I wasn't there but from what i hear this was an awesome comeback from Madison Celtic against a strong Eli's team. 3 1 down at one point the Celts staged an awesome comeback to win 4 3!
Goals by James, Nino, Ronnie and Leo delivered all the points to the bhoys! This was our first game at our new Long Hill field and it's dangerously close proximity to the Country Tavern bar!
Here is Ronnie's MATCH REPORT!
A remarkable win for the Celts this weekend as they clawed back from a 3-1 halftime deficit against a strong and fast Eli’s team to snag the 3 points! It was great to see 17 players show up at 7:30 AM on a chilly sunny morning for the first match on our new Long Hill home field, and as Danaldo had promised the pitch was in immaculate condition. By far the best field we’ve played on in years! We also saw the return of our power middies JohnB and RobZ to the line-up stating line up, so we were brimming with confidence that we clinch all 3 points and even the score from earlier in the season, when we lost 4-2 to the pub squad. The Celts started the game kind of slowly, and to be honest, a fast and well drilled Eli’s had the Celts on their back foot for the first 20 mins or so, and with a bunch of great saves by Dustin, we were able to keep them out for a half hour or so. The Eli strategy was basically the big welly ball over the top, hoping to capitalize on their speedy front players, and eventually that tactic paid off for the visitors, and we were one down. Nonetheless,we stuck to our strategy of pressing higher in the midfield than we have been doing most of this season, which allowed us into the box in numbers for probably one of the few times this year. I don’t think Tano or Leo could believe that they actually had a number of middies helping them out on the offensive, but finally the Celts struck back after a strong JB surge into their box and his ricochet shot on goal landed in the perfect spot for Ronaldo to tuck it away into the bottom left hand corner. At that point our confidence was high, and there was an expectation we could get a few more before the half. But just like that, we went from having our corner kick, which was smacked into our half by one of their defenders, and it landed to their super-fast left winger, who had no problem in steaming in on the defenseless Dustin to give Eli’s the edge again. Unbelievably the same script played out 3 mins later to send the visitors in 3-1 at the half. James showed up for the second half, and had an immediate impact of slotting away a superb PK. After that the Celts rolled up their sleeves and began pressing hard in numbers finally when were on the attack Superb midfield play by JohnB, RobZ, Nino and Jacques, to link up play with James and Leo put the visitors under tremendous pressure, with wave after wave of smart and incisive plays. Our equalizing goal was a thing of beauty. Danaldo played a sweet 40 yarder pass out to James on the left flank, who cut onto his right and switched the play 50 yards to the right side of the eighteen yard line to Roniildo, who gently cushioned a first time pass to Nino, who slammed a glorious left foot half volley beyond the sprawling Eli keeper. Now 3-3 and game on, the visitors were visibly shaken and tiring, an in swinging corner was met by the magical Leo to head to give us a 4-3 lead. After that, the Celts were cruising and earned another PK for a deliberate handball. James stepped up to do the honors again, but just missed the outside of the LH post to let Eli’s off the hook at 4-3 CELTIC. Fantastic defending again this week from Dustin and our back four, and once again Kevin was a standout for his speed and constant running.
With so many outstanding performances, it was a challenge to single out a MOM, but for his commitment and leadership on Sunday, MOM goes to Dan!!!
