The Rovers good run of start to the season came to end in a a very difficult match against Sunnyvale. This is Sunnyvale's sixth consecutive win against the Rovers, however the 3-0 score-line did not truly reflect the entire story of the match.
Sunnyvale took their chances and the Rovers did not, all be it with the help of the ref and the assistant referee, and that is what separates winners and losers.
The game started in typical Rovers fashion with the Rovers having an Option A and an Option B lineup waiting on Jonathan to show up on time. The other Jonathan was unlucky that defender Jonathan did show up at 1pm and he was replaced before the start of the match. Colin was another change in the Rovers back line with him getting a start at right back. Bryce kicked off to Brodie who thought he would play it back to Colin to give him an early touch. This early touch almost provided to be a disaster as Colin played the ball square across the Rovers back line and it found a Sunnyvale forward. The break was on but Ben did very well to save. Not a great start to the match. In saying that the Rovers did not drop their heads and competed well in the early periods of the match. Jose was holding the ball up well but clearly the Rovers outlet was to play the ball long to Bryce. Short passes between Jose, Mark, Brodie and Eoin were working well and Eoin's man marking on Nino was also effective. Paulie was isolated on the left flank but when he did get the ball he looked to be a lively option.
Larson was in the middle with Jonathan and they both did a fine job of playing smart balls out of the back. The game was really interesting and was being played at a fast pace, Sunnyvale's passing from the back was exceptional at times. The Ref and assistant reff continued to miss very basic decisions. Gibbsy played in a high ball from a free kick. the Sunnyvlae player headed it out, throw to sunnyvale...many of these went against the Rovers but they kept their heads pretty well. The Rovers had the best chance of the opening 30 minutes when Brodie and Jose had a nice interchange. Brodie played it to Mark who found Bryce down the right flank. Bryce headed the ball to Paulie who only had the goalie to beat. Paulie hit it well but the goalie did well to close down the angle and made a good save. Sunnyvale immediately responded with a string of Corners. during one of the corners Cameron made a nice play as he carried the ball away from the goal. His ball found Paulie who cleverly held the ball up. Paulie turned and played a great 30 yard ball to Colin who flicked the ball down the wing to Bryce who was away. Again, Bryce was away and his speed carried him into a one on one with the goalie. Bryce took his shot well but the goalie made a very smart save. Minutes later, with the half winding down, another series of corners resulted in a the first goal of the match. Nino whipped the ball in with his sweet left foot and was met in the air by one of Sunnyvale's big men. The Rovers went into the half 1-0 down.
For the most part the team talk centered around that fact that we were doing pretty well and that we needed to keep going. The Rovers started off the half pretty well with Colin doing a fine job ion the right side and Bryce over on the left. Jose returned to the top with the tiring Jonathan off again. Colin tried a pot shot from 40 yards then was unlucky to go wide, jose tried one of his famous chips but the distance of 20 yards was just to great for the little Spaniard. One of the turning points came when Colin played in a high ball and the Rovers had men forward. In the tussle for the ball a Sunnyvale caught the ball, with both hands, for a split second and then dropped it. A basketball player would have been proud. The ref waived played on and said later it was "ball to hand" to which I said you mean ball to hands...Muppet.
20 minutes gone in the second half and the game changed for the worse from a Rovers perspective. A Sunnyvale player beat Jonathan and then went inside of Curt. Curt had no choice to pull his shorts, which he did, the player went on and had a great shot which ben saved well. The lino made his only decision of the day signalling for a pk. The ref, even though playing advantage blew back up for the pk which the sunnyvale player slotted home. At this point the game seemed beyond Rovers but Eoin rallied the troops and the Rovers went out to get a goal. Bryce was tripped up after one of Brodie's only good passes of the day, but the ball fell to jose who had his shot saved, it was another call that went against them. Colin had another good shoot that just fizzed past the post, while Curt played in a fantastic cross that just missed mark's head by a hair. Curt was having an inspired time in the second half, getting forwards and back, the only blemish being the 2nd goal but it was hardly his fault. Sunnyvale added to their tally with a scrappy goal the Rovers had a few chances to clear. At 3-0 Curt found himself lucky to be on the pitch has he fouled another played on goal, this time no yellow card was shown and the free kick was just outside of the box.
Sunnyvale are annoyingly good side, with no one more annoying that the first class of a cunt of a left back. Seriously someone needs to do him.
MOM: Ben kept us in the game was some great saves and his kicking/distribution was first class. Honorable mention to Eoin who did a great job on Nino, Bryce for his tireless running and Erik for continuing to play through the pain!
REF: we didnt' get any breaks. i.e see beach ball but at least we didn't argue much
Pitch: AT 41 it's to big at times
Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Trabia 1 Rovers 2
Sunday Night football was back for the Rovers Soccer Club as they battled Trabia FC at 8:15 on the turf at Mayfield Park. The Rovers had won 2 of their first 3 matches and the league seems to be pretty even this year with Sporting seeming to be the best team so far. The rovers needed a result in the match to keep pace with the rest of the league.
The Rovers were missing Jonathan, you most have been very disappointed to have to wait an additional weak to make up for that howler last week, in an otherwise very impressive performance. Joe Calvey was also out with a combination of shin and ciggy splints. Joe giving up his right back slot to the versatile Cameron. In the middle Jon and Erik with Curt flanking them on the left. Across the middle Kieran and the manager started off with Eoin going to bench after showing up two minutes prior to kick off (apparently he forgot to set his alarm for the p.m kick off). Across the middle the spanish jose, with colin and brodie on the flanks. Asian Jonathan was asked to lead the line.
The Rovers started off very strong as the game was played at a frantic pace. This pitch is small so neither time had any time on the ball but the best chance in the opening stages fell to Asian Jonathan who sliced his chance horribly wide, after a clever build up play by Mark and Jose. The Gaffer was winning every challenge in the middle of the park and Colin was heavily involved in the attack with the right wing pretty much being ignored. Jose had many chances to play the ball wide but the little spaniard kept choosing the wrong ball. Jonathan had a chance with a free kick but it struck the wall.
Paulie, who thought the kick of was 8:30,showed up just at kick off at replaced Jonathan up top. Jonathan did well but Paulie's running off the ball changed the game. It was pretty much all one way traffic at this point except when Erik brought down their player 25 yards from goal.The free kick came to nothing but it was a scare for Rovers. Larson was booked for his troubles. The break though came around the 30 minute mark. Eoin had a wide open Brodie on the right but his ball was hit into the air and Brodie headed it on into the danger area. Paulie kept going and the Trabia big defender head the ball past the advancing keeper. The ball was rolling into an empty net but Paulie was on-hand to make sure it had no problems going in. He will never have an easier goal. The Rovers continued to dominate the half with out creating to many chances. Probably the best chance came from well worked short corner between Brodie and Paulie, with the ex manager unlucky to score. The best chance of the half for Trabia is when Jon was judged to have obstructed a Trabia player in the box, the resulting fee kick was headed over the ball from 5 yards. A better header of the ball would have scored
At half-time Brodie and Kieran came off and Jonathan and Colin came back on the flanks. 5 minutes into the half, with Senior Brodie telling Jose to get into the box, the little Spaniard did just that and kidded the big Trabia full back. The tackle came in, the ref was well placed, and the player clipped Jose's feet not getting the ball, a stone wall pk somehow the ref yelled play on. A few moments later the came changed when a clear hand ball by Trabia was not seen, with the Rovers stopping in the middle of the field for a split second. A wonderful through ball was played and the bearded man in the attack took on Ben and took his goal well. Somehow the Rovers had managed to throw away their commanding position.
Brodie and Kieran entered the game with 25 minutes to go and immediately Brodie changed the game with his mouth rather then his boots. Their number 10 did about 3 Ronaldo step overs and Brodie kicked the ball away from him. Brodie commented that he is not going by him and the #10 took exception. He pushed Brodie over 3 different times, with the third one being seen by the Ref. The ref had no hesitation and showed him a straight red card. Trabia was down to 10 men. With 10 to go Jon Regala played a high ball into Brodie's head. His flick on found the always running Paulie. The goalie came out and Paulie went round him. With the goalie out of his goal Paulie brought the ball back onto his left foot and chipped the ball towards the goal. Their was a bit of scramble with Colin claiming the goal but this match reporter did not see who got the final touch so Paulie is getting the goal. The Rovers saw out the last 10 minutes and should have increased their lead with Colin having some great chances to play in Paulie but the final ball did not quite come off. Off the pub at 1015 on a Sunday night with the third win out of four
MOM: The Gaffer..unlucky for Paulie not to get but Mark was excellent minus his ongoing conversation with the ref. His tackling was first rate.
REF: Two mind boggling restarts and a clear missed pk but he got the red card correct
pitch. fast and small.
Quote of the day: Larson, "we are regular ambassadors of good will"
The Rovers were missing Jonathan, you most have been very disappointed to have to wait an additional weak to make up for that howler last week, in an otherwise very impressive performance. Joe Calvey was also out with a combination of shin and ciggy splints. Joe giving up his right back slot to the versatile Cameron. In the middle Jon and Erik with Curt flanking them on the left. Across the middle Kieran and the manager started off with Eoin going to bench after showing up two minutes prior to kick off (apparently he forgot to set his alarm for the p.m kick off). Across the middle the spanish jose, with colin and brodie on the flanks. Asian Jonathan was asked to lead the line.
The Rovers started off very strong as the game was played at a frantic pace. This pitch is small so neither time had any time on the ball but the best chance in the opening stages fell to Asian Jonathan who sliced his chance horribly wide, after a clever build up play by Mark and Jose. The Gaffer was winning every challenge in the middle of the park and Colin was heavily involved in the attack with the right wing pretty much being ignored. Jose had many chances to play the ball wide but the little spaniard kept choosing the wrong ball. Jonathan had a chance with a free kick but it struck the wall.
Paulie, who thought the kick of was 8:30,showed up just at kick off at replaced Jonathan up top. Jonathan did well but Paulie's running off the ball changed the game. It was pretty much all one way traffic at this point except when Erik brought down their player 25 yards from goal.The free kick came to nothing but it was a scare for Rovers. Larson was booked for his troubles. The break though came around the 30 minute mark. Eoin had a wide open Brodie on the right but his ball was hit into the air and Brodie headed it on into the danger area. Paulie kept going and the Trabia big defender head the ball past the advancing keeper. The ball was rolling into an empty net but Paulie was on-hand to make sure it had no problems going in. He will never have an easier goal. The Rovers continued to dominate the half with out creating to many chances. Probably the best chance came from well worked short corner between Brodie and Paulie, with the ex manager unlucky to score. The best chance of the half for Trabia is when Jon was judged to have obstructed a Trabia player in the box, the resulting fee kick was headed over the ball from 5 yards. A better header of the ball would have scored
At half-time Brodie and Kieran came off and Jonathan and Colin came back on the flanks. 5 minutes into the half, with Senior Brodie telling Jose to get into the box, the little Spaniard did just that and kidded the big Trabia full back. The tackle came in, the ref was well placed, and the player clipped Jose's feet not getting the ball, a stone wall pk somehow the ref yelled play on. A few moments later the came changed when a clear hand ball by Trabia was not seen, with the Rovers stopping in the middle of the field for a split second. A wonderful through ball was played and the bearded man in the attack took on Ben and took his goal well. Somehow the Rovers had managed to throw away their commanding position.
Brodie and Kieran entered the game with 25 minutes to go and immediately Brodie changed the game with his mouth rather then his boots. Their number 10 did about 3 Ronaldo step overs and Brodie kicked the ball away from him. Brodie commented that he is not going by him and the #10 took exception. He pushed Brodie over 3 different times, with the third one being seen by the Ref. The ref had no hesitation and showed him a straight red card. Trabia was down to 10 men. With 10 to go Jon Regala played a high ball into Brodie's head. His flick on found the always running Paulie. The goalie came out and Paulie went round him. With the goalie out of his goal Paulie brought the ball back onto his left foot and chipped the ball towards the goal. Their was a bit of scramble with Colin claiming the goal but this match reporter did not see who got the final touch so Paulie is getting the goal. The Rovers saw out the last 10 minutes and should have increased their lead with Colin having some great chances to play in Paulie but the final ball did not quite come off. Off the pub at 1015 on a Sunday night with the third win out of four
MOM: The Gaffer..unlucky for Paulie not to get but Mark was excellent minus his ongoing conversation with the ref. His tackling was first rate.
REF: Two mind boggling restarts and a clear missed pk but he got the red card correct
pitch. fast and small.
Quote of the day: Larson, "we are regular ambassadors of good will"
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Rovers 0 Shaheen 1
The Rovers Soccer Club took on the Premier Leagues new boys Shaheen in a much anticipated match up. The Rovers were off to their best start since the 1989-90 season when they went 3 consecutive games with out defeat. The Rovers felt that if they could win this game the "promotion" word would start to gain momentum with the supporters and management. The Rovers were buoyed by the news that Erik Larson was returning from injury and that Gibbsy was missing from today's action because of his a birthday party.
Jonathan (ze Lan) was also a late no show, while Nigel was suffering a reoccurrence of a reoccurrence of a former calf injury. Defender Jonathan made a surprise appearance two minutes from kick off to secure the back-line. Stand in manager Paulie originally lined up with an aggressive 3 4 3 lineup as it looked like Shaheen would only start the match with 8 players. As the ref continued to delay kick off for reasons only known to himself two more players joined and we went back to our standard lineup. Shaheen eventually did have 11 players midway through the first half.
The three out of the four best chances from this match fell to Shaheen but if they kept a possession statistic in the PSL the Rovers dominated all of the ball and all of the territory advantage. The majority of the game was played in the Shaheen half but you don't get rewarded for having the ball in soccer, You get rewarded for putting the ball in the back of the net and currently the Rovers are struggling to do that, with just 3 goals in 3 games.
Shaheen were away inside of the first 6 minutes after one of the Rovers only defensive mistakes of the day but Ben did very well in a one on one situation and the balance of play shifted again to the Rovers. Jose was back to his magnificent best as he was finding acres of room playing behind the lines. Eoin and Kieran were snuffing out the play and finding the wide men with authority. Bryce as having some luck getting the ball and they were struggling to cope with his base. Brodie has a shot that was wide with his left foot after a clever square ball by Colin found him. Colin also drifted to the far post but did not anticipated the missed ball and it went out for a throw in. The Rovers were having all the ball but were struggling to get men forward in the box. Jose was puling the strings but only Bryce and Brodie or Bryce and Colin were forward enough at times and Saheen dealt with the danger pretty comfortably it must be said.
Little Joe was having a great game at right back but the ciggies caught up with him and he needed a break at half time to be replaced by Larson. Brodie also came off for Paulie. More of the same continued with the Rovers having the ball. Colin was awarded a free kick and his shot was closed down by the wall, however the ball spun over the goalies head and Jon seemed certain to score. He was pushed in the back but the ball was cleared off the line and the ref took no action. Bryce was felled in the box moments later and the ref put his whistle in his mouth and again waived away claims. Jon won the header at the back post but missed the target, the big man admitting afterwards he should have scored. Brodie and Kieran had shots from distance that went over and Colin had a fantastic chance to shot from 10 yards but he tried to put the ball on his right foot and his shot was charged down.
The game seemed to going for a 0-0 draw when the ball squirmed through Jonathan's league straight to the Shaheen attacker. He still had a lot of work to do but this time he converted on his one on one chance and Shaeen took the lead against the run of play. In the celebrations a Shaheen player left the field of play which the ref warned him about. Before the kick off the ref took the yellow card out of his pocket..as he did the player said you are not going to send me off for that..so the ref took at his book, realized he had already booked the player and put his card back in his pocket. Surely one of the most comical season by the otherwise decent referee. Their players spent a lot of time on the ground, rolling around in agony, perhaps they had watched Brodie the week prior against Maritimo or Drogba that morning against Liverpool, but for the most part the game was played in a decent spirit.
The Rovers need to improve their goal-scoring exploits if they are going to end their wait for promotion.
MOM: Ben, made two fantastic saves, one in the first few minutes and one after a pile driver shot by little Iniesta, closely followed by the magnificent Spaniard who was sorely missed at the end of the game
REF: Booked Kieran for a nothing tackle but yet their players away with constant dissent and our players away with some hard tackles (see Chris and Paulie). somehow didn't send theplayer off, see above and let the Jon incident in the goal go unpunished. However all that being said, kept up with play well and his assistances were good
Pitch: Big, but the weather was better
Jonathan (ze Lan) was also a late no show, while Nigel was suffering a reoccurrence of a reoccurrence of a former calf injury. Defender Jonathan made a surprise appearance two minutes from kick off to secure the back-line. Stand in manager Paulie originally lined up with an aggressive 3 4 3 lineup as it looked like Shaheen would only start the match with 8 players. As the ref continued to delay kick off for reasons only known to himself two more players joined and we went back to our standard lineup. Shaheen eventually did have 11 players midway through the first half.
The three out of the four best chances from this match fell to Shaheen but if they kept a possession statistic in the PSL the Rovers dominated all of the ball and all of the territory advantage. The majority of the game was played in the Shaheen half but you don't get rewarded for having the ball in soccer, You get rewarded for putting the ball in the back of the net and currently the Rovers are struggling to do that, with just 3 goals in 3 games.
Shaheen were away inside of the first 6 minutes after one of the Rovers only defensive mistakes of the day but Ben did very well in a one on one situation and the balance of play shifted again to the Rovers. Jose was back to his magnificent best as he was finding acres of room playing behind the lines. Eoin and Kieran were snuffing out the play and finding the wide men with authority. Bryce as having some luck getting the ball and they were struggling to cope with his base. Brodie has a shot that was wide with his left foot after a clever square ball by Colin found him. Colin also drifted to the far post but did not anticipated the missed ball and it went out for a throw in. The Rovers were having all the ball but were struggling to get men forward in the box. Jose was puling the strings but only Bryce and Brodie or Bryce and Colin were forward enough at times and Saheen dealt with the danger pretty comfortably it must be said.
Little Joe was having a great game at right back but the ciggies caught up with him and he needed a break at half time to be replaced by Larson. Brodie also came off for Paulie. More of the same continued with the Rovers having the ball. Colin was awarded a free kick and his shot was closed down by the wall, however the ball spun over the goalies head and Jon seemed certain to score. He was pushed in the back but the ball was cleared off the line and the ref took no action. Bryce was felled in the box moments later and the ref put his whistle in his mouth and again waived away claims. Jon won the header at the back post but missed the target, the big man admitting afterwards he should have scored. Brodie and Kieran had shots from distance that went over and Colin had a fantastic chance to shot from 10 yards but he tried to put the ball on his right foot and his shot was charged down.
The game seemed to going for a 0-0 draw when the ball squirmed through Jonathan's league straight to the Shaheen attacker. He still had a lot of work to do but this time he converted on his one on one chance and Shaeen took the lead against the run of play. In the celebrations a Shaheen player left the field of play which the ref warned him about. Before the kick off the ref took the yellow card out of his pocket..as he did the player said you are not going to send me off for that..so the ref took at his book, realized he had already booked the player and put his card back in his pocket. Surely one of the most comical season by the otherwise decent referee. Their players spent a lot of time on the ground, rolling around in agony, perhaps they had watched Brodie the week prior against Maritimo or Drogba that morning against Liverpool, but for the most part the game was played in a decent spirit.
The Rovers need to improve their goal-scoring exploits if they are going to end their wait for promotion.
MOM: Ben, made two fantastic saves, one in the first few minutes and one after a pile driver shot by little Iniesta, closely followed by the magnificent Spaniard who was sorely missed at the end of the game
REF: Booked Kieran for a nothing tackle but yet their players away with constant dissent and our players away with some hard tackles (see Chris and Paulie). somehow didn't send theplayer off, see above and let the Jon incident in the goal go unpunished. However all that being said, kept up with play well and his assistances were good
Pitch: Big, but the weather was better
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