MATCH REPORT; Madison 1 Prospect 0

Gritty Win for Madison Rounds Off The Season

The bad news was that Prospect turned up with 11 players. Based on what Prospect did to Madison the last time they played this could have been a tough omen. In that game they ran the Celts ragged with only 10 players and out played and out fought them for every ball. As it turned out, this game would prove very different, not that it was all smooth sailing. The first fifteen minutes of the game were all played in the Madison half as Prospect mounted a spirited attack. They fought hard for every ball but Madison were also up for the competitive nature of the game and gradually worked themselves into the match. In fact the first foray up the field for Madison proved to be very fruitful. Having cleared their lines at the expense of a corner Prospect were stunned when a simple cross into the box found ace striker Carlos unmarked allowing him to calmly stroke the ball past the goalie and into the net for a lead somewhat against the run of play. Having taken the lead Madison played the rest of the half in the ascendancy. Their defense held firm and Dejan was having a very effective game just in front of the back three breaking up attacks and sending probing balls forward. The Madison forward line were also moving confidently and taking several shots on goal that missed by only inches. In fact they had so many chances to increase their lead one began to think that they may begin to rue all the missed opportunities.

The second half started much like the first ended, with Madison playing well and looking to score an anxiety lowering second. However, as the game wore on Prospect increasingly took more and more charge of the game pushing Madison further and further back into their own half. In fact the last twenty minutes of the game ended up as a back to the walls battle for the Madison defence with Prospect effectively holding on to the ball and snuffing out the Madison attack.

On several occasions it looked like Prospect might snatch an equalizer but they could not get their shots on target. With time running out Madison managed to push into attack again with the darting runs of Carlos proving to be a thorn in the side for Prospect. After one of his lung bursting runs up the whole length of the field he was tripped in the box for a clear penalty to Madison.

Roniildo stepped up but blasted the ball high over the bar, but any disappointment was quenched when the final whistle blew almost immediately. A great win for Madison against a very good Prospect team and some measure of revenge for the defeat they had suffered earlier in the season.

Man Of the Match; Again several good performances throughout the team from Carlos, Roniildo, Fribeka, Tom, Telat and Jodingo!! But the MOM goes to Dejan for the quiet but very effective role he played today in the pocket just in front of the back three. His effectiveness became very noticeable when he actually subbed out of the game leaving a huge gap in the field that allowed Prospect their best attacking opportunities of the game. He came back on and immediately plugged the gap.

This was also a great Birthday present for Jodingo!! who reached his half century in great style.

Below is the first ever video of Jodingo!! playing soccer when he was very young. He is the little one on the left!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m9quIpIIEs&feature=related

NEXT GAME; Sunday 29th Nov, Prospect!

Hi Guys, hope you all had a fun and healthy Thanksgiving!

We have a "make up" league game this weekend against Prospect. The game is at home on the Town Campus field starting at the usual time. Prospect are one of those teams that we have managed to avoid playing against for most of 2009. In fact we have played them only once in the last 2 years and that was a horrible 1-0 defeat at home when they had 10 players the whole game ! The match report on that one is below;

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

As it stands we have a full squad for the game and the weather looks as though it will be cooperating on Sunday. Let's hope we can play like we did in the first half against Southington and the second half against New Fairfield! If we can string a whole game together playing like that we will give Prospect a real Thanksgiving stuffing.......

See you Sunday!

Thanksgiving League Game!

Hi Guys, Tom has arranged a make up league game at home against Prospect this weekend at Madison Town Campus field. We need to do a roster check to see who is available.

So far we have Johnaldo, Jodingo!!, Roniildo, El Gato and Tom A.

We know that Scotty, Tom P and BOR are now on our long term injury list. Let's hope they get better soon and are fighting fit for the 2010 Spring season. Hamid and La Boca have been posted missing for several games now but we still have to hear from Telat, Ilan, Dejan, Fribeka, Henrique, Jorge, Carlos and Kevinho

Please get in touch soon so we know before the end of the week

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

MATCH REPORT; Madison Celtic 4 New Fairfield 3

Incredible Comeback Victory For Super Celts

As the ref blew the whistle for half time Madison Celtic were deep in trouble and heading deeper. Even though they had played reasonably well in the first 45 mins they just could not contain the pacy, incisive moves of the New Fairfield forward line and were 3-0 down and nearly out. And if that wasn't bad enough, in the last minute of the half BOR had fallen heavily on his shoulder and had either dislocated it or broken his collar bone. Either one was not good and the game was delayed for twenty minutes as an ambulance was called and BOR carted off to the hospital.

With no subs left and a rampaging opposition with the taste of blood in their mouths it was with some trepidation that the Madison team took to the field for the second half. But instead of folding Madison launched a stupendous fight back that rocked New Fairfield to their core.

Controlling the ball with more confidence, Madison were able to push up the field and really put the New Fairfield defence under significant pressure. Some great attacking runs by Henrique and Carlos were stretching their back line to the breaking point. And finally, after one of Henrique's probing runs was unceremoniously stopped by an opposition defender blatantly tripping him, Madison were awarded a deserved penalty. Henrique dragged himself up, dusted himself down and slammed the ball into the net to give Madison a lifeline in the game. However, New Fairfield had lost none of their potency up front and were moving forward with great effect. They had several clear goal chances that were broken up by Tom and Telat, both playing their best game of the season. Those chances that did get by them luckily hit the bar, the post or were gathered up by El Gato. After absorbing this pressure for a fair amount of time Madison went back on the attack and some great interplay by Carlos and Henrique resulted in a glorious arcing shot by Henrique that screamed into the net for Madison's, and his second, goal of the game. At this point in the match New Fairfield were clearly rattled and Madison could feel the tide turning. Some great aggressive play by Fribeka and Roniildo in the midfield kept possession for Madison at critical times. Time and again, as New Fairfield broke through, Telat was their to gather the ball up and restart the Madison attack with excellent distribution. Playing with real coolness and quality this was a very impressive display at the right back position. But it was a last gasp tackle by the other impressive defender, Tom A, that led to the best move of the game. A misplaced pass by Madison allowed one of the fastest New Fairfield players a clear run at goal with only Tom to beat. But a superb, shuddering tackle by Tom was followed up by an equally fantastic pass that eventually allowed Carlos a clear run on goal. He didn't waste his chance and amazingly Madison had their equalizer.

New Fairfield could not believe what was happening to them but to their credit they continued to push forward looking for the goal that would regain their lead. Two shots could have quickly given them that lead back but one rattled the cross bar and the other was cleared off the line by Ilan. Celtic were hanging on by their fingernails at this stage of the game as New Fairfield went all out in the last ten minutes. They threw the kitchen sink at Madison with hard play, tough tackles and constant attacking but the home defence held firm. And as the clock edged closer and closer to the final whistle this game had a final sting in the tail for New Fairfield. A free kick won in the New Fairfield half was taken quickly by Johnaldo who found Carlos at the edge of the New Fairfield box. The mercurial striker took the ball neatly past the last defender and with only the goalkeeper to beat he confidently swept past him slamming the ball into the net for a glorious winning goal.

The referee blew his whistle to end a tumultuous game and an incredible comeback by Madison to win the match against a really tough New Fairfield team. What a way to end the season!

MAN OF THE MATCH; The second half threw up a number of contenders for MOM. Henrique and Carlos for their great attacking play, Fribeka and Roniildo for their tough midfield tackling and passing. But without doubt the MOM award has to be given to two defenders for their outstanding play today. Both Telat and Tom A take the award for some fantastic play.

Let's hope BOR is back in action soon.

NEXT GAME; Sunday Nov 22nd, New Fairfield!

Last official game of the season this Sunday at Home to New Fairfield at the Town Campus Field, normal 10am kick off. This will be our 6th game against New Fairfield over the last two seasons and we have a relatively poor record against them; Lost 3, won 1 and drawn 1....Match reports below for you all to refresh your memories, painful though they are!

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/07/match-report-madison-2-new-fairfield-5.html

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/05/match-report-new-fairfield-4-madison.html

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2008/11/match-report-new-fairfield-3-madison-1.html

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2008/09/match-report-madison-1-new-fairfield-1.html

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2008/07/match-report-madison-4-fairfield-2.html

Let's see if we can round off the season and the year with a bang! There is no reason we can't win this one especially if we can compete and pass like we did in the first half of the game against Southington. Simple passing, look for space, don't try and dribble past the whole of the opposition.....oh, and scoring from 40 yards out would definitely look spectacular but it's highly unlikely to happen!

Looks like we will have a strong squad for Sunday with over 14 players saying they will turn up.

Let's try and remember the "no cussing" rule when it comes to you team mates....we are all on the same side!

We should also try and find out if this will actually be our last game.....we certainly could do with some make up games for the ones we missed during the Fall season. I think Tom would have to check with Clinton or some other local team if this is possible. Are you all up for playing on if the weather holds out? Of course with Thanksgiving coming up no doubt people will say we can't play next weekend but i don't see why not!


See you all Sunday, I think Roniildo is the beer boy?.....If it's raining the night before check the blog for a status report!

Final Game Roster Call!

Hi Guys, we have nearly reached the final game of the season! Weather permitting we should have a home against New Fairfield at the Town Campus field. Cap'n Ron is trying to get a final headcount for the game. So far we have 8 and a half signed up for the weekend;

Roniildo

Jodingo!!

Tom A

El Gato

Fribeka

Johnaldo

Dejan

Carlos

Danny (50/50 at the moment!)

We are still to hear from BOR, Hamid, Telat, Ilhan, Tom P, Kevinho and Henrique

Send in your YES or NO as soon as possible...... If there is a weather problem we will use blog, e-mail, phone, Morse code, pigeon carrier, smoke signals and telepathy to get the message out....

I'm also willing to take comments for the funny photo competition above....... ;o)

It's All About Communication!

Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs". Although there is such a thing as one-way communication, communication can be perceived better as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas (energy) towards a mutually accepted goal or direction (information).[1]



OK guys, we need to improve this really simple process of communicating urgent events to the team like a venue switch or a game cancellation. I recently drove all the way to Southington to watch you guys only to drive all the way back because no one "communicated" to me that the venue had switched! Now at least 6 guys turned up for the game against Clinton because our communication process was defective.



Looks like Tom does not read e-mail or text messages over the weekend so you CANNOT communicate with him using those approaches. You need to see him eye ball to eye ball or call him and actually talk to him....not his voice mail! This is a bit of a problem because he is the main team coordinator so if another team coach "communicates" with him by e-mail to say the game is cancelled he won't read it until Monday. We should put my name and number forward to the league so that at least I can get the information first hand about cancellations. I will set up a phone tree system for communication of cancellations, as was suggested at our bar meeting.



Over half the team did check the blog last night and this morning so that is somewhat effective but not the answer.



Hope you agree but please give me your comments!

Game Is OFF!

Sorry guys, the game is cancelled because of waterlogged fields...... See you next week for the last game of the season

Rain Check Tomorrow Morning!

Guys, Clinton will be checking the state of their field early tomorrow morning to see how well it has survived the downpour today. I will post game "on or off" on the blog around 8am tomorrow. Please check in to find out. We will do the usual round of calls for those that are blogless.

NEXT GAME; Sunday 15th November, Clinton!

We have only two games of the outdoor season left in 2009 and our next game is away to our great rivals Clinton! This will be played at the Indian River Complex, a few miles north of Clinton Crossing Outlets just off of Route 81 when coming from exit 63 of I-95 N. Please be there no later than 9:30 am.with our normal kick off time of 10am. Hopefully this game will have a different beginning and end than the last time we played Clinton. In that game a whole series of events occurred that forced the league to make the game null and void. They used the basic equation 2 underage players plus 2 unofficial referees equals one cancelled result! For those of you who played in this "friendly" game here is the match report;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/09/match-report-clinton-3-madison-2.html

Clinton will be out for revenge this Sunday. If this result had stood it would have been the first time in over 7 years of playing against Madison that they had won! Let's hope the bad feeling does not spill over into the game.

We do need to complete the roster call for Sunday!

So far we have Henrique, Roniildo, Jorge and me......

Roniildo is on beeer duty!

MATCH REPORT;Madison 2 Southington 3

Second Half Collapse Buries Madison

You know the scene; it happens almost every week. A tired and stressed out coach is dragged out in front of the cameras to explain how on Earth his team managed to lose a game they were so easily winning. The usual well used axioms that are trotted out at this point are something like " our luck ran out" or " the big decisions started going against us" or, the oldest one in the book; " It's a game of two half's, innit? " As if stating the bleeding obvious is a way out of the nightmare result..... Well i guess we all know how that feels today. After a first half of fantastic passing and assertive play with two fabulous goals that easily could have been four or five, Madison fell apart in the second half sliding to a horrible defeat. What were the excuses? Well it was clearly a game of two half's and the big decisions started going against Madison but... the main reason is they gave up passing and fighting for the ball. The slick, fast moves that led to the first Madison goal when Dejan found Jorge with a delightful ball, who then passed to Henrique who slid the ball to Roniildo, who neatly flicked the ball past the goalie, were all missing in the second half. Even the direct to goal play that gave Madison their second goal, when Kevinho's long kick out landed at the feet of Jorge who slammed the ball into the net for Madison's two goal lead, disappeared completely from Madison's repertoire. In the second half this productive style of play was replaced by an ineffective, lacklustre approach devoid of imagination and coherence. Southington took advantage of this sea change in the game by first scoring a goal ten minutes into the second half that could have been prevented if Madison had cleared their lines. This defensive lesson didn't sink in because Southington scored their equalizer from a similar set of circumstances when the Madison defense could not clear the ball out quickly enough and allowed an overhead kick to sail into the net. At this point in the game Madison still had chances to score but nothing was working and they were clearly running out of steam and luck.
However, despite the woeful inadequacies of the second half it was left to the sunglass wearing ref to execute the coup de grâce with the now obligatory ridiculous decision we see in almost every game, allowing a blatantly offside goal from Southington to stand as the winning goal. The Southington forward couldn't get any more offside if he had tried, but as we have seen many times in the past, the quality of refereeing decisions in this league leaves a lot to be desired. The bottom line is that Madison let a game they had in the bag escape from them and they have to learn the tough lesson of finishing off teams when they are so dominant.

MAN OF THE MATCH; Dejan had a great first half as did Jorge and Henrique but it just has to be the referee for his match winning performance for Southington......

NEXT GAME; Sunday 8th November, Southington!

Next game up is a home match against Southington. We have played this team 3 times already this year winning twice and losing once. Match reports are below;

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

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/08/match-report-southington-3-madison-1.html

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2009/09/match-report-southington-2-madison-3.html

Looks like we will have a full squad again for this game and therefore we will have to use our subs effectively over the 90 mins. W are going to try a classic Center Forward approach in this game to try and bring some shape to our attack. Enrique, Carlos and Jorge play a style of forward play that means you cannot predict where they are going to be on the field at any time. By having a CF it should provide a relatively fixed point on the field for the midfield and other attackers to play off of. The CF should in no way be static but always trying to find space near the box and to pressure the last defender at all times. Looks like we have at least 4 volunteers for the role. It will involve 15/20 min bursts of action then off for a break. Let's hope it works because we need some goals scored!

Horror Show Cannot Be Repeated!

Hi Guys....we have a home game this Sunday against Southington and we all hope the horrors of our play last Sunday will not be repeated! I think a number of ideas have come up about how we can improve our on field tactics.......some of those ideas are on the previous comments section but largely focus on us having a more traditional Center Forward player that sticks to a position that pressures the last defender in the opposition defensive line. It's a tough role but i think we need a focal point for our midfielders to aim at. What do you think? Any other ideas?

The roster call has us standing at 9 players so far for Sunday.....check in guys before Thursday!

MATCH REPORT; Madison 1 Guilford 4

Madison Crash To Heavy Defeat Against Strong Local Rivals

A poor showing by Madison Celtic produced as inept and lackluster a performance as I have seen all season against their local rivals the Guilford Hawks. Slack passing, poor positioning and weak attempts at goal littered this performance against a very strong Guilford team.

Even though Madison had a full squad and subs available for the first time in weeks they could not rise to the occasion against a well organised opposition. Although the refereeing decisions were at times hard to understand this particular defeat was well deserved.

Madison were under pressure straight from the kick off and seemed unusually disorganized throughout the team. Long balls from the Guilford backs and midfield were allowing their fast as lightening forwards to run through the middle of the Madison defence. This is a particular tactic that teams have used against Madison to good effect over the last year. Their first goal was after a rushed pass to Roniildo was intercepted by the opposition players, a quick cross into the box and a powerful header by their number 44 was parried by BOR but straight back to the opposition striker allowing him to head back into the the net. Their second goal started from a punt up the field to a player in an offside position. Unfortunately the ball bounced off of La Boca on the way there and the ref allowed the move to continue. They moved the ball quickly into the box and scored to take a two nil lead. At this point Madison were struggling to complete any passes or mount any type of attack. It was therefore against the run of play when a break up the left side allowed Dejan to squeeze the ball into the net to claw Madison back into the match. Unfortunately, the come back did not last long as Guilford again mounted another blistering attack and restored their two goal lead with an outstanding 30 yard shot from their no 44 that scorched past BOR into his top left hand corner. 3-1 down at the half and to be honest Madison were in disarray with no shape to their team and no apparent tactics to get back into the game.

The second half started with Madison in a very subdued mood barely holding onto any competitive position in the game. And it was no surprise when they fell further behind when the defence was unable to clear an easy ball allowing Guilford to scramble a shot past the despairing dive of BOR and over the line. The rest of the game really fizzled out after this with Guilford not really trying to empathize their superiority and Madison unable to mount any type of cohesive attack. The final whistle was a blessing for the Madison team and they can now retreat for the week to lick their wounds and hopefully get right back into the thick of the action with another home game next week against Southington.

MAN OF THE MATCH; La Boca! As all around him were losing their positions, their cool and their form La Boca was an island of calm maturity at the back. Now there's a sentence you never thought you would read!

Field Inspection done; GAME ON!

Hi Guys...because of the heavy rain last night we are doing a check of the field to see if it has drained and is OK to play on. We should know about before 8.15 AM. I will post again then.

From Scott; "Pitch is fine. Minimal water. It's cold.
Game on!"


See you there....remember kick off is 9.30!!