NEXT GAME; Sunday 1st Nov, Guilford!

This weekend we have a home game against our local rivals the Guilford Hawks. These match ups are usually tough and entertaining. As you can see from our previous match reports below we have had some good success against Guilford this year. A 6-1 demolition job at home;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/04/match-report-madison-celtic-6-guilford.html

followed by a narrow away defeat;


http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/06/match-report-guilford-1-madison-0.html

and then a narrow 4-3 win at home;
http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/08/match-report-madison-4-guilford-3.html

Looks like we will have a great squad ready for Sunday and we should be in for a really good game. Couple of things to remember.....this game is at the Daniel Hand High School and the kick off is at 9.30AM...... so try to be there by 9AM!!

ALSO......

THE CLOCKS GO BACK ONE HOUR THE NIGHT BEFORE SO MAKE SURE YOU ADJUST YOUR CLOCKS!!!

Will see you all there. I think Jorge is bringing food and if we want to drink beer we need to go somewhere other than the school car lot.....BOR...what do you suggest?

Susan Boyle; Celtic Fan!!

HOT OFF THE PRESS!! Just as we expected when she recently posted on our blog, Susan Boyle, the International singing sensation from the UK, is indeed a Celtic fan! I know, you may have to take a bit of time to digest this shocking piece of information but once you do I think we should invite her to one of our games and maybe ask her to sing the national anthem, what do you think? Maybe keep her away from our Bubba burgers though huh?
I know Jodingo!! loves her singing style and dress sense as does Roniildo so we could have a bit of a stand off for her......

In other news.......If you look at the bottom of the page you will see that we are getting close to our 5,000th visitor to the blog!!

By the time you read this we may even be past that number. As i have mentioned before, we have visitors to the blog from all over the World. Some only stay on for a couple of seconds but others are intrigued enough about the comings and goings of El gato, Bor, La Boca, Fribeka and crew to hang around and read a few more pages...... you guys may be famous in India!~

Anyway.......


Great win in the last game guys even with that crazy stakeholder trying kill our new debutant and spoil a fine victory! Our next game is coming up this weekend and it is a HOME GAME against our great local rivals Guilford Hawks!

I'm getting the roster call started by saying I will make myself available for selection this coming Sunday. Tested the ankle and so far so good! So the count starts at 1.

OK, who else is in for Sunday? And let's try and get our numbers collated by Thursday mid day!

MATCH REPORT; Newtown 2 Madison 4

Violence mars superb Madison win

I tried but failed to find where all you guys had decided to play this morning....it wasn't Newtown High School, that I know! So my 140 minutes of driving there and back was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning......What was that we were saying about improved communications in the team?

Looks like I missed a stormer of a game with new players, great goals and a stick wielding idiot just to spice things up! Today's match report is brought to you by El Gato!

The game started with Madison playing with 11 players which is worthy of a sentence all to itself! The team was holding the ball well and passing beautifully in the opening minutes of the game. Newtown were no slouches on the ball either with their number 9 and their number 14 attacking Madison with aggressive speed from the get go. Luckily for Madison La Boca was matching up to this aggressive speed with some pretty smart and effective clearances in defence. However, midway through the first half the alert quickness of their #9 finally got the better of the Madison defence as they slotted in their first goal. A quick pass into the box from 18 yards out and a short stabbed finish by their forward player was enough to have Madison trailing. A few minutes later an outrageous foul in the Newtown box gave Madison a quick chance to get back on an even footing. Roniildo's beautiful short ground penalty kick made the goalie completely go in the opposite direction for a deserved equalizer. At this point in the game the lax referee was letting slide tackles as well as overly aggressive pushing and shoving by the Newtown team go unpunished, a decision that would come back to haunt him. Our new player, Dejan, was very effective at distributing the ball and having a great debut game. Carlito, Henrique, Roniildo and Scotty were pressuring the Newtown players on every ball and were effective on countless occasions in retrieving the ball and regaining possession. Henrique's persistence up front then paid off handsomely with a beautiful 20 yard blast to make it 2-1. However, shortly after this, and just before the end of the first half, #9's speed again had Madison in trouble. A beautiful 18 yard left foot blast to the far corner made the game 2-2 at half time.

Madison started the second half with the same stamina and commitment as they had shown in the first however, the game was becoming very physical and the ref belatedly started to distribute some yellow cards. First to La Boca for a slide tackle and then to Scotty. Two yellow cards were also issued to Newtown's players during the game. However, midway through the second half, with an ever increasing din of yelling and cursing , Carlito managed to score a 20 yard goal of the year with a rocket shot that just dipped underneath the top post past a bamboozled goalie from a great Scotty pass. 15 minutes later a fantastic pass from La Boca sliced open a space between the two Newtown defenders finding Telat in the clear who then calmly took the ball one on one around the goalie for a well deserved goal. At 4-2 down frustration was building like a pressure pot in the Newtown's team as all their desperate attacks by their star players were answered with phenomenal defensive work. The midfield superbly took the game under control until 4 minutes to end of the game when a harmless jump by Dejan and an accidental elbow to a Newton player's face below the eye, created an explosion of anger from the Newtown player and an unforgettable "soccer movie" scene to end the game. The Newtown player got up and started kicking Dejan and threatening him with further harm. He took his shirt off and said "I will be back". He then came back with a 3' wooden stake from a construction site and ran towards Dejan with the stake raised as though he was enacting the final scene of a vampire movie. Luckily he was stopped by three of his teammates before any real harm was done. The ref, not surprisingly, suspended the game at this point, gave Dejan a yellow card and a well deserved red card to the out of control Newtown player. An absolutely shocking end to a fabulous game that saw Madison emerge from their recent slump of mediocre performances. No doubt their will be significant consequences because of the way this game ended but the whole team played wonderful soccer and were rewarded with a well deserved 4-2 win.

Man of the Match; Carlito. What can I say....what a goal!

Thanks for the match report El Gato and thanks to those of you who turned up at my recent surprise birthday party!

NEXT GAME; Sunday 25th Oct, Newtown!

Ok after a long delay we now have the roster numbers in and it looks like we have nearly a full team for our away game against Newtown on Sunday. I actually count 11 players for Sunday but we said we would play with at least 10 players.......

We have had some really good games against Newtown in the past winning at home;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/04/match-report-madison-celtic-3-newton-2.html

and losing away.

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/06/match-report-newtown-4-madison-2.html

We are still a team in transition right now as we bed in new players and get used to losing some of our old players but I know we can pull through. I'm still on the injured list but hope to be at the game taking notes and action shots! Hopefully there will be lots of those!

The Remains of the Season

Guys it was a shame that the game at the weekend was cancelled because of bad weather but i guess that's what happens in the Fall. Unfortunately, yet again it looks like our communication process did not work. An e-mail was sent out by Tom on Saturday night to those people he thought would be playing on the Sunday. I'm not sure how many people read that e-mail or how many people needed to be called but we do know that Jacques turned up for the game and ruined his Sunday morning. At our recent meeting at Auger's we agreed to improve our communication process through e-mail, blog and phone calls. Crucially what you need to do to get effective communication is to send a message and then to check it has been received and understood.......that is good and effective communication. I didn't get the e-mail on Saturday but if i had i would have been able to post something on the blog......even from Scotland!

Let's try better for this weekend.....we have an AWAY GAME against NEWTOWN!.....roster checking starts tomorrow!

The remaining games left in the Fall Season are posted below....... 5 games to go!

Newtown VS Madison Celtic

10/25/2009
10:00:00 AM
Newtown High School

Madison Celtic VS Guilford Hawks

11/1/2009
10:00:00 AM
Exchange, Madison
New Fairfield

Madison Celtic VS Southington FC

11/8/2009
10:00:00 AM
Exchange, Madison

Clinton VS Madison Celtic

11/15/2009
10:00:00 AM
Indian River Recreation Area

Madison Celtic VS New Fairfield

11/22/2009
10:00:00 AM
Exchange, Madison

NEXT GAME; Sunday 18th October, Prospect!

Hi from Sunny Scotland! Of course the fixture list waits for no man so our next game is this Sunday against Prospect. This game is at MADISON HIGH SCHOOL, not our usual field. And the game STARTS AT 9.30 AM, not our usual time! According to Tom's roster numbers we have a full team available even though some of our major stars are unavailable for this game!

The last time we played Prospect they turned up a man short but played very well. We had our proud unbeaten record on the line but we could not come up with the goods to stop Prospect from a well deserved 1-0 victory.

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/07/match-report-madison-0-prospect-1.html

Let's hope we can have a better outcome this Sunday. I wont be there so will rely on our intrepid junior reporters to come up with a match analysis and Man of the Match.

Have a great game and hope the snow stays away!

Scottish Premier League Update

Even though we are only 7 games into the new Scottish premier League season Celtic have managed to eek out a slender one point lead in the table over their arch rivals Rangers. The lead could have been much greater if Celtic had not suffered a controversial 2-1 defeat to Rangers last weekend. Three stonewall penalties should have been awarded to Celtic during the game but only one was. These mistakes were so blatant that the referee came out after the game to admit his mistake.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/celtic/6263381/Referee-Craig-Thomson-admits-penalty-error-in-Old-Firm-match.html

Of course post match apologies are no help for Celtic when these sort of errors occur in such a significant game even this early in the season. Celtic have to start taking the game changing decisions out of the referees hands and into their own by winning games with a bit more flair and confidence. Celtic's new manager, Tony Mobray, is clearly taking time to settle into the role and design a team shape and consistency that will allow Celtic to kill off games and accumulate points. To do this Celtic have a few issues that they need to resolve and quickly. To ensure a successful season in the SPL and in Europe they need to get their frontline scoring more regularly than they are currently, the defensive line has to get back some of the solidity of previous seasons and finally they need a creative midfielder to make the team tick. There have been some encouraging signs with a few of the summer signings like N'Guemo, Fortune and Zheng Zhi and even some excitement as a signing from last year Paddy Mc Court finally started to show his "Messi like" potential. Check out his recent wonder goal against St Mirren;

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3453994/paddy_mccourt_v_st_mirren/

Over the next 7 games I'm sure Celtic will increase their lead in the SPL but will have to improve considerably if they want to advance further in Europe, even though it is only the Europa Cup.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/celtic/


In other news, we need to start getting in the YES/NO numbers in for the home game against Prospect on the 18th. At the time of writing this we have only 3 players saying yes, 1 maybe and 5 no. We still have 9 guys to say one way or another.

PLAYER FOCUS: Hamid... "The Enigma"

Just when you thought it was safe to start reading the blog again without fear of seeing another player focus what happens?? another player focus comes along!....but what a player, what a focus!.... yes, he is the last of the Madison greats to be put under the interview knife. Some say he taught Rio Ferdinand all there is to know about defensive artistry, it has even been rumoured that this future Madison Hall of Famer once gave midfield passing tips to a very young Messi....oh yes, he was once that good! Known for his ability to disappear for weeks on end, sometimes when he is on the field...he magically re-appears without warning. Where does he go when he disappears? What World class player is getting the benefit of his coaching? Why won't he tell us? And why are his chickens kabobs so good? Yes, he is the one and only Hamid The Enigma!...... a mystery wrapped in a conundrum!

Fav Team? I think it's Glasgow Rangers because they are so bad that I feel sorry for them. I bought one of their shirts to give them some money but I now use it as a rag to clean out my dogs kennel. I love my dog. Actually I really love Ajax...a really great team! ( Ajax good, Rangers bad...repeat after me)

Fav Player? Easy....Pele! I really liked him as a player and as I get older I look a bit like him! (when he gets to 90 you will actually be playing like him too!)

First time you played soccer? It was when I was around 8 years old. We used to play on asphalt in our bare feet....we were tough! (Ah, that's what's wrong with you now...too much grass and foot protection)

Fav Music? I like Jazz, it's an unreconstructed free flow form of music that allows for moments of individual brilliance and expression....yes, just like the way I play soccer ( are you sure you don't like the experimental music style of John Cage? He described his music as " purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos"....sounds like some of your games, no?)

Something we don't know about you? I love Camels, but just one hump not two....( I guess that's better than dogs! )

Motto for life? Let deeds, not words be your adorning ( O Son of Dust....the hidden words are true! )

Thanks Hamid...great team player and an enigma no more!

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.

NEXT GAME; Sunday 4th October, Bridgeport!

Our next game is this Sunday and its is an away game against Bridgeport. By the looks of it, Bridgeport had a really rough time during the summer season. They struggled to get 11 players on the field and had an awful away record. Sound familiar? Over 9 games they won 3, lost 3 and drew 3, and finished second bottom of the league.

We played them twice during the Summer season losing the first game 3-1

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/05/match-report-bridgeport-3-madison.html

and winning the second game 2-0.

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/07/match-report-madison-2-bridgeport-0.html.

I know we have been through some tough times over the last couple of weeks, getting a full team and getting our act together, but I think we have turned the corner. Our problems are not all solved but I think we have a great game plan off the field to tackle our issues. Now we need some really good luck to deal with some on field issues. Let's start by beating a shaky Bridgeport team and having a good Fall season!

Some guys are meeting at exit 58 at 8.45 am on Sunday and the rest will be making their own way to the field. Rob, our new Chief Entertainment Officer is on beer duty!