"Bubbles" helps team to first ever playoff win

Little known fact - we had never won a playoff game before today. We had actually only made it to the playoffs two prior times in the Montgomery County league. Last season, we lost out on the playoffs in CCSL when they cut it back to only 4 teams per division. In our Montgomery county league playoffs, we had to make a much higher cut (finish first or second in the division), and then we were seeded against teams in higher divisions. It made winning difficult.

Today, we cruised to an easy 6-0 win versus Red Tape at Trinity. We advance out of the quarterfinals to play the 2nd seed, Tsunami, tomorrow. It was not an entirely expected result. We went into the game with only 10 players, missing both of our two awesome goalies. Thanks to alternates Ally and Jules who showed up for us and contributed in a major way.

Jer opened up the scoring in about the 5' with a nice back and forth with Jon. The first goal was the most important because it effectively took Red Tape out of the game. Ally followed up in about the 10' with a sweet finish on Jon's creative work to the endline and then his cross. Griz put in goal number three from an unknown assistor, and Adrian created some confusion for the GK when he poked one through his legs and into the goal. That was the first half.

In the second half, we flipped our roster as we had done in the last regular season game. Most offensive players played back, and the defenders get to play up top. We had some great runs and passing, but we had lost a little drive since there were very few 50/50 ball challenges or aggressive defensive plays. Later in the half, sensing some stagnation, we went back to a more standard formation and created two more goals. Jon smartly dribbled to the left side of the goal and placed a good shot to the far post. Jer got a second goal on Adrian's clever low corner kick, on which Jon executed a fake, leaving the ball open for Jer to first-time.

We paid a price for the big win though. We lost Griz for the remainder of the season when he made a sprinting 1-on-1 save to preserve the shut out. Two broken ribs! He gets the medal of valor!

Notes: Playoffs, 6-0 win versus Red Tape at Trinity on June 23, 2007. Goals by Jer (Jon), Ally (Jon), Adrian (unassisted), Griz (NK), Jon (NK), Jer (Adrian, with an awesome fake by Jon). GKs: Chip, Pete, Adrian, Griz, Pete.

This is the 100th post!

100 posts on this blog and probably about 80 comments. Not bad.

Your ceremonial 100th post is a good one. A very hilarious video submitted by Carlos. The music is awesome and it's entirely too reminiscent of Goleros goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjyzJIKjnSE&NR=1

Ahora, Copa de Oro si es bueno

In a previous post, I ripped on the Gold Cup. But now we have a decent matchup. It's the U.S. versus Mexico, undisputably the two best teams in the region. The U.S. rose to the finals by beating Panama and Canada, and Mexico in all of its power beat Honduras and Guadalupe. U.S. - Mexico is always fierce, no matter what. You can't miss it.

U.S. vs. Mexico, 3:00 p.m. EST on Fox Soccer Channel and Univision (in Arlington, Channel 15).

I'm sure some Goleros will be getting together. If interested, email golerosteam@gmail.com.

DCU vs Colorado Rapids

DCU is on a tear, with more or less the best win streak in the league. No losses in 7 games. Now comes the Colorado Rapids, who beat us squarely in the opening match of the season.

Game is at 7:00 p.m. Thursday at RFK.

Jer, Pete, and Leslie are going. What about you?

Tickets to the DCU vs. Galaxy game, possibly featuring Beckham, are not yet on sale. They are selling a 5-pack, which includes that games and the MLS Cup. Carlos bought it. Get one for yourself!

Ain't no moutain high enough

Team, we've got a big weekend. The CCSL playoffs begin and we are setting our sights on the division championship. We must beat Red Tape in the first round in order to meet Tsunami on Sunday. Remember, Tsunami managed to best us at the Marina during the regular season, so we ought to be hungry, but they also know us and are nearly as well rounded as we are. If we can win the first two games, we will likely meet either Quicksilver or Team X, which is the way it should be. I believe we are the three best teams, with Team X laying the best claim on #1. But we can beat them!

Of course, we have quite a mountain to climb. We are generally short on players, and only 2 of our 9 regular women are showing for the Saturday game. Thankfully we have an awesome complement of alternates; we are going to see Ally and Julia, possibly also Kara out on the field on Saturday. On Sunday, if we make it that far, we will see Liz.

I will start in goal on Saturday, with the option of putting in Chip or others later in the game. On Sunday, again if we make it that far, Anna will take over in goal.

Everyone get there early please! Let's come prepared.

POTD

Hope the "readers" of this blog don't mind sharing in some occasional travel shots. Don't mean to brag, but only to share some fun and fortunate experiences on the road.

This shot depicts Your Captain and Lala the Panda, a permanent resident in the Wolong Panda Reserve and Breeding Center in China. It was taken about a year ago. Wolong is a tiny and mostly wild place located about 5 hours from Chengdu, which is a city of 10 million in the Southwestern province of Sichuan. Wolong has been chronicled in many TV documentaries and is quite amazing to visit if you can get there. In 2005, there were 14 baby pandas born, the most ever. Lala is not one of them; she's a lot older, but she was probably also raised in captivity due to her accommodating nature.

P.S. - I've discussed this photo with a few teammates so it was time to share.

Fwd: the sched

Team, our schedule for the next two weekends is:

Sat. June 23rd 11:00 am Trinity
Sun June 24th 11:00 am GWU (if we win)
Sun July 1st 3:00 p.m . St. Stephens in Arlington (if we win)

Fwd: game on Sat at 11:00a.m, hopefully Sun too

Team,

 

Playoffs start this weekend.  The path to victory is pretty simple.  We play Red Tape on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Trinity.  This is a rematch of the last team we played on the same field.  If we win that game, we'll play again on Sunday, time and location TBD.  If we win that game, we're in the division final on Sunday July 1st. 

 

Please RSVP now for the Saturday game and let me know your sched for this Sunday and Sunday the 1st.

 

Make no mistake, this is a tournament and a huge opportunity!  We've never won anything outright and we're only 3 games away against known and beatable opponents.  Let's focus and do it!  The only way we are getting promoted is by winning the entire thing, because we narrowly lost out to Tsunami for 2nd in the division.  We are likely to play Red Tape, Tsunami, and Team X in that order.  Those are matchups that I will take.  But they aren't without their challenges.  First, we are without a trained GK on Saturday cause Anna and George are out.  Second, I'm out for the final game if we make it.  I've never wanted to be bitterly disappointed more; I want the team to make it and win it without me!

 

P.S. - Griz and Chip, either of you may get the call for GK on Sat, so please be ready and willing.  I am also considering taking the role, I'm just not sure what is best yet.

--
Goleros Soccer Club
www.golerosteam.blogspot.com

--
Goleros Soccer Club
www.golerosteam.blogspot.com

Friday pick up to start July 13

Last summer, we played pick up every Friday after work at W&L. It's a lot of fun. We're going to have a delayed start this year cause of Goleros playoffs and then the 4th of July week. However, there's nothin' stopping y'all from going out sooner. See you out there on the 13th.

I am awesome, I have GolTV and FSC!

Comcast offers a sports package for digital cable that's only $5/mo. It includes GolTV and Fox Soccer Channel, as well as NFL Network and others. NFL Network used to be part of the basic packages so that kinda sucks.

Happy Father's Day

Don't forget to call your Dad today, cause it's Father's Day.

There are many proud fathers on the Goleros - Carlos, Chip, Jer, Griz, Nathan.

Happy Father's Day!

Copa de Oro no es muy bueno

We are huge US Soccer fans, but it's time to face the truth. The Gold Cup, aka, Copa de Oro, kind of sucks. This year, it's really bad. We understand that the US-Guatemala game was decent. Since then, it's been downhill. We played T&T (at least they play with passion) and a struggling El Salvador team. We beat El Salvador by a score of 4-0 but it could have been much worse. Taylor Twellman almost appeared to intentionally miss the final shot of the game so as not to throw the little nation into a crisis.

Now we're in the quarters versus Panama. We beat them in the last Gold Cup finals, and before that in a World Cup qualifier by a score of 6-0. If we win that game, and we better, we'll face...Canada! or Guadalupe! Are you kidding me, Canada? And Guadalupe, I swear I had to look it up on Wikipedia, I had never heard of it. I want to play Guadalupe, but can you imagine if we lost that game? The only two teams worth their salt are the US and Honduras (playing great). Mexico isn't looking too good at the moment.

At the end of the month, we'll compete in the Copa America, South America's far superior international tournament. We open against Argentina and we'll be lucky to win a single game.

No games this weekend

Folks, just to clarify, we have no games this weekend. They are making up games canceled a couple of weeks ago due to rain.

We are in the playoffs as the #3 seed. We'll play Saturday the 23rd at a time TBD. If we win that, we'll play the next day, Sunday the 24th, again at a time TBD. If we win that, we'll be in the division championship on Sunday July 1st at, you guessed it, a time TBD. Please adjust schedules accordingly. We're looking dangerously short on some of these dates.

We'll know more Monday.

I may schedule a pick up game this weekend because several fields are available.

More photos of Goleropalooza

Goleropalooza good stuff

Our end-of-the-season party was a lot of fun, as these pictures attest. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Jess. She played her last league game with us on Sunday. She was her usual skilled self on the pitch.

GOOD BYE JESS.

Message from league commissioner

It leaves open the following questions:

- When and where will we play?
- Who gets promoted if the division winner also wins the playoffs?



Folks,Lou is prepping the schedule for games to be played on Saturday, 6/23, for quarter finals, Sunday 6/24, for semifinals, and Sunday 7/1, for the finals. There is one field 'in flux' for the 23rd, which will be Trinity if we have good weather this weekend (WAWSL wouldn't need it and we'd be picking it up). We do have a couple backup fields if we can't get Trinity, but I think folks would rather be on that field if we can be. Plus, 12 teams have yet to play this Sunday for their makeup games, some of which decide who goes to playoffs, where the seeding will be, and who just sits and chills until the Summer and/or Fall league starts up again.

If you want to make guesses as to where you'll be, hit the website and look at the standings. Top 6 teams go to playoffs. Top 2 teams have byes, and the other four play each other for quarter finals. The semifinals the next day will then incorporate the top 2 teams. One change from previous seasons is we no longer have a golden goal in the event of a tie at the end of regulation. Overtime is 2 5 minute periods, which if ending in a tie, will result in penalty kicks. Lou and I have allowed plenty of time between games for overtime, BUT, barring OT, games will start on time.One thing that hasn't changed is you win absolutely nothing but a golf clap at the captains' meeting the next season if you do well in playoffs, so have fun! It's why we play. ;)

Hope that answers some of the questions I've been getting. Good luck.

Nick

PS Happy Hour tomorrow night at Clarendon Grill.

POTD

Potd: this is is talon the dcu mascot. Taken and posted on my mobile phone at dcu-houston game with carlos, jer, and anna.

Playoff schedule leaked

The league commissioner tells me that playoffs will be held on June 23rd and 24th, with the final on July 1st. Scheduling TBD. This kinda blows because I will miss the final game that we hope to reach. I'm guessing all will be morning games but I don't know at this point.

U.S. men play tonight

Your Captain has been asleep at the wheel for the last three MNT matches - a friendly against China last week (4-1 win), and two Gold Cup opening round games in the past week versus Guatemala (1-0 win) and T&T (2-0 win). Tonight, we play the last of our opening round games versus El Salvador. If we win or tie, we win the group and advance with a preferential seed. If we lose, we'll face a less preferential seed.

The game is on FSC and Telefutura, which for me yo creo que es canal 14.

Carlos and I are watching the game at my place if you're in the neighborhood.

Tubing on July 28th

From Jackie...

Ok. It is official. Butt's Tubes baby!!!

WHO: Goleros Teammates, Fans & Friends
WHEN: Saturday, July 28th
WHERE: BTI Whitewater 10985 Harpers Ferry Road Purcellville, VA 20132 # 800-836-9911
http://www.buttstubes.com/ E-Mail: info@buttstubes.com

WHY: Because the Goleros Team is a Family of FUN!!


~ They are open from 10am to 4pm on the weekends but we probably want to get there early enough so that we have enough time to float, drink, eat, and sober up to drive back. The ride is about 3- 31/2 hrs away so we can carpool which will be LOTS of fun. And OH yeah Tell a friend. Let's all try to go and make this the BIGGEST goleros team outing Ever!
Respond back and let us know if you are IN or OUt... but don't be out... because out sucks....
hehehehehe

Can't wait!,
Jackie:)

Playoff situation

We don't know anything for sure, but we think the playoffs will happen like this:

First round - Sunday June 17th?

#3 (Goleros) vs. #6 (Red Tape). The league will also schedule #4 (Quicksilver) vs. #5 (Capital Crew). Capital Crew and Team X may play their make-up game this week during the evening, but the game is meaningless since neither can affect its standings with either a win or a loss.

Second round - Saturday June 23rd?
Goleros vs. #2 (Tsunami); Quicksilver or Crew vs. #1 (Team X)

Third round - Sunday June 24th?
Goleros vs. Quicksilver/Crew/Team X. Note: if Team X reaches this game, whoever plays them will be entitled to automatic promotion. It would be awesome if we played in this game and beat Team X, earning a legitimate division title. Of course, we're not taking anything for granted. This is wishful thinking and a little confidence. We're going to have to earn these wins.

Goleros win soccer game, triumph over malaria

We closed the regular season in fine fashion, picking up a 5-1 win over Red Tape! But the story of the day was the return from Uganda of our teammate John, who contracted malaria while he was there! Did someone tell me he had a fever for three weeks? OMG, thank god you're OK, John. We've lost people to pregnancy and moving to new cities, but never to malaria. And it ain't gonna happen.

Our game was not such a serious matter. The trinity pitch was in good shape, in contrast to what we had heard. Such a nice natural grass field, you can really spread out and enjoy a perfectly graded and proportional space. We used the space very effectively. We can recall numerous instances where Adrian, Carlos, Megan, and Jess held the ball on the wings.

In the first half, we nearly lost our cool on some lazy reffing. We earned a PK when Anna was taken down deep in the box from behind. But he didn't call it! But playing against the refs would have been dumb, since it was pretty apparent that we could win the game on our own. Soon, we had opened it up and we dominated for the remainder of play. Jon scored first on a solo effort in about the 20'. Jon's next goal was courtesy of Adrian (~22'). Nathan had some nifty dribbling off of Your Captain's backheel before scoring (~30). Adrian dribbled to the right and sent a very well timed grounded cross to Your Captain, who scored his first goal of the season (~40'). We walked off to halftime at 4-0.

In the second half, we lost all our structure in an attempt to have fun. In about the 55', Your Captain took over in goal and Georgie played center midfield! Then we pretty much flipped the team, offense playing defense, and vice versa. It was fun, and good cross training too. Anna and Jon in particular played well on D, as did Chip, but he didn't have much to do. We did pick up another goal on Adrian's cross that was own-goaled by a woman on Red Tape. We REALLY REALLY want to score it for Adrian, but from Your Captain's vantage point, it was pretty clearly a cross. Someone set me straight so we can give Adrian the points.

Our one mistake in the game was an errant clearance by Your Captain (playing in goal). Red Tape's best player was able to easily beat me with a nice shot on the empty net. Sorry Georgie, I ruined your clean sheet.

Folks, we gave ourselves a great opportunity to finish 2nd in the division, but we didn't. See the standings. We own second as a matter of statistics, but we must yield it under CCSL rules, which make head-to-head matchups the first tie-breaker. Tsunami, which was the lucky team to play us at the Marina, takes the 2nd spot. If you look at their season, we did much better than them. They lost to Team X by a score of 6-0, while we only lost 3-2. They lost to Red Tape. We beat them 5-1. They yielded more goals than they scored. We crushed them on goal differential. But that pesky Marina game got us.

Anyway, we're in the playoffs. Stay tuned for the schedule. I'm guessing we play next Sunday.

Notes: 5-1 win versus Red Tape on June 10, 2007 at Trinity. Jon (unassisted), Jon (Adrian), Nathan (Pete), Pete (Adrian), own goal by Red Tape. GKs: George, Pete.

Goleros & Pink Panthers Celebrate Love

Thanks to all those who made it out to our 10 year celebration party on Friday night. We had a great time! Hope you did as well. It's great to have such good friends. Soccer is a big part of our lives - well, my life at least.

This marked the second meeting of Goleros and Panthers. The first happened two years ago in the Columbia Soccer tournament - we tied 0-0. This meeting, however, was about love.

Pick up

Carlos, George, and Anna are having a pick-up game at W&L on Thursday after work. All are welcome. Contact Carlos by email.

In the Rain

We earned 1 point with a 2-2 tie versus Celtic today.

Your Captain was a little bummed, cause we could have won that game on any one of about 10 plays. But we did give a good effort, and the strangest thing happened: all other games in the division (one was not played) resulted in ties as well. So, for now, we keep our 3rd position (actually 4th if we compare to Tsunami cause we lost head-to-head). Tsunami's tie today versus Far Post is key. We still have a chance to pick up a game on them next week.

We played the entire game in the rain - sometimes a hard rain. But that GWU turf field is awesome. It didn't have any impact on our footing, for the most part. The ball skidded a little faster, putting the Goleros at a disadvantage with all of the long balls that we are accustomed to playing.

In the first half, we went down in about the 15' when Your Captain got called for a hand ball in the box. Because his arms were not locked behind him, the movement of the arm to block a shot probably resulted in the call. Can't say it was terribly unfair, you have to avoid that kind of contact when you are the last man. However, by the end of the half, Adrian had put two goals in the net on some good footwork but even better passing through the midfield and down the wings. We played our best soccer of the past couple weeks in those closing first-half minutes.

In the second half, we made too many changes too often. We gave up a 1-on-1 goal, which has been a real problem for us as of late. 1-on-1's are a failure by the whole team and usually not just the final defenders and GK who get beat and have to deal with the stigma. It's something systematic that we need to correct. Additionally, we didn't finish a lot of chances. In the final minute, we suffered a bad offsides call on an excellent chance to score.

No biggie, no need to dwell on the negative. It was a good game and we did get 1 point out of it. Our women (all of them) played great, showing versatility in several roles. Jen and Anna played through some ankle/achilles issues, so you guys are awesome. Liz, you played well in your second alternate appearance this season, great job. Tom and George, way to play tough in that collision. George you had some fantastic saves as usual.

Next week, let's close on a win, a 4-2-2 record, and hopefully a 2nd or 3rd place finish.

Notes: 2-2 tie on June 3, 2007 versus Celtic at GWU Mount Vernon Campus. Goals by Adrian (Jer), Adrian (?). PK yielded.