NEXT GAME; Sunday Oct 5th, Southington!

We will be playing at home this Sunday against Southington United. Our game is at Town Campus Field in Madison off of exit 62 of 95. From Northbound, take a right at the exit and go up for about a 1/2 mile and the field is on right. From Southbound, you have to take a left instead. Please be there by 9:30 am..... Tom

Southington, like Bridgeport, have had some pretty poor results this season and last. Over the last 13 games they have lost 12 and drawn only once , against Milford. They have scored 24 goals and conceded 78!! Their average score seems to be to lose 7-2. After the disaster of last week we need to get "stuck in" early in this game and try and get a goal or two lead. This should be an easy home win but it looks like we can't predict how well we are going to play at the moment. Hopefully, we will have a full squad available!

The Fitness Challenge has a Winner!

Yes, after four tough weeks of profuse sweating, painful exercise at the gym, extensive road running, prodigious weight lifting and one terrible soccer game I still managed to lose to the eventual Fitness Challenge winner..... Ron "The Toe"Barba! The final result wasn't even close....Ron, with the help of a trained professional assistant mind you, amassed 305 points!!

I think the focus article on him really spurred him on!

I am currently holding down second position with 191 points and Rob H third on 190 points. ....but I've still to hear from him on any exercise he did this Monday or Tuesday. I think i could be heading for third if he has managed 30 minutes of workout on either of those days. My trip to Disney didn't really come at a good time for this competition....get my excuses in first.

Everyone else who started out in the competition or said something about it.... Behrooz, Jody, Ron, Jacques,Tom P and someone called Choccie Biscuit all fell by the wayside or couldn't be bothered to send me their points. The last i heard they were all roughly on the 80-90 points mark Anyway thank you for joining in and well done for doing any of it! I think this Challenge win has helped Ron to keep his fitness levels going for the game and the same with Rob which is great for the team. We need players that can last more than 30 minutes!

I'll see if we are up for a similar challenge sometime next year. Anyway, I'll have to go and find a suitable prize for "The Toe".......Well done Ron!!

MATCH REPORT: Bridgeport 2 Madison1

Madison slump to shock Defeat!

Any neutral observer of this game will wonder at its final outcome. Having dominated large segments of the match, and out shooting the opposition by an embarrassing margin, Madison still contrived to lose the game. Bridgeport's record going into this match would have given the visitors every reason to believe that this would be an easy stroll in the park. Even with key players missing from the line up Madison got the game off to a strong start forcing several corners and free kicks at the Bridgeport end of the field. It was therefore somewhat of a surprise when a Bridgeport striker managed a solitary break away into the Madison penalty box brushing aside the final defender with a very dubious elbow and shoulder charge before crashing the ball high into the top left hand corner of the Madison net. One nil down and very much against the run of play. To their credit Madison responded vigorously with a series of well constructed attacks that always ended with either a narrow miss or a courageous save by the opposition goalkeeper. However, with around 10 minutes left in the half a tackle won by Carlos in midfield allowed him to quickly pass out to Eric on the left wing who out ran the Bridgeport defence before sending in an inch perfect pass for Ronnie to knock the ball into the net for a well deserved equalizer. Being tied at half time was not what the Madison team had planned, or deserved, for their first half efforts but the second half offered hope that Madison's clear superiority would shine through.

The second half started very much as the first half had ended with the Madison team sending in wave after wave of attack. Yours truly missed several gilt edged chances to score the go ahead goal but either headed over from short range or blasted high and wide. Unluckily for Madison I was not the only player being profligate in front of goal. Shots by Carlos, Eric, Scott and Ronnie all threatened the lives of some passing seagulls as they sailed high and wide over the bar. When Madison did manage to get shots on target the opposition goalkeeper was up for the task, pulling out a series of fingertip saves. As Hurricane Kyle plowed past Connecticut on its way to Canada, the skies darkened and the light eventually went out for Madison. After dominating at least 90% of the possession in the second half Bridgeport broke through the defence and after a save by Behrooz they were alert enough to follow up to score what would be the eventual winner. Even late chances to equalize for Madison were squandered and, as time ran out, both sets of teams seemed to accept the inevitable outcome to this game. The referees whistle to end the game was met with huge cheers by the Bridgeport team as they celebrated as if they had won the cup. No such party for the Madison players as they were left to rue the many missed chances in a game they will want to quickly forget.

NEXT GAME; Sunday Sept 28th, Bridgeport!

This Sunday we have an away game against Bridgeport and here is a message from our coach:

" This Sunday we will have an Away game against Bridgeport. The game is at the Seaside Park in Bridgeport and you can get directions from the carsl.org website. Please be there at 9:30 am.
For this game, we will be missing Jacques and Jody.
We will be carpooling from Guilford off of Exit 58 and please be there at 8:30 am. Ron K. please coordinate with Stuart please
Eric will try to bring Beer for the team!"

I've played against various Bridgeport teams over the years and sometimes they have been good and sometimes they have been really bad. In fact it's hard to tell which team is likely to turn up.
Looking at their results so far tells us that they got beat 7-3 by Woodbridge and 3-2 by Haddam so i would think we have a good chance of beating them!

Only a few days left for the Fitness Challenge! I'll post the current scores on Saturday.