Div 2 [VMSL Division 2] Results, Banter & Predictions - Feb-March 2007

[Konk]

5th back. that was not offside. Don't try to take my 15 minutes of glory away. It doesn't come that often at 40.

Hey, I said nice goal. Offside or not, you finished well.

Army, I think if your players had kept their cool they might have tied the game. We were outchanced in the 2nd half and were lucky to get 2 goals for the lead. We've been on the wrong end of several close games this year, so I think we were due.

 

[dr.j]

Knights 9-0 over Zawizca. Knights had 12 show up,the Poles 8. Many of their players were on the sidelines with injuries. We took 2 off after we went up by 4 and 3 after we were up by 6.We even rotated defenders to the forward line. Unfortunately,their goalie struggled with even the easiest of efforts. Once they got behind, they basically played a 3/1/3 formation. It was not pretty or enjoyable to be involved. Keep away drills for half the game bites...

 

[Therapist]

Norvan 4 Yaletown 2

2-2 at the half. A couple of sloppy defensive plays cost Norvan early in the first. A little credit to Yaletown as well, they were pushing hard. Second half saw Norvan take a little more control of the game and Yaletown, I think, tuckered out. 4-2 at the final whistle. Clean game.

 

[BlazeArmy]

Thank you to my favorite North Shore team.

I owe you all a beer.

We stay ahead of Yaletown with both of us still to face the Socceroos in our last game. We will be missing at least 3 due to the red cards of the last game but will look to have our u-21, CAT and a few new signees out to get the result. And i will bring the id cards this time.

 

[Oggy]

Norvan 4 Yaletown 2

2-2 at the half. A couple of sloppy defensive plays cost Norvan early in the first. A little credit to Yaletown as well, they were pushing hard. Second half saw Norvan take a little more control of the game and Yaletown, I think, tuckered out. 4-2 at the final whistle. Clean game.

This game was the exact opposite of our last meeting. In our first game, JB's dominated and lost 2-1. Last night, I felt that we were pretty unfortunate not to win or at least draw the match.
We were missing a lot of players but were generally able to make up for it with extra hustle. We scored about five minutes in, and had 2-3 more brilliant chances to go 2-0 up (1 breakaway, 2 empty nets, and another shot that skimmed the post are what I can remember), but our finishing let us down. On their first run down to our end, a bit of confusion in the back left a JB's player all alone in front of an empty net. He swung and missed a low cross, but it bounced off his standing leg and in.
A few minutes later, our right winger who was playing left back for the first time in his life (our starter was hospitalized by Romania last week) was hit in the arm with a cross at the edge of the box. Penalty. 2-1 JB's. YFC kept the pressure up, though, and our forwards combined well to tie the game up with a few seconds left in the half.
The JB's definitely got more into it in the second half, and are always dangerous on set pieces. We gave up far too many corners, and were unable to stop a player at the far post climbing over yet another makeshift defender (usually center forward and horrible in the air) for JB's to take the lead. They were able to create a lot of set piece chances, but YFC was creating more chances from open play. Unfortunately, we fluffed a few more great chances (mainly by missing the net). With about fifteen minutes to go, our defender forces the JB's striker out wide to the edge of the box, where he mishits a cross from the endline and somehow it goes over everyone and curls into the far corner. Final score 4-2.
It's always fun playing the JB's, and it was a good clean game. I was very happy with the way our guys played, especially since half the team was playing out of position due to injuries. We made up a lot of ground through sheer hustle, but began to flag in the last 20 minutes.
I can't see City FC choking again, so I wish both them and JB's good luck in the cup. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I couldn't really see our decimated squad going anywhere in the cup this year, anyway, so it's probably better that those two represent the pride of 2C

 

[bonefish]

Both teams were missing a few players and our backup to a backup keeper was having a tough time judging balls coming to him in the box this presented a couple of open nets for Latte boys. We have been playing uninspired soccer as of late with promotion hopes out of reach and some poor marking early gave them the lead. 2nd half saw our regular keeper show up and as mentioned in the above posts the field tiltled somewhat and we were able to carry more of the play. The Yaletown keep made a couple of good saves and our 4th goal was retribution for our first leg game where 2 freak goals derailed our season! We will pickup this rivarly next year in 2A with the lifetime series at 1-1

We will need to better our engery and be interested from the opening whistle if we want to stick around in cup play.

 

[dr.j]

Bonefish. Do the Knights get to follow the cool kids over to 2A,or do we get left behind? I forget how the alignment formula works. I do not think it possible to catch up even if we win out. It seems that poor attendance/commitment contributed to a most disappointing effort this year. Not being able to participate in cup play only makes it worse.

 

[bonefish]

Dr. J,

I think its 3,4,5 that shift to the right. So it looks like y'all will be holding the 2'C fort and will be joined by Unicorns, Alemania, and either D.Park or Rich.

 

[dr.j]

Bummer.

 

[dr.j]

Only to be made worse if we have to face Choo Choo Train posts as well if they get demoted from firsts... Double bummer.

 

[FCbytca]

chooooo chooooo

 

[dr.j]

Like a bad smell, you just cannot get rid of them...

 

[TS]

Dr. J,

I think its 3,4,5 that shift to the right. So it looks like y'all will be holding the 2'C fort and will be joined by Unicorns, Alemania, and either D.Park or Rich.

With our last 3 games being against B Utd, Cleo's and Unicorns, I think we should be able to lock up second place. But stranger things have happened, so nothing in div 2 is guaranteed!

TS

 

[dr.j]

I agree T.S., the Knights have consistently proven over the years that it is always possible to play "down" to your opponents level...

 

[bukkakemon]

polonia - firefighters POSTPONED

this is complete garbage as we should get a 1-0 default win. 10 mins to gametime the ref shows up and starts checking out the field. our guys were warming up on the field (which had no nets, cornerflags nor was lined), and he says it's good to go if we were alright with it. we, of course, said yes. the ref then goes to talk to the firemen, and we were told the game was on. a minute later the ref comes back to us and says the firemen (who only had 9 players) didn't want to play and they would give us the points, or he can say that the field was unplayable. we said that we would take the points as we were ready to play. he then said that he would report to the league that the field was questionable and let the league decide on what to do. this was not longer than 10 mins after he said the field was good to go. the field was the sh*ts, but i've played on worse. the firemen had no intention of playing this game, and it wasted our time to come out to the field in the pissing rain just to find out our opponent didn't want to play. we would have no problem playing the firemen, but this situation should have ended with us getting the points. and with us so close to clinching promo, we'll take the points. i hope the league will be looking into this matter further, as i'm sure we'll contact them about it.

bukkakemon

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Bukk....it was 17 minutes before game time for the record


The ref NEVER said the field was playable.......it was a quagmire.....with plenty of standing water. The report was put in and I'm sure you can live with the consequences......

If you've played on worst fields than that I feel sorry for you...

Good luck the rest of the season and I'm sure it will be a matter of time before you're promoted.

 

[bukkakemon]

IFC Polonia has officially won div 2a. well done guys!

bukkakemon

 

[Therapist]

WooHoo....for Balonia

 

[StuckIN]

So we find out who's in the cup on Thurday this week? Some one please explain how this works to me? My first season in this league and nothing makes sense so far. Please help

 

[bonefish]

This year is unique with the reduction of teams. The top 4 teams will be seeded and will not play each other. Primo is opting out of cup play so that opens the door for WestVan and possibly Cleos if the stars are aligned. The draw is being withheld until enough games have been played to allow the choosing of the top 4 teams in Div2 and top 2 in 2CAT. It will be Round of 16 followed by Quarters, Semis, Finals with a playoff between the the Semi-Final losers. This last game determines the VMSL's final entrant for the Provinicial Cup.