Feb. 27th - RSVP here

RSVP if you're going to make the game this week. Just post a comment to this post with your name or initials and whatever else you wanna say.

String of late games coming

Our schedule to start the season was pretty nice. Now, in this middle portion, we have to take the pain. We have successive games at 11:00, 10:00, and then 11:00. But, after that, we end the season in good fashion.

It's important for the late games that folks make sure to let me know if they're gonna make it. We may have to find subs. My next post will try a new RSVP system.

(Almost) Triumphant Return

George joined us this week in indoor. He played great, making his usual athletic and dominant saves. George, thanks for playing. Best!

Mini meltdown

The first game of our indoor season turned out to be too good to be true. Despite leading 4-1 in the second half, we lost our second game by a score of 5-4. OTL played well enough. Our defense had a mini meltdown, we didn't sub effectively, and we didn't establish good fluid passing. Oh well. We're going to have to raise our game next week. I think we've played the bottom of the table so far. In the first week, we were worthy. This week, not so much. Nate and Jenny and I scouted a few of the other teams after the game. One team bears absolutely no resemblance to the teams we've played. Everyone is at the college level so be ready!

See you next week.

Notes: 5-4 loss to OTL, Feb. 20, 2008, GK: George

News from CCSL

The Commissioner of our outdoor league posted the following news today. Note that we are still planning to start up March 30th. We have a new referee assignor. We have a very stiff fine for not contributing at least one ref to the league. Thankfully, we have 2 1/2 refs: let's pay special thanks to Jer, Liam, and Nathan.

1) Spring Season - Captains meeting is still planned for Monday March 10th @6:30. Meeting is going to be held at Nick’s office once again, but please note that they have moved down the street from where the meeting has been held in the past.

Strategic Analysis
4075 Wilson Blvd
3rd Floor
Arlington, VA

We are still targeting a season start on March 30th and hope to push up the scheduling as much as we can to not have last minute notice, but as usual, there are some field availability dependencies that we are still waiting on. There are no plans to increase the season fees this season, so the team dues are still $1,650. So you may want to start collecting cash from your teams. Also, if you have anything that you would like brought up at the Captains meeting with either proposed rule or bylaw changes or otherwise, please let me know ahead of time. There are a few ideas that the exec committee is debating and we may reach out to poll you all prior to the meeting (to save ourselves some time and headache at the captains meeting).

2) Referee Assigning – The previous assignor Carmella Alvarro unfortunately had to step down from her league position during the offseason due to time constraints on her from a new job. Per our league bylaws, with the offseason vacancy, we have appointed a replacement and are very excited to have Jesse Rosenthal coming in as our new assignor. Jesse is already a USSF assignor in Arlington and was a previous CCSL board member in a past life. Were very sorry to lose Carm, but its great to have Jesse on board. Jesses email address is globalprisms@yahoo.com should you need to contact him.

There is some action required on your part. As you already know we rely greatly on our player ref pool to ensure that we have 3 certified referees at each and every game. As such each team is required to provide a ref to be available for a minimum of 5 games or have to pay an additional fine. I need each team to email Jesse and me the name of the individual(s) that fulfill your teams requirement. You may recall that last captains meeting, we passed a rule change raising that fine to $500 if you do not provide a referee. It’s a pretty steep fine so it would behoove teams to supply referees. In truth we would rather have the available referees than the money. There are many planned courses to be able to get a player certified. See below for upcoming certification and recertification courses.

Upcoming Referee Clinics for Recertification:
"If you already have received a USSF badge for 2008, you are all set. If not,
please make plans to attend a USSF Grade 8 Referee Recertification Clinic.
Upcoming clinics that are still open are listed at this address:
https://www.youthleaguesusa.com/mdcva/2007/cgi-bin/webclasses2.cgi

Highlighting:
2/26-2/27 at West Springfield HS in Springfield, VA
3/1 at Jelleff Boys / Girls Club, 3265 S. Street, NW in Washington, DC
3/3-3/4 at West Springfield HS in Springfield, VA
3/5-3/6 at Clearview Elementary - Cafeteria in Herndon, VA
3/11-3/12 at West Springfield HS in Springfield, VA
3/29 at Hunters Woods Community Center in Reston, VA

Cost for registration is $45 - checks should be made payable to the "State
Referee Program"

New Referee Clinics - if you have not refereed before:

1)
02/18/2008 - 03/07/2008Mt. Vernon Gov't Ctr, 2511 Parkers Land, Alexandria, VA 22306$0OpenLee HingleStudents MUST register online. Dates: Feb 18, 21, 23, 25, 27, Mar 1, 3, 7. Weekday class held 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM. Feb 23 class 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Mar 1 class 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Students must attend all sessions. Test will be administered on Mar 3.

2)
02/19/2008 - 02/26/2008McLean Community Center$0OpenRay CrawfordTo attend you must complete online registration and sign up for clinic (two-step process) at the State Referee Program web page: www.vadcsoccerref.com. Cost of the class is: $45. You can pay on-line or bring check to class, checks to be made out to "State Referee Program."

The class will be:

* Feb 19-22, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM at McLean Community Center

* Sat Feb 23, 11:00 - 3:00 PM at McLean High School (FTM)

* Feb 25-26, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM at McLean High School (Test)

3) CCSL-WAWSL to cosponsor New Referee Clinic, but dates are TBD for March/April during the week in Washington, DC.

Sanjay
CCSL Commissioner

DCU: Best goals of 2007

From time to time, I read Climbing the Ladder, which is a good blog about the rise of U.S. Soccer. The author also has a video channel on YouTube which has some good stuff if you like MLS.  Here's the season ending wrap-up for DCU. Check it out when you have a moment.

Bye week

This week, we've got a bye in indoor. This kinda sucks because we waited all this time to get started again. The bye has to do with a shortage of time slots at the facility. I would expect the game to be scheduled on a day other than Wednesday - maybe in the coming weeks.

Rest up!

Off to a good start

We rolled to an 11-4 win versus i2 iXvs in our first game of the season. It was a great way to start the season. We saw a lot of good stuff from our new recruits. Adrian was great in goal, and took the liberty of charging the field often. That's what indoor is about!

Obviously, we are going to be a good team, despite not having played together before. However, I think we'll have some tough tests ahead. I doubt we'll cruise to any wins. We're going to have to earn them.

Hope everyone had fun.

Notes: 11-4 win vs i2 iXvs, Feb. 6, 2008, 2008 Indoor Session 2.

Celebrate at Cue Bar on Saturday night

Nick and Kara are having a goodbye party at Cue Bar on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.  They are celebrating their recent engagement, move to Denver, and Nick's 29th birthday.  Everyone has to bring three expensive presents.  Everyone is welcome!  Cue is at 12th & U, N.W.

Go West!

Nick and Kara are moving to my hometown of Denver.  They are joining the long list of Goleros players with roots in the great state of Colorado - me, Jer, Mark, Erinn, Mary, Shannon, and Justin.

We'll miss them an awful lot.  We've been playing together, off and on, since 2004 when we met them in one of our many matches versus Frightening Pace in the Montgomery County league.  They first joined the team in the 2005 Coed Classic.  Nick has been steady on the back line whenever he's played for us.  Kara was a runner-up MVP last season for her stellar play and also for saving us from a forfeit!  She took a call at 7:30 am and was at the field before 8. That's dedication. 

Check out some action shots.

2005 Coed Classic

Spring 2007 Season

There's more.  Nick and Kara recently got engaged!  It happened on a recent trip to NYC, which was supposed to be just a theatre weekend.  Nick had something more in mind.  He booked a fancy spa in Koreatown and asked Kara there.  It's great news!  Another Goleros love story (read about others here and here).

Roster additions - Dues are now $70

We are adding two players to our roster. Please welcome Max and Erin. These folks were actually supposed to be part of the squad early on, but I got confused and forgot to count them. We're now at 17 and full. With 10 men and 7 women, we're a little heavy so bear with us. We'll be subbing often, plus the late night games tend to be a little thin.

Everyone's dues will be lowered to $70. Please make a paypal payment to pdi.usa@gmail.com or bring a check to the first game, as directed by my previous post.

See you out there!

U.S. vs Mexico

The U.S. plays its arch rival, Mexico, this Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. EST on ESPN2. This is a friendly, but there is no such thing as a low-key U.S.-Mexico game. Make sure to watch. The Goleros are playing our own game at that time so we're gonna Tivo it.

Keep your eye on Michael Bradley. Yes, he's the coach's son, but he's on fire in the Dutch league. He will probably get a difficult starting central midfield assignment in the game. He will also be a key figure in Olympic qualifying, for the Beijing Olympics this August.

Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu are going to be important in this match. One or the other, or both, are likely to play in the game. They are very young and untested, but at some point, they've got to be introduced to Mexico. Better now than in World Cup qualifying. Here's our roster for the game:

The roster:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton, England)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham, England), Ramiro Corrales (Brann,
Norway), Drew Moor (Dallas), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Michael
Parkhurst (New England), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany), Eddie Robinson
(Houston)

Midfielders: Freddy Adu (Benfica, Portugal), Michael Bradley
(Heerenveen, Netherlands), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Bobby Convey (Reading,
England), Brad Davis (Houston), Maurice Edu (Toronto), Benny Feilhaber (Derby,
England), Stuart Holden (Houston), Eddie Lewis (Derby, England)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (New York), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England),
Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Pat Noonan (Aalesund, Norway)

Indoor kicks off

The Goleros return to action this week in our first ever indoor campaign!

Our first game is at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday night at South Run District Park Fieldhouse in Springfield (directions here).

A shout-out to Wolf, VCSRA league commissioner, for securing our spot off the wait list.  We sometimes play together on the legendary Hot Pink Panthers.

I'm excited about the indoor season. We'll play 8 regular season games from now until late March, with single-elimination playoffs for the top four teams that will stretch into April. This is coed intermediate so expect the pace and quality of play to be slightly better than what we have seen in outdoor. I noticed that one of the teams is even sponsored.

Our squad consists of some Goleros players, some Far Post players, and some new recruits who are friends of friends. It's a good crew, but we'll have to work out kinks. The league is 8 vs 8, with 5 guys and 3 ladies. The pitch (pictured above) is big enough to allow for organized passing. But it's too small to play rigidly. We'll want to cycle people up and down the field. Defenders will get in on the attack and will have to be covered by teammates when they do.

Roster
Women: Jackie, Ally, Kate, Katya, Heather, Jenny (Far Post)

Men: Pete, Nate, Jer, Adrian, Gonzalo, Antonio, Juan, Tim (Far Post), Braulio

Please bring your $80 dues to the first game - I posted instructions here.

Don't forget to Tivo the U.S. vs. Mexico game, which also starts at 9:00 p.m.

See everyone there!

Just wait

No word on our kickoff time for Wednesday night. I'll let you know as soon as I know! Hopefully, we'll get that information today. Don't forget the U.S. vs. Mexico game that night as well (9pm). I'm hoping we're at 8pm so we can all watch the game on a slight tape delay.