NEXT GAME; Sunday 2nd May, Southington SC!

Our next game is an AWAY game against Southington SC. This is a different Southington from the one we beat a couple of weeks ago. The last time we played these guys was a couple of years ago when we beat them 10-1!!! Jorge scored 4 goals in that game......yes, those were the days!
Here is the match report from that game so you can enjoy a trip down memory lane;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2008/10/match-reportmadison10-southington1.html

The field location for the game is up on our handy 'field locations Page' on the top right hand side of the blog.

No doubt some people will want to meet at the Madison circle at 8.30am.....just indicate below if you are. I will see you at the field!

PLAYER FOCUS on...Ruben..."Tano"!

One of our favourite features on the blog is the very insightful Player Focus Series. This is when we get to see behind the facade of the star soccer player, what makes him tick, ( no...not counting leg calipers and braces! ) what motivates him on and off the field? And, are we kind of scared to find out?

Well, we have some new players in the team and it's time for them to undergo the scalpel like questions and invasive commentary that makes this.....the one and only.....the truly unique......Player Focus!

Our first newbie under the spot light is Maradona's old pal Ruben; We normally have a moment in time to give our new players a nickname and that is usually at player focus time.... We have had names that have stuck like "The Toe" or " Fribeka" and others that were just stupid like "The Heckelator" now BOR, or "Tenbrinhosa" now Jodingo!! So we need to know more about the name and the person before their true nickname appears;

So for Ruben , what do we know?



What is the Global Popularity of the Name Ruben?
#1 in Netherlands
#19 in Spain
#38 in Armenia
#40 in Belgium
#123 in Norway
#259 in United States
( so your are really Dutch? )

Fav Player?
Of all time Garrincha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASBIVvT7IPk&feature=fvw
and Magico Gonzalez http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAsXozyqK5Y&feature=related
( erm, excuse me?....what about your pal Maradona? He will not be happy when he reads this!!)

Fav Music?
Rock: Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Yes, Super Tramp,Tears for Fear, etc
R&B: Stevie Wonder.
New Age, Vangelis, Jean Michelle Jarre. ( A yes, the tell tale signs of a child of the sixties and young adult of the late seventies!...... Jean Michelle Jarre....Really?)


Fav Movie?
Saving private Ryan, Gladiator, Blade Runner and Casino ( Oh the violence! and the gambling! )


Fav line?
What we do in life echoes in eternity -Gladiator
All those moments will be lost in time.. like tears in rain.. Time to die -Blade Runner ( you're a cheery soul aren't you? how about supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins? Just for a wee smile....)

Best moment on a soccer field?
I have many they are like special for me I believe is when I score a free kick because I love to do at the door of the 18 with nice effect on the ball, but I still locking for the scorpion kick and nail it in. ( when I try scorpion kicks I always end up looking like a dead salmon!)

Nickname at school?
Tano (nick name for Italians in Buenos Aires) ( So, are Irish guys called Bono down there? )

Motto for life?
All is Mind/ If I control mine, I will create my state of happiness. (Once you get your mind under control can you start working on your legs?! )

Something we don't know about you?
That I love to play Football (soccer) like a chess player, think moves in advance. ( so we could call you the Bishop! or the Pawn! So when we play next when I pass to you I will shout out directions first...... Knight to K7.... Ruben! Knight to K7...oh, for Gods sake K7 not F2!...yeah......like that's a chess joke.... for chess people .......like me and Ruben )


Most famous person I've met?
Diego Maradona, at his 16, and I was 12 ( and now, of course La Boca can be added to that short list...sorry that's loudest person you've met!)


Thanks Ruben! And welcome to the team!!

Game Is Cancelled!

The rain is on, and the field is already starting to pick up too much water, so unfortunately we will have to cancel the game today

NEXT GAME; Sunday 25th April, Bridgeport B

After a great winning start away from home we have our first home game of the season against our old rivals Bridgeport. We always have a good competitive game with Bridgeport so we will need everyone to be on top form. We also need to use our subs effectively! If we actually do have 16 guys turning up this Sunday then we can certainly keep players fresh throughout the game. Last week half the team were down to walking or shuffling pace by the end of the game! We can't afford that against Bridgeport or they will beat us!

Ruben is on beer duty and let's hope the weather plays fair and the planned rain comes after we start the game. We will do a weather check during Saturday, so watch the blog for any late breaking news! For those of you that have never played at our home ground the driving instructions are in the 'Pages ' section of the blog.

See you all Sunday and keep your fingers crossed that there is no rain! We will try a team photo before the game!

CARSL Fixture List!

Guys we finally have the fixture list for the CARLS season! I have added this to our "Pages" section of the blog for your ease of use but have also placed them below. As you can see we have a few issues with this season. Clearly we have been punished by the league for planning to move to SASL and you can see that as it stands we have 6 of our first 7 games as AWAY games!! The home games are later in the year and actually some coincide with when we move to the new league. I guess we always knew this transition from CARLS would be awkward but they are being a bit harsh on us. I know Tom has been trying to get this changed but with no luck so far.

So as it stands we have a home game this Sunday against Bridgeport which is then followed by 5 games on the road!

We can start the roll call for the weekend home game now..... I'm in!

Also, there are practice sessions at Leetes school in Guilford from 6pm this Wednesday, with the Hawks, and also on Thursday with the Eagles!


MCFC 2010 CARSL Fixtures;

1. 4/18/2010 10:00:00 AM Southington FC v Madison Celtic

2. 4/25/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Bridgeport United - B

3. 5/2/2010 10:00:00 AM Southington United SC v Madison Celtic

4. 5/9/2010 10:00:00 AM Southbury Boomers v Madison Celtic

5. 5/16/2010 10:00:00 AM Woodbridge Yellow Jackets v Madison Celtic

6. 5/23/2010 10:00:00 AM Woodbridge v Madison Celtic

7. 6/6/2010 10:00:00 AM Milford Magic v Madison Celtic

8. 6/13/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v New Fairfield – B

9. 6/20/2010 10:00:00 AM Orange v Madison Celtic

10. 6/27/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Southington FC

11. 7/11/2010 10:00:00 AM Bridgeport United - B v Madison Celtic

12. 7/18/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Southington United SC

13. 7/25/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Southbury Boomers

14. 8/1/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Woodbridge Yellow Jackets

15. 8/8/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Woodbridge

16. 8/15/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Milford Magic

17. 8/22/2010 10:00:00 AM New Fairfield - B v Madison Celtic

18. 8/29/2010 10:00:00 AM Madison Celtic v Orange

MATCH REPORT;Southington 0 Madison 1

Season Starts with Hard Fought Win for the Celts!

Madison Celts got the Summer season off to a great start with a well contested but equally well deserved win against a stuffy Southington team.

The Celts were missing a few key players through injury but we had Ruben starting his first game and the return of Telat, Ilhan and Halil. It was also good to see Gogglito and The Judge back in the team although Gogglito's game was marred by an early ankle injury that really affected his ability to compete fully in the game. To his credit he hung in there for as long as he could.

The Celts were hungry for the ball right from the kick off and had a number of great attempts that went narrowly wide or were saved by the in form Southington keeper. Carlos saw a lot of the ball early in the game and made the most of his tricky skills down the wing by torturing the Southington defence. Halil and Ruben were also getting some shots off only to see them blocked or go wide. Celtic, after half an hour, must have had nearly 80% of the possession but no goal to show for their dominance. But you could tell a goal was coming and when it did it came from some slick passing though the midfield and forwards.
Halil won the ball on the edge of the box and passed it out to Carlos on the right wing who then swept into the box before sending over an inch perfect pass to Jodingo!! who slammed the ball into the net from a few feet out. A great goal to cap a period of intense pressure by Madison. The goal itself was fitting reward for Jodingo!! who had started the game on fire with some robust tackling and great passing moves.
The rest of the first half was played out in the opposition side of the field with a second goal looking increasingly likely for the visitors but frustratingly not arriving. The first half finished with a narrow but well deserved one nil lead to the Celts.
The second half started with Southington making more of a game of it using their flanks for quick breaking moves that put Madison under the first real pressure of the game. Luckily, the defence was well organised by La Boca who was in great football and verbal form. Roniildo also had a great game as a forward moving center back and tried to encourage his old midfielder chums to get back and help in defence as the second half wore on.

The defence was cleaning up so many of the attacks that El Gato had a fairly straight forward day with only a few saves to make. His only mad moment came when he thought the opposition had 12 players on the field and he erupted like an Icelandic Volcano! His only other problem during the game was his clearance balls out from the back.....he had the distribution of a dyslexic postman! Too many balls straight to the opposition!

Up front our midfield and forwards were starting to tire alarmingly and quite a few balls were going astray. Ruben, who is as short as a Siberian summer, was getting high balls sent over to him that could have doubled as orbiting satellites. Once passes got to him on the ground he was able to move the ball quickly into the opposition box. The Judge gave his all in the game but by the end he had the turning circle of a large oil tanker stuck on the Great Barrier reef! No matter, the team fought hard even when tired and the strong running of Carlos and Telat on the right side kept the Southington team on their toes. Having said that, it was a relief to hear the final whistle blow to end an absorbing contest that the Celts well deserved to win!

MAN OF THE MATCH; Jodingo!! A fantastic game by the slimmed down and rejuvenated Jodingo!! Great tackling, constant awareness, strong running and a great goal made him the obvious choice!

NEXT GAME; Sunday 18th April, Southington!

Our first game of the new 2010 season in the CARLS is an away game against Southington FC! We have played them several times over the years and the games have always been competitive. We need to be on our best form to stand a chance of winning but we have done it before!

Here is a match report from the past;

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

The directions to get to their field are posted on the brand new "pages" section of the blog....look....right up there on the right hand side of the blog!! Check it out!!....all our past and new match stats will also be placed in this section.

The kick off is at 10 am and it looks like we have a strong squad for the game! Some of us will meet at the Madison Circle at 8.30am to pool.

Try and be there around 9.30 for a good warm up and some team tactics..... ha ha! I know that's funny....

Nobody has been selected for beer duty.....any takers for the first game??

The New Outdoor Season Starts This Sunday!

Hi Guys, it's that time of the year again when the fields have just had their first cut of the Spring, the trees are beginning to bud and you realize you haven't looked at a ball since last year! Yes the new outdoor season starts this weekend with an away game against Southington. This will be a 10 am kick off and we will start the roll call of players who are available as of today....I'm in!

More details on the match later in the week. BUT, Please come prepared to pay your $35 season fee for CARLS!

I have also added some new features to the blog to help with communication. If you look over to the upper right you will see a section called "PAGES". Underneath, there is a series of pages that will have the season fixture list ( when i get it from Tom ), field directions, stats from current and past seasons as well as a current news section and some handy web sites. Please go here for up to date info when you need it. If there is info you would like to have more or less permanently posted then this would be the place to have it. Just send it or tell me and i will post it there.

SOCCER TIPS!
And just to get us back in the groove we will have a series of soccer tips from some of the Madison Celtic greats! This one is from Fribeka showing us all how to take a perfect corner!

Eagles Crash Land!

Report By El Gato!

" This one is for the record books "

Great played game and a well deserved win for Madison Celtic on their last indoor game of the season. Final score 8-5 against the best indoor team, Guilford Black Eagles. Quick goal by Carlito at the beginning of the game was highlight of a wonderful match starter. However, it did not take long for Guilford attackers to put an equalizer pass, still sleepy from previous game, El Gato. Some sloppy plays and too many red shirts unmarked gave an advantage to the Guilford team and Madison finished the first half trailing 4-2. The second half was another story. Great defensive plays by Tom and Dejan and tight coverage by Ronildo, Carlito and Drew definitely choked the Guilford offense. Not to mention great saves by El Gato giving another dimension to the game. Madison was on fire, fantastic passing and great control of the game in midfield by Ronildo and Carlito gave great momentum to the game and Guilford goalie was bombarded by goals from Ruben and Halil. In second half Madison scored 6 goals and allowed only one unfortunate own goal from a defensive deflection. Great performance guys and great finish of the indoor season.

Report By Roniildo!

The Eagles Landed……with a big THUD!

Although our results in indoor this session have been mixed, we finished very strong tonight with a thoroughly deserved 8-5 win over the Guilford Eagles…Well done bhoys!

We lined up with Tom, Carlos in the back, Halil, Bambi and Roniildo in the middle, with Ruben and Dejan up front, and of course with El Gato in goal after his amazing performance last week:o). We came out of the blocks with some blazing paced runs and excellent passing between Carlos, Halil, Ruben and Dejan, which stunned the Eagles with 2 early strikes from Ruben and Carlos: 2-0 Celtic. I think we were also dazed by how easy it seemed for us to penetrate and score on what is usually a stalwart Eagle s defense. We either got a little complacent, or were daydreaming about why all the Guilford squads are named after birds (Eagles, Hawks…Chickens), but we lost our way, and 4 quick goals from them brought us back to reality. Dejan pulled deeper into midfield, and we organized into a man to man defense, as we realized we were giving them too much time on the ball, hence the reason for their easy goals. This worked really well, and we shut down their offense, and through hard work and patience we added another two to finish the half at 4-4.

The second half saw Celtic start very aggressive, as in the first half. The potent combination of speed and accurate passing all the way from Tom, Carlos and Dejan in defense through Bambi and Roniildo in midfield created easy scoring chances for Halil and Ruben who never missed in front of goal tonight! We poured in four more, with Eagles only managing the one in the second half to end the season in awesome style. Halil’s boot camp training is really paying off, with an outstanding performance tonight. that in my humble opinion, just pipped Tom or Carlos for man of the match!!! Key to tonight’s victory was definitely organization and structure, with every man doing his job and not wandering out of position. Great effort lads! Some of us were so pumped we stayed on to play with “the other” Madison team, and pummeled the Durham team, usually our Celtic nemesis.

In the end this indoor season, we played 13 (6 wins and losses and 1 tie), scoring 83 and losing 67….great effort boys.

Last Indoor Game!

Ruben and his new Celtic shirt!!

It's the last game of the indoor season this Thursday and it's a tough one against Guilford Black Eagles. The game starts at 7pm and we need players to turn up for this one! I know Rob is injured and I'm out so make sure you can make it. This years indoor sessions have not been as successful as last years but still great fun. So far we have played 12 games, winning 5, losing 6 and drawing 1. We have scored 75 goals and lost only 62! If we beat the Eagles at least we can have a winning season based on goals scored!!


Next up is the outdoor season! We will get the fixture list from Tom soon, I hope, but the first game is scheduled for Sunday 18th April so for those of you that have not been playing indoor please reacquaint yourself with a football!
Tom will have to say whether or not we can get a friendly together against one of our CARLS teams for this Sunday coming?

Also, here is a message from the CFO Roniildo!

The following is a summary of MCFC financial status as of April 5th, 2010.

Date $ Deposits $ Payments$ Balance

4/05/10 $2,250.37 $1,255.00 $995.37

SASL (beginning Aug 2010)
21 registered players; only 8 players are paid up!

CARSL(beginning 18 Apr 2010)
21 registered players; only 9 players are paid up!

Indoor Session #2
9 registered players; Total payment was $825. We collected $792, loss of $33

Indoor Session #3
9 registered players; Total payment was $625. We collected $585, loss of $40

By end of May, I need to submit $500 payment to SASL. That will leave a balance of only $495 .37

We need the rest of the season payments soon as we start paying for referee fees!

I also propose we use some of the money to purchase 3 new team balls. If you have preference on soccer ball type, feedback much appreciated! We also need to buy corner flags.

Our CEO will plan our beer and snack rotation for the upcoming CARSL session!

IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY.....Please reach out to Roniildo to pay your season fees for the CARLS which starts on Sunday 18th April!

Crisis?.....What Crisis??

It was a clash of the Madison's last night as the Celts crushed the Crisis in a truly one sided game. The final score was 11-3 but the Celts could easily have scored 20 or more with the busiest of the goalkeepers clearly on the Crisis side of the field. Nonetheless, that shouldn't have allowed El Gato to have a quick snooze during the game, but more on that later. The match was basically over as a competition before it had really started with some incredibly rapid fire passing between Halil and Ruben before one or both of them would slam the ball into the net. In next to no time the Celts were 3-0 up and cruising. Great midfield play by Tom and Dejan kept up the supply of passes to the two forwards and the goals count kept climbing. In defence Johnaldo and Danny were having a relatively quiet night although every so often the Crisis forwards would get hold of the ball and attempt a shot. On one of those occasions they managed to get a good break and clear shot on goal which sailed into the net. But by half time that was the only positive event that the Madison Crisis team could look to as they were down 7-1 to an exciting and penetrating Celtic team.

The second half was a bit closer mainly because of the antics of El Gato! A weak shot early in the second half somehow managed to squirm under his arms into the net and it looked like El Gato was getting his bored, sleepy look back again. That was completely confirmed after the Celts scored another and the Crisis kicked off again from the centre spot by firing a shot directly into the net over the head of a drowsy, distracted El Gato who had strayed about several yards of his line in attempt to have a good look at the game in the next field! Cats should not stray! Luckily for him the team got back on track and slammed in another few goals to finish the game strongly. Great performances by Tom A and Dejan in midfield and superb play by Halil and Ruben up front. And in the defence it was great to see Danny getting his soccer juices revved up for the outside season with some great defending and cracking goals!

I took this photo of El Gato after the game as he was feeling sorry for himself......