PLAYER FOCUS on...."Scotty"

Happy St Andrew's Day...the patron saint of Scotland!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Still a day to go on the best striker poll! Make sure you vote....RoRo is way in the lead! I've also added a couple of new features to the blog. The first is the video bar which i have now made more Madison Celtic related....i have loaded up some video of us playing! There is also some video from my camera phone at Celtic park. I have some more video which i will load soon. Also, there is now a "followers" bar which allows you to put yourself down as a follower of the blog. You can be anonymous or use those great nicknames that you all have now....go on, be brave and give it a try! I will also re-explain how to post a comment shortly using the comments feature at the bottom of every post. Anyway, enough of that ...on with player focus!!


This high flying player missed the Spring season but came back to full effect during the Fall. Equally comfortable up front or in a battling midfield position, Scott "Scotty" the ...erm..."Scot", has knocked in 3 goals and quite a few assists. He has the potential to challenge Danny and Fribeka for their titles of La Boca and La Boca junior but so far they remain the top dogs for vocal pyrotechnics. So what else should we know about Scotty?...read on as he beams me up to his World for an in depth interview.


First time you played soccer? Age 7, my first game was indoor, I scored 5 or 6 goals and was hooked from then on. It was like playing against Killingworth.... ( first game and you remember all those goals, huh? so, what were you wearing that day? what was the weather like? what did you have for dinner? no, really... i believe you can remember it....i do )


Fav team? NY Cosmos, really! I went to every game I could and played summer league with a couple of the players. Was great growing up watching Pele, Beckenbauer, Chinaglia and Carlos Alberto (my college coach coached the Cosmos in the 1970's, so I had an affinity for the team even after the NASL folded, and unfortunately had to endure some of the same workouts he put Pele through!) (i can see some of that Pele training in your style of play......ha ha...i know, I'm laughing too)


Fav player? Franz Beckenbauer, "der Kaiser", that was one great German footballer! ( he's not as good as Das Boots)


Your nickname at school? "Scotty"....and only my soccer team mates were allowed that privilege! ( and Scotty it will be....sorry about the beam me up thing...)


Fav music? Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (I'm from New Jersey,what did you expect? You gotta problem with that?) (Whaddya tawkin, stunad? Fuhgeddaboutit!)


Fav movie? Toss-up, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or No Country for Old Men ( both very happy endings!)


Best vacation? Taking the wife and kids to Europe in 2007, great trip....was very expensive so now I play soccer for money - I'm still waiting on my first check from Tom......( so am i ! )


Best moment on a soccer field? Scoring the winning goal against our arch rival with under a minute remaining in the 1983 county championship semifinal, we went on to win the final (then we lost in the state championship 2-0, that sucked)

Motto for life? Don't take it too seriously and have fun

Something we don't know about you? I'm actually bald and not in very good shape ( i don't know how to break this too you but.....)


Christiano Ronaldo or Kaka? Ronaldo ...didn't he help knock Celtic out of Europe? ( yeah yeah and a few other players too....a bad European run this year )


Thanks Scott for the revealing, inside view of the player that is known to all as ....... "Scotty"!

Player of the Fall Awards! Best Striker

Yes, it's that time of the year again when all those honest democratic voters out there get a chance to pay homage to the best Fall defender, midfielder or striker at Madison Celtic! As a reminder the winners from the Spring season were Jim ( goalie ), El Gato ( defender), Jodinho ( midfielder) and El guante blanco ( striker). Will they win again this season? Well one of them will because El Gato has won the goalie of the Fall season award! Well done!....and hopefully that will stop any cheating in the defender poll.....

Ok, we are going to start with the striker of the Fall award....this will be a tough one, with Jorge, RoRo, Eric, and Scotty all up for the award. I could have added some other players who have played up front once in a while but i think we will stick with these four.

Some facts to help with the decision making; the goal scoring charts at the end of this Fall season have RoRo with 10 goals, Jorge with 8, Roniildo with 6, Scott with 3 , Carlito with 2 and Eric with 1. Of course, it's not all about the goals but they do help!

No cheating on the polls .... and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The popular player focus feature will return soon!

MATCH REPORT; New Fairfield 3 Madison 1

Madison frozen out of the points in tough season ender

By Jodinho

Reluctant to peel down to our uniforms in the Artic-like conditions (28 degrees F and windy) with only 11 players representing the proud Celtic side, and with several key defensive players, La Boca, Johnaldo and Hamid, nowhere to be found, the teams took the field away to New Fairfield. (Another significant player, Los Guantes de Blanco, unexpectedly withdrew from traveling to the field as he informed his amigo, Carlito, "Es muy frio! Yo no va!") The opponents did not lack for substitutes and played aggressively, and Celtic were up to the challenge. Tough physical play quickly morphed into an ugly match, and New Fairfield struck first when a mix up in the back line resulted in a too easy goal in the first few minutes of play. Celtic pushed back hard and had, as has been our trademark this season, numerous opportunities to put the ball into the back of New Fairfield's net, but with nothing to show for it. In the meantime,New Fairfield's English striker caused fits for the Celtic side and drew the attention of Roniildo who was determined to keep his fellow UK statesman in line.The second half was a continuation of the first, with excellent play in the middle and up top, and lousy, loose play in the back....it was clear that Celtic's defense was in disarray and was having difficulty with repeated strikes toward our goal. Nimble El Gato saved a number of wicked close-range shots by New Fairfield and kept Celtic in the game. Midway through the half, several Celtic players perversely stopped play to discuss the possibility of a ball going over the sideline, all the while NewFairfield sprinted down the field and pounced on yet another all too easy goal. Emotions were tellingly high, with La Boca Junior and Scotty leading the chorus. RoRo placed a couple of nice shots just wide of goal.Things completely unraveled when Jodinho twice attempted to clear the ball from the box, only to kick the ball directly to the opponent at the 30-yard mark who, with a quick pass to his forward sprinting teammate, quickly capitalized. 3-0!! And to think we were playing even or better than NewFairfield! Just when hope was all but lost with only 15 minutes left in the match, RoRo sliced a short cross from the right corner into Ronildo who neatly tucked it away with a powerful shot. Celtic saw a glimmer of hope, which ignited into newly-found high energy when Scotty was taken down in the box by the keeper. Expectations of a successful penalty kick by Ahmad to bring us to only one down with 10 minutes to play were quickly extinguished as the right post was struck and the ball caromed off in a disadvantageous direction. With that, Celtic valiantly attempted to score, but the air was out of us as the ensuing end whistle approached. In the end, a gutsy show of determination, but a demoralizing defeat at the hands of well-matched New Fairfield side. Apres game: Carlito provided a party platter of his home-made wings which were very good...if only we could hold onto to them with our numb fingers.Of course, the wings were washed down with cervezas compliments of Jerry. In order to appease Roniildo, he was also promised that he would be selected to take the first penalty kick of the spring season.

Happy Holidays!

NEXT GAME: Sunday 23rd Nov, New Fairfield!

This is it! The final game of the 2008 season and what a season it has been. A new team, some new shirts and a whole new commitment to winning! After 18 games we have only one left and it's a tough one, away to New Fairfield. They are sitting third in the league with 34 points after 20 games. We are 5th with 30 points after only 18 games so we can't catch them but if we beat them i would say we are the moral victors seeing as they got to play more game than us. In fact every team got to play more than us! We have played New Fairfield 3 times already this season losing one, winning one and drawing one.
I will again miss the game but i know you guys can do it! Someone please take great notes of all the goals that RoRo and Jorge ( El Guante Blanco) scored!

By the way, the current goalscorers for the Fall season are as follows:

Ro Ro 10 goals
Jorge 8 goals
Roniildo 5 goals
Scott 3 goals
Carlito 2 goals

Then Danny, Tom, Eric and Jacques are all on 1. We won't count my goals.......