Game 15 (cancelled)

Hi guys,Georgy just expressed how I feel about Sunday! The weather was perfect for the game, I was thinking maybe it's not league officials, I thought maybe Mario had something to do with cancellation. Does this mean we won't have a chance to play against Rutgers? Were there any games yesterday at all? I’m curious.

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I don't know if it's just me, but I hate it when the league does this.

When the rain started pouring on Saturday, I thought "Great!" - we'regonna have a field that's not really hard and just right for playing.When I saw the weather on Sunday, I thought the same thing - it'sreally cloudy (which helps for a noon game), not raining - perfect!

These guys from the league watch a little too much Weather TV, Ithink. What's up with that? The weather looks good but they areworried about the forecasts... Why don't they let the referee decideif it's playable?

The only game we played in bad conditions - it was actually reallybad. And we still did fine. We enjoyed ourselves. Now they havecanceled two perfect games.

This ruins my weekend. I wait for that game all week and they cancelit just because some weather guy wants to make his show moreinteresting and scares people. And I hate it when I load myself withlots of carbohydrates in the morning and then I end up not using thatenergy. I'm gonna sue these guys if I become fat.

I'm sorry for my bitterness but I had to let it out.

By the way, I loved that success story with the 'Attendance' sheet.Since Charlie's email wasn't working, he had no way of knowing aboutthe canceled game but he saw the timely update on the website. It iscases like this that bring a lot of joy!

Georgy.

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Guys,

I hope that everyone on our team fully understands the importance of the next game. We're talking playoffs here! Let's not underestimate our opponent; Rutgers is on the third place so far. I don't care how much someone my tell us that they are not a strong team and it should be really easy for us to beat them -- it's never easy and opponent always tries to win and not to lose! Let's stay focused, no matter who scores first or second, the game is not over until it's over, let's not forget about that. There is something that I'm going to promise to you all, I'm not going to yell anymore. I know it's probably not possible to be completely mute playing defensive defenseman but still I'm not going to yell anymore, I'm going to talk and not even loudly. Please help me out with this one! Here is what I'm planning to do, I'm going to call your name during the game and indicate the number of player that I would love for you to cover. Let's help each other, let's respect each other and we shouldn't have any problems, we are the TEAM!

Let's go Tornado!

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1. We thank you not for the final result but for the effort and theeffectiveness, Moldovan! So, it's not early for that...

2. I agree Vova has to stay cool and above their level. I think onethink I saw Alex Rikshpun II do will help. He would pet the guys thattry to piss him. He would just touch them on the head and make a facelike "You little child, you can act on me but I will just focus onsaving goals". I've seen the pros do it, too. This gives them respectfor the goalkeeper and makes them think that he is really cool.

3. I don't believe the paranoia that everybody knows about Vova now.What do we know about the rest of the teams? Do we hear about theirgames? No. We just see a team when we play with them, we don't heartheir stories from the other games.

4. Get better Molodvan! It's nice to have someone from the OldContinent to understand your problems. And you probably wore"slippers" today, not "sleepers"... :-) Just after I complimentedyour English... :-)

Georgy.

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Hi Tornado,

You guys should put your "Thanks" on hold until we get Vova back, it's not over yet. What I want to know now is what are we going to do when we get him back to prevent any reoccurrence of the "bad" stuff? Are we against the wall here? What I mean is that other teams would make twice as much effort now to get under Vova's skin because every team is well aware of the situation with him. Unfortunately he won't have any room for "negotiations-a-la-Vova" anymore. I have promised almost anything and everything in the world to Roberto for Vova's comeback (including hot Russian teenage girls... just kidding). Vova, you should understand that this is not just you now; it's all of us on the line, man. I know that you understand all of this but I have to repeat again and again -- please recognize the importance of the situation, understand the amount of pressure and respect the team!

P.S. I'm going to miss Saturday's practice to make sure that I'll be able to play on Sunday. I brought a pair of sleepers to work (thank God our CEO is British and a soccer fanatic, he was very supportive when I told him that this is a soccer related injury, otherwise I would be sent home because of the "improper clothing")

I'll see you all on Sunday!

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Thanks, Moldovan!

I agree with GK that you are good at talking and getting your messageacross. It helps also that you speak good English. I don't know aboutRoberto's English, but he probably understands good English easier. Ilike 'Negotiator' but it's got too many syllables and is not as niceas 'Moldovan'.

Georgy.

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Vova's better buy a freaking English-russian-SPANISH dictionary andstudy it very hard, otherwise in two weeks he will not understand a wordfrom the class or from the quiz :-)Val.P.S.Sashka. Good job.

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Really nice job!!!

I am so impressed!

I think from now on we are not going to call you Moldavanin but - Negotiator.

GK

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Hi guys,

I just got off the phone with Roberto (league administration) and want to let you know that he promised to arrange a class for Vova and othersuspended players. After attending that class all of these players would have to take a quiz (or exam) on how to behave on the soccer field. Only after successful completion of that course suspended players would beallowed to play again. This is going to happen in two weeks. Roberto told me that they (league) are in the process of getting a classroom in one of the schools for that course. I also indicated to him that we behaved very well on the field for the last couple of games and he promised that we are going back to Rutgers field next week. I described (in very colorfuldetails) to Roberto the situation when our player (Alex Borisov) got hit in the face by the player of the opposite team and almost every player of our team made sure that there is not going to be a retaliation from our player. I told Roberto that Tornado learned the lesson and we behave properly. He said that both refs indicated the same thing and he is pleased to hear that. Well, I'm going to call him every week until we get this issue with Vova resolved in our favor. I'll see you all on practice.

Moldovan.

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I said the same thing earlier. We have a very regular bunch of peoplethat always piz'det'. They probably are getting better with time, butthey are very consistent. The guy hasn't even had a chance to try toget better. I agree with Charlie that we need to explain more to him.Hell, if it wasn't for email and the 'Vote' section, I would have noidea what you guys are thinking and where you come from.

I have found out that what works for myself is this. I see that wemiss a great opportunity or that we make a terrible mistake, I grab myhead with two hands, I stay like this for two seconds and then go onwith the game.

I think that the guy is new like Korsunsky was saying. But I alsothink that he wants to win very much and doesn't have a broken spirityet. And I felt like last game our spirit was broken. We didn't reallystrive to win. Especially since we had one more man on the field (wedidn't have subs, but I'm tired of repeating that already).

The times that I will say something is when I want to help for afuture play. Like Charlie was saying - look for me on your left side Iwas wide open (not that anybody listens to this)... I really likedCharlie's comment about talking on the field, by the way. I think the'mudozvoni' (guys that still like to piz'det') should print it andread it once a day.

I agree very much with the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday as the days forpractice. This is what I would have voted for if Ryazanov had it as anoption. Korsunsky did have it and I voted. And since the coach issaying it now, I think we should put it for voting with a Yes/No.

As soon as we vote, I will add the Tue and Thu as attendance days.This way people can see who's coming and then can send an email amongthemselves about the field, etc.

Georgy.

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Guys!

My behavior was not very nice in many games either.I don't understand then why I have not thrown from the team yet?!Let's treat everybody equaly.We need to give hime a chance.

Eugene

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I agree with Alex K about Alex B. He has to learn to keep his comments to himself and respect his team members. He played solidly on right defense and I liked having him behind me. He made some very good plays. I think the entire defense and goalie played excellent. They could not have done any better.

Sorry I am unable to vote. My vote would be to keep him but have a very clear conversation with him telling him what we expect and don't expect.

CharlieIt is unbelievable how busy I am during the week here. This client that I am working for, loves meetings and email.

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Hi,

As of now we have 5:5 tie on vote for Alex B.

I think, we should stop discussing it.

I personally think, he should be dismissed,I heart him so many time bitching and yelling to another people, evenduring practice.He has an attitude problem (big time, nobody can come even close to that).

But, we will give him one more chance and I will talk to him personally and address our concerns.---------------------I would love to practice today and every day, but everybody has family and responsibility.What should be done, if we can have at least 2 people committed to practice on specific day we should support it.

Place can be different, whoever decided to come can arrange differentplace.

Next to the Telcordia is pretty descent place (behind High school), but our main location remain Cook college.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday sounds like the right choices.

somebody stated, in order to avoid general crowd, we should eliminateWednesday.

Lets try it.

Georgy, if it make sense, should we upgrade our attendance site forpractices?

Comments, please.

Alik K.

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I agree completely with EugeneK.

But, c'mon!The message subject was about training :)

Guys, if nobody interested I will go and practice in Mountain View park -it's just5 mins from my home.

Yurik, let's go and train our goal scoring skills :)

Eugene

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Guys,

Come on, put yourself in his position. You'rerelatively new, played with us only a couple of times,relatively shy... Somebody tells you pizduy otsyuda orsomething like that, as we all know Sasha G. v karmanza slovami ne lazit... How would you react? Everybodywould react differently in this situation based ontheir personalities and character. He flipped...

Another thing, its his first year in the country...Remember when you came, didn't know anyone? And we'aregoing to dismiss him from the team? Punishment shouldfit the crime. And dismissing is too cruel in thiscase.

ek

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Hi guys. I am glad to hear that we are not lost a last game. About the accident happened on the field: I sow, couple of time, Alex New reaction on somebody mistake in our practice and I don't like this attitude. Second The gay how can left the field in the middle of the game do not have respect in my eyes.( he might think he playing for Manchester, they are make a mistakes too.)About tomorrow practice I would like to come up, but not sure if I can make it.(I can answer on it at afternoon only. I will looking for the email or phone call).

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Guys,

Is anybody interested in tomorrow's training?If at least one player shows desire - I will be there also.

My plan is very simple but I need at least one partner:

1. Running - 10 min2. Shots on target (medium distance) -10 min3. Running - 10 min4. Training one on one with the goal :) -10 min 5. Running - 10 min6. Shots on target (long distance) -10 min7. Running toward the car ;-)

Eugene

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I partially aggree with Alex. What he's saying correct.

I personally try to be a nice person on the field :)And I don't think that I'm a bad person in the real life.But sometimes I just can't handle it!The emotions are so high - it's very difficult notshoot "blyad - pizdets - vsyo zaebalo". :)I think it depends on your temper and on you childhood.Basically I grew up "on the streets". You know what I mean.Actually, when I was a child, I played in a team - but only one year.I was 14 and played on position of left defender - number 5 :)

So, I most part of my life played soccer on the streets - where everybodyuses dirty language and nobody learnes how to be a nice person on the field.That's why I behave this way. Please don't think I really mean that whenI shoot "poshel na huy". Sorry!

Regarding Alex. I think he's just different. He needs to understand us.He needs to undestand that we are playing this style butwe are team of friends, we respect each other!

I think he needs another chance!

Eugene

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Guys,We all know that "pizdesh'" will not stop next Sundayor a Sunday after. It is not something that we can beproud of, but we should not be ashamed of it either.Not a lot of people can withstand so much pressurefrom teammates on and off the field like all of us do.We had a number of situations when things got veryuncomfortable ( yes Georgy, Igor P. wanted to leave),but NOBODY EVER left his teammates during the game,knowing that we had no subs.I just do not understand what Alex B. was trying toprove!! We all humans, all make mistakes. Maybe he didnot really mean what he said, maybe Alex G. and SlavaF. should have controlled there emotions a littlebetter, BUT WHEN YOU TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR TEAMMATES,YOU DO NOT DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE.

Kiyan

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Let me first comment on Alex Borisov.

Guys, we have to keep in mind that the guy is very new to competitivefootball (not new to the game, though). We have to remember what welooked like when we were in the beginning. Remember how Igor waspissed at 'pizdetz' (shouting bad things to each other) on the fieldand how he wanted to leave the team? Remember how many times we had toreinforce in emails the no 'pizdetz' policy? We continue to stress ituntil today, and we'll probably never stop. How Ryjouk came up withthe idea of anonymous messages (anonimki) for people to criticize eachother offline?

Alex Borisov hasn't been on our email list and hasn't heard all that.I am thinking now about Gene Klein's idea of putting him on the list.At first I thought - no he's not a member of the team yet, but now Ithink - what's gonna happen? He will probably just read and learnabout our team at first. He will have a chance to apologize andexplain himself. Not a bad idea after all, I think. And that idea ofarchiving all the messages that Korsunsky had - that archive must bethe must read for new players.

Korsunsky also mentioned his comment wasn't about the missedopportunity but about the 'pizdetz'. If that's true - he is right tobe upset. Why were we so nervous that game? What was all this shoutingabout? Did we forget that we are on probation and have to do theopposite - behave better? We just like cruel and unusual punishment Ithink. Which is also what kicking him out of the team at this stagewould be. I have to say - I still don't like the idea of 'pizdetz' tocomplain about 'pizdetz'...

Klein, your proposal about the Tuesday's - perfect for the votingboard - use it!

Thank you, Korsunsky about the 'Results' page! This is what alwayslook forward to on Monday morning - isn't it?

One thing that gets lost is the fact that we completely shut out theopposite teams in the last two games. Having such an experienced andgood natured goalkeeper as Alex Rikshpun II definitely helps! But italso goes to show that our defense is doing great - which is accordingto the plan. If we don't let goals in (maybe a little too much to askfor) we can't lose. We could have easily won that game. Like Korsunskymentioned in the 'Results', we did have a couple of good chances. Itwould have been perfect for my birthday... :-) And now its justexcellent (not perfect) - playing in hard times with good friends anddoing a good job.

I used Grinberg's new email.

I didn't read any of the emails that arrived in the meanwhile, so letme do it now... after I send this letter.

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My input on Alex B (New) and the situation.

I thought he played very well on Sunday. I didn't know what happened until now about why he was substituted, etc. I agree with Alex G that we should definitely communicate to him that we are a team and respect for your team comes before anything. That goes for all of the other players that shout out their frustrations to the players that make mistakes or when thingsdon't go our way. There aren't any definite goals on the fields we play on.Even a one on one break away with the goalie is not a definite goal. Ithink that everyone should understand this. The fields are not in very good condition and the more you try to settle the ball down, the more it bounces sometimes. Everyone should understand that goals will be missed and great plays will happen and people will make mistakes. It is all part of playing on a soccer team. I make sure to let people know when they make good plays. When mistakes are made that lead to an opposing goal... I immediately think that we have to score to get it back and I forget the mistake. When goals are missed, I say 'Good Try', We will get it next time. Once again, we are not playing under ideal conditions, and no goals are definite. As long as everyone on the team gives it 100% and tries really hard, I am proud to be a team member. I try not to make any negative comments on the field. When I do say something to someone, it is something that will help them next time they get the ball or let them know something for the next time. Like, I was open on that last play, look for me. or Try to shoot low on this keeper. Try to cross a little further on the next play if it happens again.Basically, the comments are for the future, not criticizing the play that just happened. That does not help the situation and there is nothing that you can say that will make the play come back.. Once a play happens, bad or good, it is over. Learn from it and think about the next time. Team mates should never yell at other teammates on the team, no matter what happens. this happened more than once yesterday. Although I don't understandRussian, I know it is yelling by the tones. Yelling amongst teammates or after plays are missed can have an impact on that player and the whole team when future plays occur. People play better when they feel confident. I hope that I made myself clear.

Charlie

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Hi, Eugene.Please, do not kill yourself over that game. You performance was not"xarakternoe" for you, thus I understand your frustration. But, therewere a couple of moments, that you didn't mention.1. The field quality. Enough said.2. Their goalie was pretty good. Even our goalie admitted that a coupleof times.3. Unfortunately, the "clear" forward is not your position. You arecapable of covering much wider area and thus bringing much more damage,that a "clear" forward. That position doesn't give you enough chances toparticipate in the game, thus giving you false impression of being outof the game and creates pressure, that you can not unwind fighting forthe ball. Your speed and ability to destroy opponents' combinations,when unused, creates "obratnyi effect" - it mounts psychologically in abad way. You do not need to play very "prodvinutyi" forward in order toget scoring chances - you can do it from more deeper position.4. And, finally, you know how to play cards, right? Sometimes, no matterhow good player you are, that cards are not right. You just have towait.

Val.

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All persons and events in this messages are fictionary, unless specified otherwise. Do not take it very seriously, but, please, do not discard it completely.

I propose very important drill that we need to do after our normal gameon Sat. For those, who wishes to do more, we can dedicate a part ofWednesday, too.PARTICIPANTS: Only those who wish, participate.GOAL: To train yourself to work under stress and be able to perform.PROCEDURE: 2 Teams, a couple of guys on the bench (Alex R is the best candidatefor the bench position). Everyone tries to make as much mistakes, as possible, thus calling for all kinds of remarks. People do not hold their remarks, but try tounwind and unleash themselves on others. The remarks shouldn't be veryoffensive. The goal of strikers to miss as much as possible, esp. from 100%situations (Don't worry, the goalies will try to miss in 100% goodchances, too. So it's going to be even game). Special role is dedicated to the bench. The guys on the bench shouldtry to boost the morale by yelling "Pidaras" or "Eb tvoyu mat'" as often as possible. In very decisive moments they should yell "Give the ball to the left (or to the right)" It would be good if they yelled in different directions, confusing the heck out of the guy with the ball. If a teamhas two Vals or Sasha's, they should try to give general advices, soneither guy couldn't think, what sentence "Val, na poslednem", means. One of the guys is chosen to be a ref. (Charlie would be the bestcandidate, since he doesn't speak Russian). He got to whistle wheneverhe wishes, and try to piss everybody off. Sometimes, he got to make good calls, too. You can yell anything to him, preferably in russian. Heshould respond, sometimes, preferably in Italian or Spanish. After thegame some guys should thank him, some should call him "kozel" (or anyother bad word, but not very offensive).

I hope, that you, guys, are going to like this drill, as it is goingto prepare us for the next game. I'm going to put this drill on vote, and let's see, how many votes weare going to get (A joke)

Val.

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Actually, I was not that exhausted yesterday. I would have felt the sameas Moldavan (and Slava, who supported Moldovan yesterday) to be honestwith you. I wouldn't react that way, though, just because I'm usuallytrying not to let anything to get inside myself, but I'd voted twice"no". He might be a good guy, great player and everything. I can takeany abuse physical or in words during the game if that will help us toachieve the ultimate result. But there are limits. As simple as that.You cross them, and you are out of the circle ... .

Val.**************************************************************************
Hi guys,

First of all, I would like to ask if anyone has Alex Borisov's e-mail address. We should add him to our e-mail list. So whoever has it or can find it please add his name. The guy should know what is going on behind the field. He should get an understanding that we are not just a bunch of soccer individuals but we are also friends and comrades who respect each other, who can appreciate nice plays and excuse mistakes no matter how costly they are.Secondly, I would like to say thank you to every one who showed up for the yesterday’s game despite the time and the weather condition and special thanks to everyone who played all the game without complains. I am glad to notice that our defense is playing lot more solidly than it did previously. It was a tough game and we didn’t win. But we didn’t lose as well. Looking at the standings I see that we still have a chance to get into the playoffs. We have to get at least 10 points in the next 4 games and having the current team attitude I think it is doable.And lastly, I fully agree with Eugene R. regarding moving practices to different days. I don’t think every team member can make it so many times a week but at least the Wednesday’s practice should be moved to Tuesday. This way we are not going to have all sorts of people coming to the practice and can concentrate on some specific exercises. I can offer a set of exercises to improve your running speed. We should definitely train our attackers to realize one on one, two on one (defender) opportunities since we have them basically in every single game. And of course passing.So whoever wants to work on any particular skill and not just free kicking can get together on Tuesday’s.

Please respond if anyone is interesting.

Regards to everyone,

Gene Klein.

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Hi guys,

Here is what I think about yesterday's situation on the field. I don't feel really good about what happened, I just didn't know how to react differently on Alex’s remark about our team. It was hot, we were exhausted, I couldn't control my emotions. I believe that during the game any negative attitude between the players of the same team is totally unacceptable, all negative words should be said after the game. I just don't know any other way of playing in a team. That is why I said what I said. I told him if he is ashamed of this team he shouldn't be on this team, that's all, and I told him that he could leave. I don't feel bad that I told him this; the only thing that I feel bad about is that my words put our team in a situation when we had only 10 players. Anyway, I didn't check the "vote" and don't know what you guys put over there, I assume you don't want him on our team; I still think we should give him another chance. We should let this guy be a part of o!ur team; we just have to talk to him, all of us about the incident.

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Yevgen R.,

I've always thought of you as a striker and I didn't even realize thatyou were not in the forward position. I think you, Yuri and AlexPrymak are our best choices for dangerous forwards. You all have theexplosive speed and you and Yuri have the additional advantage of yourheight and your long legs (stealing balls left and right from thedefenders).

I like the idea of more practices but I don't think I can attend morethan now. I would support the idea but probably won't come more thanonce for practice... I would certainly appreciate the flexibility ofcoming on one of two days. Plus, when I come back from vacation, Iwill have two weeks on my own - this will be the time for me when Iwould like to visit as many practices and games as I can. But this isan exception - it probably won't happen again at least for a year...:-( This is the time when my children will be old enough not to besuch a workload and I will be able to play more, anyway.

We'll need to discuss what happened with Alex Borisov. Moldovan isprobably the best one to start it... I see this posted for votingalready.

What happened with my suggestion about calling on Friday to see if the'N/A's are coming? This was favored a little over the $5 fine thatRyjouk suggested. And I doubt we will ever get the full vote (12 onlyso far) on that one. I think the coach and the captains have to jumpin at this point and make the decision.

Georgy.

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Guys,

First of all I want to speak to Yury.Man, we needed you badly last game!Please, do something with attendance sheet.You are the only player who shows up in 95% of games and never usesattendance screen!

Regarding myself yesterday.I was playing as a forward and must say it was really tough challenge.I've been analyzing my mistakes and below there are mynotes and on what is important for a forward and mark (1-5) of myperformance yesterday.

1. Psychological control. The chances are rare. One must keep himselfcold to score.

my performance:3

2. Forward must fight the defenders, trying to manage them to make amistake.

my performance :3

3. Speed. Forward must be able to runaway from defender and score!To do that - the physical condition must be very good!!!!

my performance : 3

4. Forward must 'feel' the goals and be able to shoot well.

my performance : 2

5. Forward must know what to do running one on one with goalie.WE MUST TRAIN IT!!!

my performance : 3

Considering all above, I'm looking for another chance, if team decidesto put me on that position.

Also, I reposted Eugene Korsunsky's vote 'how many practices we need'I personally think that instead of wed/sat practicying tue/wed/thu would give us better results. Guys, please vote.

Thanks,Eugene

p.s. I personally will go to trainings tuesdays and thursdays additionallyand will beworking on my running skills.

p.p.s. Guys, we have very nice chances to advance to playoffs!We have to win next couple of games!!!!

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Hi, everybody!

I will start first....

I think we should be happy with result, we achieved our bare minimum- tie and next game now even more important.

I don't want to make my own judgements about behavior of Alex New during the last game, therefore I placed a question for vote (please make your input).

For those of you, who weren't present on the game or didn't understand what happened, here is a short story."During one of the attack our forward couldn't score on the good chance, and Alex New loud remark was, that he is ashamed that he is playing for the team like that. In respond he got comment from one of our defender, that if he doesn't like it, he can leave. Alex New left the field and I had to substitute him"

Someone correct me if my statements incorrect.

Couple more comments:- we should minimize our remarks to each other and from outside of thefield.- we have to practice more free shots, indirect kick, one on one withdefender and than goalie.- we have to make sure that everybody understand their position andbehavior during corner kick (defense or offense)

I think it is enough for now.

See you on Wednesday practice (who can make it).

Also, please fill in your attendance, so we can make our plan andassignments for the next game.

Alik K.

Val, should we arrange another field?

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Hi Tornado,

This is beginning to be an issue, the amount of Genes (Eugenes) and Alexes (Sashas) is getting bigger and bigger. Here is my suggestion; you could call me Moldovan. As some of you might already know I'm from Kishinev, capital of Moldova. I got this nickname back in 1993 when I came to USA and almost all of my friends call me this way. Don't worry, I don't get offended by it, go ahead and use it. I would prefer to be called “Moldovan” rather than “AG”.

P.S. We should come up with friendly nicknames for every “duplicated” name on our roster. And yes, don’t forget that “friendly” is the “key” word.
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The other Alex, sitting on the bench, was AlexRikshpun, who got injured... . Man, you are bad :-)Val.

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I am with you, Ryazanov! I think he is rock-solid. See, he feels likea Tornadoer, doesn't he? But you haven't seen his picture on the'Players' page and on the attendance sheet, have you?

The votes so far seem to favor him 7-1-4. I will be glad to see himjoin us.

Georgy.

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Oh no!I thought we are talking about other guy Alex. There was one moreman sitting on the bench last game.

Regarding the guy who came on substution last game and played as adefender -I thought he WAS ALREADY with the team?!!What's a problem!? He is a solid player!

Eugene

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GeorgySubject: Team sizeHi, folks!

It's Wednesday and all of us are excited about the practice tonight.So, I decided to write a letter to keep the football spirit alive.

Our attendance looks pretty grim as of today. Even if all of the threepeople that haven't entered their attendance say 'yes' we will haveonly 11 players. I believe very much that playing with few playersdirectly the team performance. So, I have one piece of advice for us -don't get nervous and don't start shouting to each other if we are notdoing too well on the field this next game. Instead, get together evenmore and think of this game as a tough war to win. They say don't goto war unless you are in a better position, but in this case we don'thave much choice.

This is a good reminder for all of us that having more players iscrucial for Tornado's success. I have a feeling that those six peoplethat have selected that our team should only have 18 players probablywant to change their choice at this moment... :-)

No one is to blame that we will have few people. This happensnaturally and we should anticipate situations like that. And since wefinally know that there are four substitutions allowed - we want tohave 15 people for each game, don't we? So in the best case we will be4 people short this game. And in the worst we will have 8. I finallyread through the football rules (thank you, Eugene K.) and I amrelieved that the rules allow a team to play even with only 7players! This pretty much means that unless we mind losing we shouldnot worry about getting extra players :-)

It will be great if Alex Rikshpun II can come to play with us again.This will mean that we will have a superb goalkeeper and that AlexKarger can be somewhere on the field (probably as a substitutiontoward the end of the game?). It will also be great if Alex Borisovcan come and if the officials don't notice the cheating with the ID's.

But is it fair to Alex Borisov to keep him as a second class,unofficial, last resort player? And is it wise to rely on visitorsfrom Germany to come for the games when we need them (A.R. II isprobably back in Germany already)?

We still don't have a complete vote on any one issue. We have the most(14) for the size of the team. I am starting to think of making thescript take the older issues off the voting board after, let's say,two weeks. If somebody didn't bother to vote for something for twoweeks, does his vote deserve to be heard? Some of the issues aretimely issues, so if we don't get a good picture of what the playersthink on time - the vote is useless. That's a good thing to put up forvoting...

So, I expect to see 6 people voting against Alex Borisov (the sixpeople that don't want to add new players). So far we have threeagainst. But we also have six people voting for him so far. Let's seeif in a few days we have a better picture.

Georgy.

****************************************************************************

Game 14

Val R.

Based on recent poll for the positions, where peoplelike to play, we have following results:Total players: 18Wish to play centerforwards: 8Wish to play forwards: 8Goalies: 1N/A : 1 (Maradona).

To satisfy all people's needs I propose to eliminatepositions of midfielders and defenders and introducefollowing positions:* "Daleko otodvinutyi" forward ("Far fallen back(?)"forward - still forward, but plays closer to our goals(usually Sasha Grinberg or Sasha Rikspun)* "Slabo otodvinutyi" forward - ("A little fallenback" forward) Usually played by me, Kyian, ...* "Prosto forward" ("Just" forward)- helps the firsttwo.* The rest we will leave as is.

Since all people on the team will be forwards we aregoing to play "ostryi, atakuyushiy" futbol.

:-)

Val.P.S.Eugene, Georgiy. This post has nothing to do with themessages you have sent. I just thought it may be funny.

****************************************************************************Alex G.Subject: Re: ok I’ll start

In reference to a dream position, to be honest with you I would love to play as a forward again. I was never a defenseman before I started to play soccer again last summer. Val B. and Fima are my witnesses so is Alex F but only if he remembers our games back in a day (Elizabeth vs. Edison). I love scoring goals but I don't have that power shot that would allow me to score from this side of the center line:)Anyhow, that is all what I have to say about that.

P.S. Gene K., no, you're not alone, I'm sick about our team as well. I'll see you all tomorrow at the practice.

****************************************************************************

Alik.Subject: Re: ok I’ll startHi, everybody!

I am glad, that everyone, who wish to try different position,understand necessity of the current assignments.And we will try to do changes, may be not for the whole game but forsome portion of the game.

Unfortunately, based on the next game availability (6 people missingalready), we will need to use current structure.

See you on Wednesday. Val, should we use different field for practice on Wednesday?

Alex K.

****************************************************************************

Serega K.

I think we definitely had the best player on Sun: Alex Rikshpun [German Goalie:)

I'm going to miss next two games, Kiev vacation Aug 3-12;I also decided to skip this Wed practiceand give my ankle more time to recover:after each game it starts swelling and hurts a little bit :(

wish our goalie to be the best next game!so you guys should have superior chances to clinch the 3d in a row!see ya all in two weeks-sk

***************************************************************************

Georgy

Since we started talking...

I wrote a letter to our captains with a request to play on the otherside of the center line. I thought that I should only write to them tolet them think it over and make a decision. Unfortunately, I didn'tget a response back... :-(

So, here I'm talking again.

I have been moving from midfield to defense-midfield to defense (inthe last game). I put the interest of the team above my personal and Itry to do my best wherever they put me. And I think I must be doing adecent job for the captains to put me there. Especially in the lastgame, I felt like the position I played in the second half - centerdefender, was one of the most important ones. We had to keep our leadand we could only do it by solid defense.

I miss the midfield, though. And I think that the less I practicethere, the more I will lose some of my skills that I use there. I alsodon't feel as if I am being utilized completely. The last game Icouldn't get tired because my running was dependent on their forwardsand there wasn't much reason to run. That's not the same in midfield.

I suggested in my first letter to the captains that we swap placeswith Gene Klein at the halftime or in regular periods. I can imagineplaying somewhere on the flanks, too - preferably the right one.

Georgy.

***************************************************************************

Zhenya R.Subject: Re: ok I’ll start

All,

I would be glad to try playing center forward once :)

Eugene

***************************************************************************

Val R.

I'm talking , baby ... :-). You know, where my placeis ;-) I can challange myself from the forward to thegoalkeeper and beyond - "miachiki podavat'"

Val.

P.S. I'm just bs'ing.

On the serious side. YES, WE CAN MAKE THREE IN AROW!!! ***************************************************************************

Alik

Hi, guys!

I think everybody share Gene K. philosophy.It is no better filling, then playing (not necessary winning) soccer gamewith a group of people, you enjoy playing with.

I hope, our practice, E-mail exchange, conversations start paying dividends.

We should strive for something we didn't achieve this year yet- winning 3 games in row. We know we are capable of doing it.

Alex K.

P.S. If somebody fills, that position you assigned in the field does not fit you, or you want to challenge yourself to some other position, please talk.

Gene Klein

Subject: Re: ok I’ll start
Hi guys,

This is so unusual to see Tornado’s message board so empty. I guess everyone got satisfied with the way he played yesterday, along with the way his teammates played that none wanted to say anything about the game (except Alex G). For me the truth is, I got so used to these messages that a victory without the messages exchange is not complete. This became an another world of emotions, personalities and thoughts where you can go for a short periods of time to separate yourself from a reality being. We became a group of people associated together in a common activity or by common traits or interests or as Webster defined it we became a TEAM. And I am really glad to be a part of this group of people. And it really doesn’t matter how well we perform as long as everyone is trying to do his best and provide a support to his teammates at any given circumstances.

Honestly, I am not sure if I would come up with all this philosophy if we lost yesterday and there wouldn’t be any messages from the team members. I would probably start to write something just to initiate a conversation. This should tell you how sick I became about the soccer club we got. My only hope is I am not the only one who got sick about it.

Have a nice day everyone,

Gene Klein

Alex G.

Subject: ok I’ll start

Hi Tornado,

I don't even want to mention any particular player from yesterday's game, everyone, EVERYONE on our team deserves credit for their performance! Great team effort and probably the best game in this tournament. I’m proud to be a part of this team, thank you guys!

P.S. I hate to do this to you all again but my Email address will be changed again this week. I will no longer subscribe to AOL since I got Optimum Online. My new Email address will be TornadoV@optonline.net (V- Roman ‘5’). Towards the end of this week I’ll send a new Email list from that address. Sorry for the inconvenience.
****************************************************************************

Alik

All,

I didn't have any problem with refereeing lately, exceptthe guy in the beginning with cigarette bud in his pocket.

We are playing very decent game right now, and not a lotof things have to change.

We have to learn how to fall, when it is necessary, and get penalty.(I think that what Val R. referring when he is talking about "girls"staff).

I understand, that everyone want to fight for the ball until you get it, butsometimes it is much easier to fall and also show REF, how opponentplays. (we should discuss it more) We all see fake penalties in the professional soccer.

I don't believe, that we can change situation with Vova (suspension wise),we can try, but.....

On the other hand, I fill much better. My age and domestic issues (my daughtergetting married soon) sometime effect my performance, but not now.

Another issue I see that in 4 weeks I will take a vacation and will need to miss3 games. We will ask Alex R. to help us, and we will need someone to backed him up(?).

Positive attitude, practicing, good relation to each other, that all, what we need at the moment.

We can have 2 wins in the row again, I am very positive about it!!!!!

Leys have fun.

Georgy

Subject: Re:next game

That ref is my favorite one. True - he didn't blow the whistle on thatoccasion, but all my previous impressions of him are positive. I agreeabout the respect to the refs. It is not difficult for me to respectthis ref since I like his judgment, but I respected even the otherlousy little prick enough not to argue with his decisions.

I didn't get that with the "women" and the "yelling"...

Georgy.

Val R.

Subject: Re:next game

So far, everything goes, as I expected. I'm not going to comment on theincident, but I'm very pessimistic on getting Vova back. I'm even morepessimistic on thinking, that he will not do something like this again(no offense, Volodia - I still think, that you are the best goalie inthe liga.)

Here are a couple of things, I want to share. Some of you could disagree with some of them.

1. RESPECT TO THE REF. So far, we have had NONE! I want to mention, that the ref, that we cursed on after one of the game said to me: "Theythink, I'm biased (he used another word). It's easy - I'll try not to be the ref, when you play." Since then, we do not play on the HighlandPark's field, but in Livingston only.

2. RESPECT TO OURSELVES. We have improved in this area, but there stillis the room to improve. No matter, how high your emotions are, you cannot yell across the field about YOUR intake of certain situation.

3. RESPECT TO THE CAPTAIN. ONLY CAPTAIN CAN TALK TO THE REF. He doesn'tlisten, anyway. I'd say, that we behave more like women, when we try to"jump" on him yelling, rather than, when we fall and yell after atackle.

4. RESPECT TO THE OPPONENT. A) 3-0 and 3-5. B) 2-3 to the team with 2girls. No more words.

5. RESPECT TO THE GAME. That's what we are good at. Take it seriously as we do, put all our efforts into this, rather than defying the principles above.

Good luck.

Val.

P.S. In my opinion, the ref was not VERY biased on purpose once. But, hey, that's me.

****************************************************************************

Val B.Subject: next game

Well here is a little follow up from the last game.

Vova is suspended for the rest of the league.I tried to talk to league people, but so far was useless.As far as Alex F, i think he will get away with 1 game.

Some league policies; we all know that so far the league was nice to us.We had every game in the morning, except 1 game.We get a break on some issues(passes, uniforms)I know some may say refs werene sometimes bios, but that's personal refs issues.

So here is some consequences of our actions.Our next game was supposed to be at 4:30 in afternoon, only because i said we are going on fishing trip, the game was moved to 9:30 in the morning.Now we are playing on some field in New Brunswick, which i have no directions yet.I'll find out them on Saturday, after practice. I will have to go to the store to get the directions, and pick up our passes. Alex G, you wanted to join me to talk about Vova?

So expect an e-mail with directions on Staurday.

We have to change the way we play, i.e getting the cards. This includes me,as primary suspect. Recently i was getting cards in every game. Once we change our image, we should be in better relations with league again.

Val

****************************************************************************

Game 13

Val R. Subject: Part Three Of ... [The incident - vdogonku]. probably the last one

A question:How about to stay on the ground for a little after "the dirty play" to:1. Give the captain (ONLY HIM) the time to talk to the ref.2. Show the ref, that there was a bad thing.Guys. The soccer is not only about the game, but about the tactic too.Val.

*****************************************************************************

Val R. Subject: Part Two Of ... [The incident]

1. Main thing: Val should talk to the liga officials about the incident.In my opinion, there is very grave risk for Vova to be thrown out. Weshouldn't allow it.2. Vova. Print out the section of my previous message about thepsychological aspect of the game, and put it in the car to read on eachred light!!!3. The defenders in soccer are not able to defend the goalie as inhockey. We can not run through the field to push the "bad" guy.4. Alex G. Tell me, why the sucker was able to push you, when the refdidn't see, and YOU HAD TO ANSWER HIM EXACTLY, WHEN THE REF WAS LOOKING AT YOU? Please, don't answer this, as this is a rhetorical question.

IMPORTANT: Only the captain should speak to the ref. We shouldn't yell"REF" every time, when something happens!!!

Val.

*****************************************************************************

Val R. Subject: Part One Of ... [The Game] Guys.I'll try to be brief and clear, because not everything, that I write isbeing absorbed.

Thank you, very much, everybody, for the kind words. It was a pleasureto play yesterday and we kicked their sorry asses (somebody kickedfaces, too). The game and the result were very rewarding. I agree withall the words, Gene Klein wrote. (especially about me, since those werethe good words :-) (A joke). I'm waiting for Eugene Ko's comments tosee, how it looked from the stands ...

SERIOUSLY: My forward was very week in the first half, allowing me to create enough pressure to "kill" him. And Eugene Ko was kind enough tohelp me with the rest of them, so my task was easy. In the second half,they added a couple of players on my wing, thus creating almostunbearable pressure. That's the reason, why my play in the second halfwas bleak.

CAUTION: The team play is as good, as the opponent allows it to play. Let's mobilize ourselves for the next game to keep the momentum.

Val.

*****************************************************************************

Gene Klein

Subject: Re: Today's game Good morning guys,

As you well know I play closer toward the middle of the fields, so I couldn't see every dirty trick the guy was doing to our goalie. All I saw was the output and let me tell you that every game is a battle of enemies and enemies are always trying to destroy each other. And if the destruction is not going well enough the enemies are trying to make as much damage as they can. Our opponents in the last game did a very nice job of making the damage. In every sport that has a goaltender, the players are trying to annoy the other's team goalie by using all sort of the tricks. That is why the goalie should be the coolest guy on the field and always control his emotions and he should rely onto his teammates for his protection. That takes a lot of self-control and that is what people call - professionalism. We are not professionals, but we all care about the team and its performance. Lately Vova developed into such a nice last guard of this team. And that gives such a confidence to the defense in the first place and to the rest of the team after that. And now he would have to miss a number of games. Did he do any good to the team except satisfying his own desire by punching the guy, who was trying to do what every attacker would try to do?Other than that little accident I think we had a nice game. I would like to mention Charlie, not because he did some extraordinary stuff on the field, but because he was moving all game long showing really nice physical condition. He destroyed number of their attacks and he started a good number of ours. Another guy who deserves a couple words is Val R. I think that was the first game (out of what I saw) when he showed such a confidence throughout the whole game and such a desire to make nice plays. I should have mentioned Ura for scoring such a nice and needed goals but guys, he did what he was supposed to be doing having one on one opportunity. And the luck turn away from Maradona who hit the posts twice.Almost every game we have four, five really nice opportunities. We should learn how to realize them better and then how to protect our own goal posts.

Have a good day now.

Gene Klein.

*****************************************************************************

Alex G. Subject: Today's game

Hi Tornado,

I want to thank everyone for the good game yesterday we needed that win! And now I'd like to talk about the situation with our goalie, Vova. I know some of you started immediately blame him for not being able to control himself and letting the team down. This is a very one-sided look at the situation, I'm not sure if you guys aware of what was happening between that player from the opposite team and Vova prior to the incident. Let me tell you, after almost every time Vova touched the ball, that guy was making a contact with him. He pushed him several in a back when ref wasn't looking, there was a couple of elbows in Vova's stomach, that's why I thought I had to do something about that since ref was letting all this to go on. I told this guy that if he continues to do this kind of stuff to our goalie I would take him down. I'm not sure he understood what I was talking about but I didn't know what else to do. I told about that to the referee and he told me that he!has an eye on this guy and told me not to worry. I'm not blaming Vova for what he has done, I just feel bad that they will suspend him. Val, I would love to go with you to talk to the officials, let me know if it's possible, I think I'll be able to help with negotiations.

*****************************************************************************

Georgy

Subject: Re: Today's game Hi, Vova!

I'm behind you, man! I don't approve of solving problems with fighting But I understand that under certain circumstances people can get really pissed. I know I can. Plus, certain people have a harder time controlling themselves when some ass hole treats them unfair.

I saw the situation from the side. It looked to me that you tackled him in such a way that he could have received the penalty. But he didn't, there was no whistle. And when he saw that he had no chance to score and rolled on the ground with you, he deliberately rolled too much and landed his foot on the back of your head. I saw that clearly - the guy did it on purpose andprobably out of frustration. I couldn't see the smile but if there was one, it would piss me enough to punch him.

There wasn't a whistle about his foul. That was a mistake on the ref's side. Or maybe he didn't see it. This guy is a good ref and I believe he didn't see it. But he did give him the red card ultimately. This tells you that even if he didn't see it immediately or didn't whistle immediately, he might still give him the red card. So, next time it might pay to wait and see if he gets thrown out of the game first. If you wait you will also let yourself cool a little and realize that retaliation is fair but probably not worth it. If the guy didn't get penalized about that, we would have got him the next time he had the ball. And if they took him out, the rest of themwouldn't have felt very comfortable on the field.

It is not easy to control oneself on the field. It takes a lot of time and work, and even then your passion for the game and sense of justice can take you out of control. And yet, if a guy walks away from something like this, I have a lot of respect for him. I know how hard it is for him and that he does it in the name of "sporting behavior" and knowing he is the more noble man.

I am glad to see us win! We deserved it. I missed most of the first half but I think we were doing a good job. We had a lot of people, too. Thisprobably helped.

When I looked at one situation, I came up with a suggestion.

When we are in the middle of the field and defending, we should not try to take them one by one. We should try to get the guy with the ball and the rest of the guys around him all at once. In that situation I saw us lined up against them lined up. One of us would attack the guy with the ball andsince he had a couple of people next to him that were open, he could take the ball side to side. This didn't allow them to advance at first, but by passing the ball from the left to the middle and to the right they werebuying time for the forwards to move in better positions. Since they were in the middle of the field they were within a passing distance from theforwards on the flanks and were able to hit them. I don't think we should try to do that when they are in front of their goal. That's too far for us to get bothered and should only be done in situations when we want to press them. But when they are in the middle, we shouldn't look just at the guy with the ball. We should look to cover them all at once. This should force them to pass it back in the best case for them and lose the ball in theworst. If we just look at the guy with the ball and only one of us goes to meet him, he will be beaten and they will have time to spread their attack.

See you soon, guys. I think we should still celebrate the victory. It was well deserved.

Georgy.

*****************************************************************************

VovaSubject: Today's game Gays I have cup of words about the game we had today.We had a good game almost to the end of it. We had a lot of chances and most important we had a control of that game. They are against have not a little chance to score and that is why they are start to play dirty.I am not looking for excuse I did what i did. Ones again I put my teem in bad situation and I want to explain why it is happen. I can hold a pain in side myself, I am not a little boy but some time I can not control my emotion. That gay was felt on top of me and when he get up he hit me in the head he just step on me. It was no whistle from the ref before Alex F. was involved in all this and for less of the second I sow his fucking smile and ones again I lost a control of myself.

I am sorry, I apologize to my teem and what ever decision you make it will be so. Vladimir.

*****************************************************************************

Game 12

Georgy

Subject: Re:Looking forward to the next game

*****************************************************************************

Alik

Subject: Looking forward to the next game

Hi, teammates!

I decided to write this e-mail before E-mail discussion starts.
And by doing that, stop following e-mails.
When somebody dead, we should say something good
or nothing about that person (or a team in our case).

We as a team were physically and mentally dead in the second half.
That is the fact, therefore lets berried that person (or a team in our case), and forget about this fact until Wednesday, than regroup, bring positive attitude, smile to each other and start looking forward to the next game.

If you look at any championship league around the world you will
see teams on first place, also teams in 20th (last) place.
The 20th place doesn't make team bad, it just says that team
are not mentally/physically ready for challenge and have a lot
opportunity to improve and room to change things around in the
coming games or next year.

On personal note, I am declaring myself ineligible to play
until I will loose at least 10 LB, or unless it 110% necessary.

Also, regardless of the score, I would like to recognize
excellent effort some of our players : Georgy, Sasha P, Gene Kors and others.

We will win many games ahead, just give us some time.

Thanks for your attention and see you on Wednesday.

Alik K.

*****************************************************************************

‘Friendly’ against Sputnik

Georgy

I very much agree with the idea of swapping positions on the fly. This to me is the ultimate of team play. If you can see that someone is leaving his post and covering for him. I suggested this earlier also as a mean for some people to take rest in calmer positions at the moment. I think we've successfully been doing it with Alex F.
In the game with Sputnik, I replaced Igor at some point and since he was playing right defender, I decided to stay put in that position. Needless to say, I lacked experience there and was gravitating towards the middle all the time. But I was very glad to see that when I went forward, Alex G. would cover me on the right and on the counter attack I could run on the diagonal straight to the middle to cover his position.

*****************************************************************************

Georgy

Good thing that Korsunsky reminded us. I was also impressed by that tackle and then I forgot. Nice tackle, Val R.!

About passing on the flanks: if you do have an open player ahead of you, go ahead and give it to him. Maradona, Yuri and Ryazanov can do a lot of damage if they are open on the flank. The problem is that very often we give the pass on the flank just because it's easiest - you see better ahead of you. We would give it to someone that is being covered and then he has to take control of the ball in a limited space and worry about a guy from behind, on top of that the attack gets more limited and predictable at that point.

*****************************************************************************

Val R.Subject: tackling

Sasha.
Unfortunately, even if you perfect your skills in tackling, you will not be able to do it, because of the position, you play (as a sweeper).

Usually, you face the attacker in so-called third (final stage of attack). There is no way you can do it there.

The tackle for ME has a couple of things:
1. I think, I can do it sometimes.
2. If I mad at someone, I can try to cause him pain from falling
without directly injuring him or making a rough play (BTW, the Vitek's tackle at the end of game was exactly like this: a) clean (he touched the ball, befory the attacker) b) BAD. he moved further after the ball was touched. At this moment, it's the attacker's responsibility to avoid the contact, as well. The rules say that the fault is in the case when the tackler didn't make an effort to avoid contact. Go, check that!
3. Ustrashaushchiy (scaring) effect. I want him to think twice, before he starts to dribble pass me.
4. I like it
5. I'm too lazy to run fast

And one more.
The midfielder (supporting esp.) should try this move more, as they risk less.

Sincerely, Val.
P.S.
If you are still interested, I can send you a couple of links to "How to tackle..." articles.

*****************************************************************************

Val R.Subject: Re: 1 more thing

Guys. This is a long post. Sorry. It started as the post to EugeneK, but then "Ostapa poneslo"(12 stuliev). If you do not have time, please, discard it.

Val.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eugene Korsunsky
> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 9:35 AM
> Subject: Re:
>
> One more thing that was forgotten 'v obsore'
>
> There were 2 or 3 spectacular tackles by Val R.
> stopping Sputnik's attack. Also I think that
> 'on brosalsya vpered' after those tackles because
> there were a lot of open space in front of him
> leaving many Sputnik's attackers behind. Somebody
> should have covered space he left until he got back.
>
> ek


Thanks, Eugene.
You do not realize, how much this means to me.
I started to think, that I really do not have a clue...
I know that I can screw up sometimes, but I usually understand it after analyzing. In this case, I couldn't understand the guys' comments. I see 20-30 meters of open space, leaving me no choice, as to fill it and create an opportunity for the counterattack. How I finish these moves is the other question. But one of them did ended up by me passing to Alex-Maradona, that led to 2:2... . And I do need the practice of trying to finish them with a good pass. Where else can I do it, besides "v usloviyax, priblizhennyx k boevym." And what touches me, I was not the
only one, that sucked in passing at that game.

Another comment, that I wanted to make to offense(attack), but I'm
afraid nobody would listen, anyway. We are lacking the dynamic in
attack. That means, that we shouldn't change our way of playing, when we possess the ball, but change the way, we are moving, when we do not have the ball. That means, if you have the ball, and start to dribble through defense, the other shouldn't stay on the same line and yell "pass in the middle", but move quickly in the open spaces in the possible directions of your move, so you could notice them in very short period of time. Dribbling through defense is very important part of the mens' futboll. One of
its' purposes is to create the time for the attackers to go into positions. And if the player with the ball is good, he's going to give time for the rest to go ahead, or to be tackled, which will lead to the free kick. I think, we are doing mistake, trying to have people to make a pass "in one touch", as very few of us have this ability. Our skills to dribble are not great in general, but better, than passing.

And one more personal thing:"There is no way, I'm going give a pass on the same line from the flank in the middle, if I have an open player with an open space on the flank in front of me". I will not even try to explain this. I'm surprised, how anyone can even request such a pass and be dissatisfied, when I didn't do it. If we attack you should have either open space in front of you and be on the same line, than you can yell "In the middle, in the middle...", or you should run like crazy, trying to run faster, than me (with the ball) to receive that pass.

And one more thing. If I have the open space to move from defense to the middle or to the flank, I will choose the middle, thus giving me an opportunity to give that pass to both attack's flank.

--- Gene Klein wrote:
> Good Morning Team,
>
> I would like to review yesterday's game and
> highlight our mistakes since
> it's gotten into a routine by now.
>
> But first of all I would like to publicly apologize
> to Eugene Korsunsky and
> Val R.yjouk for raising my voice and criticizing
> their actions on the field.
> Guys you have to know that on the field I am a
> different person than I am
> off the field. And the reason is I love to win and I
> hate to loose, I love
> to make nice plays and I hate myself when I do
> otherwise. Just don't pay
> any attention to me and never, once again never take
> it personally.
> But having a cool head now let me say, Eugene when
> you are face to face with
> a defender and there's no one open around, you
> should try trick him, bypass
> him or something else. When you face more than one
> defender, and there's no
> one to pass, and you decided to go ahead and bypass
> opponents, and more to
> it you got passed the first one, and the second and
> maybe even third one is
> heading toward you, right at that moment a "RED
> FLAG" should be raised in
> your mind: "Find an open player. If you got two or
> three players around you
> that means someone of your teammates is open. And if
> you rise you head and
> quickly look around, you should be able to find
> someone in better position
> in nine cases out of ten.

Strongly agree with the concept, strongly disagree with the numbers. (see above). I'd say 2 out of 10 for Eugene's position in the way we move. (Last game was an example). Do not forget, that he played "supporting" midfielder, thus he was moving in the middle, giving a chance to the wingers to go in the positions and for the forwards to move in the range of SHORT(!!!) pass.
2 out of 10 we supported him, not 9.

>> The same applies to Alex
> (Maradona), happened few
> times yestreday and to Ura G. and Val B. not
> yesterday but some other games.
> It happens to me too. But we should always keep it
> in the mind and try to
> find an open player right after we passed the first
> and sometimes the
> second, defender.

Maradona's and ValB roles are quite different from Ura. They should move deep in the flank, trying to get a couple of defensman on them (if they play correctly). It should create the time opportunity and space for the forwards and supporting midfielders to go in the positions, where defenders and goalkeeper can be eliminated by the pass. Mistakes (things, we do not do)
1. Wingers often try to move to the middle, closing the space for the supporting midfielder, and (VERY IMPORTING IN LIGA GAMES) HELPING THE OPPOSITE TEAM TO MAINTAIN DEFFENSIVE COMPOSURE (OR SHAPE).
2. As the consequence of the above, there is no eliminating pass, nor the "prostrel"

3. Wingers are holding ball LITTLE (and I mean, little) longer, than necessary. The reason - they want to check, where to pass. We should try to "naigrivat'" combinations , where the winger shouldn't even think where to, but pass or prostrelivat.

> Val R. please stop failing your fellow defenders by
> running toward a
> midfielder with the ball and leaving an attacker
> behind your back. Every

Disagree with "every"

> time you do that a dangerous attack happens. You
> should stick to the
> attacker on your flank and leave the midfielder to
> our midfielder and if
> there is none around, the center defender should
> meet him that is his job at
> that point. Another thing Val, when you poses a ball
> you keep it for too
> long and when you finally make a pass it is in most
> cases not a good one.

See above

> Val, I don't see it is changing until you start
> attending the practices
> where we actually work on passes and lots of other
> stuff.
> In general the defender should touch the ball at
> most twice: stop the ball,
> pass the ball or stop the ball and clear the ball
> away. If it can be
> achieved in one touch it is even better. As soon as
> we are trying to get
> fancy about it something not very good happens.

Disagree


Val.

*****************************************************************************

Alex G.Subject: Re: 1 more thing

Hello Tornado,

Strongly agree with Eugene's comment, those were very good, clean (I should mention it takes balls to make a play like that!) tackles by Val R. and the timing was perfect. I hate to admit, but I don't really know how to do a sliding tackle. This is something that I'm planning to learn, if someone knows how to do it, please advise. I would love to try it on a very next practice.
*****************************************************************************
Eugene K.Subject: 1 more thing

One more thing that was forgotten 'v obsore'

There were 2 or 3 spectacular tackles by Val R.
stopping Sputnik's attack. Also I think that
'on brosalsya vpered' after those tackles because
there were a lot of open space in front of him
leaving many Sputnik's attackers behind. Somebody
should have covered space he left until he got back.

Alex R.

Subject: Re

guys
a didn't now we have coach
y pered igroy podoshel k alex i obysnil kogo gde stavit i pochemy
no on ne poslyshal
ecli mu xatim igrat v futbol a ne v dvorovoy dur-dur
hado ostavit cvoi ambicui idelat tohto idet na polzy komande
prosto vasy cprav pety cleva eto detstvo
kakoy cmucl bulo vuxodit v zachity pri0:2
kakoy cmusl bulo tratit cilu vozvrachayc
hto bulo nepravilno cdelano mhoy v etoi cutuacii?
cami igru pokazuvaut mou pravotu ney geli etogo ne vidno
esli ne bydet organizacii igru v zavicimosti ot igrokov i ixnego sostoyniy
trenirovok htobu naychitcy igrat golovoy muslit na pole
togda zachem igrat v turnire?
zachita chas organizovano xoroho
u vsy problema eto organizaciy polyzahitu i napadeniy
mne nado nescolco trenirovoc i bce budyt delat to hto nado
i polycht ydovostvie ot igru
sorry guys no plysat pod dudky sapernicov mu nedolgnu
onu dolgnu plysat pod nashy
moget y kogoto est drygoe konkretnoe mnenie kak eto cdelat
tak ckagute
prosto obidno komande c bolshum potencialom
tak igrat

*****************************************************************************

Val R.Subject: My 2 cents

A little psychological intake.

When an opponent put you down on the ground, the only resort to you is the ref’s whistle. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. You got two choices

1. To complain to the ref.
2. To continue to play and “otomstit’” in the first moment.

If you follow first, he won twice – he interrupted our attack and he got into you. Getting in to the head is the very goal of each player. If you make the opponent to be more carefull, when he approaches you, he will have one more thing on his mind.

Thus, the bottom line is:

- Never appeal to the ref in rude form, likke did you see, what he did! If the ref saw it, he made his choice already. If he asks you, how are you, it’s more likely, you going to get a break from him next time.

- Never let yourself to repond to rude playy with the words or trying to get into brawl. If you do this, you already lost. He’s in your mind. You’ll get a chance to get back at him in calm, “professional” manner.

- Do not forget, that a little holding withh the arms, or jersey, or a little kicking IS ALLOWED by the refs now. BE AWARE OF THIS. DO not get offended if you were tackled rough and the ref didn’t whistle. The ball was probably kicked away first. After that, it’s YOUR responsibility to escape the injury.

I hope, it was not that long.

Val.

*****************************************************************************

Gene Kl.Subject: Re

Good Morning Team,

I would like to review yesterday’s game and highlight our mistakes since it’s gotten into a routine by now.

But first of all I would like to publicly apologize to Eugene Korsunsky and Val R.yjouk for raising my voice and criticizing their actions on the field. Guys you have to know that on the field I am a different person than I am off the field. And the reason is I love to win and I hate to loose, I love to make nice plays and I hate myself when I do otherwise. Just don’t
pay any attention to me and never, once again never take it personally. But having a cool head now let me say, Eugene when you are face to face with a defender and there’s no one open around, you should try trick him, bypass him or something else. When you face more than one defender, and there’s no one to pass, and you decided to go ahead and bypass opponents, and more
to it you got passed the first one, and the second and maybe even third one is heading toward you, right at that moment a “RED FLAG” should be raised in your mind: “Find an open player. If you got two or three players around you that means someone of your teammates is open. And if you rise you head and quickly look around, you should be able to find someone in better position
in nine cases out of ten. The same applies to Alex (Maradona), happened few times yestreday and to Ura G. and Val B. not yesterday but some other games. It happens to me too. But we should always keep it in the mind and try to find an open player right after we passed the first and sometimes the second, defender. Val R. please stop failing your fellow defenders by running toward a midfielder with the ball and leaving an attacker behind your back.Every time you do that a dangerous attack happens. You should stick to the attacker on your flank and leave the midfielder to our midfielder and if there is none around, the center defender should meet him that is his job at that point. Another thing Val, when you poses a ball you keep it for too long and when you finally make a pass it is in most cases not a good one. Val, I don’t see it is changing until you start attending the practices where we actually work on passes and lots of other stuff.In general the defender should touch the ball at most twice: stop the ball, pass the ball or stop the ball and clear the ball away. If it can be achieved in one touch it is even better. As soon as we are trying to get fancy about it something not very good happens. Did you see the resemblance between two goals we allowed in this game and the first goal we allowed in the last game? A flank defender should try to push the attacker from the center toward a flank. The body should be placed between the attacker and the center of the field trying to block the pass across and in case when the pass happens a goalkeeper should cover it up. Alex Rishpkin, I know you join the team when it was pretty much established and the rules were set. Every member of the team secretly voted to select captains/ coaches/managers for the team. And at that point we all agree that whatever captain says should not be questioned. When you dispute the captain/coach decision in front of the whole team you are questioning his ability to handle things rightly and it doesn’t do any good to the team. If
you have other vision of the things you should pull the captain aside and try to convince him by giving reasonable arguments. After that its captain’s decision and responsibility either to consider your comments or not. The second thing Alex, I nderstand how mush you love to be involved into an attack or an attack creation. More to it I think you are doing a really good job when you are playing a pull back midfielder making good decision. The problem with you playing in that position is that after few attacks you stop coming back to cover your zone and its getting exposed to the opposite team. When Georgy plays in that position he does a good job too but he always comes back to cover the zone. That’s why we see so often Georgy’s running back and forth so much. I think the best for this team if we can use your experience in coordinating our defense. When you do it - our defense is such a good squad and it is really tough to beat. To satisfy your secret desire I think you may switch with Georgy throughout the game for 15-20 minutes but after that you should switch back. Slava F. you played nicely yesterday, a lot of running and good passing. I have only one comment: when you lose your battle to an opponent player don’t let him run away from you and don’t give him a freedom to make a decision. You should run right behind, breath right into his back, limit his space and time. That would require an additional energy from you but on the other hand it would take off some pressure from our defense and that is the main point of this game – not to allow any goals. The same applies to Alex (Maradona), Ura G. and Val B. Despite the way we intended to play (I mean relaxing) it didn’t happen.
Actually we started very relaxed but then we got under influence of the very nervous atmosphere within “Sputnik” team. The game was roughing, tough, nervous and not friendly at all. But the good thing about it was that it highlighted most of our mistakes. Anyway I don’t think we should play with them any more friendly games. That was a game of unrealized opportunities for both teams. But I think we had them more than they did. Only I got
five of them: hitting the post, hitting the bar, twice right into goalkeeper and once missed the net. Ura had couple nice head shots, one on one opportunity, Maradona hit the post, Eugene K had couple nice shots one of them was really beautiful but he missed the net by few inches I think there were couple other opportunities. I am sorry but I didn’t have a very good game
myself, but at least I have an excuse: lack of movements for the last three weeks and besides I started to smoke again (which is not an excuse). This doesn’t do any good to this team as well as to my family and myself. Guys, for the sake of the team and my family I will try to quit. And if I don’t you should disgrace me by expelling from being one of the captains (strong statement).
Anyway, I think the best player on the field was Alex (Maradona). He terrorized their defense with his speed, scored a goal and created couple nice opportunities once for me which I did not convert and I think that was him who passed across to Ura when he scored the second one (I may be mistaken though). The runners up are: Eugene Korsunsky in the second half (periods of really solid game with nice speed and passing); Alex R. in the second half, who helped us take over the middle; and of course Vova in the second half with his spectacular saves. Regarding Fima, I think he has some technical skills but he should work a lot to develop into a team player. I see the lack of experience playing on the large field and we should define his paying position where he can utilize his skills better. According his indoor playing he was good in defense and in the middle. I think we should welcome him but we shouldn’t allow him to play much just now. Alex Karger, you do a very nice job by placing the players before the game, but we should also define who is going to go out for replacements and where he should play and how team should be adjusting to the new player on the field. All right team, sorry for the long message, sorry for the criticism. Someone should do it and let that bad person be I. You may not like me after this but if you keep in mind all the errors we do and try avoiding them, we would play much better and would get more satisfied. As I was saying before the intelligence level of this team is very high that is why when a player realize his or his teammate mistakes he can concentrate on how to avoid them.

I am leaving alone now.

Have a nice day,

Gene Klein.

*****************************************************************************

IgorSubject: Re

I want to add something of my own.
First, we can draw some conclusions after this game. How come guys older then us beat us in speed, technique and everything else possible? How come we lose the ball so quickly in the mid field? Why did we get beat up so easily? One thing I noticed when I was standing on the side lines is that they were trying to play a two-touch game. And they were actually suceding in it.
When somebody on their team was holding the ball too long, they were yelling at him. Numerous times i saw that they were playing one or two touch passes and two of their playrs were beating 4 our defenders. We couldn't get through their defence even when we had more ppl attacking. This smth to think about.

Another thing is that they were actually fighting for the ball. They made every effort to get the ball from us, in the air, at pass time, everywhere. We made efforts in, maybe, one out of ten times.

I have serious complaints for our offence. WHEN ARE YOU ACTUALLY GONNA SHOOT AT THE GOAL????? Time and again our offence tried to go through 5 their defenders when they could have taken a shot. You know, it's really disappointing running like a dog in the defence trying to cover three ppl at a time, barely getting the ball out to only see that we lose it after the first pass and don't fight for it at all lettin the defence take care of it.
I AM REALLY SICK OF IT!!!

The fouls. By the end of game it started getting ridiculous, but in the beginning, if anybody noticed, they fouled when we were holding the ball too long. If I', holding the ball for 5 seconds and trying to get through 2-3 guys, I'm sure they'd knock me out because I would do the same thing as a defender. GET RID OFF THE BALL FASTER!!! If you are making more then 2-3 touches, expect to be on the grass in a second.

The goals. The two goals they scored were EXACTLY the same as were score in the prevoius two games and the games before. Almost all of the goals our opponents score are either a pass from the side line to the other side where at least one player is open who can get the ball, settle it and shot with no rush or a pass through the goal line in the middle where our defence can't
manage to hold their man and they can actually put a leg there(it
doesn't take anymore then that since the ball is already on the goal line). We've gotta do something about that. It can't be happening over and over again. If we can't figure it out, we must be the dumbest ppl on the face of this planet.

I suggest instead of practice games do a real practice with these
stadard combinations until everybody knows where they have to be each second of the game. Also we need to play tougher. We are too soft. It looks as if most of our mid field is scared to come close to the opponent. Scared of a ball, letting it bounces 2 or 3 times, scared of playing a hard physical game. If we don't do this, I don't see how are we gonna win this tournament. And
if most of you think 'Fuck it, I'm not gonna kill myself over this tournament', then we don't have a serious team and I, personally, consider it a waste of my time and money. I din't join this team just to play, I can do it with Mario on Bush campus seven days a week.

*****************************************************************************

Alex G.Subject: a couple of thoughts

Hello Tornado,

Let me thank Igor for saving me a lot of time, he just wrote almost everything I wanted to say about yesterday's game and about our team. Now I want to add something personal, I strongly believe that we cannot have friendly game vs. Sputnik, I mean ever. It's just not happening. I don't want to get into details, you all know it. To summorise all that, I would rather spend extra two hours in jym running than to play another game vs. Sputnik. I got home last night and three ice bags later I promised to my left knee, left shoulder and my right forearm not to play any more 'friendly' games vs. Sputnik. I hate to lose and I cannot change the way I play, I can't just let it go and take it easy, so even in a such 'friendly' game I was trying NOT injure them neither injure myself, I was trying to prevent them from scoring. I got injured as a result of it. Once again, it's not a good price to pay just to play on a good field under the light. About Fima, you can quote my words, give him some time to adjust, both physically and mentally, and he will be producing on the same level as Gene Klein and Eugene Korsunskiy, trust me on this one. I know this guy for a long time, he has a heart and has balls. Some of you might had a wrong impression of him but all this is about to change. He will miss a practise this Saturday and will start to attend Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays after that. I'm glad to see him as my teammate.

*****************************************************************************

Eugene K.Subject: ‘friendly’ against Sputnik

Guys,

I came to work hoping to find 10 emails in my mbox
about yesterday's 'friendly' but there are none
so let me get started)

For people that were not present - the score was 2:2.

Clearly, the game was not as friendly as we expected.
Yeah, there were some unnecessary tackles, eti 2
pizduna (Boris and Yasha) prosto zaebali, couple of
brawls almost broke out, etc... That was surprizing
considering 2 Russian teams were playing a 'friendly'.
That was unpleasant but I was ok with that.

What really pissed me is how we started barking at
each other for every little mistake in the beginning
of the game. What happened to just playing for fun and
enjoying ourselves? After all, that was supposed to be
a friendly. Also just a thought - by playing so
intense (shouting and barking at each other) maybe we
gave them an (wrong) impression that this is not just
friendly but rather a must win??

that's my take on yesterday's game...

ek

****************************************************************************Game 10

Gene Kl.Subject: RE: Webster definition of the TEAM

Guys,

I wanted to respond to the discussion right away and even started to
write a message, but then I got a call, then another call, I just couldn't
finish. Since I am leaving I had to take care of multiple issues here at work
(I guess I should be happy about this, given the overall market
condition). Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time now. Just couple words. We
lost to a very good team. They dominated technically and somewhat physically as
well. Despite the domination they were able to create just three or
maybe four real opportunities. Three of them they realized. We created just
two real opportunities and didn't convert them. The two goals we scored
were lucky ones. Even though the defense made couple costly mistakes they
played really well. The best on the field was Alex Grinberg and the second
best was Igor (Major) who I think got exhausted by the end of the game. Another
player I should highlight was Eugene Korsunsky who despite his style
played roughly and desperately. This is so painful to watch the game on the side and not being able to participate and help. By the way, thank you, for not letting me in. My ankle was hurting all day on Sunday.
Regarding the additional players I was saying few weeks ago that we
needed more people. But we need quality players who can enrich our team.
Otherwise don’t even bother to offer anyone.
Thanks a lot for wishing me good time down in Florida. I am sure it is
going to be fun, but not that kind of fun when your team is winning a real
good game.

Have a nice holiday, everyone,

Gene Klein
****************************************************************************

Alik

All,
Following is attendance sheet for the next game on 7/8/01
1.Alex Friedman N/A
2.Alex Karger no
3.Alex Prymak N/A
4.Alexander Grinberg yes
5.Alex Rikshpun N/A
6.Charlie Cavallaro yes
7.Eugene Korsunsky yes
8.Gene Klein no
9.Georgy Vladimirov yes
10.Igor Parychev N/A
11.Konstantin Kosikov N/A
12.Sergey Kozyrenko no
13.Slava Fridman yes
14.Slava Korol N/A
15.Val Bogomolny N/A
16.Val Ryjouk yes
17.Vladimir Trubnikov N/A
18.Yevgen Ryazanov no
19.Yuriy Goliyad N/A

Out of 19 people we have 5 already said NO and Val B. will miss next
game because of red card. 13 people left, 7 of them didn't responded yet.

Val, I think we have to ask for help from Sputnik for one game (at
least 2 people, Artem, Sergey K.? or?).

Unintentionally(?) I started a chain of e-mail, but everything that was
said just for our benefits.

Whoever will play this game should not take result personally (unless
we win), second half of the tournament we will start with new attitude, new face and healthy/complete team and we will show them what isTORNADO all about.

Have a good game and nice holiday.

Val B, please take care of the team (even you are not playing).

Alex K.
****************************************************************************
Zhenya R.Subject: RE: Webster definition of the TEAM

Parni,

prochel pisma o "team definition" ...
ne znayu chto i skazat' ... navernoe deystvitelno obidno bilo
proigrat'. No proigrish est' proigrish.

mne, kagetsya Alex G, eta tema ob uhode po sbstvennomu
gelaniyu ne verna v korne. Mi igraem v league i hotim viigrat',
no mi lyubiteli, mi delaem oshibki na pole i chastenko u nas problemi s
sostavom, no mi sozdali kommandu, i eto to chto u nas est'.
Nugno eto cenit'. Ne nado peregibat' palku.

o sebe nemnogo:
ya starayus' igrat' polezno..
sorry koneshno chto ya propuskayu 3 nedeli, no v obshem - tak nado
udachi v sleduyushih igrah... ya ochen' galeyu chto menya ne budet na
pole.

Eugene
****************************************************************************

Alex G.

Hi Tornado,

Let me make myself clear, I don't want everybody to quit, I want
everybody to play harder, give it a little more effort, show some interest in
the team, show some heart!
Slava, the purpose of my letter was to indicate that some of us are
lacking effort and desire to play hard every game. I did not mean you
personally and I don't think that you should leave the team just because
you haven't played before. If you feel that you can come and play hard,
contribute effort and determination I don't see why you should leave
the team. I want to give you a little example of what I mean -- I have
the most respect to my teammates who showed up just to be with the team
while being injured, I know these guys play hard and don't hold
anything back. That makes me want to play every game as hard as I can so I
wouldn’t let these people down, so I wouldn’t lose their respect!

Let’s go Tornado!
****************************************************************************

Georgy

Man,

It seems like marriage is taking its toll already... Or is it the
elbow injury?

Well, whatever the reason I can understand if you want to quit. I
think you are sending a message to the people that seem to disagree
that we needed more people all this time. Thank you for doing that!
It's a pity that you never had the chance to attend an official game
so far.

Since we have an even bigger problem with attendance at practices, I
think everyone is welcome to come, especially ex-Tornado's.

I hope you can figure out a way to make some time for football in the
future and play more often with us!

Speaking of practices - are we gonna figure out an alternative to Cook
College. This girl is so annoying! Can we try again to speak to her
boss about renting a field? Are there other fields?

I will also put tomorrow's practice on the attendance sheet. I don't
wanna miss my weekly dose of football, but it will be nice to see how
many people are planning to come.

Georgy.
****************************************************************************

Slava KSubject: RE: Webster definition of the TEAM
Hello, everyone.

After reading some of the recent mails it is clear
that there is big problem with roster spaces on the
team. I know that Alex Greenberg is not the only one
who feels this way, which is why I have to quit. I
think I am the only one who has not played one
official game for the team and before anyone else, who
contributed at least somewhat, decides to leaves, I
think it is my obligation to the team to free up my
roster spot. That cannot hurt the team, and will only
improve it, which is what we all want. That will also
give time to other players (while the search for a
player for my roster space is made) to think what they
want to do and possibly, hopefully start attending
more regularly. It's just the best thing to do for the
team, which will hopefully improve with that move. I
hope you guys do well in the tournament and wish you
best of luck. If it won't create any inconveniences,
perhaps I can still occasionally practice with the
team or play in friendly pick-up games once in a
while. Once again, good luck, have fun and win!

Slava
****************************************************************************
KostyaSubject: RE: Webster definition of the TEAM

Guys,

I have two comments, first on Val's email: it is understandable that
people make mistakes, especially when you try hard, don't lose sleep, man, don't put pressure on yourself, next time, go out and enjoy
the game and do your best. I think everybody will agree that you are a
valuable player for the team.

Second, I apologize that I missed so many games already, I realize that
I am not number one player on the team but I'm sure that I bring some value in the midfield especially when the team is short of
people. Unfortunately, my knee is still bothering me and every time I
play it's a setback in healing process. It also doesn't help that I was not able to see a doctor, my company is based in California
and they did not have a contract in the area where we recently moved
to, so I have to wait another week or two for that. In any case, next weekI will be out of state but the week after I will come to the
game and play if necessary. Or I will be happy to support you guys if
we get the full team and enough substitutions.

Kostya.
****************************************************************************

Georgy

Something to add for Val R:

You put too much blame on yourself. Remember - we are a team! We are
supposed to cover for each other's mistakes and take the blame
together. Football is not an individual game.

Isn't there someone that can drive the poor fellow to practice? Or is
the problem that you have to go to the car repair shop yourself, Val?

Georgy.
****************************************************************************

Georgy

Great comments, guys!

It's amazing how similar we felt after this last game. I felt really
miserable and was trying to explain to myself what is going wrong.

I think that we did our best to make our balls look bigger but
there was only so much we could do. We have a very basic (and probably
easily correctable) problem - we don't have enough people. Yesterday
we not only missed good players, but also had no substitutions! And
that's on top of the fact that we have a lot to improve in our
endurance...

Many of us are now closer to the three yellow cards, vacation months
are coming, injuries (God forbid) are part of the game... I would
understand if we have difficulty trying to find extra players but we
seem not to be decided yet that we need more people. The guy that
played for us the previous game was good - but he wasn't there
yesterday. What's his name, by the way?

I think that I don't feel so bad after a loss like yesterday's just
because of the score. I also think we need to stick to our strategy.
We pretty much ruled out controlling the ball, building the attack and
other suggestions like that. The only thing we decided on, instead,
was that "we'll play counterattacks and think defense first". How many
of us think that yesterday and the previous game we played with
counter attack? How many think that we were pulled more than usual in
our half? I don't think this is what is happening. And yet this is our
only tactics.

So what is happening? We have only one tactics and we are not sticking
to it. Alex Karger noted very well at the half time that I looked a
little lost. I was somewhat lost. I felt like patching things here and
there but not participating in some group tactics.

Since I am claiming we have a problem, I will offer a solution. Let's
have a signal (like Kozyrenko was suggesting at some point) that will
bring everyone in our half. I think we really need that when we are in
a situation that we're kicking the ball from the goal, not being able
to take it in the middle and then defend ourselves. You know this
scenario, right? In situations like this it doesn't help us much that
we have our forwards up there because they never get the ball anyway.
Plus, if you think about it, this is not really a counter attack style
for us but rather for them. And it works great for them. But we want
it to be the opposite way. So, when we see ourselves in this situation
- let's all come back in our half. This is as defensive as you can
get. Let's put the ball in their half and let them try to build an
attack.

This just in: Val Ryjouk isn't sure if he is up to Tornado's level.

Dear Val,

Like Greenberg already said, we can all see your efforts and
dedication. I think you are definitely at our level. Don't have doubts
like that! Like I mentioned above - we need more people, we don't want
to loose people. I appreciate your honesty and "team first" mentality!

We should all think that way. Remember - you will always be able to
come and play at practices! This is why I was willing to give up a
game (in an earlier letter) if we have too many people showing up.
Yesterday I was thinking whether people would be happier with the pick
up games we had before we formed the team... If I had the voting
script done - here are the two questions I would post:

How many people do you personally think we should have on the team?

Do you think that playing in a league is too much pain in the ass and
that we should dismantle the Tornado team and go back to pick up
games?

Georgy.
****************************************************************************

Alex G.

Val,

My letter wasn't addressed to you, you make every effort to show up
every game, you come with the desire to make a difference, I can feel
that. We all make mistakes, we're human, my letter wasn't about mistakes,
my letter was about people who don't care about this team, people
without desire to win, and your letter to Alex is a perfect indicator that
you do care. Don't make this decision that you're talking about unless
you want to hurt the team. All we really need is more practice. Our
practice sessions are starting to pay off, just take a look at Igor's
performance, he is starting to play very solid game, just like a pro
defenseman.

Alex.
****************************************************************************

Val R.Subject: A question
Guys,
I decided to send you all this message, as I feel, that I will have to
make the decision, that may impact the team.

Val.

-----Original Message-----
From: Val Ryjouk [mailto:koujyr@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 9:33 AM
To: Alex Karger
Subject: A question.


Alik.
I have a couple of things to say.
First of all, I'm really sorry, that I made the mistake which
resulted in the decisive goal and our loss. I could hardly sleep tonight, because
of this. It doesn't really matter, but I needed to say it. It was not my best game.

... [snip] ...

AND THE MAIN ONE:

Alik. I want you to be straight with me and tell me. If I do not fit in
the picture of the team's game, I will quit. It is not going to be
offensive to me. It's just, that I do not feel, like I understand the other guys
completly sometimes, thus causing them discomfort. In such case, I will
have to put the team's interests higher, than my personal. At this moment,
I'm leaning to take this decision... I still will be able to participate in
Saturday's practices...

Val.
P.S.
Just read your mail.
1. IMO, you have to talk personally to the people. We are too deep in
there to take anything personally.
2. I can not come to Wed practice due to the time constraint's.
Temporarily, I'm out from Sat. practices, until I repair my car (approximately, 2 weeks)
****************************************************************************

Alex G.

Good morning Tornado,

First of all I'd like to thank Alex for a well-made point, second of
all I'd like to add a few words to his letter. As Alex previously stated
we're playing soccer to have fun and that’s a fare statement. At the
same time we've entered the tournament and at this point our purpose is
a little different, a little more complicated -- not only that we
should have fun, we should TRY TO WIN this tournament having fun! In my
opinion if anyone doesn’t understand this or doesn’t agree with this he is
in the wrong team and has to step up and be a man and say something
like “guys, I thought we were JUST having fun, I don’t feel like playing
anymore, I don’t have time, desire or just don’t want to do it anymore!
You’re expecting too much from me, I will not sacrifice my personal
time to be there for the team, I don’t think it’s worth it. I have a life
and don’t care all THAT much if we win or lose and most of all, I do!
n’t want to occupy the place that someone else could have and be morehelpful to you guys than I am. I’m out!” I would be the first one to shake his hand and say that he has done a right thing, because by being honest about this he would help the team tremendously!
Some (or all) of you might think “well, thank goodness Alex Grinberg
isn’t our captain, with this way of thinking (and constant yelling) we
would get ourselves in trouble very quick” And that’s a very smart point
of view, I tend to get emotional and lose my cool every once in a
while, there was a perfect display of that right after the last game, and I
apologize for that (good thing our captains are not like that!), but I
know one thing – when I put on my uniform with #5 on it and I step on
that field, there is no more Alex Grinberg, there is a player of the
Tornado that is determined to do whatever it takes (through pain,
exhaustion, dehydration, suffering and so forth) to be helpful to the team. I
know I don’t score goals, but I fight my battles and I try to win all
of them because I strongly believe that by doing my part I will
contribute to our victory. I know it’s impossible to win them all, and there
is something that I hate more than to lose, I hate the most
is to lose without a fight; I refuse to go down quietly and give an
easy win to the opponent. We have to make them go trough hell to earn
every step towards our side of the field!
I think it’s time for us to win a couple of games in a raw, we are not
losers, and we must try to win every game! I don’t want to hear any
pessimistic remarks; I don’t think that someone is helping the team just
by saying negative things without suggestions how to correct these
things.


Let’s go Tornado!
****************************************************************************

Alik

Game 9 IgorSubject: Re: our e-mails + game comments

I think Gene is right about the practices. As soon as we started real practices instead of the stupid screamege games, the result started showing up. We started to move around, open up, scored some goals, etc. Unfortunately, the last game (in my oppinion) was a step back from the previous ones. We didnt' play a good team game. We looked decent individually, but the team play as a whole wasn't there.I suggest practicing communication between lines (since as of now they are moving completely separatly) by putting 2 teams: defence+midfield vs offence. As soon as the defence gets the possion of the ball, everybody pushes up trying to keep the lines close to eachother creating man adventage in the midfield.
Another practice would be putting together offence + midfield against defence and starting attack from the midfield. as soon as the attack breaks, marking each man and trying to get the ball posession on the opponents' side of the field.
Also, I liked that 2-touch game we did a couple of weeks ago. Somehow I didn't see it on the field, although it's a very powerful tool. It looks like limit on ball touches works a lot better for our offences then just running with the ball waiting for it to be taken away.

***************************************************************************

Gene Klein

Hey guys,

What happened? All of a sudden, three days later, you all start
discussing the last game's mistakes.Most of all I like Alex Grinberg's comments. He is so right with his "AAAAAAAA..." and "AAAAAAABLYAD..." translation and with the rest of
his statements. We are not going to start winning unless we fight for each ball. The offencive players once they lost the ball should make opponent's defensive player live miserable, to force him to get rid of the ball(our offensive players do that so rarely). That's how the defense starts. In order to do that you should be in a good phisical condition and for that we should practice phisical exercises rather than play fun games during our practice time. The same phisical conditions explain why the defense is not moving toward the middle of the field but rather catching the break while the ball is away. It was stated long, long time ago: "team should move all together", but to do that teammates should be, once again, in decent phisical condition. I don't see it changing unless we exercise. I can't play just yet, but I can lead the practice. (Not today though)Saturday, at 9:00AM whoever would like to practice please show up at the Cooks college. This way we are going to have 1.5 hour before the rest of the people appear and warm up. After that we can play 30-40 minutes for fun.

Please let me know what you think so I would not be there all by
myself.

Have a good time tonight,

Gene Klein

***************************************************************************

Georgy

> > If the guys in the midfield played the right game, we wouldn't have the situation where we have to watch both their offence and midfield.

I think we pretty much decided to work with the assets we have. If our midfielders are a bunch of losers, maybe we do need help from the defense...

> In the second half we couldn't get the ball out of our half of the field because our midfield didn't even try to get it. As soon as it was shot out of the goal, the opposite team got it and started new attack withought any

I agree. We have to somehow get better at fighting for the first ball.I have no clue how we can improve on that. Maybe Alex G.'s proposal of using more body parts (and bigger balls...) will work.

> interference. And if our midfielders complain that they have to run back and forth, it's their problem, I think. They can't figure out the tactics of the game and because of that they have to move 10 times more then they are supposed to.

I don't think anyone is complaining of running. After all, this is what we're here for - to have exercise and fun. We are just trying toidentify ways we can get better. Or, as you are saying, to "figure out the tactics of the game".

I don't think we have to split in groups and blame each other or ignore each other. I think that if we have problems in the dfield we have to figure out the reasons for them and try to fix them. I suggest one thing that I deeply believe will tremendously help. I don't think "it's their problem" mentality will help us improve the game of the team as a whole.

> Did aznybody ask themselves why our opponents older then us, ran less and still created some good scoring chances as well as ball posession?

I did ask myself and I came up with a hypothesis - do you have one?

> And, frankly, if we can't get the ball out of our zone, I have no intension of going further than the penalty box, because that's where the ball ends up in a couple of seconds anyway.

I agree. The ball ends there pretty quickly and that's because we wait for it to get there. If you think about it, it doesn't take long for a few midfielders to pass one guy, run 20 meters without resistance and ONLY THEN find their match of defenders. I think we should definitely pull up and meet them early on. And remember - they don't have to go through you at the penalty box - they could just shoot from a distance. One shot out or 20 should statistically make its way to the goal. Thank God for Vova! And for Korsunsky...

Georgy.

***************************************************************************
GeorgySubject: Re: our e-mails + game comments

> 2. Even though, I'm joining the rest, pointing out on the lack of support of our attacks from our defenders, I want to stress out the fact, that in order to do so the defenders need the following things:

One big misunderstanding:

I'm not saying we need more attack support from our defenders. I'm
suggesting that we meet them early in the field if they are all in the middle...

> 1. What you are saying, is right. How to implement it?

I say we move up to the middle and leave people in front of our penalty box only to match their forwards that are deeper (which they usually don't even have - they build from the middle)

> -- The ONLY tactic, they were allowed to use was the shooting from a distance. Our mistake, again, but they couldn't propose ANYTHING ELSE! Actually, I do not remember real good scoring opportunity for them from the front of our goalposts.

I remember clearly a couple of them. Also, their shots from a distance were not always that distant. And the fact that they didn't shoot all that well only means we got lucky.

Georgy.

***************************************************************************
IgorSubject: Re: our e-mails + game comments

If the guys in the midfield played the right game, we wouldn't have the situation where we have to watch both their offence and midfield. In the second half we couldn't get the ball out of our half of the field because our midfield didn't even try to get it. As soon as it was shot out of the goal, the opposite team got it and started new attack withought any interference. And if our midfielders complain that they have to run back and forth, it's their problem, I think. They can't figure out the tactics of the game and because of that they have to move 10 times more then they are supposed to.Did aznybody ask themselves why our opponents older then us, ran less and still created some good oring chances as well as ball posession? And, frankly, if we can't get the ball out of our zone, I have no intension of going further than the penalty box, because that's where the ball ends up in a couple of seconds anyway.

***************************************************************************

Val R.Subject: Re: our e-mails + game comments
1. The opposite team was not that great:
-- First half was ours completely - too manny missed scoring
opportunities (not anyone's fault, mind you, just an observation)
-- In the second half we allowed them to shhoot from distance (our
mistake), so they did. But the shooting was very poor (my opinion)
-- They lacked individual technic. Our defeensive efforts to push them to thesides were succefull. They couldn't capitalize opened attackers by doing "prostrely" and "navesy" (huge mistake from their side).
-- The ONLY tactic, they were allowed to usse was the shooting from a distance. Our mistake, again, but they couldn't propose ANYTHING ELSE! Actually, I do not remember real good scoring opportunity for them from the front of our goalposts.

2. Even though, I'm joining the rest, pointing out on the lack of
support of our attacks from our defenders, I want to stress out the fact, that in order to do so the defenders need the following things:
-- Time to get back. We didn't have it, beccause the attacks were not that long to support our retreat.
-- Opportunities from the players to hold tthe ball long enough to
create real opportunity for defenders to move forward and back. The field's quality, and other factors didn't allow us to have it.
-- Pressure from the midfielders and attackkers in the beginnings of their attacks. We were too exhausted to create that pressure in the second half. Remember, the first half had different pattern - we still had our stamina.

3. They made a couple of changes, strengthening up their forwards - fresh, fast, good ones. We could "protivopostavit'" only one fresh defender (me) against this. It didn't work well to support the theory for defense of going forward and back.

The bottom line is:
1. What you are saying, is right. How to implement it?
2. The other team was not that great. It was even game.
3. We played very confident, solid game.
4. I wanted to point the main players in the game (doesn't mean, the rest was not good. It's just, that they were doing very good key things).
In alphabetical order
- Eugene K. 1:1 (no more words, even thoughh I have them)
- Eugene R. 1st half - the whole flank was his. He's the man.
- Georgiy. One guy, who could implement bacck and forth tactic to the end.(Saved me from "pozora", when I "provalils'a")
- Sasha R. see above(It's 1/2 of his goal)..
- Vova (+++) Arguably, the best game, so faar.

I do not mention the rest due to the time constraints.
Have a good practice today.

NO INJURIES!

Val

***************************************************************************

Alex G.

Good comments everyone, Gene and Charlie thank you for your injury update and we can’t wait until you guys get healthy and get back. We haven’t heard anything about injury status of Kostya and Sergey; nevertheless we’ve missed their presence on the field and wish them speedy recovery as well.

All right, that’s enough with politically correctness; it’s time for me to speak my mind out. Some of the spectators on the side of the field on Sunday most likely got a feeling that either I hate my teammates or I am a classical “nut case” after hearing me yelling during the second half of the game. I want to assure you that neither of these things are true (please don’t tell me that you’re not sure about the “nut case”) and now let me translate what I was yelling mostly incoherently in the second half of the game:

1. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” means “guys, we must (!!!) try to win every (!!!) ball possession.”
2. “AAAAAAAA…BLYAD’…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” means whatever I’ve said earlier plus “I mean during this game as well!!!”
3. Some of us have to start using their heads or other body parts in order to win the possession of the ball in the air more often!!!

I hope no one on our team was freaked out to see and hear me yelling that much, I really wanted to make a difference in that game.

The big part of the success in any competition between men is (I’m going to put this in very simple manner) who has “bigger balls”, I’m sure we all, as men, have experience that in one way or another. Therefore we have to learn how to “grow our balls bigger”, how to dominate our opponents on a “primal” level as well, how to be tougher on the field, and we have to make our opponents fear our TEAM, we have to create this “FEAR OF TORNADO!“ We have to stick up for each other, we have to make
our opponents pay for every bad thing that they’ve done to any of our teammates even if this could cost a card or even a fight (and I’m not talking about taking a STUPID penalty when we’re losing 1:0 for example or winning 1:0!!! The team’s interest must be in a first place at all the time!!!)! We have to have each other’s back when we go on that field; we have to be as one there, we must play as a team!
That is how I feel about this issue!

We should have a good productive practice session tonight after a good, tough game on Sunday. Guys, please make every effort to come on time and if you’re late just join the exercise without any questions or arguments!

See you all later.

***************************************************************************

Alik

Very good game.
Finally, I was able to watch the game from outside.

We still make a lot of mistake, but our effort is excellent.

Our main mistake, I think, that our defensive group of people is
not moving up the field during our counterattack.

By not doing that, we opening a lot of room for opposite
team to make good attacks, after we lost the ball during our
counterattack.

The rest is minor. It would be nice to improve our technical and physical ability, but it will(hopefully) improve as the season progress and we will play more with each ther.

Practice, practice, practice... and no more injuries...

Player of the game : Georgy (excellent support in defense and offense).

Alex

***************************************************************************

Georgy

Man,

We are gonna miss all these injured players! I hope you guys recover well. All the injuries in the past week should teach us a couple of things, though.

First, we should warm up. And warm up well. I, personally, like the style of warm-up that these guys at the last game showed us - doing the same exercise as a team. To warm up well, we need to come on time. I should be the last person to mention this, as I've been late very often lately. It has been because of things out of my control - I want to leave the car to my wife and have to depend on others driving me; also, since I've been leaving my wife alone with the two kids lately, I need to do many and often unexpected chores before leaving - I can't just go when I decide to... Anyway, coming early gives you time to warm up properly, not in a hurry.

Second, we should be more careful at practice and not push ourselves too much. Again, I am not a good example for that, since I find it difficult to restrain myself in certain fights for the ball. But I have definitely improved greatly since my severe ankle injury last August, which kept me 7 months away from football.

One more thing that I came up with as far as strategies go.

I came up with this idea of swapping positions. I wonder if this is something very experienced teams do, because it requires a lot of coordination. The idea is this - a midfielder goes forward to help with a counter attack and then tries to come back to cover at least one player. So far, nothing unusual. Here is where the interesting part comes. On the next counter attack he rests and another midfielder goes to help with the attack. If the players alternate like this they should always get a minute rest before sprinting again. I am thinking - since this requires a lot of coordinationn, we might start with something simpler. Something similar to what Gene Klein and I, or at the last game Alex Rikshpun and I, have done. Namely, swap the positions after some time of play. This is not as efficient but might help as a starting point. This idea relies on the premise that the
farther you go forward the more impulsive and tiring the position is. This is not always going to be true, especially if we start pulling up the defense to the middle.

And now on a lighter note - some pictures of my family. I know it's boring, but since I spend a couple of hours in the early morning and as a proud parent, I thought I should still put it here:

http://members.nbci.com/victorvlad/

Georgy.

***************************************************************************

Gene KleinSubject: Email address change

I was really glad to hear that you guys had a solid game last Sunday. I wish I could be there to help you.
Anyway, here is the update on my health condition:
The injured ankle still hurts badly, especially in the mornings. I still have a lot of swelling around it despite of all the care I take like sea salt baths every day, alcogol compressions over the nights, tight bandage throughout the days. The way it appears now I don't think I am going to play the next game. Once again please update your address lists, I would love to participate in
any discussion that takes place.

Take care everyone,

Gene Klein

***************************************************************************

Georgy

Good analysis, man!

I completely aggree. In the second half I was very exhausted.
It was very difficult to attack running as fast as I could to their goals and after that run to our goals back because our defenders did not go from our penalty box.

I know what Igor will say - those guys are fast and they can outrun us. But the team we played on sunday was pretty aged. They were experienced players and skilled to make good long shots but I'm sure that anyone of our defenders could outrun then.

BTW in the first half situation was better. Our defence was closer to the middle and more aggresive.

Anyway, I think we played well and God thanks to Eugene K

Georgy

***************************************************************************
CharlieSubject: Re: our e-mails + game comments
Hey guys,

I just wanted to let everyone know what happened to me on Saturday and Sunday. I somehow tried a back heel pass on Saturday in practice which looked pretty harmless but I sprained my hamstring muscle. I really feel like an old man these days. I have never had injuries my whole life and now I have had two muscle injuries in the past 2-3 months. This is unbelievable! I was especially pissed because I didn't even have to make a back heel pass. I was feeling so good before that happened and looking forward to the game on Sunday all week.

What happened on Sunday... The short story is that I had my sister's graduation party on Friday night and went to bed at 3am and woke up early the next day... I went on a company cruise around NYC on Saturday and got home after 2am and woke up early once again. Then on Sunday I ate our usual big Italian afternoon dinner. I finished at 3pm and I still had an hour before I was going to come watch the game since my leg was not feeling well.
I decided to take a 30 minute nap since I was so tired... I awoke after 6pm. I couldn't believe it when I woke up. I was even more tired than I thought.

That is why I was not at the game on Sunday.

I apologize,

Charlie

***************************************************************************

Georgy

Guys,

a few quick words on Sunday's game before it's too late and I forget.

First, I think Eugene Korsunsky was too modest on the results page in the explanation of the goal he scored. It seemed like, "Yeah, the guys didn't build the proper fence, etc." But the truth is the goal was "ohuyitelnqj"!!! And if you add to that its importance in the game - it was "opizditelqj", too (I'm not sure how this sounds in Russian - but you get the idea)

Also, Val B. and Vova gave us all they got!

Now, I have a comment that repeats some of what I've said before but I want to make my point again.

I don't think that playing defensively should mean playing in front of our goal. I realized that the defenders were right in their observation that the middle is very often open when they attack us. But the reason, I think, is as much their fault as it is the midfielders. Very often there would be a situation where there are three of them in the midfield attacking us and only one of us in the middle. In situations like this Val B. or I would have to run a lot to try to stop them, but all it took for them to go through was one pass. And these guys could pass.

The truth is - they had those three guys in the middle and we had
about four defenders to match them. The problem I see here is that the defenders were playing very close to the goal. And what would happen was - they go through our one midfielder with a pass or two and then they had all this ground to cover unchallenged!!! I think this is outrageous! As I've said earlier we shouldn't make them gifts like that. The fact that they had so many shots at goal was primarily because of that. They would be able to come within shooting distance before being challenged. And very often they wouldn't bother trying to beat the defense but would just take the shot. And if you remember this is how they scored. Like Eugene Korsunsky was saying - he could see it coming - shot after shot from good locations...

I feel very strongly about this and that's why I am somewhat repeating some of my previous ideas. I was able to see this very clearly especially when Alex Rikshpun asked me to swap our positions. Suddenly, my position was as a central defender and very often I would see them coming uncontested in the middle.

This is what I did, and I don't pretend this to be the best thing to do, but this is how I feel. I couldn't just sit and watch. I would usually run to the guy with the ball and at least try to be a pain in the ass for him. And that's all I was - he would just pass it to one of his teammates and that was it. I would still try to stick to him not to leave him open but their attack was through me. I would force him to give the ball away sooner than he would have liked. I'm sure he could have used another 10 meters before he got an obstacle. But I did a lot of running (and I wasn't in best shape that day) pretty much for nothing. Val B. was doing a lot of running, too.

The solution, I think, is simple. Let our defense come up to the middle to stop them sooner. Believe me, this is much better than waiting for them until they come to us. If we play our counter
attacking style - we are not going to always have people in the middle. Those people are not superhuman and they can't always return after we loose the ball in the counter attack.

Another consequence of our defense playing up would probably be more offsides on their side. I am not saying we should try to create the offsides but I can see how this will probably happen.

And it is true that playing up might mean that we have to be ready to run shoulder to shoulder with them as they try to go for the flanks - but isn't that what we need - some exercise? I think the defense will have much more fun confronting them early and challenging them, than to see them take so many shots at the goal.

We should congratulate ourselves, though! The final result was good for us. And we are playing more and more like a team.

Georgy.

P.S.: My words ended up not so quick but now that I typed them... Sorry, guys! Let's discuss this, though. It feels awfully bad when you don't get any feedback.