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6/23/2002 B GROUP FINAL - Tornado is vice-champion!
TORNADO - MONTGOMERY UNITED 0 - 1 ( penalties )
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90 degrees, sunny, humid, terrible (but little better) field - very tough for play After less than an hour rest for us and about half an hour more rest for our opponent, we walked over to another field to play the final. The field was better - it didn't have the slope of the first one. But it was still a very miserable field for a final. The game turned out very nice considering the heat and the exhaustion of both teams. Montgomery was a very sportsman and clean team. They gave us a lot of respect and didn't pressure us early in our attack. This gave us more ground in the middle and allowed for a very open game with attacks in both directions. One of the things I do remember is a solid body-check from Slava. I remember it because it gave me pain in the ribs for weeks to come. This put me out of the game for longer than I wanted but gave me a chance to watch from the sidelines. Montgomery probably had the worst misses and got closer to goal than us. But we had our fair share of chances and probably controlled the game more. The unlimited substitutions were what kept us going until the end. And we had another great attendance record - maybe a little too good for what we are used to :-) Some ended up unhappy for not getting enough time. We had a little bit of shouting on the field but it wasn't that bad. We were able to contain it. The only bad thing is the hurt feelings after the game. Vova was severely injured in the shoulder - I think it happened in the semi-final game - but he was still able to make a couple of great saves. None of the teams could score and the extra time was just laughable (see the report on the semi-final). So, here we were - penalties again. This time we lost. Montgomery executed perfectly - hitting Vova's left corner every time. He was hurting from the injury in the shoulder and he seemed more willing to jump in the other direction. But none of the shots were taken there. After the game he told me that he would have jumped even in the left corner, if he felt like he had a chance. On our part, we had a conspiracy by the Friedman brothers :-) They decided to miss their shots but we have to give the credit to the Montgomery goalkeeper for saving them, too. Like Val B. was saying, with penalties it's a gamble - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I think there is a good side of penalties - it doesn't seem to you like you've lost when you lose from penalties. So, in that sense it's a great ending for a final - everybody is happy. Plus, there were no prizes, no ceremonies - nothing to miss for not being the champ :-) Actually, this is not 100% correct. A few months later - this last weekend (8/17/2002), we finally got a surprising, after-the-fact gift from the GSSL league. We got two very nice trophies for being first in our B East division and being second in the B division as a whole. We also got some light blue shirts with the GSSL logo saying "champion". I noticed that since we all had light blue shirts, each one of us was now "goluboj" (the Russian word for blue) :-) But Moldovan properly corrected me that Russians use this word in another context - more like Americans would use "fruit cake"... :-) Maradona said that we were doomed from the beginning. He noticed that in the semi-finals the teams with the red uniforms won. One of the teams in the other semi-final was semi-red (half red, half yellow) and it lost. Our opponent in the semi-final was white-blue and they lost. For the final, one of the red teams had to change into white shirts. And the coin toss determined it had to be us... Maradona says it determined more than the uniform :-) Report by: Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Igor Parychev Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
6/23/2002 SEMIFINAL - Tornado advances to final!
TORNADO - SOMERSET HILLS 2 - 1 ( penalties )
Y. Ryazanov (1)
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90 degrees, sunny, humid, terrible field - very tough for play I can't remember much from that game. To have a semi-final and a final on the same day and to have a resolution of the whole season, made it difficult for me to sit down and write something on the game. So, I finally (8/22/2002) decided to drop a few lines for the sake of historical record. One important thing about this game was the slope of the field. The first half we played downhill and that definitely helped. We were the better team in the first half. True to our tradition, we created and missed many chances. Our goal came as we pressured them in their own half. Maradona got a hold of the ball and fooled the defenders that he was going to pass to GK on the right. He tried to slip the pass to the left to Ryazanov. The ball bounced off two defenders and even though it went more to the center than to the left, Ryazanov beat the goalkeeper and the defenders and with a one-touch chip over the goalkeeper put it in the net. This was a very important goal for us as the second half was waiting for us, when we literally had to face an "uphill" battle. I got more detail on the goal thanks to Ryazanov and his sweet wife Natasha who brought a digital camcorder and produced a 200 MB, 10 minute summary of our final games. The second half Somerset Hills took charge and we couldn't easily clear the ball because of the slope. Both teams were getting tired under the ruthless heat. Somerset had a couple of good chances and converted on one of them. I remember one of our chances, probably the most memorable. Maradona stole a ball or received a pass and found himself alone against the goalkeeper but with almost half a field left to run. He was pretty excited and he knew that with his speed he would have no competition from the defenders. I remember wondering at how moments like this give a player wings and the fatigue takes second place. Maradona was ready to climb the hill sprinting and give us the win. Unfortunately, he got a little too excited and he tripped himself... I think he had a similar very good chance one more time (but he didn't trip then). In general, we had our share of chances even in the second half but Somerset had more posession and the game was played mostly in our half. The funny thing about these finals was not just the unfortunately hot weather and the necessity to play two games back to back with less than an hour break, but also the length of the playing time. GSSL decided to make the halves 30 minutes but it also shrunk disproportionately the extra time. If we were to play 2/3 the time, the extra periods should have been 10 minutes. They were 5 minutes instead. So, it was just funny going into overtime - by the time we started, chased a few of the balls that went out of bounds and had an attack in each direction - the time was gone. Penalties came. We were shooting first and we scored. Vova rose up to the occasion and saved the very first shot, which was not directed too much to the side from the center. Ryazanov decided to make it more exciting on the second shot and scored by hitting the post. Vova kept guessing correctly and almost got one more of the shots. Kian, I think, also aimed for excitement and scored a beautiful goal high up, almost hitting the bar. Rikshpun had to put in the decisive goal and he did. Again, the detail is thanks to the video. I didn't have time to watch the whole movie again at work but penalties were short enough to see. It wasn't the most exciting to win with penalties but at this point we only cared about a win, so it still felt great! Report by: Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Igor Parychev Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
6/16/2002 QUARTERFINAL - Tornado advances to semifinal!
TORNADO - BOYO ATHLETIC 4 - 2
G. Vladimirov (1)
Y. Goliyad (2)
L. Fursin (1)
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75 degrees, sunny, field a little moist at first - great day for football GV: This is a great win for us! Since we are in the direct elimination stage, every win from this point on will be great. But this game was especially fun to win because we had a couple of people come back after missing a few games while on vacation. We had a great attendance and our vacationers performed well. Another thing that makes this win good is that Boyo wasn't a very sportsman behaved team. They came with few people, lost control of the game early on, fell behind in the score and then they turned into one of the worst teams we've played. They tackled harshly (and got one red card and a few yellow ones), disagreed with the referee on almost every call (despite a very good calling from the ref) and cursed at each other and at us. We didn't get too many injuries but we did lose Alex Rikshpun and maybe for more than a month (according to him). I think the league is fortunate to have this team eliminated. Boyo came with only two or three substitutions which is a sizeable disadvantage in a league with unlimited substitutions. At first they looked big but we soon realized many of them were just overweight - not a big threat as far as physical conditioning. They had one of the best goalkeepers I've seen in the league so far. He wasn't particularly athletic but had a great feeling for the ball and made some nice saves for them. He looked like a guy who actually trained for a goalkeeper and wasn't just put at the goal. Like I said earlier we had lots of people and a few of them were back after being absent for a while - Moldovan, Ryazanov and Yuriy (second game back). It gave us great confidence to have 18 people present at the game. We dominated the midfield and our defense was able to block all of their attacks. You won't see us often in the position of the team controlling and passing in midfield :-) Let's hope this trend continues and that it is not just a temporary excitement and motivation of the ongoing World Cup 2002 (Moldovan suggested that the WC 2002 must have affected us). I scored the first goal after a great corner kick by Korsunsky. We executed it just like we had practiced during training - a cross to the near corner or the 6-yard box and a header in the far corner. It was beautiful (well, at least I hope it was)! Minutes before that goal I scored another one when I was given a ball in front of empty net. But the net was empty for a reason - nobody was covering me because I was sitting and waiting in an offside position. LF: 2nd goal - G. Klein (?) passed a ball to me between two defenders, I ran away and scored. 3rd goal - I (?) passed the ball to Yuri between defenders and he outplayed their goalie one-to-one. Then Yuri had another great chance but missed (two shots from ~ 5 meters were cleared by Boyo's goalkeeper ?). Their goalie was really good - always in the right place, always confident, and none of our goals was his fault. Early in the second half Boyo Athletic scored twice. First goal came from a nice dribble and powerful shot into right-lower corner of the goals (from Vova's point of view). GV: I have to say something funny that Ryjouk, Korsunsky and I discussed after the game. The goal actually started off of a defensive header by Ryjouk halfway into our half. He surprised everyone by heading it very nicely but in the opposite direction - towards our own goal. As Ryjouk said after the game: "The problem comes from the fact that the ball hit my head in the first place" :-) Vova decided that the game isn't interesting at 3:1, so he decided to make it a little better for the spectators :-) A cross from his left side was coming parallel to the goal line about a foot away from it. He seemed to have good position (right next to the near post) and was ready to catch the ball but it must have had a bad spin or the cross was probably stronger than expected - and the ball bounced right into the net - 3:2. LF: Our 4th goal came after a big mess in Boyo's box area, series of our passes and attempted shots until the ball went to Yuri - he just kicked the ball in the right direction and scored off-post. GV: I had a great chance coming back in the game early in the second half. I don't rememer whether I was leading the ball or whether it bounced off of a defender but I was in a situation where I and a defender were running toward the ball face to face. I kicked the ball on his left and passed him on his right - this lead me into a great position inside the penalty box. I probably had enough time to keep dribbling the ball and score easily but I decided instead to just take a nice shot and finish it without further ball possession - I shot above the bar. LF: !!! 5 minutes to stoppage time I was brought down inside the box by some unidentified bad guy - he pushed me in the back with all his strength, and the referee did not notice it although I was in front of the goal and posessed the ball. I screwed up in our last attack - I tried to curl the ball above the goalie from the corner of the box, but my shot went badly off target (very slow and on the ground). Report by: Georgy Vladimirov + Leonid Fursin |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Grinberg Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
Team Name Points GP W T L GF GA Diff ---------------------------------------------------------------- NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 37 18 12 1 5 72 29 +43 MONROE TWP. S.C. 37 18 12 1 5 71 36 +35 BRICKFORCE SC 35 18 10 5 3 68 25 +43 SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 33 16 10 3 3 40 18 +22 RUMSON S.C. 25 16 8 1 7 44 35 +9 HELLAS UNITED S.C. 22 16 7 1 8 32 28 +4 J.A. UNITED 19 16 5 4 7 33 35 -2 DEPORTIVO CUENCA 15 16 5 0 11 31 82 -51 KNIGHTS UNITED 9 16 3 0 13 29 55 -26 HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 6 14 2 0 12 20 97 -77
6/9/2002 GAME 18
TORNADO - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 16 - 1
A. Prymak (2)
G. Vladimirov (1)
E. Korsunsky (1)
Y. Goliyad (4)
L. Fursin (4)
V. Bogomolny (1)
F. Rashap (1)
G. Klein (2)
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75-80 degrees, sunny - perfect Just like the last time, we finished the season on a "high note" - no words are necessary! A few of the facts:
This was a nice present from Deportivo but it would have been more beneficial to us if they came with enough people and gave us a good fight. I am afraid that since the last 4-5 games were against teams with few people, we won't be prepared to play a tough, organized, solid game against a strong opponent with enough players. I hope this remains just that - a worry. Looking on the bright side (sometimes I forget to look at it until everything is over - and then it's too late to enjoy it :-), we pretty much secured the first place in the group! Congratulations, Tornado!!! You are in the playoffs and are the leaders in the group - and that's in the first season in this league! Keep up the good job and stay focused in the tough games that are about to come! Good luck! Report by: Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Eugene Korsunsky Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yuriy Goliyad |
RUMSON S.C. - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 3 - 0 FORFEIT
J.A. UNITED - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 0 - 3 FORFEIT
KNIGHTS UNITED - MONROE TWP. S.C. 1 - 13
DEPORTIVO CUENCA - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 1 - 16
HILLSIDE ATHLETICO - BRICKFORCE SC 1 - 16
J.A. UNITED - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 0 - 3 FORFEIT
6/2/2002 GAME 17
TORNADO - RUMSON S.C. 4 - 0
A. Prymak (2)
G. Vladimirov (1)
V. Bogomolny (1)
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70-75 degrees, sunny, windy EK: I wonder how the game would have been if Alex Borisov didn't clear the ball from the goal line that time. I still think we would have won but it would have been much harder. GK: Besides the opportunity that Gheka K. mentioned and the one when Vova slipped and cleared the ball at the last moment falling I don’t think they created any other serious moments. Thanks to our defense that played really good under control of Alex R. I am afraid Georgy would not post his report soon because he might be shy describing his solo dribbling that cause first goal and either second or third I don’t remember. Let me help him: Georgy got the ball somewhere in the middle and dribbled through 3 or 4 players and then made a nice pass to Maradonna on the left. Maradona in his turn beautifully chipped the ball over the goalkeeper in the far corner. 1:0 the end of the first half. In the second Rumson really got tired and we punished them for that. Besides the wind got stronger and it helped us a lot. The second goal (I forgot the sequence of the second and the third goals) came again after nice solo by Georgy and pass to Val who hassled with a defender and made a nice shot falling – 2:0. GV: What a nice run from Val! The pass was nice but Val did most of the work by starting to run into the open space before I even made it. And he received the pass with almost no loss in time. He was running shoulder to shoulder with the defender and he still had to worry about dribbling the ball and the goalkeeper coming at him. A great finish from Val! GK: The third goal (or it could be second): Vova kicked the ball really far in the direction where Maradona was, who took the ball put some distance between himself and the defenders (not a surprise having his speed), made it one on one with the goalie, passed the goalie and put the ball into the empty net. The fourth goal came after my solo inspired by Georgy. I got the ball in the middle passed couple players. Georgy was on my left and someone else on my right but I was afraid to pass with the way the referee was calling offside. So I took the ball all the way, passed the goalie and having the empty net hit the post. Thanks god Georgy was supporting the attack, so he put the ball that bounced from the goal post into the empty net. I wouldn’t sleep well if there was no Georgy there. We had few more chances on one of them I screwed up badly. GV: I have to add here what Gene Klein won't put because of modesty :-) The truth is that his run was really the one that should be described in more detail. And the thing that makes it special is that he went all the way, and we know that it's easier to run by people in the middle than at the last stage of the attack. What helped Gene was the same thing that bothered him - the fact that everyone expected him to give a pass. After all, he had two wide open (but in offside) people on both sides. He was fooling us all by making us think he'll pass :-) We should note another exceptional performance by Maradona. We are starting to get used to this but we should still mention it here. He said after the game that he really appreciated my passes to him. But I wouldn't trust him too much - Maradona likes ANY pass that is directed to him :-) The important thing is what he was able to do with these passes, especially on the long ball from Vova. Another important fact of the game - Rumson came with only 11 players. Report by: Gene Klein + Eugene Korsunsky + Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Igor Parychev Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov |
J.A. UNITED - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 0 - 3 FORFEIT
MONROE TWP. S.C. - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 0 - 1
HELLAS UNITED S.C. - KNIGHTS UNITED 3 - 0 FORFEIT
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - RUMSON S.C. 4 - 0
BRICKFORCE SC - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 11 - 0
5/19/2002 GAME 16
TORNADO - KNIGHTS UNITED 5 - 1
A. Prymak (4)
F. Rashap (1)
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55 degrees, sunny, terrible and heavy field In games like this one where we have great advantages we should try to practice scoring goals, not missing them :-) The Knights, despite their standing in the table right above the last team, could have been a worthy oponent. But they came with only 11 people in the beginning of the game and played 10 people the second half. The game started very energetically with both teams trying to gain an early lead. There were times when Knights kept the ball in our half more of the time and we couldn't clear it and keep it in their half. But the game was not going in favor of either team. We quickly noticed two guys on their team that were very good. One of them was No. 23 - a big black guy, very fast and with good technique and nice shot. He was very quick to create danger. On one of his attacks on the left flank he received a pass, touched the ball once and then took a shot from pretty far and from a bad angle. But he hit the bar! The other guy was a really fast black defender - he could run like the wind and he did so until the end. That said, we weren't just sitting still and we had Ryazanov, Leonid and Maradona all giving a great performance. For the first goal Ryazanov made an amazing run from the middle of the field on the left wing. He beat two defenders and crossed the ball nicely between two defenders right at Maradona. Thankfully, Maradona kept in mind that it is good to score goals in a football game :-) So, he took a nice shot and scored. Our second goal was beautiful! Knights' goalkeeper came out to clear a ball but it made its way to Maradona. He knew the goalkeeper is away from the goal and took a long, parabolic shot almost at the centerfield. The ball went on and on and on. It looked like it was going to miss by a little. Maybe the wind coming against it helped and it dropped very nicely into the net. Knights scored from a penalty shot after Rikshpun had to bring down one of their forwards. All the energy spent in the first half by Knights came to haunt them in the second. Many of their players weren't that fit to play but the fact that they played with a man less and that we were doing constant substitutions just finished them. At this point the game turned into a parody. It was like a Tom & Jerry cartoon where the cat is so much more powerful but always manages to miss the mouse in the last moment. As an example - there was an attack where we had four forwards against the goalkeeper. We ran for about 15 meters like this and then the guy on the right made a pass into offside... I remember the goal that Fima scored (the third or the fourth). He received a ball almost at the small box. We probably had an advantage in numbers in that case, too, but it was amazing to watch Fima's cool. He took almost two seconds - he stopped the ball, he saw where the goalkeeper was and he put the ball into the net. We kept coming to the goal with more people and kept passing the ball too much or taking shots that we would like to forget. Knights had one attack that is worth mentioning just because of a great save by Vova. The ball was going on the ground to the left of Vova and he had to go down and stretch to the max to get it. It was beautiful! I should mention a header by Moldovan. He received a cross from a corner kick or an attack on the left flank. He didn't have much room, he was at the corner of the goal and the goalkeeper was right there. So, he decided to put it down but the goalkeeper didn't move away and the ball hit his legs. I remember the last goal. After so many misses on our side, Maradona decided to score his fourth and round off the score. He came from the right side and when he got close to the goal the goalkeeper attacked him, he passed it by him but the ball was almost about to go out of bounds. Maradona just had enough time to take a nice shot from a very sharp angle. We had great attendance and a good team effort. The field was very hard to play on but we managed to keep running to the end. This was the second game where we had the energy advantage on our side and we took good use of substitutions. We should be careful not to relax for the last two games. Our strategy will work if we have good attendance and if our forwards are in a goal scoring mood - let's hope Maradona stays in his. Unfortunately, we will be missing Ryazanov, Moldovan, Alik Karger to vacations and Yuriy is badly injured at the moment. Report by: Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Georgy Vladimirov Igor Parychev Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov |
RUMSON S.C. - BRICKFORCE SC 0 - 1
SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 8 - 0
DEPORTIVO CUENCA - J.A. UNITED 0 - 7
KNIGHTS UNITED - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 1 - 5
MONROE TWP. S.C. - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 1 - 3
5/12/2002 GAME 15
TORNADO - MONROE TWP. S.C. 4 - 2
E. Korsunsky (1)
L. Fursin (2)
Y. Ryazanov (1)
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55 degrees, drizzling rain - on and off GV: What a great win for us! We played the leaders in the group. We really need to win our last games if we want to secure a spot for the playoffs. We came with great attendance and the team was ready for the game. Some of us even seemed like finally awake after a long sleep. Monroe helped us by coming with only 11 people and even losing one of them 15 minutes before the end of the game. In the beginning the game was more even but we scored first. Maradona (Alex Prymak) was waiting for the ball from Korsunsky to reach him and was waiting for the defender to attack him. He didn't touch the ball until the moment he saw the defender close the distance. Great timing for Maradona to lead the ball forward, then beat another defender and Monroe's goalkeeper had no choice but to bring him down in the penalty area. Korsunsky executed the penalty and took a great shot in the upper left. 1:0. Just like all of us expected, it didn't take long for our new forward, Leonid, to put his name on the scoreboard. So far, he had been very dangerous in the games and had been making some great passes. But this time he decided to score on his own. There was a little detective work among many of the players on the team to find out how it happened. So, here is our best version of this moment in history :-) Major (Igor) makes a great pass over a defender to Maradona (or was it Val B.?) who then passes the ball to Ryazanov. Ryazanov, on the right side, tries to chip the goalkeeper but his shot goes to the left instead of going up, the goalkeeper tries to intercept the ball with his right hand but deflects it slightly and it falls right in front of Leonid. Leonid keeps his cool and puts the ball into the net. Monroe was far from dead but didn't really have very good chances. Then, they took a shot from outside the penalty area. The ball was rolling predictably to the left of Vova. He let himself fall to his left in anticipation of the ball but the wet field somehow fooled him and the ball passed under him. 2:1. We got our help from the wet grass after a kick from Leonid. The ball wasn't going very fast towards the goal. I was running towards the goalkeeper in the hope that he wouldn't handle it well and hoping for a rebound. The ball must have bounced a little and slipped between his legs. 3:1. Monroe became demoralized as they got more tired. One of their stars, Lishuk, was struggling to go past Alex Borisov but was being stopped each time. He also started shouting at his goalkeeper for letting in the third goal. In the second half we completely dominated them as they didn't have any subs but we were substituting very regularly. Our last goal came from a slalom by Ryazanov past a few defenders and finishing it 1-on-1. Our defense was holding up very nicely in play and most of Monroe's chances were coming from their corner kicks. They did hit the post once. But their goal came when a guy on the right flank tried to center in front of the goal and his cross turned into a perfect shot in the far corner of the goal. Vova was tracking the ball and threw himself to catch it but it was just too perfect to catch. He did hit the post and for a moment we were afraid he broke something. Alex Karger started changing to replace him but Vova stood up and kept playing. I had two chances. My first one came as one of their defenders was trying to run along their goal line and take the ball to the flank. I chased him and he "forgot" the ball. I took it and turned around, took the ball away from the goal line to have a better angle for a shot. The goalkeeper didn't let it through. My other chance came as I received a pass a little into the penalty area. I had time, defenders were running to me but were far. I took a nice, powerful shot but didn't put it in the corner. The goalkeeper had to reach just a little to save it. Maradona even scored two more goals but he found himself very often in offside, like on these two occasions. He also took two shots from afar but missed the goal by a little bit. Korsunsky took three shots from outside the box but missed, too. YR: I had a great chance to score in the second half after a pass from Maradona (Maradona was absolutly GREAT today). I stopped the ball with my left foot and there was defender coming to me from the right - I touched the ball to the left and made one step forward to get rid of the defender and then I made a shot - I just wanted to make a really strong shot - so it went right to the goalie :( GV: We had many situations and, thankfully, were able to score on four of them. It was a great team effort. The fact that Monroe ran out of gas allowed us to play the kind of football that some of us think we're incapable of - short passes, support of the attack, taking shots from a distance. We still didn't win too many first balls but we were getting many of the second ones :-) GK: Maradona was unstoppable throughout the whole game, Sergey K. inspired by the presence of his father played one of his best games and everyone else contributed equally hard. GV: Maradona is a big time fan of hang gliding (flying in the air with this triangular thing we call "deltaplan" in Bulgaria) and will usually be absent from a game when the weather is good. But after today's game he said: "If we have more rainy days like today, we will win more games!" I agree with this :-) If this win keeps people excited and more dedicated we have a great chance for a rebirth of the invincible Tornado! Report by: Georgy Vladimirov (with help from Alex Grinberg, Eugene Korsunsky, Gene Klein, Slava Fridman, Alex Prymak, Igor Parychev, Leonid Fursin, Yevgen Ryazanov, Val Bogomolny). And now the big question - how many Tornado players does it take to write a report? :-) The answer is: It takes team work! P.S.: Gene Klein says: "We never had such problems when we were scoring 1-2 goals per game. Why do we need to score so much and cause so many complications?" |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Prymak Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Igor Parychev Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov |
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - MONROE TWP. S.C. 4 - 2
BRICKFORCE SC - KNIGHTS UNITED 3 - 0 FORFEIT
J.A. UNITED - RUMSON S.C. PPD - NO FIELD
HELLAS UNITED S.C. - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 1 - 2
HILLSIDE ATHLETICO - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 8 - 7
5/5/2002 GAME 14
TORNADO - HELLAS UNITED 0 - 2
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70 degrees, sunny, perfect field - gorgeous conditions! GV: What a gorgeous day! What a wonderful field! What an attendance from everyone! But we had to suffer a loss for reasons difficult to identify... One important thing to mention is that the game can be divided into two very distinct parts and they happen to be the two halves. The reason for that change was a group of girls who came to play on the same field that Hellas reserved - and we had to leave... Only in the US! :-) Thankfully, we moved to the field right next to first one and we enjoyed the same kind of Wimbledon-style low cut grass. But the size of the field would have fit those girls better than it did us. Smaller goals, smaller field - it was funny. Anyway, back to the first half. I can't remember Hellas ever dominating or controlling the game. In fact, we had one of the first great chances to score in the first minutes. It came after a nice pass to Leonid on the right and after he made a nice run all the way to the end of the field and made a nice cross to the middle. I had run all the way from the middle of the field to support the attack but failed to run a little faster in anticipation of a successfull cross. So, I was behind a few steps. Otherwise, I would have had an empty net in front of me. Both of Hellas' goals came after big mistakes on our part. But that is not to mention that they didn't have other very good situations where they worked to create them and came very close to a goal. The first goal came in the first half. One of their forwards was on the left and had two defenders on him. He managed to make a cross on the ground in front of the goalkeeper where they had another forward covered by two more defenders. Their forward was the first to touch the ball and we were down 0:1. I don't remember the sequence of events very well but I can clearly remember two great chances that they had but failed to realize. One of them was a nice shot that hit the post. And the other was a situation where we failed to clear the ball after the end of their attack. They took possession of it on the left side of the goal and crossed it to the other, where they had two open guys. Somehow they failed to hit the goal. We also had our hit at the post from a header by Maradona. In general, I don't remember very many good chances on our side. I am waiting for the forwards to remind me of them. Also, we were losing the battle for the first ball and that wasn't very helpful in creating such chances. Another thing that hurt us very badly in the attack was an injury that Yuriy received which put him out of the rest of the game. Our attack lost a lot of its sharpness after that. VR: Very bad or weak execution of the shots and not strong enough penetration in the final stage of the attack. GV: The second half was pretty much more on our side. The small field felt familiar from our winter indoors competition and we were more organized to take advantage of the different game. They did have shots at goal and crosses but we had a lot of attacks, too. Just like indoor football, well - almost. VR: 10 first minutes of the second half an 10 last of the first were the best. We exhausted them and started to dominate, but lost domination on 10-15th minute of the second half. GV: Their goal came after Vova (Vladimir) intercepted a cross and seemed like he had it with both hands but dropped it behind him. Unfortuntely, there was one of them there and they scored. VR: The second goal put down the momentum that we started to gain. GV: In another situation I remember they took a shot from far on the left flank - it was far but the guy put it dangerously close to the top left corner. VR: The midfielders tried to hold the ball in the moments when they had to release it and tried to start an attack when they needed to find the continuation first. It was very obvious in the second half, when we tried to do fast attacks with penetration. How many long shots were fired during the second half? How many passes from the flank into the area? Those are main weapons against a team(field) with dense defense. GV: On our side I can remember cases where we got close to their goal but we didn't know what to do with the last few defenders. We passed the ball a little more than we should have and we didn't take many shots at their goal. EK: We had tons of chances just didn't convert on any. For example:
Report by: Georgy Vladimirov + Val Ryjouk + Eugene Korsunsky |
Players present:
Alex Friedman Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Eugene Korsunsky Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
MONROE TWP. S.C. - BRICKFORCE SC 3 - 3
SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 3 - 0 FORFEIT
RUMSON S.C. - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 3 - 0 FORFEIT
KNIGHTS UNITED - J.A. UNITED 1 - 4
HELLAS UNITED S.C. - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 2 - 0
4/28/2002 GAME 13
TORNADO - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 2 - 5
Y. Goliyad(1)
Y. Ryazanov (1)
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55 degrees, cloudy, wet field. "Cheloveku svoistveno oshibatsja, no issho bolee svoistveno - vinit v etih oshibkah kto-to drugovo" (It is manlike to make mistakes, but even more so to blame someone else for them) Well, in the break, I asked a rhetorical question: "If we leave now, would it be counted as 0:3?" which was better than the half time score. As to the report, I decided to make it only, because of a couple of people who were not present at this beatiful execution of our loss. As one can tell you a lot about the tactic, personal skills, level of the other team, or other factors of yesterday's loss, I'll try to stick to the facts. First minutes of the game showed that we are dealing with a good skilled young team that had all grounds to fight to the end. They made a couple of good attacks passing the ball from the center to the flanks, smartly adding the midfielders to the action. We didn't put much resistance and the game seemed to be flat on our side. 0:1 The first nail in the coffin was hammered by a shot from the left flank on the chest level to the far post. Vova seemed to get the ball, but didn't manage to fix it and after a couple of hits the ball made it to the net. 0:2 The second goal was not far apart. Quick attack from the left flank, good dribbling of their attacker, who managed to beat our defenseman on the corner of the zone and fire shot to the left side of the goalpost. 1:2 Then came a goal from a beatifull Rikshpun's pass from the right side of the field through the middle in between, giving Yuri great chance to break almost one to one. Very solid ending by Yuri. The game started to get more even, but we couldn't manage to get a clear chance to equalize. 1:3 But, alas, all good things come to an end. Unseen mistake from one of our best (and I mean it) defensmen misses a ball trying to clear it. The ball slips past him. No recovery. One on one. 1:4 1:5 I'm not sure about the order, but both goals came in the same manner. Attack from the right flank, pass in the middle. One goal came as Vova saved the net from the first shot, but couldn't do anything while another attacker netted the ball and our defense was not present within 5 miles around him. The other came from a pass from the right to the left. No defenseman was present again... I should say that it was unclear, how the opposite team could break out putting so many people against a few our defensemen and our midfield was busy with something else. Anyway, quick rest. The second half was much better, but the goal scored by Eugene R in the last 10 minutes of the game was a mere consolation. I agree with Eugene Klein to put the game behind us. "The king is dead, long live the king!" Report by: Val Ryjouk + some translation and editing by Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Rikshpun Eugene Korsunsky Gene Klein Igor Parychev Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
HELLAS UNITED S.C. - J.A. UNITED 2 - 2
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 2 - 5
J.A. UNITED - MONROE TWP. S.C. 0 - 3
HILLSIDE ATHLETICO - KNIGHTS UNITED PPD - BAD WEATHER
DEPORTIVO CUENCA - RUMSON S.C. PPD - BAD WEATHER
BRICKFORCE SC - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 3 - 0 FORFEIT
4/21/2002 GAME 12
TORNADO - BRICKFORCE SC 2 - 0
Y. Ryazanov (1)
G. Klein (1)
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55 degrees, cloudy, very long grass in the corners. A well deserved win! Very good attendance - pretty much everyone who wasn't injured showed up. From the very beginning we had great coordination between the lines and we stuck with it until the end of the game. Brickforce didn't look as good as the last time they played with us, even though they had 11 people this time. The only reasonable explanation for that is that we didn't allow them to play their game. Brickforce's defenders played a little rough and physical game but, thankfully, we didn't get any serious injuries. Despite that it was obvious from the beginning that our forwards were faster than some of their guys. We started having nice situations that usually resulted in one of our forwards beating a defender on a one-on-one. Fortunately for us we scored early on. That goal was the only one for the first half. It started with a nice hustle by Slava Fridman in the middle of the field and a nice pass that lead Yuriy one-on-one with a defender on the right. Yuriy slipped the ball past the defender and outran him. Then he crossed the ball in front of the goal on the left side to an open Eugene Ryazanov who touched it into the net. A lot of our dangerous attacks came from balls that were cleared (headed) by their defence but their midfield couldn't get to them before us. I got quite a few possesions that way. Gene Klein and our forwards would very often do the same and cover some ground before meeting the defense. In short, the situation reminded me of a problem that we ourselves have had many times in the past. I don't know exactly what we did right and what Brickforce did wrong but we were doing very well. We had situations where we would control the ball dangerously close to their goal but we didn't have a nice finishing shot. One of these situations came after a corner kick. Their defense got a hold of the ball at some point but tried to pass it instead of clearing it. We pressed them on the right and soon Slava had the ball in his posession. He made a very nice pass to me parallel to the goal line about two meters away from it. I let it go between my feet and tried to get it in the goal with a heel but never made contact with it - would have been a nice goal. Brickforce had a very nice chance for drawing the score. It came after a counter attack on the right. We had about two or three defenders in front of the goal but they had two forwards with them. The cross came from the right and it landed right on one of their forwards' head. Then bounced right at the other forward's head. He had a 100% chance to score at an empty net but he couldn't make good contact. This was a situation where everything went perfect and we can't blame the defenders for that. In the second half they were pressing a little more and pulled up trying to equalize. The ball was spending more time in our half but without any very good chances for them. On the opposite. We were able to make some very nice counter attacks. Unfortunately, the referee was calling offside for everything that remotely looked like one. On some cases it was very unfair and was hurting us a lot. The ref admitted that he probably called wrong offsides but pledged to call anything that resembles an offside. I guess this is a good decision on his part because it sucks for us to miss so many goal situations by being stopped by the offside, but it would suck even more for the other team if we scored from an offside. Well, the good thing is that we eventually scored again. Before that Gene Klein tried to take a couple of shots from a distance but missed the goal widely. We did need shots and we applauded these attempts even if some of them came with people being open on the side. The goal came after one of our many counter attacks. Our forwards had already started to play more individually in order to avoid an offside call. Yuriy made a nice cut on the left, came all the way to the goal on the left side and crossed it to an open Gene Klein right in front of the goal. Gene stopped it and took a shot. The goalkeeper was close but couldn't react at this distance. We should give a lot of credit to our defense. They didn't allow Brickforce's forwards to outrun them, made nice tackles and always had enough people when they were needed. Alex Grinberg said that Alex Rikshpun and Alex Borisov deserved a lot of the credit for saving potentially dangerous situations. It feels very good after a win like this one. Everyone did a good job and we worked well together. It helped that we lead the score early on. We just have to figure out how to keep our composure like this even if we are behind in the score... Report by: Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Grinberg Alex Karger Alex Rikshpun Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Leonid Fursin Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
MONROE TWP. S.C. - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 7 - 4
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - BRICKFORCE SC 2 - 0
SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - RUMSON S.C. 4 - 1
KNIGHTS UNITED - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 4 - 2
4/14/2002 GAME 11
TORNADO - J.A. UNITED 3 - 3
Y. Goliyad(2)
Y. Ryazanov (1)
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70 degrees, sunny, a little wet. GV: We were lucky to tie the game but we should have won this game by a wide margin... Like Ryazanov said after the game: "We should be thankful to Yuriy for saving us from the humiliation of a defeat in this situation" And the situation was the following... J.A. United started the game with 10 people. Early in the game they lost one guy to injury and continued playing with 9. Then, after another injury, they played the last 15 minutes with only 8 people! The advantage we had in numbers showed immediately. GK: The first 20-30 minutes we played very good game physically and tactically. All lines were moving equally well and we didn't have breaks between the lines. GV: We were having lots of cuts through their defense but we always ended up making one pass too many or touching the ball one extra time. One very promising thing to note here is that our new player, Leonid, made a lot of these cuts and was opening himself very nicely to support the attack. An amazing performance for a first game! He was also probably the forward that had the most one-on-one situations with the goalkeeper. We could tell that as he gets more confidence and experience, he will be scoring many goals for us. Well done! The other usual dangers for their defense were coming from Yuriy and Ryazanov (and they were the ones who ultimately scored). Unfortunately, the first goal came late in the first half and it was not on our side :-( It came from a corner kick. I am ashamed to admit that it was my guy who headed the ball into the net. Maybe a better defense during a corner kick is zone rather than individual? GK: After that goal we changed the style, trying to equalize as soon as possible. That created breaks between first + second line and defense. Which allowed the other team to create counterattacks. GV: The first half ended at 1:0. We didn't score until we trailed 2:0. Their second goal came from a penalty. Alex Grinberg was staying close to one of their forwards and when his man received the pass, the ref saw a push. We then scored through a pass from the right, which bounced and fell into Ryazanov's feet and he calmly put it into their net. They were asking for an offside but we don't have sideline refs, so it is up the ref to decide, and he did a fine job. They scored a third goal that came from a great cross from the right, above the heads of three of our defense and well headed into the net at the far post. An especially dangerous forward from J.A. United was #12 who was extremely fast and with very good technical abilities. It wasn't uncommon for him to slalom between three defenders. Yuriy scored on a cut through the defense after a nice short pass he got. And then came a great moment that won't be forgotten by Tornado. Their goalkeeper was hit in the balls with the ball at the last attack. Needless to say, he wasn't very happy and was complaining and bending as the game went on. Yuriy noticed that and used the fact that he was left open with the ball about 22 meters away from the goal on the left side. He made a great shot which hit the middle of the goal, where the goalkeeper was standing a few meters in front of it. The goalkeeper was caught by suprise and couldn't reach the ball as it went above him and righ under the bar. A beautiful goal! It is worth mentioning that earlier in the second half we had a direct kick in front of their goal. A short pass to the side and a kick from Moldovan resulted in a powerful shot that met the post. GK: Overall good game because even being down two goals we didn’t lose our composure and kept fighting. GV: Not that it is very difficult to fight a team with 8-9 people and no substitutions :-) But we deserve some credit. We might also add here that the game was played at a field suggested by the ref because J.A. United had problems finding a home field. The funny thing is that the game might not have taken place at all because the ref was waiting at one of the seven fields and the two teams were waiting at one of the parking lots... Report by: Georgy Vladimirov + Gene Klein |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Karger Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Leonid Fursin Slava Fridman Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
RUMSON S.C. - KNIGHTS UNITED 4 - 3
DEPORTIVO CUENCA - MONROE TWP. S.C. 2 - 1
BRICKFORCE SC - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 0 - 0
HILLSIDE ATHLETICO - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 0 - 5
J.A. UNITED - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 3 - 3
4/7/2002 GAME 10
TORNADO - HILLSIDE 3 - 0 ( forfeit )
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40-50 degrees, sunny. We were supposed to play the first game of the Spring season against the same team that we beat 17:0 in the last game of the Fall '01. They are also the team that is currently on the bottom of the table with zero points. Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that they were the home team for the game but we were to play on our home field because they had problems finding one. We had 11 people available to play (I was there too but was supposed to sit out my second game after the red card). The last time we played with "Hillside", we had to wait for them for more than half hour. This time they didn't come at all. Four people deserve credit for doing a great job of lining up the field for the start of the season. Those who have lined up fields will know that it's much harder to line up the field for the first time than to just repeat over the old lines. These people are: Alex Borisov, Alex Grinberg, Alex Karger, Leonid Fursin, Vladimir Trubnikov The weather was cool but perfect for football. We had a nice practice on a smaller field with big goals. One of the teams was insisting on resetting the score all the time, and we did reset it about four times. It always kept going the other way, though... :-) Report by: Georgy Vladimirov |
Players present:
Alex Borisov Alex Karger Alex Prymak Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Gene Klein Slava Fridman Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgen Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 3 - 0 FORFEIT BRICKFORCE SC - J.A. UNITED 2 - 2 SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - KNIGHTS UNITED PPD - NO FIELD HELLAS UNITED S.C. - DEPORTIVO CUENCA PPD - NO REFEREE MONROE TWP. S.C. - RUMSON S.C. 2 - 1
12/9/2001 GAME 1 MAKE UP
TORNADO - HILLSIDE 17 - 0
G. Klein (4)
Y. Goliyad (3)
V. Bogomolny (3)
C. Cavallaro (2)
A. Karger (1)
S. Grinberg (1)
S. Prymak (1)
S. Rikshpun (1)
Y. Ryazanov (1)
Finishing season on high note! Are comments really necessary?
12/2/2001 GAME 9
TORNADO - DEPORTIVO 4 - 0
Y. Goliyad(2)
V. Bogomolny (1)
Y. Ryazanov (1)
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45-50 degrees, sunny. Despite the score and the fact that we could have easily scored a few more goals it was not an easy game by any means. Deportivo is a very skilled team, they played football all of us are familiar with after playing in the New Brunswick league 22 games against teams of similar skill level and strategy. They traped the ball extremely well, passed it precisely and were able to create 1-2 man advantage in the middle of the field on many occasions by constantly interchanging positions. Man, if we learn to swap positions like that we'll be unbeatable. They also grabbed us, pushed us and dived to get referee's attention when we pushed them back (basically, like any Spanish team). 1st half was more or less even. At the start of the game we held them in their half for good 10 minutes. Ura had a chance to score but hit the crossbar with his left foot. I can't recall other good chances. Most of the play was in the middle of the pitch. I was playing devensive middle and I noticed that somehow by interchanging players they always had 1 or 2 players unmarked. The best Deportivo chance came off the corner kick as I almost srezal ball into my own net trying to clear it. There was a nasty spin on the ball that I didn't see. In 2nd half Val R. came on the field resulting in abundance of goals :) First, Val B. nailed it off the post, then Ura scored a couple (on 1 of the goals Moldovan smartly joined the play creating man advantage) and finally Y. Ryazanov scored in his first game back as Val B. miskicked it. Throughout the second half we had at least 2-3 great chances to score but missed. These chances came primarily on the counter as Depor started to commit a lot of players forward. However, Depor could not create anything except for shots from outside. Only once, late in the game they had 1 on 1 but Alik came out very fast to cut the angle. And finally, there were 2 red cards in the game. Imagine this: play goes on, I turn my head and what do I see? Georgy chasing some Spanish guy trying to kick him in the ass with his foot. As I turned Georgy just missed. Turns out, that little fuck hit Georgy in the leg from the back way behind the play hoping ref will not see it. Pretty dirty but not unexpected. After all, we're playing Mexican team. |
Players present: Alex Borisov Alex Prymak Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alik Karger Eugene Korsunsky Charlie Cavallaro Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yevgeny Ryazanov Yuriy Goliyad |
HELLAS UNITED S.C. - RUMSON S.C. 2 - 4 NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 4 - 0 MONROE TWP. S.C. - KNIGHTS UNITED 5 - 1 BRICKFORCE SC - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 5 - 1 SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - J.A. UNITED 3 - 0 FORFEIT
11/18/2001 GAME 8
TORNADO - RUMSON 2 - 3
Y. Goliyad(1)
V. Bogomolny (1)
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60 degrees, sunny and warm. Very tough loss to swallow. With the number of 100% chances we had, we should have won by 2-3 goals easily. But again, we barely beat Knights last game 2-1 and this team was no Knights. They were organized, in shape and some of their players had very good individual skills. Having played with 1 man short all game long, they managed to control the flow of the game for long periods and threaten our goals on many occasions. Watching all game from the sidelines, I cound not understand why are we not trying to hold on to the ball. Rumson is 1 player short, field is unusually big, so stand apart and pass it around and slowly come to their goal. But I guess that's not our way of playing and nothing can change that. Once we get the ball we try to do it in 1 long pass to get Ura or Val one on one. And it worked on several occasions. But let me tell you, there were a few short passes a few times and it looked equally impressive. Rumson players just stopped. And then long ball that was easily headed out by their D. But enough theory. Actully, 1 more thing - discipline. Little things matter. 2 minutes before Rumson scored their first goal I told Alik, "Opyat' Rikspun popersya vpered. Budet obidno esli nam seichas zab'yut na contr-atake". Blyad', 2 minutes later they scored. But enough about that. Goals... first 2 goals Rumson scored on the counter after our corner kicks. 0-2 after first. We equalized early in the second. Ura scored after being one on one and Val scored into empty net but the ball katilsya so slowly that we actually thought defender will clear it from goalline. 2 minutes later Rumson scored beautiful goal - serve from right side, their forward heads it into top corner. Gorgeous! Again, in the process we have tons of 100% chances (one on ones, shots into empty net, etc...) Special mention to the ref. Clearly, he never played soccer, I wouldn't be surpized to know that's his first officiating. But I think he did great. He called everything plus a bit more. That's better than if he missed something. But it was pretty funny to watch. Also, Val R., please stop pretending that you're really hurt (btw, in Japan/Korea there will be red cards for simulation). Also, nice mistimed tackle :) - missed the guy completely but somehow managed to grab him with his hands and pull down. Another observation, when we are losing and there is almost no time left there is no need for 3 defenders to just stand in center circle covering nobody when your team serves corner kick. :) Also, when we're down and there is no time left, it makes sense to sub defender for forward. There is no need to shout "Who's playing left D?" We substituted Val R. for Val B., we're taking chances. 3 defenders should be enoung to cover backline. That should be read. (When Vitek Markovich played with us his favorite saying was "Chitai". I'll never forget that saying) Anyway, these are my observations. |
Players present: Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Alik Karger Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yuriy Goliyad |
KNIGHTS UNITED - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 3 - 2 RUMSON S.C. - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 3 - 2 DEPORTIVO CUENCA - BRICKFORCE SC 1 - 7
11/11/2001 GAME 7
TORNADO - KNIGHTS 2 - 1
Y. Goliyad(1)
V. Bogomolny (1)
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Very cold and windy, 30-35 degrees Well, there is not much to write about this game. Moldovan's expression 'oni mertvie' best describes Knights United. I say bunch of clowns. On at least 2 occasions I saw Knights players run with the ball and fall for no reason at all... They had no individual skills at all! Gene Kl. and Serega were dribbling through 3 players at a time. :)) We should have killed them 10:0. That team is a shame to the division. At any rate, we beat them, got necessary 3 points to move back to the 2nd place. 8 minutes from the start Ura scored. With 2-3 minutes remaining these clowns somehow equalized, but early in the 2nd half Val beat the defender to the ball (defender was 2-3 meters closer to the ball) and put us in front for good. We had many chances to score but did not take advantage of them. Maybe it was the wind. :)) |
Players present: Alex Friedman Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alik Karger Charlie Cavallaro Fima Rashap Gene Klein Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yuriy Goliyad |
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - KNIGHTS UNITED 2 - 1 HELLAS UNITED S.C. - MONROE TWP. S.C. 1 - 3 BRICKFORCE SC - RUMSON S.C. 0 - 4 J.A. UNITED - DEPORTIVO CUENCA PPD
10/21/2001 GAME 6
TORNADO - MONROE 2 - 5
A. Prymak (1)
V. Bogomolny (1)
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Very cold, very windy, about 40 degrees, very hard surface Well, Val R. asked me after the game why did I think we lose. I said I really don't know. We played well and deserved at least a tie. All the goals except the one that put them ahead were lucky. In that case Lishuk nakrutil two defenders and scored protashiv myach almost from the center line to our penalty area. In the first half he did the same thing causing a penalty. Its hard to say though whether he got fouled inside or outside the box. I don't recall any other Monroe efforts that deserved a goal. We also did not have many chances to score. Ura nakrutil 2 defenders and passed to Maradona who scored into empty net. That was nice. Val B. converted one on one after last defender started to screw around instead of just clearing. Val B. also had a nice long shot that goalie saved. Charlie was serving a corner that almost made it to the back ot the net. But common, any normal goalie should not allow goal curved in from corner. Georgy almost scored also from corner. That's pretty much all the chances we had. All their goals were lucky, moreover I don't think they had chances to score besides those they converted. Their first goal came after Monroe forward crossed from the side. Vova mishandled the ball, it hit our defender and went in. After that we scored two and Lishuk created a pk (all described above). 2-2 after first half. Lishuk scored nicely to make 3-2 as described above. 4th goal - innocent cross from the side, their forward who is surrounded by at least 3 defenders calmly redirects/chips the ball, it goes into far corner (typical play during practice). Last 5th goal - Rikshpun was put in awkward position as he got the ball as last defender with Monroe forward closing in. He tried to clear but I think hit Monroe forward's leg and ball went over Vova from 25 meters! Overall - played as well as opponent, created more chances. Did not deserve to lose. But in football the better team or the team with most chances does not necessarily win. Only balls in the back of the net count. Other plays worth noting - Val R. attempt to get an Oscar (everyone thought he was really hurt) and Rikshun's karate kick. Apparently, Monroe player hit Rikshpun in the knee with his stomach. |
Players present: Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alik Karger Charlie Cavallaro Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov Yuriy Goliyad |
DEPORTIVO CUENCA - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 6 - 2 MONROE TWP. S.C. - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 5 - 2 SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 0 - 2 KNIGHTS UNITED - BRICKFORCE SC 2 - 4 RUMSON S.C. - J.A. UNITED 4 - 5
10/21/2001 GAME 5
TORNADO - HELLAS 3 - 1
F. Rishap(1)
G. Vladimirov (1)
Y. Goliyad (1)
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Sunny, 75 in late October! Gorgeous day! It was an even game for most of 90 minutes. We had several chances to score in the 1st half, particularly through Val B. but did not take those chances. The ref screwed us up on 2 occasions as we put 2 goals into Hellas's net only to be called off. In the first case, the ref called an offside and in the second case he gave us a free kick when he should've given us advantage. Hellas managed to squizze a softie by Vova in the middle of the first half. Down 0-1 after 1st half. In the second half, Hellas had numerous chances to put the game away as the balls whistled by the post on 3-4 occasions and even hit the post once. Despite that we managed to score 3 in the last 20 minutes of the half. First, Fima put it in off the post from 5-6 meters as there was a lot of confusion in the penalty area and he was left unmarked. Hellas wanted to win and started to commit many players to offense and they paid for it. Georgy all of a sudden happened to be in Hellas's penalty area, beat the defender one on one and put it upstairs from a very sharp angle. 2-1! Hellas ran forward to get even. Several minutes later Yura had a one on one but keeper saved a very dangerous shot. A minute later Yura had another one on one and put it into near corner. 3-1! I bet it gives us sole possession on 2nd place in standings... |
Players present: Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Alik Karger Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov |
DEPORTIVO CUENCA - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 1 - 3 BRICKFORCE SC - MONROE TWP. S.C. 5 - 3 NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 3 - 1 J.A. UNITED - KNIGHTS UNITED 1 - 0 HILLSIDE ATHLETICO - RUMSON S.C. 1 - 8
10/14/2001 GAME 4
TORNADO - SOUTH BRUNSWICK 1 - 0
C. Cavallaro(1)
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Val R.'s report - Here it is. 1:0 This was a game that left a great feeling afterwards. It was the first game in a while, when we had 15 people ready to go AND A TRUE COACH!!! :-) (Due to injury Alik Karger came to the game in the shoes, not in cleats) It was nice to feel again backing up from Moldovan (Welcome back), who scared me on Wednesday, but showed very solid game yesterday. Well, here is the game. Very pleasant weather. Good, wide field. *** Before 1:0. A couple of attacks from both sides showed, that the ball will be held in the middle as little as possible. The opponent's strikers were very fast and skillfull enough to create dangerous combinations and ready to play very hard. I must say, that played just a little over the limit, and the referee allowed hard plays. We didn't fall and showed very good defensive spirit, knoking down them on few occasions. *** 1:0 (app. 25th minute) [PLAY OF THE GAME] Indirect kick from the right side, a couple of meters from the center line. Alex R. directs the ball in the penalty area. Great pass. All defenders try to cover the players or go for the ball, and they leave Charlie alone in the center, close to the penalty spot. The ball was not fast and you could see it as in slow motion. Jump, header in the left from the goalkeeper corner. Great execution from both Charlie and Alex. *** End of the first half. You could see us tiring. They pressured more, as their forwards were running as crazy. Ac ouple of times we got lucky. ValB has the title of "ZHADINA" of the game. Here is the moment. Great pass to the right flank. Val pickes the ball, goes to the the line of the field, tries to move to the goals. Great dribbling, and he leaves 4 (FOUR) players behind him. 3 of 4 of our guys were standing in the penalty box, waiting for the final pass. Val tries to "give a pass", and the ball goes upo and wide ... *** The second half. We were counteratacking. Very dangerously at times. We were missing the FINAL PASS. Maradona knows, what I'm talking about :-). They were pressuring, but no result, even though they were close a couple of times. Here are the quotes of their players during the games. "One mistake, just one mistake, guys, lets do it..." NA-NA Na-Na-Na :-) "You got to shot fast, we didn't get a chance with those guys..." (To coach)"Give me a breather"(Change me)"They all over me, and nobody f..ng move" That's it. Congratulations to all. |
Players present: Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alexander Grinberg Alex Rikshpun Alex Vorotilo Charlie Cavallaro Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov |
RUMSON S.C. - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 2 - 3 HELLAS UNITED S.C. - BRICKFORCE SC 0 - 3 FORFEIT SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 0 - 1 MONROE TWP. S.C. - J.A. UNITED 5 - 2 KNIGHTS UNITED - HILLSIDE ATHLETICO 9 - 0
10/7/2001 GAME 3
TORNADO - BRICKFORCE 2 - 1
V. Bogomolny (2)
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Val R. report - I can not say, what was going on in the first half, as I was cruising through the town of So.Plainfield looking for nice places and trying to find the freaking place, where the game was. Well it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get to the field... The weather was windy. The field was OK. The score was 1:0. You should have seen the game to fully understand Val's message about shinguards, because that's what comes to the mind, when you are on the field. Hard tackles, 50% with no contact with the ball, 25% with the only attempt to hurt you. I admire Eugene Klein and Alik Karger's courage to take part in action with the injuries, they have. And in addition to that, the referee whistles randomly awarding one or other side with no stable logic behind the decisions. Anyway, the main thing, I heard in the "intermission", was "They allow us to play". And they, indeed, did. * Before 1:1 === We had no difficulties to move through, as their defense didn't show much thinking, except very rude tackles. To the referee's credit, he did showed a couple of yellows for them. But, we were failing in the final stage of attack, being short in the final pass. A couple of the "offsides", that were not even close added to that. The BrickForce started to attack more, adding pressure on our defense. We were lucky a couple of times, as they failed to score from very good positions. * 1:1. Attack from the left. One guy is waiting in the middle of our goal zone, covered by ValR. Pass from the flank on the waste level. The forward fools ValR getting ti the ball first. One touch - Vova couldn't do anything - totally, my fault, letting the guy to touch that ball. * After 1:1. They are still atacking, but our answers are dangerous, too. Alex Primak was "zhadina" on a couple of occasions. * THE PLAY OF THE GAME. Another break through the left flank of our defense. Beatifull pass in the goal zone, great header goes to the left upper corner of the goal post. The ball is not fast, but very precise into the net. Vova makes great jump and touches the ball with the ends of the fingers. The ball jumps up and lands right before the goal line, where our defender gets posession of it. A couple of the guys from opposite team yelled "Great save, goalie" after this moment. Thanks, Vova. * 2:1. The pass from our half to ValB on the right ( who was in offside,but the referee whistles randomly - we won :-) ) ValB gets the ball and comes to the corner of the penalty box. A good execution - 2:1. * After 2:1. (about 10 min left) Our captains implemented very interesting tactic, changing players avery "dead ball". We won, we didn't get serious injuries (BIG SURPRISE FOR ME), we felt great. |
Players present: Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Fima Rashap Gene Klein Georgy Vladimirov Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov |
RUMSON S.C. - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 2 - 2 J.A. UNITED - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 1 - 2 RICKFORCE SC - NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO 1 - 2 DEPORTIVO CUENCA - KNIGHTS UNITED 4 - 2 HILLSIDE ATLETICO - MONROE TWP. S.C. 0 - 3 FORFEIT
9/30/2001 GAME 2
TORNADO - J.A. United 0 - 4
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A few positives first - we actually could have scored twice. First, Val B. had one on one but started to dribble by the goalie instead of shooting. Second, Maradona chipped the keeper but the defensemen bicycle-kicked it out of the open net (play of the game). There were a couple of wide angle shoots, Rikshpun was acting in the box several times trying to get a call but nothing major except for 2 chances described above. BTW, these chances came in the second half when the winner was pretty much decided. In our defense, we were missing Gene Kl., Eugene R. and Georgy in the middfield... Its tough to compensate these 3 people. At any rate, J.A. United totally overplayed us (at least that what it looked like from the sidelines). They were more skilled and much faster getting to loose balls. The goals: 1st goal came roughly in the middle of the 1st half as Vova came a little too far. The shot from outside was over him, he tried to tip it above the crossbar but put it in the net. 2nd goal came off free kick (Val R. raspravilsya s chuvakov and got a yellow). Vova came out to catch it but missed and JA player put it in the open net. In the second half both goals came pretty much from nowhere. 3rd goal was a mid - distance shot that seemed to fool Vova. It seemed like the ball changed direction in the last moment. And lastly, 4th goal was again a mid - distance shot right into top corner. Overall, poor performance. Actually, 5 minutes into the game I told Rikshpun that we'd be happy to get away with the tie... |
Players present: Alex Borisov Alex Friedman Alex Prymak Alex Rikshpun Alik Karger Eugene Kouzma Fima Rashap Sergey Kozyrenko Slava Fridman Val Bogomolny Val Ryjouk Vladimir Trubnikov |
NO. BRUNSW. TORNADO - J.A. UNITED 0 - 4 SO. BRUNSW. UNITED - BRICKFORCE SC 3 - 3 MONROE TWP. S.C. - DEPORTIVO CUENCA 5 - 1 KNIGHTS UNITED - RUMSON S.C. 0 - 1 HELLAS UNITED S.C. - HILLSIDE ATLETICO PPD - NO FIELD
9/30/2001 GAME 1
TORNADO - HILLSIDE PPD
1st round results:
KNIGHTS UNITED - SO. BRUNSW. UNITED 1 - 2 J.A. UNITED - BRICKFORCE SC 1 - 1 RUMSON S.C. - MONROE TWP. S.C. 4 - 6 DEPORTIVO CUENCA - HELLAS UNITED S.C. 0 - 6