MATCH REPORT; Bridgeport 2 Madison 1

Solid Defense Not Enough For Madison

Carrying an injury list that would make an ER doctor sweat, Madison Celtic limped into this game more in hope than expectation. Bolstered by two signings the day before the game it was a real bonus to see Madison walk onto the field with eleven relatively fit players. Previous games against Bridgeport have been tough and tight and this one proved to be no different.

The first half was pockmarked with some almighty poor passing by both teams and some eccentric refereeing decisions by the man with the whistle. On balance Madison edged the one on one battles and took up some great positions. Notably, Roniildo and Rob where always available for the ball in acres of space. Unfortunately more times than not the ball went elsewhere. Just as it looked like the half might end with a lot of scrappy play and little goal mouth action the referee intervened to supply a comical interlude by giving an indirect free kick to Bridgeport no more than 5 yards out from the Madison goal line. Some solid defending by Madison averted the danger and they were soon back on the attack. A sweeping move up the right wing by Roniildo and a great cross ball out to Rob on the left was reciprocated by an equally impressive ball back to Roniildo in the opposition box. Roniildo looked as though he had all the time in the World as he calmly swerved the ball past the stranded Bridgeport goalie to put the Celts one up. The half ended with the Celts dominant and optimistic about winning the game.

Bridgeport, of course, had other ideas and started the second half strongly, pushing Madison further and further back into defense. The whole team seemed to react to this pressure with a bit more panic on the ball than normal and the passing went from bad to worse.

With the midfield contriving some suicidally short passes back to the defence La Boca was heard to emit a scream that sounded like a lonely whale looking for a friend in the Atlantic. And to be fair some of the passing in the midfield was raw to say the least. If the ball was not being released with undue haste into a no mans land of Bridgeport players it was being held too long until all options had been closed down.
El Presidente was at times struck with indecision as to where the pass should go. Hit to space on the left or hit to space on the right? It reminded me of the fable about the horse who was positioned between two equally attractive piles of hay. He could not decide which pile to eat; so, he starved to death.

Unfortunately, Bridgeport were able to take advantage of this disarray when a defence splitting pass eluded both Hamid and El Gato allowing the opposition striker the simple task of slotting the ball into the net for the equalizer. After this set back Madison allowed their heads to drop and Bridgeport started to boss the game. And with only 15 minutes left on the clock a fast move down the Bridgeport left was finished with a high floating ball into the Madison box which was met by the head of a Bridgeport player to put them 2 up. Madison still fought hard for the equalizer and could have snatched a point right at the death when a break away by new signing Ilhan found him one on one with the goalie. His nicely lobbed shot crept agonisingly over the bar shaving it by inches and ending the last chance for the Celts. A tough result from a fairly even match up but considering all the injuries and player shortage issues for Madison leading up to this game they could at least claim a moral victory of sorts.

MAN OF THE MATCH; Roniildo. Was always available for the ball and making lung bursting runs into space. Unfortunately the only person to see them was me watching from the sidelines.