The Tournament!

Saturday August 23rd, 2003

Mike:
Well another year has come and another year has gone. As I look back on the year I feel pangs of regret that we never actually met up with Red Socks in head to head competition, and I wonder whatever happened to "FC BrewHaHa: A Season on the Brink" which was rumored to be in production by Henry Multimedia Company. I guess you can't win 'em all. Speaking of not winning them all, for those of you who weren't there I will save you the suspense: no t-shirts this year. I guess it's a good news/bad news kind of thing, because if we had won there might have been some pressure to move up to B division next year, and who needs that?

We started off insanely early against Advil with an 8am start on Saturday morning. It was all that you would expect from a matchup with Advil, they played hard and their goalie was a total asshole. We got up, I believe in the first half, on what I think may well have been the prettiest goal of the year. Arthur played a ball straight up the middle to DiCarlo (a rare pass on the ground to DiCarlo, I tried to give him one the next game and subsequently apologize for not just playing a long through ball). DiCarlo showed great poise, and layed a supple square ball right across the top of the 18 yard box, showing much more vision that the Advil defenders who had no idea Ramsey was streaking in to hammer the ball into the net on the fly. Lovely stuff. Of course in the second half #4 waltzed pretty much through our entire team, and layed a wicked shot into the corner to tie things up. I've already entered into contract negotiations, expect to see him wearing orange early in the 2004 season.

Next up was Big Happy Team Too. We hadn't seen them in regular season play this year, and they were fighting an uphill battle as their star striker was in Half Moon Bay all weekend for a Big Fat Greek Wedding. Wouldn't you know it, but Ramsey put us up again. Where was this guy all season (for the record, he was busy playing quality defence). A cross from the right side from Arthur found Erin at the far post (DiCarlo almost also found Erin, but scared from a first game collision with Alison which left him shakened he backed off just in time to clear way for a cunning header), and Ramsey finished the job. That was all she wrote in terms of scoring, but unfortunately not in terms of action. Marie got in on a breakaway against their keeper, who pretty much took her out. There's debate about where the ball was, etc, but I don't think anyone should argue that it was a bad judgement call on his part. So far it looks like Marie should be able to recover fairly quickly, so everyone cross your fingers. To his credit he did ask about her several times, even the next day, and seemed genuinely concerned and upset about the injury. That's a lot more than I can say for the Advil asshole who's probably still gloating about his chicken-shit attack on Gretchen last year.

We rounded out the day against the Landsharks, they aren't in our league but made a special visit for the tournament. All I can say, is yikes! Talk about a lot of bickering and infighting, including the famous "you won't pass to girls so I won't pass the guys" remark. What can I say, it's not hard to beat a team who's so intent on beating itself! And I don't think a single one of them found any of my joke's funny! What's up with that? I know Erin always finds me quite hilarious! DiCarlo decided he was annoyed with Ramsey getting all the glory, and put 3 away. Booooooorrrrrrriiiiiiig. Highlight was probably the arrival of Marley (Carrie's little girl, who showed up as a sub), what a cutiepie. The un-highlight was the referee calling out "no goal" after DiCarlo's 3rd. Apparently he was joking, which if you ask me is a little cruel to do to the other team.

Scoring vs. Advil:

  1. Ramsey from DiCarlo and Arthur

Scoring vs. BHTT:

  1. Ramsey from Erin and Arthur

Scoring vs. Landsharks:

  1. DiCarlo from Ramsey and Erin
  2. DiCarlo from Susan
  3. DiCarlo from Carrie and Skipper

Cheering:

  • Jose
  • Juniper
  • Susan's Boys
  • Carrie's Crew

Sunday August 23rd, 2003

Mike:
When the dust settled on Saturday we were up two points on team Advil in the hunt for first in our divison. 6 points for a win, 3 for a tie, 1 for a goal (up to 3 a game) and one for a shutout. So were turned our attention to the Hogs, Web Hogs that is. Have you ever seen Arthur shoot the ball? He shows up to practice and puts on a clinic, then shows up to the games and pretty much hammers the legs of the defenders. Well he finally connected, and what a shot! DiCarlo also scored, but I have no recollection of it. We cruised along pretty comfortably, but with about 5 minutes left they managed to squeak one in, and suddenly the Web Hogs discovered they had some fight left in them after all. They started to pressure, and got a couple corner kicks and even forced Clark into making a very nice save. Thanks to Dr. Bray. 8 points for that effort, Advil got 10 out of their first Sunday game so we were neck and neck.

All we were left with was the Geezers. They recruited from their B squad, fearful after a lackluster day on Saturday, and O'Rooney's (O'Malley's? O'Reilly's?) drunken threats of not showing up. Well their plan was successful as they won an early, controversial, and semi-bogus penalty shot. Fuck. The game was preated heated from then on, with their players resorting to time wasting tactics and general whining. The refs were in particularily shitty form, missing slide tackles and ruthless hacking of our forwards. Finally DiCarlo drew a penalty of his own. But enough on that. He slotted one a few moments later to tie things up at 1 apiece, and we kept the pressure on. Unfortunately that was all the scoring we could muster.

All that was left for us to do was wait and watch the result of Advil vs. the Web Hogs. Well Advil kicked their behinds, and our day was done. It was getting pretty damn hot out there anyways! Thanks to everyone for a wonderful year.

Scoring vs. Web Hogs:

  1. Arthur from Alison and Carrie
  2. DiCarlo from Ramsey and Carrie

Scoring vs. Battling Geezers

  1. DiCarlo from Alison

Cheering:

  • Juniper
  • Julie
  • Carrie's Crew (2)