A tale of two halves.....

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"...... with apologies to Charles Dickens....this last game of the indoor season was a tough one. Madison sailed into a 3-0 lead before the first half was over but were pegged back in the second half by a battling Branford side. Two goals by the Branford team without reply made the last ten minutes of the game more nerve racking than you could have predicted. The Mad Celts started the game with controlled tight passing and a lot of energy which pushed Branford back into their half. The breakthrough came early when a great run by Fribeka and superb cross found Carlito in space allowing him to slam the ball past a stranded goalkeeper. The pressure on Branford was unrelenting and after a fast break by Roniildo, through the middle of the Branford defence, the resulting pass to yours truly allowed a quick shot which curved round the outstretched goalie and into the net for a well deserved 2-0 lead. The half was rounded off nicely when Carlito took a fast corner which reached an onrushing Jodinho who crashed the ball off a Branford defender and into the net.....End of the first half and clearly, it was the best of times. Unfortunately the worst of times was just about to arrive in the shape of a re-invigorated Branford team. The second half was totally dominated by them as Madison fell out of the game completely. Branford took the game to Madison, playing a pressing game, which was rewarded with two great unstoppable goals. They would have scored many more if El Gutso had not been in such great form pulling off one great save after another.

Madison Celtic managed to hold on without really threatening the Branford goal and luckily finished 3-2 winners and unbeaten in the second session of indoor soccer.

Overall the two indoor session have been great fun, good practice and at least keeping some of the core team in shape for the outdoor season.

So, let's talk about the outdoor season, it starts next week!

As you will have worked out by now, if you had read the last posting and all the comments, we are now going to be playing in Div 1 for the 2009 season. This will be a big challenge because we do not have a big squad and we are carrying a number of injuries. We need all our players from last season back and ready to play. RoRo and Jorge will be vital to provide the cutting edge up front and hopefully supported by an attacking group of offensively minded players such as Carlito, Enrique and Scotty. Our tough tackling midfield of Roniildo, Jodinho and Jacques will also be aided by players such as Tom the Coach, Jerry and Tom Judge. At the back, La Boca, El Gutso, Johnaldo and Pink will certainly need more defensive options ( players!)....Hamid?? Of course, all our crocked players have to try and make come backs at some point in the season. But, our biggest challenge is finding a goalkeeper that can play every week! We need Kevinho and others to help out. Maybe El Gutso?? If El Gutso says yes then we can allow him to use this quote....sorry Charles.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known"

Double Header...Double Victory!

Another tough double header night in the indoor soccer arena was rewarded with two great wins for the Madison Celts. The first game, against Madison Crisis, was a close 4-3 win supplemented by two sumptuous goals by yours truly with additional goals by Fribeka and Carlito. The second game against Branford was, in the end, an easier looking score of 5-3 but was a difficult game throughout. Good goals by La Boca, Carlito, a few others and me sealed the win. A tough shift but a nice ending. One more week of indoor left before the "real stuff" starts in earnest. Mid April marks the start of the 2009 outdoor season and let's hope we can get off to a flying start, unlike last year when we stumbled from one game to another trying to find form and fitness.
We have a number of crocked players so we will have to have a fit squad and maybe some new players to start the season. Tom the Coach is thinking about getting a scrimmage game together before our first actual game.

The fitness challenge has 2 more weeks to run. I'll provide a summary shortly but El Gutso has been way ahead of all other challengers!

See you Thursday!

Yellow Jackets squashed!

I wasn't there but by all accounts a fine 14-2 destruction of the stingless yellow jackets was a thing to behold....

A report by Fribeka:

"It could have been 14-1, but El Gutso obviously jealous of Kevinho's performance in goal or probably looking after his best goals-against Avg. (1.00), decided to give the ball (and I say give) to one of their players 10 feet in front of the net and moved aside to give him a better shooting lane… Apparently, El Gutso also paid Tom P. and asked him to take shots at Kevinho during the game?!? But overall, great performance from everyone with great passing and control of the game"

Hope you are all still trying to exercise and gather points! El Gutso is now the only one sending them in...... Back in the UK right now and will be available for selection next week!

Spring season beckons!

Message from our coach:

"Gentlemen,

Just to inform you that the outdoor season will start on April 19th and we are waiting to receive the final game schedule from the league.

All our Home Games will be played at the Xchange field and we can't use any other fields in the town due to lack of availability.

Jim and Eric hope you guys are doing OK and please drop me a line.

We are also looking for few players and let me know if you know someone who is a good player and interested to join the team.

Thanks

Tom "

I'll post the score of tonights game when someone sends me the score!

A new star is born.....El Gutso!

Mad Celts battled out a shaky 2-1 win in a dour game against Cardiac Arrest. Goals by Carlito and Tom The Coach were enough to see off a stubborn Cardiac team that had been blown away 7-2 in their previous meet up with the Celts. It was good to see Jodinho back in the game after his long Winter rest! But, the star performer of the evening was El Gutso, aka The Heckelator, who pulled out a string of superb saves during the game. We now have a whole barrow load of good goalies with Kevinho, Fribeka, El Gutso and of course the one and only, the unique, the peerless, the original......El Gato!



I'll be travelling round the World next week so i will miss the game next Thursday so best of luck! Remember you all have the ability to post a comment, so you can post the score or copy in an e-mail in to the comments box below. Just click on comments, write a pithy remark in the comments box, plug in your name under the "name/URL" drop down option, real or alias!, and press the post button. Sometimes it says it can't process but you just click the post button again......it's easy!

Kevinho saves the day!

The first fifteen minutes of our first game of the second session of indoor soccer was a real hangover from the last game of the first session......if that makes any sense to you! Before the first quarter of the game was over we were 3 zip down and cold as ice. We were playing Guilford Hawks who are a good team but one we have beaten before. They tore into our early lethargic play and scored three simple goals. This insult to our pride seemed to wake us up, and in particular Scotty, who, in a mad rush of controlled adrenalin, decided to take on the opposition single handedly. He slammed in three fantastic, unstoppable goals, without reply, to get us to even stevens by the half. Our new(ish) goalie Kevinho had also kept us in the game with some really great fast reaction, instinctive saves.
The second half started off OK but our defensive frailties were quickly on display again as a simple cross out left found a Guilford player unmarked at the back post and he headed the ball past a helpless, but blameless, Kevinho. We then chased the game to get the equalizer throwing three up front. This allowed them to fire at will on our goal but again Kevinho was up to the challenge with some great saves. And, when a few shots eventually got past him, they hit the post or the bar. Our equalizer came from a move that started when i received a great ball from Pink down the left hand side. I was surrounded by at least 6 players....or maybe it was just 2....but by a magical piece of Christiano Ronaldo type skill i managed to spin past them and send the ball over to an on rushing Heckelator....he hates the name by the way.... who slammed the equalizing goal into the net. Both teams then played out the last ten minutes in a rather cagey, energy drained style to earn a well deserved draw. Good game, great goals by Scotty and outstanding saves by Kevinho!

In other news, the fitness regimen is progressing well with 6 players signed up from the first week reporting in very respectable scores. Please send me your points for the first week if you have not done so already and your second week points on Monday.

This Sunday Celtic will be playing Rangers in the League cup final in Scotland! Kick off at 10am EST and available at Celtic bars all over the World ( http://www.celticbars.com/ ) and the Celtic web site ( http://www.celticfc.net/ ) .....should be a good game....and they better win! See you next game.

Brave team runs out of steam......!

Our first session of indoor soccer finished on Thursday night with a mixed set of results. We started well when we stormed to our 5th win in a row with a 9-3 victory against North Branford. Great play from the team overall and even with our regular goalie missing, Fribeka and the Heckelator did a great job between the sticks. But this game took a fair amount of energy out of the team and unfortunately we then had to play a fresh Durham team. They had beaten us earlier in the session and in this game they stormed to a 4-0 lead at half time. After the break our team struggled badly but we hung in there to keep the score respectable. We pulled back their large lead to only 2 goals before they scored at the final whistle for a 8-5 win over us.

So, overall not too bad for this session; played 8, won 5, drew 1, lost 2. We scored an impressive 49 goals and let in only 31.

New session starts again this Thursday......and of course the fitness campaign starts on Monday!

Start scoring those points!

Fighting come back for fourth win on the trot!

The indoor team had a real struggle of a game against Madison Crisis last Thursday and had to really fight for the win. The scintillating soccer from the previous week had vanished and in its place was a slow disjointed boot and rush style that played into the hands of the opposition. They had one tactic which was to thump the ball up field to their tallest player who knocked it down to any on rushing player from his team. Simple, but effective and it was no surprise that we ended the first half 1-0 down. We started the second half a bit brighter and managed to score an equalizer. But again we fell into bad habits and allowed them back into the game with a simple goal from a defensive error. Things went from bad to worse when they went 3-1 up with only 15 minutes left in the game. But the Mad Celts came roaring back with a real fighting spirit and quickly claimed a goal back when yours truly bent a shot past their goalie. The team were fired up by this and very shortly after this, in the middle of a goal mouth scramble, the ball blasted off my chest into the net for the equalizer. With only a minute or so left and with the team pressing constantly we won a free kick which Carlito slammed into the net for the knock out blow and the game winner! It was a tough one but the team deserved the victory for the fighting performance in the second half.

Well done to the team for then playing another hour of soccer against a team who's opponents had not turned up.....another nice win but of course it doesn't count. But, good practice for our double header night which is coming up soon!

Hello! Hello! 3 in a row!

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all! Just a quick update on the indoor soccer from last week which saw the Mad Celts go three victories in a row with a demolition job of the Guilford Hawks. The final score was 9-4 with the highlight of the match being a goal from the half way line by our very own Carlito! Of course, i could mention my stunning goal from about one foot out but that would be childish....thanks for the assist Fribeka! Some great passing and movement in this game and we went from no substitutions last week to no subs at all this week! Hopefully we can keep the winning streak going for a few more weeks.

In other news, tomorrow is the big Celtic Rangers game in the SPL. Celtic sit at the top of the league two points clear of their ancient rivals. A win for Celtic will stretch their lead to five but defeat will see Rangers climb to the top of the league. You could argue that a draw would suit both teams but i think Celtic have got to send a message to Rangers in this game and capture all 3 points! Kick off is 7.30 am EST tomorrow so I'll set my alarm!

Team celebrate after another great win!

Yes, a couple of small beers after a game always goes down well especially after another victory!Madison strolled to a second consecutive win in the indoor league with a 9-4 roasting of the "Dirty Dozen". The Celts started off in control and remained so throughout the game. Yours truly even managed to score a goal! The first half was tight but was no reflection of the way the game unfolded in the second half with great goals from several players.

My only complaint about the game was the fact that we had 3 subs but had trouble using them frequently enough in the second half. For those of us that don't fully understand what substitution means I looked up the definition in the dictionary and this is what it said;

substitute - put in the place of another; switch seemingly equivalent items
substitute - a person or thing that takes or can take the place of another
substitute - capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team
substitute - an alternate: serving or used in place of another

Thought it might help for the next game :o)

I saw this indoor goal on youtube.... i think we should try and score one like this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzo0In6JblU

See you for the next game!