Premier [VMSL Premier] Results & Banter September 2007

[oranje]

No one else is doing it, so, here goes for the first week:

Sporting Club
Surrey Utd. "A"
Byrne Creek
Fri/ 8.00 pm

Hmm...will KNVB leave the tire fires long enought to come to sunny south Burnaby? Not much talk about Surrey so far. Is Tom Elliott still around or has he fled to the Caymans? Are the Gomes Squared enought to vanquish the Whalleyites? Pickem.


Coq. Metro-Ford "A"
Norvan Eagles
Mundy Park # 4
Fri/ 7.30pm

Metro Ford ought to have different look this year. Miro's cheering section are suspended. Xausa has heeded the call of Grima Worm Tongue and slinked over to ClanBus. I think Norvan is set to surprise.

Westside FC "A"
Delta Metro Blaze
Point Grey Turf
Fri/ 8.00 pm

I say Randy Samuel has the boys well and truly motivated for their debut. Pickem over Westside. Didn't ClanBus rape them for players too at some point?

Sapperton Rovers
West Van FC "A"
Queen's Park Std.
Sat/ 2.00pm

A complete gutting of the Sapperton Rovers lineup. All the old guard have gone over 35. Pannu has sprinted over to Cliff Ave. What have they left? What West Van squad will show up? Will it be the kickem gang from last year or will Nico sort them out?

Croatia SC
Indo FC "A"
Burnaby North Turf
Sat/ 6.00pm

Croatia is headed in the right direction. Good management, new keeper (does anyone know where the deposed Smiley has landed?) I think they will do well versus Indo. I have not heard the resolution to the Bollywood soap opera but I am sure it can't be good.

Columbus-Clan FC
ICSF inter
Charles Best Turf
Sat/ 3.00pm

Who cares about these wankers? ClanBus refuses to speak and Inter speaks too much. Could be the highlight of the weekend or a dull, defensive affair where neither side wishes to lose. Will Zenga be between the pipes or will he "work." Which of Inter's 12 goalies will get the start? Will Ivan Lee get a new tattoo?


Firefighters FC
AFC Leopards "A"
Coq.Town Centre Std.
Sat/ 5:00 pm

Firefighters finished well last year. The Bells are first class. They will do well again this year. The Leopards are as good as they want to be. I pick the Firemen.

There, it may not be Sir M's excellent work but hopefully it will get the size 5 rolling.

 

[knvb]

Re: [VMSL Premier] Preseason Banter 2007/08

Nothing like a turf game in September to really motivate...

Surrey, like most do every year, will be hot and cold to start, but will pick it up come October. With few exceptions we've almost got our 04' team back but with a much better supporting cast. Trick is now to get everyone together at once.

Elliot is in the Caymans, but we have Magowen back which, if you can believe it,is almost an upgrade.

Power rankings and new thread due tomorrow and Thursday. Continue on here for now.

 

[Regs]

Excellent site results from last night:

Sporting 4-1 Surrey
Norvan 1-0 MetroFord
Delta 1-0 Westside

Looks like the turf motivated the Pork Chops... did the Slurrey Yanks finally get through the border? I shudder to think what the scoreline would have been if I accepted Foden's last minute plea to play

Cheers,

~Regs.

 

[oranje]

Excellent site results from last night:

Sporting 4-1 Surrey
Norvan 1-0 MetroFord
Delta 1-0 Westside

Looks like the turf motivated the Pork Chops... did the Slurrey Yanks finally get through the border? I shudder to think what the scoreline would have been if I accepted Foden's last minute plea to play

Cheers,

~Regs.

Mmm, I am 2 for 2 on predictions. My crystal ball was cloudy for the Surrey/Sporting tilt but thanks to Delta and Norvan for proving my faith in you was warranted.

Delta, at this rate you will show far better than the Olympiques. Well done! Reviews of the matches once you have finished your beauty sleep please.

 

[cerebral smallsy]

Delta 1
Westside 0

tough loss to swallow for the westside boys. from a spectators unbiased standpoint, rolleyes, westside had the majority of possession and a couple squandered opportunities. unfortunately couldn't come up with anything to really break down delta. clearly their game plan was to sit back and counter and that is exactly how they scored. caught westside pushing forward and thin in the back and scored on a counter. on to indo and hopefully a better result to show for the boys efforts.

 

[Regs]

Smallsy,

Which of the old boys stuck it out for this year and which went to Masters? You went Masters, correct?

 

[cerebral smallsy]

myself, pettingale, nuke, mosher, wicksy have signed 0'35. i've made myself available on a cat basis when the premier squad needs an injection of pace and megs.
a number of remaining lads including jammo, gaby, dancin bear and others mixed in with some new faces and some ubc kids makes for a different looking squad. i think we'll suprise some teams who take us lightly.

 

[Seds]

Norvan 1 - Metro-Ford 0

First post to TTP, so bare with me. Metro-Ford took to us for most of the first half, unlucky not to score on a couple occasions. They held most of the play, attacking our flanks and penetrating with Huggon and Vear but no luck on goal. Norvan was very convincing on counter attacks though, creating several opportunities on goal. It was clear from the first half that Norvan didn't have any exhibition games under their belts but had enough to to keep MF at bay.

Second half had Norvan start to play with more conviction. Our confidence/fitness started to show with us attacking Metro-Ford at every opportunity. MF still created some difficulty for the Norvan defense at times. Goal came from Selaney off a break with a nice strike from the left. Wilton was unlucky on another occasion not to get the insurance marker a few minutes from the whistle.

All in all a tightly fought match with Norvan finally getting some well-deserved points this time around - last year had similar matches but with ALL 6 points going to MF!

Norvan should improve on its record from last year given their improvements to the organization and the relationship with the North Shore Soccer Development Centre.

 

[Regs]

Great summary (and first TTP post) Seds!

Who's coaching your lot this year?

 

[Seds]

>>Who's coaching your lot this year?

It was going to be Hubert Busby (from AFC), but unfortunately he had to step down due to current commitments as head of the North Shore Development Program. Craig (unsure of his last name, but he has a very strong Scottish accent), previously from the North Shore Development Program, will now be taking the reigns. It should be good with someone official at the helm, but you never know what can happen with a Scottsman! ;-)

 

[Regs]

A Scotsman leading Norvan - now there's a stretch

 

[Regs]

My ASS says Columbus beat Inter today 3-2.

Inter up 2 nil at the half.

Apparently Xausa shredded the boys from Inter.

 

[oranje]

My ASS says Columbus beat Inter today 3-2.

Inter up 2 nil at the half.

Apparently Xausa shredded the boys from Inter.

This gives Xausa too much credit. He played well but really did not dominate the way this is suggested.

Inter did what it does when things go wrong: miss opportunities to put a team away. They were full value for the 2 nil lead and it could have and should have been double that. Inter lost a couple of players to injuries in the second half and this changed the chemistry of the squad. No excuses, did not determine the outcome.

Clanbus played better once they brought on Xausa and Robbie Cairns.

ClanBus will tell you that it was a major character effort to come back from 2 buzz. Really it had more to do with Inter not closing the deal.

Congratulations to Columbus for hanging in. Inter will have to learn from this and focus on next week.

Interestingly, Paul Ward was assigned the match and did well, contrary to the Imperial Cup debacle. There was also a very professional female assistant referee who did a nice job.

 

[Freestyler]

Croatia 2-1 Indo (I.C.S.T)

Fairly good game this evening. Indo created a few chances early in the 1st half including one that went off the crossbar. Croatia opened the scoring off a free kick that was thumbed in from behind half Indo's keeper misjudged it and Ollie tapped it into an empty net. Indo came out flying the 2nd half and were unlucky not to score off one of the few scrambles they had in front. Masi scored Croatia's 2nd off of a scramble. Croatia had some glorious opportunities as Indo was pressing however, Indo's keep Amar came up huge on a couple of occasions. Indo got one back with 10 to go but that was as close as they would get. I'm sure it's a tough loss for the Indo boys to swallow, but a few more weeks of training with Burns and Indo will put up some stiff competition.

 

[reportz]

I think Sikh Tempel put up competition last year when they got relegated.

But I did see the game and it was entertaining. Too bad Sulentic was missing would love to see him and Ollie on the pitch together.

Good luck Temple.

 

[Hose]

Another sleepless night at Inter camp! Inter couldn't close the deal, another learning experience....... blah blah blah blah blah.

 

[Nemesis]

Good luck to you Reportz.............that is on passing your grade three spelling test you stupid f*^#!

Remember in order to be a smart ass....you have to be smart first.

Nemesis

 

[oranje]

Another sleepless night at Inter camp! Inter couldn't close the deal, another learning experience....... blah blah blah blah blah.

If Columbus plays like they did against Inter in the first half yesterday at Nationals then they will have their a#$es handed to them. Those teams will finish their chances and send you home disappointed.

 

[sandbagger]

West Van 1 Sapperton 0

West Van started well while Sapperton started flat. Sapperton lost Woody 10 minutes in with a cut on his forward resulting in 16 stitches, then lost Colin Phillips 5 minutes later with what appeared to be a sprained knee. Some nice hustle by a West Van forward (#11 - don't know his name) resulted in West Van's goal off a cross and far-post tap-in in the 35th minute. West Van could have had a couple more but missed some pretty good chances.

Sapperton played much better in the second half and had West Van pinned in their zone for most of the half but West Van weathered the storm well and gave up few, if any, quality chances.

West Van's best performances came from their former Peg lads - Doddy, Shorty, and Nico, while Sapperton had good performances from Rob Sing, Brody Phillips, and Ted Ullrich. Overall, West Van deserved the three points.

Rene's refereeing was excellent. A lot of solid tackles and some tough, physical play resulted in exactly 0 cards, which is the way it should be.

 

[Jomo10]

In the much anticipated match against the team that almost won everything last year was a choke job performed by the real Italian club. It sucked to be watching this one as myself and Bunny were suspended for getting 3 yellow cards in 30 games last year. Inter came out hungry and were up 2-0 at the half. it is worth mentioning that they missed a PK early and a couple of other chances to really put Clan away who looked a little tired and uninterested for most of the half.

Second half Inter started to defend, then defend a little more, and then defend a little more until we began icing the puck waiting for Paul to call the game. Fitness seemed a bit of a problem but more importantly we seemed to lose the hunger we showed in the first half. Clan worked hard and kept the momentum going. In the last 11 minutes, Clan capitalized on three chances and scored the winner with the last kick of the game.

I think two turning points was when our two attacking midfielders had to be subbed and when Clan captain and former Inter player Tino Cucca left the game for Clan who was silenced against his former team. His replacement, Robbie Cairns injected pace and heart that led to the first goal which he scored minutes from entering the game. Their whole game changed in my opinion when he came into the game. I am very interested to see how Clan handles a guy who doesn't like to train and who really isn't that fit, especially since two of their most dangerous players are Robbie and Tiernan, both who are more committed and play in his position. Tino, you solved a nice problem for us by leaving this year and I hope Clan find a way to use you and keep you happy.

Last thing I want to point out is that I used to make fun of the way Clan acts when they beat Inter which is reminiscent of Commercial Drive last July. Yesterday was no different as they erupted in pandemonium, singing and chanting during their dramatic comeback. As silly as most teams find this, I have come to the conclusion that it must be a lot of fun and maybe actually works. They care more about beating us more than we do about beating them which I hope we can figure out next time we play them.

Looking forward to playing next week and good luck to everyone for the season!