NEXT GAME; Sunday, 1st August Woodbridge YJ

OK, we had a tough loss.... first time since November last year.... but we can bounce back... and we can bounce back big style with a resounding win against Woodbridge Yellow Jackets! We have only two games left in this league and it would be good to finish it off with two great victories! The last time we played them it ended as a 2-2 draw......here is the Match Report;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2010/05/match-report-yellow-jackets-2-madison-2.html

It looks like we can win this game and keep our lead in the league...!!

After the game.... no matter the result, we will have a picnic! Jodingo!! can even bring more black label beer!! ;o)

See you all soon....................

PLAYER FOCUS on... Bruce..."The Hulk"

When we first met Bruce at the beginning of the season it looked like one of the guys playing baseball in the opposite field had got lost searching for a wayward hit..... but no... he was our new goalie.... and what a goalie he has turned out to be.....adding to the long legacy of great Madison goalies such as Mendi "The Magnificent" and El Gato! He even got a nick name before his player focus!..... The Hulk!!.... But there have been some serious worries that the "one and only" Hulk Hogan may be poached by other teams because of the temptation of filthy money (and the fact that he is really good)..... say it can't be so! He gets beer and some time to sit on a deck chair when he plays with us.......what's up wit dat? Anyway, thanks to Arniesto for this great close up shot of The Hulk in action! He has had so many shut outs this season the opposition forwards might as well turn up with their sleeping bags and have a snooze on the side lines........that's usually where the Hulk is anyway leading yoga classes, batting practice and bugle lessons. He gets so bored in a game he needs to have some activities to keep him awake! Anyway, he must be the best goalie in CARSL right now ( only 6 goals past him the whole season, and numerous shut outs!! ) and I thought it would be timely to put him into the interview grinder of player focus!

First time you played soccer? About 10 years old at a local community center ( Were you sneaking a quick smoke round the back of the building at the time? )

Favorite Team? Cosmos ( Hey, i thought it was the Red Sox? )

Fav Player? Pele ( Is he a short stop or first base? )

Fav Music? Jazz ( That's cause you have Jazz hands.... )

Fav Movie? Predator ( I would never have taken you for a lover of violent and scary movies....go figure )

Best moment on a soccer field? 43 save scoreless tie my senior year against Lyman hall ( 43 saves in one game?? you must have had one Hell of a lousy defence!! )

Nickname at school? Keep ( Keep what? Keep on trucking, Keep off the grass? Keep Hulking does it for me!)

Motto for life? We are all here only for a short time so make a difference while your here ( I cry a tear..... )

Something we don't know about you? Have been on 6 softball teams that have won the State Championship ( why did you keep changing teams? Better contracts, huh? more Money?? Better pics of you..... i gettit... )

Most famous person I've met: Had lunch with Joe Namath ( Who paid?)

Thanks Hulk.... I like interviews that are short and to the point..... gives me more space to write all my stuff!!

MATCH REPORT; Madison 1 Southbury 2

Yeah, losing sucks......

If last weeks game was like playing in a Swedish sauna then this time it felt like we were in Dante's inferno. Unfortunately saturating heat and a blinding Sun were only minor problems compared to our real issues with this game. Last minute injuries to Tom A and Ronilldo meant that the team had only 11 players on the day..... on a day that subbing would be critical. On top of that Tano and El Gato had to play the whole 90 minutes while carrying bad injuries. OK, so that's all the excuses out the way and from that you can tell that these are excuses for a rare Madison defeat. Yes, the 12 game undefeated run came to an end as Madison went down fighting against a very well organized and committed Southbury team.

The game got off to the worst of starts with a great goal by Southbury after a midfield/defensive bungle. Southbury caught Madison completely cold in the first 20 minutes of the game, which is quite ironic considering the amount of heat available. Southbury were also subbing out their 16 man squad from very early in the match and had a real game plan to keep there players hydrated and fresh. Madison fought hard to get into the game and to their credit really kept Southbury in their own half or outside the Madison box. Great defending and courageous tackling by Gogglito really shored up the defence at this point in the game as it edge to half time.
Madison had their chances to equalize none more so when Safet raced into the box and tipped the ball wide of the net when it looked easier to score.

After some much needed rest and water at half time Madison started the second half well and had a number of chances to score. Eventually, after one such attack, Safet broke clear again in the opposition box and made up for his earlier miss by slamming in the equalizer. At this point of the game Madison were looking the stronger team and the more likely to go on and win. However, as the half wore on the chances came and went and the heat really began to take it's toll on the Celts. However, it was still a bit of a shock at how easily Southbury scored their winning goal. A ball lost in the midfield was swept out to the Madison left finding an opposition player clear in the box and with minimal challenge he stroked the ball past the stranded Bruce.

The final whistle ended the Madison winning run, Jorge's goalscoring streak and put a bit of a dent on the Celts' defensive record......But, Madison remain on top of the table and this performance shows how strong a team Madison are. Fighting the elements, injuries and up against a fast subbing team they showed true grit and determination. It would have been easy to find an excuse to give up but the team kept going and showed the winning characteristics that have brought them on so far this season.

MAN OF THE MATCH; Gogglito...very brave and consistent defending kept the team in the hunt throughout thew whole
game. Great performances overall by the team considering the challenges

NEXT GAME; Sunday 25th July, Southbury!

Next game on the docket is a home game (Town Campus Field or Exchange field......Tom will tell us! ) against Southbury Boomers!

We had a good competitive game against them earlier in the season which ended in a 1-1 draw after they scored a cruel equalizer with almost the last kick of the ball.

Match Report for that game is here;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2010/05/match-report-southbury-1-madison-1.html

Nice little video of that game is here; http://www.youtube.com/user/MadisonCeltic#p/u/7/I3ssvkXG4uY

We are still top of the league after 10 games, we have won 6 games in a row!.... although the league tables have not been updated yet.... well, its only 5 days after the game...give them a chance!

Not sure if we are having a picnic or not....but if we do it will be a mini one. And the beer guy is??

MATCH REPORT; Madison 4 Southington 0

When you play Summer soccer in Connecticut it can feel that you have been placed in a Swedish Sauna on full blast wearing a fur coat. Today was such a day, with the unrelenting beat of the Sun and the oppressive, saturating heat one felt completely drained of energy and that was after only five minutes of the warm up! It is a credit to both teams that they managed to put on such a good display of controlled possession and running throughout most of the game. Having said that, Southington looked to be the team that had more effectively and quickly adapted to the sweltering conditions. Madison looked sluggish, disconnected and "lacking in alacrity" over the first 30 minutes or so of the game. Nonetheless, Madison still had the best opportunities to score with chances falling to Jorge and Halil as well as Safet. For most of the first half the Madison defence was barely disturbed allowing Bruce to top up his tan while playing with a beach ball and drinking a margarita! The half was clearly a stale mate with the best moves coming from the Madison right side as Telat swept up and down the wing. At half time the talk was all about shorter passes, simple moves and taking shots on sight.

The message must have sunk in because within 5 minutes of the restart the Celts were one nil up after a great run down the Madison right by The Judge and a superb cross was met by Jorge for a simple tap in. This raised the Madison game considerably and really crushed the fight from the visitors. The second goal was delivered very quickly after the first when another great move down the right wing, this time by Roniildo, ended with a superb cross come shot that was crashed over the line by the head of Jorge for his and Madisons' second of the game. Roniildo may have felt the ball would have crept into the net without Jorge's final help but the scorers instinct made certain. By this time Madison were cruising and some very good creative passing was appearing all over the field. Halil and Ilhan were in great form with some good interchanges and Arniesto was playing a great center forward role up front. It was one of the best moves of the game that led to the third goal for Madison as a nice ball was played through the Southington defence allowing Halil to time his run to perfection beating the offside trap and coolly slotting the ball past the stranded goalkeeper. At this point in the game Madison were well worth their 3 goal lead and were pressing for more. Another great move by the Madison forwards was halted by a crude tackle on the edge of the box giving the Celts another chance to score from a set piece. Tom A stepped up and sent a beautiful shot over the wall and past the despairing dive of the goalie to send the Celts four up. Madison eased off after the goal allowing Southington back into the game and even letting some shots on goal. Bruce was alert to the danger and pulled of a great save near the end of the game to keep his clean sheet intact. Only one last cameo performance by Johnaldo was of note as he took control of the ball just inside the opposition half and went on a mazy run past 3 Southington players right into the penalty box laying off a superb pass for Jorge who only had the goalie to beat for his hat trick. Alas, it was not to be, as Jorge decided to try and dribble the ball past the goalkeeper then pass to the clearly offside Arniesto. Johnaldo denied an assist but this did not spoil a great victory for the Celts as they strengthened their position at the top of the table.

Man Of The Match Telat, for his tireless running, crunching tackles and great crosses

NEXT GAME; Sunday 18th July, Southington SC

Another game on the march to the league championship! This weekend we have a home game, at Town Campus Field, against Southington SC. They are currently sitting second bottom of the league having won 2, tied 1 and lost 6 games in their league campaign so far. We beat this Southington team 2-0 away from home earlier in the season with goals from Carlos and Bambi on his debut! .....match report is here;

http://madisonceltic.blogspot.com/2010/05/match-report-southington-sc-0-madison-2.html

....and there is a nice video of the game on Madison Celtic TV!

http://www.youtube.com/user/MadisonCeltic#p/u/2/VMMuviaTe4A

WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BE COMPLACENT! Our league record so far is excellent and you have to go back to the 8th of November 2009 for the last time Madison Celtic were beaten in a game!

11 GAMES IN A ROW WITHOUT DEFEAT!

The leagues have also been announced for the SASL 2010/2011 season;

http://saslsoccer.com/2010-2011/format.html

We are in the Third Division with the following teams!

1 Albanian Eagles

2 Madison Celtic FC

3 East Haven SC

4 Guilford Bell Curve

5 Hamden United

6 North Branford SC

7 Orange SC

8 Wallingford Morelia

Should be very exciting! But let's focus on winning the CARSL league first!

Who is the beer guy? ARNIESTO!!

MATCH REPORT; Bridgeport 0 Madison 3

Finally, the match report has arrived! Looks like it was a rough and tumble sort of game with some bad tackles aimed at our star players.....but the team rose above it and stuffed Bridgeport to take our rightful spot at the top of the table!

Report By Roniildo

Bridgeport Bruisers Buried by Magic Celtic

It was with considerable trepidation that Celtic headed south to the Bridgeport Seaside early on an exceptionally hot and humid Sunday Morning! With a slew of key players out with injury or business (in Hawaii, which I don’t think really counts as business), we knew at the outset it was going to be a huge challenge to keep the streak intact against the boys from Bridgeport. Hell, it was difficult enough just to reach the field because the police and city had sectioned off the Seaside area playing fields to accommodate the Bridgeport summer fest. After driving around in circles for a while, most of the players and ref eventually showed up and the match got underway half an hour late, and what a match it turned out to be!

Other than Telat, our tour de defense was MIA on Sunday for one reason or another, so we decided on a strategic defensive approach, with Jodingo!!, Tom, El Gato, Brucey and Telat stepping up with massive performances at the back. They completely dominated Bridgeport with outstanding controlled possession football which completely frustrated the Bridgeportonians for the entire match. I think we were inspired or possessed by the Spanish tactics throughout the World Cup, and it was with the clear mind set of keeping possession, and then counter attacking that we set out, and boy did the strategy pay off big time for the green and white hoops.

Our fist goal was a masterpiece engineered from the midfield through slick one-two passing to find Safet who very coolly buried the ball in the back of the net. The Bs were definitely rattled and started to unravel emotionally after the first goal. Tano could have had 2 or 3, with balls rattling off the post and bar, but he finally tapped in for goal #2 after great passing from midfield.

Needless to say the match had no shortage of nasty incidents, as is the norm against Bridgeport. After the second went in, they really brought out the rough stuff, just like the Dutch on Sunday. Win by fear and intimidation I believe is their motto. Anyway, we were having none of it, and the Celts did really well to remain cool after many harsh and reckless challenges from Mr. English and Co. Although on second thoughts, I’m not sure that Tano punching their goalie in retaliation after he had vindictively kicked Tano in the head five seconds after the ball was gone can reasonably be described as cool calm and collected, but you get the general idea. In the last few minutes, following excellent possession down the right flank, Telat earned a corner, which he whipped over to the back post to the waiting Jorge who leapt and headed an absolute corker beyond the helpless keeper to make it three nil Celtic.

All in all a fabulous, and well deserved result. Everyone played a great strategic game, and it was eerily quiet on our side, which is one reason in my mind why we did so well. Communication was outstanding, and the only yells from our lads were when Safet, Tano and then Jorge hit the back of the net.

MAN OF THE MATCH; Almost impossible to single out the MOM, but I have to, so this week’s honor goes to Brucey for his great play and bravery and producing yet another shut out…..great stuff boys

Happy Birthday Blog!

No, this is not the match report!.....Yes, the blog is 2 years old today, thank you for asking!

Roniildo will send me the report on the 3-0 demolition of Bridgeport in his own sweet time. In the meantime as we wait to find out how Jorge, Tano and Safet slammed in the goals against the pretenders to our throne I thought we could celebrate the two years of blogging about all things MadCelts!

We have generated some great statistics over the first two years of its existence! The blog has had over 12,000 visitors since it started! Those visitors have looked at well over 40,000 pages of information about the team! Visitors from all over the World have viewed the blog, from South America, Asia Europe, Australia and a whole bunch from the USA! Hopefully they have been entertained following the ins and outs of "personalities" such as El Gato, Fribeka, Jodingo!!, La Boca, Roniildo and BOR! Not forgetting the witty comments of TANO and Jorge that spice up the blog! Celebrity fans like Susan Boyle are always welcome and of course checking out how we all look on Madison Celtic TV is always a very special experience..... And I have to say that the rumors that Jodingo!! has been using the blog as a dating agency are just not true........ I think.

So, thanks for using the blog and please keep coming back for more! Especially for the match report which I'm sure I will get soon! Won't I Roniildo? It's not Shakespeare you know....

NEXT GAME; Sunday July 11th, Bridgeport!

It's the big one this weekend! No, not the World Cup Final.......It's the top of the league clash against Bridgeport! They, like us, have been going strong and are 1 point ahead of us having played the same number of games. We have had some tough clashes with both Bridgeport A and B teams over the years and this game will be no different. Looks like our challengers have scored a lot of goals so far this season (31) but they sure have lost a lot (17 ). Looks like their strike force will be a real test for the impressively stingy Madison defence ( 4 ) and maybe a huge opportunity for our forwards to bang in a lot more goals to add to their season tally (17 ). Their average score over the season so far is to win 4-2 and ours is to win 2-0 so it should be a very interesting game. Let's hope we have our full squad available for the game......there will be plenty of time to play the game, have a beer and get home for the World Cup final!

I think the steamy heat wave should be a bit milder by Sunday but don't forget to bring lots of water!

Go Madison! Go Oranje!!........

PLAYER FOCUS on..... Dejan...The Big D!

Time for another player focus and under the glare of the interview lights this time is our very own Big D.... Dejan! His calm presence on the field underplays his passion for the game off the field. He has shown to be an astute observer of the game and can point out where we are all going wrong ...........yes, that's right, he spends a lot of time pointing at me! He has a huge following throughout the World as we saw when he won the midfielder of the season poll by a record count when 99.9% of the votes came from Germany.....the other vote came from him!
But what do we need to know about the real Big D that we don't know already, like.... what does big D stand for? Why does he like coordinating substitutes? Has he ever met Gerd Mueller? Read on, and all will be revealed!

First time you played soccer?

Organized soccer @ 10 years old/Bayern Munich youth team ( When did the disorganized soccer start?.... no wait, don't tell me.... i know)

Favorite Team?

Red Star Belgrade/Arsenal ( Up the Arse! )

Fav Player?

Bogie ( Vladislav Bogicevic - Red Star/NY Cosmos) ( No player, no person should ever be called Bogie..... in Scotland Bogie means Booger! )

Fav Music?

Depends on the situation.......Beatles....Jump by House of Pain ( What situation would ever involve you liking House of Pain??? )

Fav Movie?

Something New/Lord of the Rings ( ah yes, Something New....While some of the dialogue is a little preachy, for the most part “Something New” avoids taking sides and instead lets the romantic relationship play itself out in an honest fashion. This is a date movie with a moral but one that doesn’t knock you senseless trying to make the message stick.....doncha think?.... Do you like Twilight too?? )

Best moment on a soccer field?

Each time I make something difficult look easy :) (that's funny because me and El Gato do the exact opposite!)

Nickname at school?

College....Big D ( I won't ask why...... )

Motto for life?

Don't let them see you sweat :) ( or cry..... crying is much worse.....)

Something we don't know about you?

Dabble in many things/notice more than just the obvious:) ( that sounds serial killer creepy Big D )

Most famous person I've met?

Gerd Mueller ( is it true he is only 4ft 3 inches tall? )

Thanks Big D! I will post a German translation of this for your chums over the Atlantic!