Yaletown had an awesome keeper and the Big OB as a first class striker.
[b]

City FC 0-2 Yaletown

A much better night in Ladner than last year's matchup in freezing rain when we lost by the same scoreline. A fairly close game, all in all, but a fair scoreline. Rangers seem to be pretty much the same as last year, although they have picked up an impressive new keeper. They have a good workrate as Bonefish points out, but our hellish pre-season regimen in waist-high grass helped to even the scores on conditioning. The four new faces we brought in since last year fit right in with the squad, and have given us a lot more depth. Certainly a good result for a first match together. We had several good chances in the first half, and their keeper did very well to save, even using his face to stop one clear chance, and the score was 1-0 at the interval. In the second half, the dew setting on the pitch made the surface a lot faster, and through-balls all seemed to run too far for both sides. Near the end, Rangers were forced to throw everything forward and were caught out by a counterattack five minutes from time for the second goal. The referee was submitted to the odd bit of abuse, but calls were evenly distributed with no big mistakes that gifted or denied goals. Especially in the second half, there was a fair bit of complaining by YFC players and fans about suckerpunches and elbows behind the scenes, and an equal amount of complaining about YFC's complaining by Rangers players and fans. For the most part, though, it was a clean hard game and good opener for the season. Rangers will definitely be in the pack of contenders in 2A, and we're glad to have gotten out of Ladner with the three points to start the season on a high note, especially since they swept us last year.
Good luck to everyone on the weekend!

[Teelay]

PG Rangers 0 - WV Royals 0

A back and forth stifling affair. Whatever... snoozefest. The game was one of the slowest paced games I've played in years. Barely broke a sweat, but the 0-0 scoreline is somewhat reflective of the game. Rangers probably had more of the play in the first 15-20 minutes, Royals definitely carried th eplay in the last 25 mins of 1st half and beginning of 2nd half. 2 posts & 1 nice save were the proof of that. We seemed to grab momentum with 15-20 minutes left in the game after one of our strikers had a golden opportunity, only to have the Royals keeper trap it (somewhat) between his legs. Royals keeps made a nice save with about 10 to go on a ball heading top corner.

Neither team could hit the side of a fcuking barn. But it was an expected result for us who only had 4 starters from last year's starting squad.

[evergreen]

GD 3 PCOV Europa 1. Div 2C

Fairly clean game, both teams missed good chances early on. good reffing too; he wasn't bothered by the PCOV wankers on the sidelines making fools of themselves....i think the players on the field from PCOV were even embarrassed of their sore-loser 'fans'. PCOV has 2 decent players upfront, they should do ok in the group but we had the edge on chances and play. Fun to be back at it, hopefully all the fields are back in play by next week...

[bonefish]

UBC Metro 2 - Norvan JB's 1: In a new season and with only 6 players on the field from the previous season, we faced off against a young an spirited opposition. UBC had more control and competent play but Norvan had the advantage in scoring opportunities. UBC's first goal was well finished but none of the goals were worth writing home about. A goal keeper giveaway gave UBC the lead and a last minute miss on a breakaway by Norvan gave UBC all 3 points in a game that could have gone either way. Clean game for the most part with a bit of whining here and the there. The exception being a certain winger on the UBC team who thought he was on his A game and should be playing premier...somebody needs to remind him where he is playing and why. Anyways, it was nice to get back in the swing of things and it was beauty day that was complemented by an ice filled cooler.

[the 5th back]

Originally Posted by bonefish

2 ‘C’ C-men Lions vs GN Sporting Club: This game is the SOTW(sideshow of the week) with its byline of FVSL meets VMSL. GN have jumped of the FVSL train and will get their first taste of Metro soccer with the C-Men(Pun intented). The C-Men finished 22nd/30 in the BCR tables but team discipline or the lack therof were a contributing factor with some untimely suspensions. There first match will be a very tough test.

'C-men' Lions 3 GN Sporting 3

We went up 2 - 0 early in this game, the first goal coming off a flick header which our forward brought down with his foot near the penalty spot and then slotted. The second, our right mid got around their outside back then decided he might as well go around the keeper as well - had an empty net to shoot in. Then we started to defend the lead, which was not a good idea, and GN created several chances, eventually earning a pk which they scored on. They added another before half. Our third goal was the nicest one of the game - an own goal by a GN player off of our freekick - a volley into the corner of the net. Ouch! They outchanced us again in the 2nd half and scored on a partial break.
GN are a pretty good team, well-organized, with no glaring weaknesses. They should do well in this group. It was a good test for us and helped to identify some areas we need to work on, like holding a lead. By the way, the field (Delview Park) was in great shape. It was worth the drive, especially after playing on pastures all summer in Vancouver.