Happy Halloween!

Hope you guys have a nice Halloween this weekend. Looks like Fribeka, or is it Lenny, started early!

The Defender of the CARSL season poll finished with 24 votes each for Goggs and The Hulk which seems fair enough because they both had a great season. So, how close will the midfielder of the season vote be? Remember this is just for the Championship winning Spring season in CARSL. In that season we played 13 games, won 10, drew 2 and lost only 1 game! We won the league even after being unable to play our last 3 games! There are some great midfielders up for a vote this time, in fact 9 of them! Some stats to think about; Our top goal scoring midfielders that season were Carlos with 5, Roniildo with 4 and Halil with 2! Over the season Roniildo collected 3 MOM awards and Halil 2!

Best of luck with the voting! Remember our season end prize giving night will be Friday 5th November at Saray Turkish Restaurant in West Haven, time to be announced. We have 11 confirmed players so far but lets hope more say yes to come and collect their championship winning prizes!

MATCH REPORT; Madison 5 Eagles 5

What a way to end the Fall season! A mistake strewn comedy of errors which finally came to an end with 10 goals shared evenly between the teams. But this is the sort of exciting crazy soccer that should bring the fans back to watch more!

This game started briskly and before you could say, " what a nice day for a game" the ball was in the net. A fantastic free kick from a good 40 yards out was sent scorching into the net by the incomparable El Flaco to the utter befuddlement of the opposition goalkeeper. After this fab, fast start to the match the Celts went into even higher gear trying to finish off the opposition before the game had really got started. Tano stormed into the opposition box unleashing a powerful shot that was parried by the shell shocked goalkeeper but Tano rapidly followed up and slammed the rebounded save into the net for Madison's second. It looked like the Madison team were going to cruise to a crushing victory but no story is ever that simple and the wheels were about to come off the bus big style for the Celts. The first wheel was when the Eagles executed a concerted attack on the Madison defence and managed to slam a cracker of a goal past the strangely subdued Hulk. The next wheel then came crashing off the bus when a ball whipped into the Madison box was superbly headed into the net by TomA for the best own goal of the season. From a commanding 2 0 lead Madison were now scrambling for their survival as the Eagles swooped in for the kill. To their credit the team held their nerve and just before halftime managed to get back into the lead with a great goal by Tom A as he made amends for his own goal.

This breathless first half turned out to be just the appetizer for the main course....the second half. And what a half it was, as Madison continued their downward spiral by perpetrating the most inept display of midfield and defensive play seen all season. The Eagles equalizer came as no surprise as they had been bossing the opening minutes of the half when a break down the Madison left side allowed a ball to be swept into the box and to be cruelly turned into the net by Carlos for yet another own goal. If that was bad, the next goal was even worse, as yet another breakaway down the Madison left allowed the Eagles to slam the ball past the nearly comatose Hulk for the go ahead goal in seven. Now it was Madison's turn to turn up the gas by pushing for an equalizer that they would not have predicted they needed after the opening 20 minutes. But the Celts pushed the rampant Eagles back onto the defensive and were richly rewarded by a great second goal ( third? ) by the superb Carlos. A 4-4 tie looked to be the right result for this see saw of a game but their was more juice to be squeezed out of this particular lemon of a game. And this time it was the fantastic timing of Roniildo that came to the fore as he breezed past the Eagles offside trap, rounded the goalkeeper and slammed in what surely would be the winner. But no, another cruel turn of the wheel was about to happen just before the end of the game after El Flaco had been sent for an early bath. Once again the Eagles swept down the field to float past the almost static Madison defence and with a final touch slam the ball past the statuesque Hulk for their 5th of the game. With a huge last breath the referee blew his whistle to end a pulsating, roller coaster of a game pockmarked with unbelievably bad defending and truly amazing goals. Don't you just love football?

MAN OF THE MATCH; Wow, really? I have to pick a MOM? How about the ball for taking one Hell of a beating? If push comes to shove the main personality of the game was clearly Carlos. 3 goals, two of them ours, one of which was a thing of beauty. His performance only sullied by a stupid red card. So Carlos is man of the match with Jodingo!! a close second only because none of the goals came from his side of the field!

Don't forget to vote on the player of the CARSL season polls! First one is for defender of the season! Prize giving night is also coming up soon....check the blog for details!

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NEXT GAME: Sunday 24th Oct, Albanian Eagles!

It's our last official game of 2010! Yes, it's nearly time for a break so we can allow our bodies to recharge before the indoor season starts. We have been playing non stop since April storming to the CARSL Division B championship ( with 3 games to spare!! ) then joining the SASL Div 3 and positioning ourselves in the top 3 in a very competitive league.

During that period we have played 21 games , won 13 , drawn 7 and lost only 1 ! It's a great record by any standard and we have a chance to finish the year off in style by getting 3 points in our final league game of the Fall. We are home to the Albanian Eagles who proved they could be tricky opponents when we played them in August. We fell two goals behind before coming back to gain a point in a 2-2 draw. They have a couple of fast forwards but their defence is suspect.

We need a good turnout for this game and i know we have a number of players carrying injuries or will be absent this Sunday.

MATCH REPORT; Madison 1 Orange 1

Madison failed in their attempt to close the gap at the top of the league after a late goal by Orange forced the Celts to share the spoils. The draw, which is the Madison teams fifth of the season, leaves them still three points behind Orange and five behind new leaders Guilford Bell curve.

The game itself started very well for Madison and with such a strong team on the field and deep bench strength maybe this shouldn't have be too surprising. A rare start for La Boca meant that the defence, at least on paper, had some solidity to it. The midfield was forceful and creative providing the usual basket of chances for the twin strikers Safet and Tano. Even the most objective observer would give the first 30 minutes of this match to Madison as they controlled possession and rarely spoiled a pass. The best chances for the Celts came from the strong running of Halil, David and Roniildo. But some excellent crosses into the box went begging as the Orange team held on in defence. Some powerful shooting by David looked like being the main source for the break through goal but when it came it was from a sweet midfield move. Roniildo winning the ball in the opposition half moved to his right then swept a fantastic cross into the box where it skipped off the head of an Orange defender and then was nodded into the net by the predatory Carlos. A well deserved one nil lead that the team took into the half time break.

The second half saw the Orange team pushing the Madison team back in a concerted fashion for the first time in the game. Madison were allowing gaps in the midfield between the strikers and the defence and at times 4 or 5 Orange players were running at the Madison defence. Most of the time La Boca or Jodingo!! managed to clear the ball but not in their usual decisive fashion allowing the Orange team to pick up on attack immediately. It was not all one way traffic as chances still came to Madison with David coming close a number of times with shots that went narrowly wide or were tipped over the bar by the goalie. The forward line were not really getting shots on target and found themselves getting deeper and deeper into their own half. But it did look like Madison could hold out for the win. However, this hope was undone with about ten minutes left on the clock when a corner for Orange was met by an unmarked player in the box allowing him to crack an unstoppable shot into the net for the equalizer. A disappointing goal to lose at such a late stage of the game but Madison had not been taking the chances that came their way when they were on top. Having said that, the Celts came agonizingly close to snatching a win right at the end when a corner kick saw the ball sweeping right across the Orange back line landing at the feet of the unmarked Halil who only had to tap it into the net but instead he swung at it and the ball went sideways of his boot and past the post. With that chance gone the game ended leaving the Celts with a fight on their hands to get into the top two over the final ten games of the season. The last game of the Fall section of the league is at home next week against the Albanian Eagles. Three points are a must!

MAN OF THE MATCH; Roniildo. Powerful running and tackling were a feature of Roniildo's game helping out the defence and being available for the attacking ball throughout the game. Other contenders were Halil who had another great game but tired towards the end and David with his dangerous shots from just outside the box

NEXT GAME; Sunday 17th October, Orange!

Guys the Fall season in SASL is coming close to the end with only two games left. Our home game this Sunday is against the team at the top of the league Orange! We beat Orange 3-2 in our very first game of the season and since then they have gone on an unbeaten run of mainly wins. We have also remained unbeaten but had a lot of tied games so we sit 3 points behind them.

They will be out for revenge and the three points on offer. This is a really big game for us and we will need to play like we did against Cheshire last week if we want to repeat the win we gained the first time the teams clashed.

The game will be played at exchange field and

the kick off is at 11am!!

FRIENDLY; Cheshire 2 Madison 5

What looked like being a tough test for Madison, playing a SASL second division team, proved in the end to be a nice stroll in the park. On a beautiful Fall day a strong Madison squad were much too strong for the floundering Division 2 team as they shipped five goals. Madison started the match strongly holding the ball effectively and taking some great shots on goal. The Cheshire Inter team took almost twenty minutes to get a grip of the game and by that time they were one down and heading South. A great shot by Dave allowed Carlos to nip in at the far post and head the ball into the net. After this first goal the pressure from Madison actually increased resulting in a number of successive corners. The Inter team finally succumbed to the constant flow of attacking football when one of those corners swept untouched straight into the net. Inter tried to get back into the game and could have scored a goal from one of their own corners but Johnaldo was able to head the ball off the line with El Gato stranded in no mans land. Jodingo!! also pulled off a great goal saving tackle in the box. At this point in the game Madison could have rattled in a few more goals with shots from Jan, Dave, Jorge and Carlos all going just wide or over the bar. But, as soon as you think the game is easy you get a sharp reminder that it's not and that hit home for Madison when a great through ball from an Inter midfielder found ex Madison player Ahmad with only Johnaldo to beat, which he did with ease, before slamming the ball past El Gato. A good goal though very much against the run of play. Ahmad was the main attacking threat from Inter and would remain so for the rest of the game.


After halftime the Celts changed a few players around and started the half a bit slowly. This lack of urgency cost them dearly when Ahmad again found himself clear on goal with only El Gato to beat. For a second it looked like El Gato was going to get to the ball first but he seemed to be suddenly affected by some sort of invisible fence or force field that stopped him in his tracks at the edge of the box allowing Ahmad to get to the ball and slam it past him for the equalizer. This goal shook the team out of their second half lethargy and they went back on the offensive and were richly rewarded when the hard running Dave got hold of the ball on the edge of the opposition box and sent a peach of a shot into the net to retake the lead. Things went from bad to worse for the Inter team when Bambi scrambled in a 4th and Johnaldo rounded things off when he ran the length of the field to tap in a great cross ball from Jorge to score the fifth of the day. Jorge had a great goal chopped off that would have made it six and several other chances came and went but Madison seemed happy to settle for a 5-2 drubbing of the Div 2 team. Let's hope some of this great form stays with the team for next weeks top of the table clash against Orange!

MAN OF THE MATCH; Jodingo!! with a superb defensive display, great tackles, great distribution and a solid effort throughout the day really blunting the Inter attack. Tano also put in a useful stint in the back four.

Great seeing Ahmad and Matin again at this game..... and great Chicken Matin! Now go get a shave!

FRIENDLY; Sunday 10th Oct, Cheshire

Guys, looks like we have a good squad for our friendly against Cheshire this Sunday. Cheshire play in Divsion 2 of the SASL so this should be a good test for us as we get ready for our big game against Orange next week. Tom has put the directions to the Cheshire field in the comments section below and I will put them into the field directions page. We will have some trialists playing for us this weekend so it should be a fun game. If you have a spare Celtic shirt bring it with you for the trialists.

10 AM KICK OFF!

The Hulk goes Fishing with the Bhoys!

What a fantastic time we had with The Hulk on our team fishing trip last Saturday! We caught 28 fish!!! 8 of them were good sized stripers and the rest Bluefish. I have to boast that mine was the first on the boat and the biggest striper of the day!!...... and i think The Hulk just beat out Jodingo!! for the biggest blue! The weather was fantastic and the company brilliant!

As for soccer news, hopefully we will have a friendly against Cheshire this Sunday....Tom has the details!

MATCH REPORT; Madison 2 N Branford 2

Madison dropped another two crucial points at home in the race for the Division 3 championship. For the second week in a row they had to fight back from a two goal deficit to salvage something out of the game but this time it was only a point.

The Celts started the game much better than last week and seemed confident on the ball and created several chances in the opening twenty minutes. Their biggest failing has been an inability to take the chances that come their way up front and an over reliance on spectacular goals. This would prove to be the case again when in what seemed to be North Branford's first attack they won a free kick just outside the Madison box. The free kick was floated in and the ball was met first by the Branford attacker who back flicked the ball over the arms of the out stretched Hulk and into the net for an undeserved one nil lead. This set back shook the Madison team and it took sometime for them to get back into the groove and just as it seemed they were taking control of the game again, another set back. This time a loose ball outside the penalty box that wasn't cleared allowed the Branford striker to lob the ball over the Hulk who had taken a few steps of his line. Two nil down seemed like a cruel score for the effort the team had been putting in but to be fair the Branford team had been playing hard and Madison were second to most balls in the midfield. Upfront, chances were coming but indecision in the box allowed most of these chances to be cleared. The fight back for Madison happened just before the break when debut boy David ( no nickname yet) burst it the opposition box and was summarily upended. A clear penalty that David strode up to take and slammed the ball past the goalkeepers left hand side. Unfortunately the ref asked for the penalty to be taken again because of player encroachment but David coolly retook the penalty and slammed it into the same spot. The half ended with the Madison team in a much better frame of mind. The makeshift defense had been playing well throughout the half most notably Jodingo!! and BOR.
The second half was a tough affair for both sides as the tackles got harder and the play became very disrupted by stoppages. Branford were holding on to their lead very effectively by defending in numbers then sending long balls up the field when they had a chance. As the half progressed Madison were getting closer and closer to grabbing the elusive equalizer but to no avail. Great defending and attacking play by BOR showed that the Madison defensive line was not under the same pressure in the second half compared to the first but they could not be complacent. As the clock wound down it looked like this was a game too far for the Celts and their unbeaten record in the SASL would be going along with 3 points. But just as the game was moving into injury time Madison earned a corner on their right side. Telat whipped in a great ball that was met flush on the head by Carlos to send the ball thrillingly into the net for a well deserved equalizer. Both teams played out the last couple of minutes to share the spoils of a tough but exciting game. Madison still sit third in the league but are now 3 points behind leaders Orange and Guilford. The next two games are at home against Orange and the Eagles and will be a huge indicator of the ambition of the Celts to win this league.

Man of the Match; BOR. Great defensive work and attacking play made BOR's performance the standout of the day