Warm Up Game; Match Report; Clinton Over 30's 5 Madison 2

A Match report from Ravi on the warm up game! Thanks Ravi!

Beginning at an early hour proved to be a boon as the game kicked off before the hottest part of the day, but the ragtag group of Celtic players needed a couple of extra players before we could get going. Clinton obliged by giving us a couple of their worst players. Still the game got off to a rousing start. Clinton controlled much of the early possession but Madison struck first in a fluid counterattack where a few one-touch passes strung together in the middle of the field sprung Ravi who cooly slotted home the opener first-time. The 1-0 lead was not to last long however, as the much younger and fitter Clinton team's rangy forward pulled them back within minutes. Still it was a hard fought first half and a very respectable scoreline, 1-1. When Dmitri and a couple other players had to leave at halftime however, it all fell apart. Celtic introduced a few fleet-footed 13-year olds, but on this day, Clinton was simply better and with easy build up play, scored goals in quick succession. Still even when the game appeared well out of reach, Celtic never gave in and with 10 minutes to go, Tano made a fine swerving effort that the goalkeeper just poked past his post. On the subsequent corner, Eduardo came up from defense and rose high to meet the ball, heading it in to make the final score, 5-2. As lop-sided as the scoreline might seem, training against superior competition should serve us well as we go forward into the second half of our season. 

Man of the Match: 

Not particularly a game where any Madison Celtic player wrapped himself in glory. Still Jim and Eduardo were solid in the back and Alex kept the scoreline from being even worse than it was with a few fine saves. New addition Todd did some good running on the flanks and Ravi and Tano kept pressure on their defense all day. But because he was a rock in the back and came up to score when others might have taken it easy, Eduardo wins this week's laurels.