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Post by cside17 on Apr 2, 2012 11:16:25 GMT -8
The BC's draw was held this morning. Tough draws for our teams
CV Utd hosts Gorge FC(VISL)
Roma plays away to U VIC
Good luck to both teams.
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Post by dirtystinky on Apr 2, 2012 11:59:00 GMT -8
Where do we play? In North Van?
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Post by conductor on Apr 2, 2012 12:33:25 GMT -8
yes dirtystinky you guys will be the Home team for round of 16 and quarter finals when you beat the Gorge!! You play the winner of West Van FC vs Delta United.
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Post by dirtystinky on Apr 2, 2012 14:02:19 GMT -8
Good luck. UVic can be beat.
old match report from our visit in 2009
This is the story of an aging, down-on-his luck ex-footballer who coaches a team of misfits in an ultra-competitive British Columbia over 35’s league. With only 11 players they traveled to the home field of the best team in the province and were 10 minutes away from beating them and advancing to the semi-finals.
If that first line sounds familiar, that’s because it is (with a couple of changes) actually the plot description for the Bad News Bears. You could call this year’s Coveside squad the Bad News Bernies. We went into Richmond last week with everyone picking against us and gave RCIU their first loss in five months. Our reward was a trip to the Island to take on defending BC Champs UVic Alumni.
The news in the run up to the game was not good. Randy Ash’s knee, injured against RCIU, was in bad shape and he could not play. Gino was unable to play due to a previous transubstantiation commitment. (I know that previous word is much longer than two syllables, so I apologize to Al, Ross, and Rosie.) Scott was coping with a newborn baby, Doc with a newborn vacation, Tim with a newly named ankle condition, Rich with a conundrum over the size and texture of his new nut. (Could you get a squeeze toy put in there?) Take away the three players we lost who were under 35, and the players we had signed but who did not play all year, and we found ourselves with no subs for the quarter-final game. And out of those 11, your scribe could barely run, Harp was playing his second game all year, and Andy hadn’t played more than 90 minutes since Julian Dicks controlled West Ham’s midfield and inspired the memorable quote “Julian Dicks is everywhere, it’s like they’ve got 11 dicks on the field.” On this day we not only had eleven dicks on our side, but eleven large sets of balls too. They had one dick on the sideline, but I digress.
We arrived at the National Institute of Why The Hell Did they Build a National Institute Here about half an hour before kickoff, after a quick night-before reorganization following Bernie’s plan to take a ferry that did not exist. Twenty minutes of disorganized warmup preceded a bizarre pregame speech from the ref, who spent a couple of minutes cautioning us about language. We would be sent off for repeated foul language, he said. The ref turned away and Andy immediately told us to “Fookin’ listen up.”
With 11 guys the starting lineup pretty much picks itself. Cloudy was in net, Fergie, Mike, Dave H, and Randy J, fresh from biking from North Vancouver to Victoria that morning (I’m not joking) were the back line. Kevin and Cam were in central midfield, with Roddy on the right and Andy on the left. Harp’s majestic frame struck fear into the hearts of our opponents up front and Rosie lurked menacingly in his shadow.
So, how did that whole swearing warning work out? Well, UVic sounded like a union meeting for the first twenty minutes, so the warning was clearly a joke. They were also controlling possession and they had an annoying tendency to run around a lot. We settled into a strategy of keeping men behind the ball and looking to hit them on the break. And we did. Roddy nodded a pass over his defender’s head and flicked the ball through to Rosie. Rosie got goal-side on his defender and slotted the ball past the UVic keeper to give us a 1-0 lead. (In our version of the movie Rosie is like Tatum O’Neal).
The goal was no more than we deserved based on our domination of the play. No really. It was. Why don’t you believe me?
The pattern of the game settled down again; UVic keeping possession, switching play at will, but too often settling for long shots from well out. For our part, Roddy, who has to be Tanner, was our main source of danger up the flank He once again slid a pass through to Rosie who got goal side of his defender. The UVic player took Rosie down and received a red card. Usually this would mean that we would have a numerical advantage, but by this time I was useless so it only evened up the teams.
Then an unfortunate incident occurred. A superb cross-field ball over our defense found two UVic players racing into the area to get on the end of the cross. They got in each other’s way, and one knocked the ball past the net and knocked his teammate’s head sideways, where his jaw collided with Cloudy’s knee. No-one was to blame on the play; it was just one of those things that happens in a hard-fought game. The game was delayed for about 20 minutes as we waited for the ambulance to take the injured player away. All of us at Coveside wish him the best for a speedy recovery.
The ref took the correct decision to allow a half-time break at that point, then to play the final seven minutes of the half, take a 2 minute break to change ends, and then play the second half. Any decision with the word “break” in it was welcomed warmly by our side. The idiotic linesman came by and told us to move back out of the shade onto the field while we waited, as we needed the referee’s permission to leave the field. Now it’s great to see young linesmen getting into the profession, but can we not train them in things like common sense as well as the rules of the game? Coach Bernie Buttermaker quickly remedied the situation with help from assistant coach Bryn Roy Turner, whose Gunga Din impersonation helped keep us hydrated throughout the game.
Due to our continuing dominance of the play, (cough) it was not surprising that we would extend our lead early in the second half. There was perhaps a hint of offside when Rosie battled his way into their penalty area, but he showed the speed and power of an Amanda Whurlitzer fastball by battling his way past a defender and chipping the ball over the keeper to give us a shocking and yet completely deserved (ahem) 2-0 lead.
UVic then came just slightly back into the game, and perhaps just barely edged us on the time of possession and time spent in our half. They were raining shots on our net from all over the place. Cloudy made solid save after solid save. Your scribe stopped and cleared a shot on the goal line by the right goal post; Andy headed one away from the left goal post. All they needed was a bounce to go their way, and it eventually did. A low corner was deflected away and intercepted by a UVic player about 30 yards out. He cracked in a shot that Cloudy had covered, until a UVic player deflected it into the net with his arm. They had been complaining all game about the hand ball calls the ref had been making (and not making), and it would have taken a very brave referee to disallow that goal. He didn’t and the lead was down to 2-1.
Still, we were up by 1, there was only about 20 minutes to go, and we had a man advantage. Unfortunately Cam channeled Kelly Leak. He dove into a UVic player from behind and received a straight red card. Losing him took one of our last mobile players off the field, but we kept hanging on. Cloudy looked like he was determined to make up for last year’s Vantreights game and was making save after save. Players were cramping up all over the place but still battling in tackles and hounding UVic players. But our luck did not hold out. A long shot from a UVic midfielder curved and dipped in mid-air and flew under Cloudy to tie the score at 2-2 with less than 10 minutes to go. We tried to push for a goal in those last 10 minutes but we had nothing left.
When the whistle went for extra time we knew our only hope was to hold out for penalties. But it was not to be. They were awarded a free kick about 25 yards out, straight in front of our net. The UVic player cracked a world-class shot into the top of the net and we knew the game was over. By this time most of the team could barely keep on their feet. We looked like a bunch of Engelbergs out there. We tried to push ahead to tie the game, but they caught us on a counterattack and made the game 4-2.
To their credit, the UVic team could easily have started running up the score at this point but they chose not to. They kept possession of the ball and passed up chances to attack us. Their fifth goal came off a turnover on our goal line when Fergie’s legs literally stopped working properly. It was a shame to see the scoreline go up to 5-2 because it did not reflect how close we were to winning this thing. It was also a shame to hear the dipshit on their sidelines shout “Way to go UVic, let’s go get some more!”
With the exception of that moron (Tanner would have probably described him as a turd) I think all of us have nothing but good things to say about the UVic team. They were fitter than us, had a much larger squad, and played some very good football. But we had enough good players to almost knock them off. A couple of subs might have made all the difference; four or five subs would probably have meant a victory for us. But zero subs meant we had nothing left to give and slumped to a 5-2 defeat. It’s probably better that we lost because I don’t know how many guys we’d have out next week, and Cam would have been suspended. But it would have felt really, really good to pull off that win, wouldn’t it?
We enjoyed the beers and laughs afterwards in the parking lot of the Most Excellent Sports Center Build in the Middle of Nowhere. The UVic lads were classy in victory, coming over to share a couple of bevies and congratulate us on our effort. I think we’ll all be rooting for them to win it all again this year, and the consensus was that they are in a different class than the RCIU team we beat the previous week.
The final challenge was to get home on our increasingly crowded BC Ferry system. No problem for us, because Cloudy had made reservations on the 7pm. But as we pulled up to the gate, with my keen powers of observation I noticed that Cloudy had made a reservation on the 7pm from Tsawassen to Swartz Bay. Nice one fella. The gate clerk called him an idiot and sent him to lane 427. Cloudy then pretended to be a returning special Olympian and a sympathetic ferry worker allowed us to use our reservation on the 7pm. Unfortunately by this time Harp, not fancying the idea of two hours on the ferry with only Fergie and his weed-smelling breath for company, had given up his reservation on the 7pm. As we drove on we saw him walking, Ahmad Abdul Rahim-like, forlornly back to a distant blue pickup truck where Coach Buttermaker and his lovely companion waited with, Mike “Cleveland” Church, the Agilar brothers Andy and Tracy, and “Rudi” Fergie. We hope you guys had as good a time as we did on the way home; we did. Never have life-threatening diseases been the subject of so much laughter.
A final couple of thoughts. First, and now I’m talking just to the other ten guys who took the field yesterday, I’m damn proud to have been a member of that team. We had no subs, nowhere near as fit as our opponents, and we were 10 minutes away from victory. I wish I’d have had more to give but at the end I guess everyone felt that way. I’m ready to go to Japan and take on the best they have to offer.
Second, looking ahead to next year we’ve now gone beyond just being happy to make it into the provincials. We’ve learned how much fun it is to play in the provincials and to have a chance to win every game. We now have a core group of guys who are good enough to compete with anyone, and who make it to games and practices week in and week out. But we have also learned that we need a bigger squad of dedicated players to go further. Over the course of the summer we should decide whether we want to become that team or whether we are happy as we are.
Finally, on behalf of everyone I want to thank Bernie. We show our appreciation for Bernie in the appropriate manly ways, namely by mocking him and drinking beer in his company. But we also know that this team reflects his character. We are scrappy, big-hearted and big-bellied, we aren’t the best diplomats in the world, we don’t care about the pedigree of our opponents, and we don’t like to lose. But ultimately we know it’s about enjoying the beers and laughs afterwards and we never lose sight of that.
Well done to the UVic eleven!
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Post by begi on Apr 2, 2012 15:00:17 GMT -8
That was great to read! Yes a very hard draw for both teams of CV and Roma...Here's how Roma might have a shot of winning given they will lose players. Play a formation similar to that of Andorra. Bunker down in an 8-1-1 and have Big Z fires home 2 of the break
Here's how CV can win. Play a formation similar to that of San Marino. Bunker down in an 7-2-1 and have Rosie fire home 2 of the break
Good luck to all and great season - considering how it started
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Post by dirtystinky on Apr 2, 2012 16:34:34 GMT -8
Or?
If we warm up like this they will think WTF?
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Post by conductor on Apr 2, 2012 18:04:49 GMT -8
dirtystinky, great article from a few years ago, as usual I love your video links!! lol I'm seriously thinking about getting our team to do that for a warm-up. More so on the road UVic will definitely look at us as a bunch of clowns and presume they are guaranteed to hammer us! Roma does not lose any players defensively this year, but lose Fozz, Vince and Pete who have supplied lots of offense for us. Z will be a guy who I know will rise to the challenge and hopefully gets us some much needed offense. Other than that Roma is definitely the under dog going into this one. I'm hoping CV will be able to do our League proud and win a few games. Hopefully they will get Cloudy and Rosie back as these two players are big reason for CV's success!! Good luck CV!
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Post by dirtystinky on Apr 3, 2012 6:52:10 GMT -8
Would love to warm up like that but the 'Charlie horse" from the weekends game is so bad that I cant even bend my leg to use the throne. Needless to say, my wife is not so happy as my aim has not been that great. Think a Jackson Pollock painting.
The leg is so bad that pain inflicted in this video would be considered minor in comparison
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Post by spqr on Apr 3, 2012 14:45:43 GMT -8
My early predictions (without knowledge of the VISL):
CV 3 - Gorge FC 2
If CV get get their team out they will win this one. I like this match up and could set up well for a victory.
Roma 1 - U VIC 3
Tough to win on the island, lot of factors will be against Roma. They'll be lucky to get 14 guys to make the trip.
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Post by azzurri on Apr 4, 2012 5:45:21 GMT -8
My early predictions (without knowledge of the VISL): CV 3 - Gorge FC 2 If CV get get their team out they will win this one. I like this match up and could set up well for a victory. Roma 1 - U VIC 3 Tough to win on the island, lot of factors will be against Roma. They'll be lucky to get 14 guys to make the trip. Spqr, Go fly a kite, You've been wrong about Roma's scoreline for the last 3 games, you predicted them to lose everytime and since then they have won 2 Trophies.  ;D Cside, How did it feel putting Roma's name on 2 out of the 3 trophies this year??? Good luck to both Roma and CV united in the BC's... |
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Post by dirtystinky on Apr 4, 2012 21:33:24 GMT -8
Hey Conductor
I heard that UVic has a Lion as there team mascot.
Maybe you can get in their kitchen before the game if you have a few of your entourage pull this off before the game
Just a suggestion
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Post by conductor on Apr 5, 2012 10:55:52 GMT -8
dirtystinky, where do you find this stuff?? LOL I was actually thinking of showing that video to my wife. We just had a baby, but she's been out of the Hospital for a week. I want to let her know through your video that I may turn into a Lion soon! ;D As for U Vic, I know we are in tough but that's why we play the game as every under dog has there day! There is a website that you can read up on the Gorge VISL.bc.ca . Gorge won the Master's Cup last weekend over U Vic 2-1.
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Post by conductor on Apr 12, 2012 23:04:01 GMT -8
spqr, hopefully you are wrong on the scoreline, but you are correct in the numbers Roma will be going over with. Roma is in tough as their starting keeper will not be making the trip along with two other players. I just wanted to say that hopefully those of you who play in this league try to make an effort and come out to support CV United on Sunday. CV has a good chance if they have their full line up. I know lots of people in the league could care less about coming out to a game that they aren't playing in. The NSCL as it stands right now in the BC's only has two spots, so truthfully all eight of our teams should be all together right now in terms of support. Unlike our season play against each other, where we are pitted to see each other lose, it is now us NSCL vs the other leagues during Provincial Cup play. So come on CV United and take advantage of the home field!!  |
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Post by cside17 on Apr 14, 2012 14:39:24 GMT -8
An under manned Roma fell to a strong U Vic team today 5-1. Roma lead in the 1st half, then lost some bodies to injury. Im sure Conductor will elaborate.
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Post by cside17 on Apr 15, 2012 13:43:04 GMT -8
CV Utd 2-0 Gorge fc.
CV Utd plays West Van next week.
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;D 