ARGO SILVER vs PELE

ICHAN STADIUM
Argo Silver 3 - 0 Pele
reported by Carlos Wesley

What a victory! What a relief! Ding Dong the wicked ICAHN Stadium curse is dead!

Upon entering the field and seeing the formidable opponent across from us, one of the last things many of us would have imagined was ablow-out victory in our favor. A full squad of Ronaldinos displaying their masterful juggling while decked out in their matching (yes,matching) Brazilian uniforms, the "Pele" team from Astoria also must have felt pretty confident looking over at our short-handed squad as well. Fortunately, our final teammates arrived at the last minute. Then, in the first "turning point" of the game, our team unanimously voted to go with a novel 3-5-1 attack to strengthen our midfield. From then on, there was no turning back.

With Elliot serving as a brick wall in goal and the combination of Rob, Jim, Joe, and Pete stifling every run the Pele's made, our defense proved as solid as ever. Meanwhile, our center mid trio of Yoshi, Drew, and Victor locked down the center of the field as we controlled the ball as well as the entire first half. Although it remained scoreless, we all knew that this game was ours to lose.

The 2nd half proved to be Argo Silver's break-out party. Rob T made the first critical assist to a breaking " Brooklyn " Rob who (despite being shoved from the back) maintained his balance to slice a beauty into the upper right corner of the net. Soon after, Victor's throw was flicked on by Thierry to find Carlos streaking down the leftsideline. His shot caught the fingertips of the leaping goalie before finding the back of the net. The icing on the cake came when Rob T used his ESP to find a wide-open (and not even offside!) Thierry who gathered the ball and (just as the French have done to the Brazilians for the past 2 world cups) out played their keeper by stepping to the left and cracking the final goal.

What a feel-good victory - our first at ICAHN Stadium. Perhaps this one will prove to be the turning point in our season. Perhaps it was all just a dream. If the latter, please don't pinch us quite yet.

Shamrocks FC vs Argo Silver

THIERRY Debaille:
No comments… I am too irritated right now to discuss our loss.

DANIEL Dorenbush:
Our primary objective is to enjoy ourselves. In this regard, I think we were victorious.

As for why we lost (in terms of the score)…..we lost because we have not sacrificed and invested enough of ourselves to make winning a necessity. As much as we give it the “old college try” on the field, winning has been/will be casual and happenstance. We need to recognize this or decide to change our objective. (I am not necessarily advocating that we change anything – just stating my observation)

Sorry to be so blunt.

PETE Hahn:
shamrocks goal 1 - fluke goal, went directly in from a corner
shamrocks goal 2 - defense got beat with long ball (their forwards were pretty fast and strong, and long ball to them was their primary attack)

argosilver goal 1 - breakaway goal by Thierry, excellent finish

shamrocks goal 3 - can't recall, but i think it was of the breakaway nature

shamrocks goal 4 - they had a breakaway right off a kick-off: intercepted pass to cross to volley, nice goal

we dominated opening minutes of the first half with short passing, but fell back after the 2 goals. ended half pretty weakly. argos came out stronger in the second half. scored an excellent goal, and had 2 chances to score on 1 drive. i believe the shot hit the post and we missed the rebound. after that, it went downhill. we were the more skilled team, but they were more aggressive on defense, especially the midfield. Salty played an excellent game in goal, saved at least 2 sure goals. my input:- think we should have played match-ups on defense and defensive mid- field. move some people around to offset the other team's strengths. their center attack beat us multiple times (would have been a lot more if not for the ref's questionable off sides rulings), just because they were faster than us.

SC Eintracht vs. Gotham Argo

Metropolitan Oval - Brooklyn
SC Eintracht 1 - 2 Gotham Argo

For an evening which started with 9 players crammed in a zipcar minivan meant to seat 6, and the other half of the squad lost in Brooklyn and literally running onto the pitch at the starting whistle, the result was worth the turmoil. (Especially after overhearing the SC Eintracht coach commenting that they had it in the bag because this team had a female manager.)

A first win for the rebuilt, better, stronger, faster Gotham Argo this season and hopefully a harbinger of things to come.

It certainly wasn't a clean match, with cards and free kicks flying everywhere. A particularly sexy take down when everyone's favorite sweepmaster, Lucas, trapped his man in the corner and flipped him over on his back (though failing to get his phone number), earned the most enjoyable yellow card of the match.

Tenny suffered the ugliest foul when an SC Eintrachter's straight armed check sent him down injuring his knee. (To which I was cautioned and nearly awarded my own red card when I shouted at their keeper from across the field, reverberating through the oval, to "Shut the Fuck Up!" when he accused Tenny of giving a Broadway worthy performance.)

I can't recall if SC Eintracht scored first...

But our first goal was a beautiful crack by newest Gotham Argo - Michael Rose.

Second and winning goal scored by a calm and composed Momo sending a powerful low ball in for the win.

Argo Silver vs. Banatul FC

Brooklyn Technical High School

Argo Silver 2 - 1 Banatul FC

Banatul scored their goal from an unfortunate penalty kick.

Argo Silver scored a first goal by newest Argo Silver - Fatos Rugova.
Second goal a cross by Fatos that knocked off a Banatul player into goal.

Most of the game was spent in the opponents half of the field (as evidenced below in a photo of Elliot) where Argo Silver took close to 12 shots on goal that hit posts and were near misses.

By all rights this score should have been 6-1 at the least.

NYC Sirens vs. Barnstonworth Rovers II

State Cup Game * Round I
PIER 40 Courtyard West @ 9pm
- reported by Elliot Gilmore

On a cold, windy and generally miserable Sunday night at Pier 40, the Sirens team gradually congregated on the bleachers behind the East field. Some were wearing coats, some wore sweatshirts....others were looking a little more like Sherlock Holmes and not Katie Holmes (Gracie) in their pre-game attire.

Having been told they were the last chance for our club's State Cup glory the pressure was on and the ladies began preparing to take on a strong side called Rovers 2. With no coach for the evening, Elliott, a wonderful English Gentleman took the reigns and gave a valiant team talk......basically consisted of "Enjoy the game, if we win GREAT, if we lose, all 3 teams can get totally drunk together instead of playing the 2nd round game!! WIN WIN situation".

A strong Violet line up took to the field and immediately began passing the ball along the sacred turf of Pier 40. One touch, two touch and even three touches of the ball were sublime. They looked comfortable. At various stages of the half, Mary, Dana and Emily led the line upfront and caused a number of problems for the somewhat talented but slow defense. It was very close through the first 20 minutes, that is until our team's "Hooligan Element" cheer squad turned up. With loud voices and various remarks made to the portly fellow in the middle with a whistle, they seemed to have sparked the opposition into life. GOAL...... a lucky cross was deflected to the near post, where an out-stretched leg from Rovers, guided the ball into the net. 1-0, but the Sirens were not out of this. Wave upon wave of attack came from the sirens now. Tanya, Erika and Tess were commanding the midfield with strong tackles, Rachael was working wing wizardry and the back four, Marina, Leslie, Liz and Sherlock Holmes remained focused and very strong. 5 minutes to halftime something special was needed to beat the Rovers' goalie. It came from the right foot of Leslie. A 40 yard shot, that came down with snow on it, hit the roof of the net out of nothing. Celebrations on the pitch were good, off the pitch, the "Hooligan Element" went mad, screaming and setting off flares in the stands. 1-1 and the halftime whistle went.

At half time the team talk was about attack. We had them where we wanted them now, on the ropes! As the pizza arrived, yes pizza, the team took to the field.

Again the half was pretty much dominated by the Sirens, but against the run of play, they were unlucky after a poor shot drifted away from Andy and nestled in the back of the net. 2-1 down, this seemed to spur the girls on even more now! They were not to be beaten by this opposition, not now. Attacks came again from Tanya, Erika and Gracie, Tess and Liz created chances for the forwards, but although going close, Dana could not find the net how we know she can. A few chances did happen for Mary, but every time she tried to shoot, she was knocked to the ground by defenders, unseen by a somewhat blind referee. Her luck did change though when she burst INTO the box and was taken down by what seemed a sniper from the stands. The "Hooligan Element" made their opinions known to the referee in so many words, and asked how he can give a direct free kick IN the box, its a penalty. He disagreed and the Sirens had a free kick 17 yards out.......Cue Tanya !!! She cared not of PK she just was going to score from anywhere now. Stepped up and Bang, top corner GOAL!!! 2-2 with 6 minutes left!

With penalties nearing the Sirens attacked more and more but it was not to be. They were destined for PKs.
The full time whistle went and although we knew it was down to spot kicks, at least now the referee would be level with play and see most of the action!

Penalty kick takers: Leslie, Tanya, Mary, Liz, Emily

· They shot wide (Andy standing tall forced the miss)
· Leslie scored 1-0
· They shot wide (Andy scaring them in to missing the goal)
· Tanya scored 2-0
· They scored 3-1 (Andy, just beaten by the ball)
· Mary scored

If Andy could save this next kick it was all over and no need for the other players to take one!

A confident lady stepped up and Andy stood tall in Goal. the Hooligan Element, coach and other players waited on the half way line.
Was it time to celebrate a great win?

· KICK to the keepers right, a sweeping dive by Andy....SAVE............

SIRENS WIN - SIRENS WIN

Crowd, coach and players all ran to congratulate the Goalie.
Once the huddle of Violet players gathered themselves, they went to their beaten opponents and shook hands graciously. What a team!!!

There was no cameras, so just take what is written as Gospel!!!

Hooligan Element .... Gotham Argo players Jeremy, Jorge, Ben and tryout candidate David

Post match celebration... NYC Sirens sponsor bar Emerald Pub

Astoria Friends vs. Argo Silver

STATE CUP GAME
CON EDISON FIELD - Astoria, Queens @ 11am

- report by carlos wesley

Perhaps it was the final image of our team on Sunday that best characterized the afternoon: hands reaching gratefully for Joe's can of antiseptic spray to tend to our flesh wounds after a grueling two hours spent on the rock-covered battlefield that is ConEd.

We finished the game with one fewer goal (a 3-2 loss), but fought mightily. Perhaps it was the other team's esoteric language that confused us (from a community that not even a borough as diverse as Astoria can claim as one of its own), or the powerful gusts of sand-filled wind that pummeled Elliot and his defenders throughout the first half. Despite all of these distractions, we held tight at the half, down only 0-1.

The second half started on an unfortunate note. Our opponent's familiarity with ConEd's pitch was apparent as they hardly let the ball touch the ground en route to scoring their second goal within minutes of the half. This was quickly followed by a very questionable call that lead to a penalty kick for them. Despite Elliot's valiant dive to his right (meriting at least 3 more squirts of antiseptic spray), he wasn't quite able to stop the free kick, their 3rd goal of the game.
At 0-3 our intensity finally started to pick up. Terry gathered up a breakaway and snuck the ball around the keeper for our first goal.

Our intensity picked up further as we noticed their fans cheering rather sarcastically in support of the men with a hint of violet in their jerseys (yes, that's us). Pressuring them further, and with only minutes left to play, a scramble in front of their net ended with the ball finding Terry's foot and then the back of the net. 3-2. Our rally was cut short by the whistle. Despite the loss, however, it was nice to feel that we would have kept scoring had we had more time.

Phoenix vs. NYC Sirens

East River Park * East 6th street field
Phoenix 2 - 0 NYC Sirens

--- CLICK PLAY on the IMAGE BELOW FOR SLIDESHOW ---

VV Nieuw Amsterdam vs. Gotham Argo

Commodore Barry Field
VV Nieuw Amsterday 3 - 3 Gotham Argo
(Sam - 2, own goal -1)

GALLANT GOTHAM

In a game of the proverbial two halves, Gotham Argo clawed back from 3-0 down at half time to tie newcomers Nieuw Amsterdam 3-1 at a wet / muddy and vaguely lined Commodore Barry Field.

The Dutch made the most of their numbers to pump in all three goals against a then 10-man Gotham Argo in the first 20 minutes. When the Gotham cavalry arrived, the game changed.

At full strength now and with goalkeeper Jeremy Newton outstanding, Argo scored three times in the second half to salvage an improbable point. It started with an own goal from a Uri Itkin cross followed by Sam Sneed’s double in the last 15 minutes.