Quick update

I'll do a game report a bit later.  We had a good 1-1 result today versus DC Divided.  That places us firmly in 2nd place, and that won't change.  We have the tie-breaker versus DC Divided (goals for) but FC Arlington has the tie-breaker versus us (head-to-head win).  We're 2nd and will have a bye next week in the playoffs.  I'll have to look, but my guess is that we'll play the winner of the 3 vs 4 seed game.  And guess who that is likely to be?  DC Divided.  They are 3rd and, as we've seen, they're really good.

Weather report

The Accuweather forecast is interesting for our game.  While tonight and Saturday might be rainy or potentially even snowy (doubt it), Sunday looks pretty good.  Cold temperatures will remain.  The current hourly forecast for the 10:00 a.m. kickoff is 37 degrees and mostly sunny.  There may be a bit of wind chill, but it shouldn't be too bad.  Weather will not be a factor in whether we play.  We will play so get ready.

Game moves to Ridge, but same time (10:00 a.m.)

Trinity College canceled all games on its field so our game was moved.  The kickoff time remains at 10:00 a.m. but now the game will be played at Ridge field at 800 Ridge Road, SE.

Traffic will be difficult that morning due to the marathon, which starts at 8:00 a.m..  See below for multiple road closures.  I-395 is a safe bet.  In Arlington, avoid Lee Highway, Rt. 110, and parts of Wilson Blvd.  The Key Bridge will be closed.  In the District, avoid Rock Creek, Constitution, Independence, Canal Road, MacArthur Blvd, and parts of 14th street.  Don't forget that Pennsylvania Ave, SE, in Anacostia remains under construction and so on these church mornings it takes a while to get through the area to the field.  Leave early.

"I'm excited about the game," Adrian told me today.  That's an accurate sentiment because this is a title match!  If we win, we will be in first place in the division, at least until the afternoon when FC Arlington will have the opportunity to take first as well.  But regardless, there is a payout for the win, as we would get a bye in the playoffs.

Go team!






District Road Closures:
The race begins at 8:00 am in Arlington, Virginia, and then crosses the Potomac River into the District of Columbia. MPD in conjunction with U.S. Park Police will close numerous streets along the race route beginning at 6:00 am and should reopen them by 1:30 pm:

• Francis Scott Key Bridge
• Canal Road, NW – from M Street to Reservoir Road
• Reservoir Road, NW – from MacArthur Boulevard to Canal Road
• MacArthur Boulevard – from Foxhall Road to Reservoir Road
• Foxhall Road, NW – from Canal Road to MacArthur Boulevard
• M Street, NW – from Canal Road to Wisconsin Avenue
• Wisconsin Avenue, NW – from M Street to K Street
• K Street, NW – from Wisconsin Avenue to Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway
• Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, NW - from K Street to Independence Avenue
• Memorial Bridge
• West Potomac Park
• East Potomac Park (access to Golf Course and Tennis Courts available)
• Maine Avenue, SW – from East Basin Drive to Independence Avenue
• Independence Avenue, SW – from Maine Avenue to Ohio Drive
• Ohio Drive, SW – between Independence Avenue and Lincoln Circle
• Lincoln Circle – from Ohio Drive, SW to Henry Bacon Drive, NW
• 23rd Street, NW – from Lincoln Circle to Constitution Avenue
• Constitution Avenue, NW – from Henry Bacon Drive to 15th Street
• 15th Street – from Constitution Avenue, NW to Independence Avenue, SW
• 17th Street – from Constitution Avenue, NW to Independence Avenue, SW
• Madison Drive, NW – from 15th Street to 3rd Street
• 3rd Street, NW – from Pennsylvania Avenue, NW to Independence, SW
• Pennsylvania Avenue, NW – from 3rd Street to East Capitol Circle
• 1st Street – Pennsylvania Avenue, NW to Maryland Avenue, SW
• Maryland Avenue, SW – from South Capitol Circle to 3rd Street
• Jefferson Drive, SW – from 3rd Street to 15th Street
• 14th Street, SW – from Jefferson Drive to Northbound HOV lanes
• HOV lanes – from 14th Street, SW to HOV ramp at South Eads Street

Note: A course map as well as additional information regarding street closures in Arlington County is posted at www.marinemarathon.com, the official race website.


Arlington Closures

These roads in Arlington will be affected at the following times:

4:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

• Eastbound Washington Boulevard will be closed at I-395 towards Memorial Bridge.

4:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

• Route 110 will be closed in both directions to all traffic.
• N. Meade Street will be closed from Fairfax Drive to Marshall Drive
• There will be no access to Lynn Street or Meade Street from Route 50.
• N. Lynn Street, from Route 50 to N. 19th Street, will be closed.
• Ft. Meyer Drive will be closed from 19th Street to Route 50.
• N. Moore Street, from 19th Street to Wilson Boulevard, will be closed.
• Wilson Boulevard will be closed east of N. Nash Street.

4:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

• Westbound Washington Boulevard from Memorial Circle to I-395 will be closed.

7:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m.

• Eastbound Lee Highway, from Kirkwood Road to N. Lynn Street will be closed.
• Westbound Lee Highway, from N. Scott Street to Kirkwood Road will be closed to thru traffic (local traffic will have egress by taking Scott Street to Veitch Street. Citizens leaving the area can use westbound Lee Highway to Spout Run and exit the area via the George Washington Parkway).

7:15 a.m. - 12:00 noon

• The Key Bridge will be closed.

7:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.

• The southbound I-395 HOV lanes from Washington, D.C. will be closed.

7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

• 12th Street South from Eads Street to Crystal Drive (local traffic permitted in one lane from Eads Street to Army Navy Drive) Traffic is encouraged to avoid this route as intermittent closures will occur.  Use S. 15^th Street to access hotels.
• Crystal Drive will be closed from 12th Street to 23rd Street.
• Rotary Road will be closed throughout Pentagon South parking.
• Columbia Pike will be closed at Joyce Street (access Pentagon via Boundary Channel).

7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

• Army Navy Drive will be closed from Fern Street to S. 12th Street.

For more information on road closures in Arlington, please call the Arlington Police Department's special events hotline 703-228-4147.

Game time unclear now

The scheduling saga continues folks.  According to the exec team feed that I am seeing, the Trinity College folks have proactively canceled all games this weekend because the field has been so beaten up during the week.  So I can tell you that our game will be rescheduled yet again.  The league is looking into new times and locations.  I will send an email around when we have certainty.  I would keep open that 8:00 a.m. slot if I were you.  We could end up having to move back there.

Stay tuned.

New time and place for Sunday's game [updated]

As you've seen from email and the text network, our game this week has been moved to 10:00 a.m. at Trinity.


Be there.

About our opponent

Meet DC Divided, a long time CCSL team.

We face them again on Sunday.  I am not certain without looking it up, but I think we are 2-1-1 lifetime against them.  They've always been good, but in recent seasons they had some turnover and weren't primed to make a run.

Those days are over.  They are scoring like crazy.  Folks should know that in most respects their accomplishments look better than ours this season.  We are edging them out on goals scored at this point, which has put us above them in the table. But if you drill a bit deeper, you will see that we are going to face an opponent unlike we have seen in recent weeks.  These guys are going to be good.  Someone is scoring a lot of goals.

Take a look at their record this season:

Third Division: DC Divided

GAMEs: Date Time Location Opponent W/L/T GF GA   Sun 10/23/2011  11:30a  Washington Trinity  Our Kicks Dont Lie  W  6  0    Sun 10/16/2011  10:00a  Washington   Unathletic DC  W  4  1    Sun 10/09/2011  11:30a  Washington Trinity  Far Post  W  7  1    Sun 10/02/2011  12:00p  Washington Wilson  Red Devils  W  2  0    Sun 09/25/2011  5:00p  Falls Church  Two Left Feet  W  3  2    Sun 09/18/2011  10:00a  Washington Trinity  FC Arlington  L  0  3    Sun 08/21/2011  9:45a  Washington Trinity  Funky Town  W  2  1     6 wins, 1 loss and 0 tie 24  8

We both played Our Kicks Don't Lie in back to back weeks.  DC Divided was +6, with a shutout.  We were +5, and we conceded 4 goals!  Looking to the top team, which is a good barometer, they lost 3-0.  While we did poke one through, and they didn't, they only lost by 3.  We lost by 5.

So get ready for a competitive game.

Standings: one fixture left

Technically, the regular season is over.  However, as you can see below, several teams have only played 7 games.  Most of us have makeup games this weekend.  For us, it's going to make the difference between a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place finish, with 2nd or 3rd being the most likely.

Take a look at the standings:

CCSL>Third Division>
Rank	Team		W	L	T	GP	PTS	GF	GA	GD	GDA
1		FC Arlington	6	0	1	7	19	26	8	18	2.6
2		Goleros	6	1	0	7	18	30	13	17	2.4
3		DC Divided	6	1	0	7	18	24	8	16	2.3
4		Far Post	4	3	1	8	13	24	20	4	0.5
5		Our Kicks Dont Lie	2	3	2	7	8	14	24	-10	-1.4
6		Funky Town	1	3	3	7	6	9	12	-3	-0.4
7		Red Devils	1	6	1	8	4	12	27	-15	-1.9
8		Unathletic DC	1	5	1	7	4	15	33	-18	-2.6
9		Two Left Feet	1	6	1	8	4	10	19	-9	-1.1

We're back in 2nd place right now.  FC Arlington had two games this weekend and won them both to climb above us on points.  They have one to play.

To take 1st, we must win and hope that FC Arlington loses or ties Our Kicks Don't Lie.  FCA has 13 goals in its last two games so the odds aren't in our favor there.  You never know.  Just 12 or 18 months ago, we were in this exact position.  We went into the last week having a chance at first.  We didn't take care of business in our game, but the improbable happened in the other game; it was a missed opportunity.

To take 2nd, we must win or tie DC Divided this weekend.

Let's close the season out in style.  We have already broken a Goleros record for goals in a single season.  We have an impressive 30 goals, which is the most of any club in the league across all the divisions going into the last games.  

Yet another thing to play for.  We've never reached 7 wins in a regular season before.  We've had 6 a number of times, but never 7.  We can do it!

We need to pay attention to details this week [UPDATED]

Congratulations, everyone, we made the playoffs.  We missed them last season so it's nice to be back.  So make sure you mark on your calendars the next 3 weekends.  We could have matches on Sundays.

BUT...before you do that, we must close the regular season out.  The little things will be important this week.  We have another freakishly early game (8:00 a.m.!).  This one just isn't fair.  We've already had an 8:00 a.m. game this season.  But it's on the sked and it ain't moving.  My guess is that it was put there because we're playing the Commissioner's team.  The scheduler is probably used to shafting the Commissioner so that he gets fewer complaints from the other teams.  We need to show up.  And it's going to be a challenge.  We've got Halloween parties, weddings, etc, the night before.  Not to mention the traffic closures for the Marathon that morning (subject of future post).  We'll need a herculean effort to bring it together.

Why is it important?

Because we are playing for a lot.  First and foremost, we want a bye in the playoffs.  We have historically done quite well when we have a bye.  That's going to be important since we're not likely to finish first.  To keep our promotion hopes alive, we'll need to win the playoffs for the first time ever.  If we lose this weekend, we'll fall to third place in the final standings.  That's not satisfying given the number of goals we've scored and our momentum.  Furthermore, we'll give up that "tiebreaker" of sorts. Recall from a previous post that if FC Arlington wins the regular season and the playoffs, the next team to be considered for promotion is the 2nd place finisher in the regular season.  That's got to be us, not DC Divided.

We also have happy hour this week.  That's a detail that will be easy to remember!

Go team!

Who will claim these points?

Looking at the game reports from this season, it seems there are some holes.  Four of the goals do not have a notation for assists.  Please, claim these points if you think you earned them or let me know even if you have the faintest notion of who else earned them. 

10/16 9-4 win versus Our Kicks Don't Lie at Trinity
No assists noted for Percy's goal or one of Chris N.'s goals.

10/9 4-1 win vs DC Unathethletic at Ridge
No assists noted for Mike's goal.

10/2 6-2 win vs Far Post at Trinity
No assist noted for Mike's goal.

Goals in Droves

We extended our win streak to 5 with a high powered 9-4 victory over a new opponent, Our Kicks Don't Lie.  Strangest game I ever played.  It was quiet on the field.  We played with 10 at times, we had a new defensive set, we gave up 4 goals...yet we scored nine and never trailed.  Chris scored F-I-V-E goals, a shiny bounty.  Believe it or not, he's done that before!  Wow.

No really, I scored five times

We scored our first quickly and I am willing to cop a plea to being a bad teammate and failing to come into the game soon enough.  When we were still a man down, we gave up our first.  In fact, the whole first half our defense was just off.  Thankfully, theirs was non-existent.

The second half, we made some smart adjustments.  We played a tighter line in the back and got it together quickly, while still keeping the pressure in the offensive half.  Adrian played a great two-way game and ultimately came back unselfishly to mark their only threat.

Well done everyone.

Game balls go to Chris N. for an incredible goal scoring frenzy and to Percy, not just for his goal, but for his stellar play (accurate passes) and willingness to come help out.  Without him, the game may have turned out completely differently.  We didn't have a lot of bodies for this one.

On to the next challenge: DC Divided.  Big game.  More on that later.

Notes: 9-4 win vs Our Kicks Don't Lie on 10/16/11 at Trinity.  Goals: Adrian (not known), Anna (Chris N.), Anna (Chris N.), Chris N. (Adrian), Chris N. (Anna), Chris N. (Griz), Chris N. (not known), Percy (not known), Chris N. (not known).  GK: Nate (1st), Pete (2nd).

Standings: can we possibly stay at the top?

Scores have finally been reported in full for the week.  With 7 weeks in the books, we are at the top of the division with an impressive 18 points from a 6-1 record.  DC Divided is close on our heels with a 5-1 record and a game in hand.  While we have more goals (30!), they have achieved exactly what we have on paper, and their loss to FC Arlington was by a smaller margin.  They're coming for us in the final week, make no mistake, and they expect to win.

CCSL>Third Division>
Rank	Team		W	L	T	GP	PTS	GF	GA	GD	GDA
1		Goleros	6	1	0	7	18	30	13	17	2.4
2		DC Divided	5	1	0	6	15	18	8	10	1.7
3		FC Arlington	4	0	1	5	13	13	3	10	2.0
4		Far Post	4	3	0	7	12	22	18	4	0.6
5		Our Kicks Dont Lie	2	2	2	6	8	14	18	-4	-0.7
6		Funky Town	1	3	2	6	5	7	10	-3	-0.5
7		Unathletic DC	1	4	1	6	4	11	25	-14	-2.3
8		Two Left Feet	1	5	1	7	4	8	16	-8	-1.1
9		Red Devils	0	5	1	6	1	8	20	-12	-2.0

FC Arlington stumbled this past week and tied Funky Town, a team we beat 3-0.  However, they still hold the keys to the regular season championship if they win their next three games.  That's right, they have three to play to our one.  Here's their remaining schedule:

	Date	Time	Event	Type	Field
		Fri, Oct 21	8:00p -10:00p	(h) vs Red Devils	GAME	Silver Spring, Blair HS
		Sun, Oct 23	10:00a -12:00p	vs Unathletic DC (h)	GAME	Washington , Ridge Rec Turf
		Sun, Oct 30	3:00p -4:30p	(h) vs Our Kicks Dont Lie	GAME	Washington , Galludet

If they lose or tie one of those games, and we beat DC Divided, we can still get 1st place.  Um, we're going for that.