MATCH REPORT; Vasco 3 Madison 0

Even with the welcome return of old favourites Talat and Goggs to the team the Celts fell to their second defeat of the season to a well organized Vasco da Gama outfit. Although the three to nil scoreline seems harsh when one analyzes the effort the Madison squad put in over the game. However, the facts will show that the visitors only had a hand full of chances to score throughout the 90 minutes. The home team looked comfortable throughout the game and this observer would not have been surprised if he had been told that they didn't have a goalie playing. In fact at one point I'm sure i saw him off in the distance grilling a few burgers. He really wasn't that troubled on the field. Having said that the Celts did hold their own for most of the half and did not look outclassed against the league leaders. They fought hard but could not make a pass that counted and could not get a shot on goal. With John B working the hardest in the Celtic midfield he was constantly looking for  partners to link up with him for small passes. This happened painfully few times in the first half although Roniildo and Halil tried their best. Unfortunately the Celts were treating the ball like the proverbial hot potato. As soon as they got hold of it they booted it anywhere. With this type of game developing it was maybe surprising that Vasco did not have the wherewithal to take advantage. To be honest, although they were passing well their final through ball was often poor and they rarely got a clear shot on the Celts goal. Nonetheless they were building wave after wave of attacks and eventually they made a break through with an opening goal that on the balance of  play was a  fair outcome. The halftime break had lots of talk about how the midfield could link up with the front line but the second half started the same way the first ended with Madison on the back foot. John B, Edjmar and Hulk were the spine of the team that was holding the team together. But even they couldn't account for some really slack play over on the Madison right side of defence when a Vasco player was given all the time in the World to waltz into the penalty box and mosey on out again before laying the ball off to another striker to blast an unstoppable ball past the Hulk. At two nil down the Celts did start to lose some heart although the drive of John B and the solidity of Edjmar and Goggs at the back gave them hope that one goal would get them back in the game. But it became obvious that only set pieces were allowing the Celts to get any dangerous balls into the opposition box. As the game started to fizzle out the home team scored a third even though two of their players were in strikingly obvious offside positions. When you have no luck in a game you really have no luck.
This is going to be a tough league and to survive the Celts will have to learn to pass better and get more shots on goal. They have learned to do this in the past and I'm sure they will again.

Man Of The Match; Great return by Goggs and another great performance by Edjmar but the MOM goes to fantastic energetic performance by John B!