Match Reports Madison Slashers U-14 Boys Travel Rec. Spring 2002

One thing to remember. As a recreational (rec.) team we are constrained by the Southern Central Connecticut Regional Commisioner's unwritten rule that if we won by five goals or more, the head coach of the winning team would have to write to the Commisioner a letter of explanation. If we won by five or more a second time, the youth soccer club President must write a letter of explanation. If it happened a third time, the team would be kicked out of the League and the coach would be suspended. These constraints are only imposed on recreational teams, not competitive (comp.) teams.

6th April, League Game, Home versus Cheshire, Won 4-0 This was a most unexpected scoreline. Cheshire have an excellent program and have always played us tough in the past. This was basically a U-13 team, though, but, most of our own team would also qualify for that level. We only have a few older players. We were down to 12 players, missing Paul Colebaugh and Claudio Zampino. Cheshire had 14 players. Sam Conner started in goal for us. We got off to the best possible start when Andrew Napier scored a great goal after only 2 minutes. It settled us down and we dominated the play for most of the game after that. I expected the goals for us to start coming thick and fast, but, despite numerous chances and close misses they didn't. It was starting to get frustrating, waiting for the second goal. It finally came after about 30 minutes, but it wasn't a great goal, as the ball barely rolled over the line after a toe-poke by Andrew Napier. they all count though. Andrew Archer crashed home a hard shot right after that and suddenly it was 3-0 and that is how the half ended. We started the second half with Jonathan Rosenburg in goal. It was his first time in goal in a real game, but he always did well in practice and I didn't expect him to have much to do based on first half play. Within minutes of the restart, Drew Matthews scored an excellent goal to make it 4-0 after breaking down the right wing. With the "five goal rule" in mind, I immediately reshuffled the players around into different positions -- defenders going forward, forwards into defence and some midfielders into defence. As it turned out, defenders-turned-forwards Ryan Kristoff, Charlie Creller and Dan Lane all had excellent chances to score. It would have been great for them if they had, because they don't always get the chance to play forward. As I expected, we continued to dominate the game without having to press for any more goals. I restriced the typical goalscorers from scoring again and in some cases wouldn't let them go further than two-thirds the way up the field. Jon Rosenburg was called into action a few times and he did magnificently well. He was particularly brave on one play, getting slightly injured for his troubles. The game ended 4-0, but if I had not restrained the troops I have a feeling the score could have been double that. It was a very satisfying start to the season and gave me confidence we will have a good season overall. I was very pleased with all the players, particularly in the way they had to restrain themselves from breaking the dreaded "five goal rule."

13th April, League Game, Away versus North Branford, Won 3-2 We expected this to be a tough game normally. North Branford youth soccer teams are normally very good. It was also going to be on a big field -- their field -- on a very hot day. It became an even tougher game when three players of our roster of 14 said they couldn't make it owing to other commitments and/or vacation. We were missing Sam Conner, Charlie Creller and Stephen Gagliano. It became still tougher when Peter Lam didn't show up -- apparently on vacation without telling anyone. So we were down to 10 players. North Branford had 14 players, but their coach sportingly played down to 10 men, making it a fair 10-a-side. Ten-a-side on a big pitch means both teams have a lot of room. With the heat and four subs in attendance, the advantage was all with North Branford. As expected, North Branford did all the attacking for 90% of the first half. Our defence was under constant pressure but they soaked it all up and Christian MacDonald was tremendous in goal. Towards the end of the first half, North Branford were caught out on a couple of breakaways. Each time we looked dangerous. I fully expected us to nick a goal before half time. So it happened, but with a little bit of luck. Andrew Archer was wide on the right near the goal line at a very acute angle. He attempted to cross the ball over into the penalty area and the ball went straight for goal instead. The North Branford goalkeeper contrived to let the ball slip through his hands and somehow the ball ended up in the goal. It was 1-0 to us at half-time. The players were already exhausted with another 40 minutes to go. North Branford were fresher with their four subs. I wondered if we could defend a 1-0 lead for all that time. The second half began with more North Branford pressure. This time Drew Matthews was in goal for us. We held out very well and started to make more breakaways. North Branford were always pushing up to far and our fast players were looking to take advantage. Oh how we missed Peter Lam's speed this day. We went 2-0 up after a few more breakaways and this time Andrew Napier weaved his way through to beat the goalkeeper on-on-one. We were more in the game now and I expected this goal to knock the stuffing out of North Branford. They did manage a few more attacks, however, and won a penalty call after a trip on one of their forwards in the penalty area by one of our defenders. Drew made a valiant effort to save the penalty kick, but it was too well place. 2-1 with about 30 minutes left. We were starting to look very tired, particularly Claudio Zampino who was totally out of gas. He could only manage walking around. We were basically down to 9 players. A few moments later we were 3-1 up after a goalmouth scramble and Andrew Archer thumped home his second goal. Surely we could defend this lead? No, North Branford caught us out too far up the field with few players fit enough to chase back and defend. It was a poor goal to give away on our part. It was 3-2 with 20 minutes to go. For the next 15 minutes we were doing most of the defending. By then, North Branford were the tireder-looking team. We pushed them hard, instead of sitting on our lead we went looking for a fourth killer goal. Attack is the best form of defence. We didn't score, but the tactic worked. North Branford just couldn't hit us back. It was a courageous and well-deserved win for us. We were out-numbered and exhausted and clung on through much of the game. We have some goalscorers on this team though, so I always hoped we could hit North Branford on the break. The team did me very proud today.

20th April, Friendly, Home versus Meriden, Cancelled The Meriden coach telephoned Coach Archer to cancel the game owing to a lack of players to fullfil this fixture. He claimed that many of the players, or their parents, preferred to go fishing on the opening day of fishing season in Connecticut. I believe the Meriden coach was as frustrated as we were! It is the second time Meriden has cancelled a game against us in two years. The last time was Spring 2000.

28th April, League Game, Home versus North Haven, Postponed While Coach Archer and the Madison Slashers team were ready to play, North Haven were assuming the game was going to be cancelled owing to rain. Madison Youth Soccer Club cancelled all games owing to the rain anyway, so that was that! This League game has been rearranged for Sunday, June 2nd at 5:00 PM.

4th May, League Game, Away versus Wallingford, Postponed Wallingford did not have a coach, their original coach had quit and the Wallingford Youth Soccer League had been unsuccessful finding a replacement. On the night just before this game, Wallingford finally had a coach, but he apparently was not prepared to play at the time. This League game has been rearranged for Thursday, June 13th at 6:30 PM.

11th May, League Game, Home versus Guilford, Won 1-0 Somehow the Madison Slashers won against the odds against a solid Guilford team. We knew that Sam Connor and Charlie Creller could not make this game, bringing us down to 12 available players. Paul Colebaugh, however, failed to show up on the day and then Kevin Lauder said he had to leave by half-time. We were down to 11 for the first half, and down to 10 for the second half. I expected a very tough game, even at full strength, against Guilford, never mind when we were down to bare bones again. It was surprising considering this was our first game against another team in a whole month and with the Clinton Tournament coming up next weekend. To make matters worse, on the face of it, Guilford had five substitutes and it was a pretty warm day. It was easy to remember how the Slashers had struggled without subs at North Branford in the heat when we were also a man down against a team with plenty of subs. Well, we managed to win that one, so who knows? Guilford had a very tall, solid-looking goalkeeper and a lot of very good players, particularly in defence. I wasn't sure we had enough resources to score past Guilford today. I expected the tall goalie to shut us out and I expected us to be too tired in the second half to be threatening at all. The game started as I pretty much expected most of the game to go, with Guilford mostly on top. I elected to put Drew Matthews in goal in the first half. He has the safest hands of those players at the game and against a team like Guilford I thought we needed as much confidence building as we could get. As the half progressed, the Madison Slashers started to break out of defence and cause problems in Guilford's half too. As things turned out, it was end-to-end stuff, equally for both teams. Chances went begging for both teams. Guilford were the unluckiest when a looping kick landed on the bar rather than dropping into goal. Drew also performed excellently and the whole Madison team defended with grit. At the end of the half, 0-0 just about seemed fair. It was an exciting 0-0 game, no less. At half-time I struggled to get a volunteer for goal. Claudio Zampino was the only one to offer, but I had never seen him play in goal in a full 11-a-side game. I had my doubts, but, with no-one else willing, I agreed to give him his chance. We were also lucky to convince Kevin to stay another 20 minutes. It helped us a great deal. The second half pretty much went the same way as the first half, swinging back and forth with chances at both ends. Guilford's first half goalie was now a field player and he was demonstrating a lot of skill and pace that worried us a lot. Fortunately, he was not given the opportunity to see much of the ball, but one time he did he almost created a goal for his team. The tall Guilford player beat two or three Slashers as he made a mazy run down Guilford's left wing. His cross threaded through the Slashers' goal area and found an unmarked Guilford forward at the far post. With seemingly the whole goal to aim at as Claudio had stuck close to the near post, the Guilford forward contrived to squeeze a miskick just wide of the gaping open goal. It was a huge let-off for the Slashers. Guilford would soon pay for their costly misses. Ironically, the Slashers scored after Kevin had left the game and the Slashers were down to 10 players. It was once again 10 men against 11 plus 5 subs, and once again the Slashers scored against those odds. This time, as the play moved down the centre of the pitch towards Guilford's goal, Andrew Napier suddenly lashed out a shot from some 20 yards out, beating the diving goalkeeper. There were still some 15 minutes left to play and a lot of anxious moments at both ends of the pitch. Claudio did excellent with the few relatively small saves he had to make. Somehow, we had preserved the "shut out." I was immensely proud of my team. They had to work very hard and many of them were exhausted. Many times during the second half I had to "whip" them to get back into defence if they were caught too far forward. They were just so tired. It was a very hard earned victory against a very good Guilford team. Guilford had played very well too, and were unlucky on at least two occasions. They deserved a draw at least perhaps. But, as I keep coaching my team, if you don't take your chances you will never score.

18th & 19th May, Clinton Invitational Tournament Games on Saturday afternoon were postponed owing to torrential downpours in the morning making the pitches at the Indian River Complex unplayable. All group games would be played on Sunday morning and the knockout games on Sunday afternoon would be put back a few hours. Group Game 1, versus Clinton: Clinton do not have a team in the rec. league per se. They decided to enter their "rec." team into the lower divisions of the comp. league instead. Having said that, I still thought the Slashers were capable of beating them. Clinton only had two or three players who were really dangerous. We started out with Christian MacDonald in goal in the first half and just one substitute. Clinton played with just 11, no substitutes in the first half. Christian really did not have much to do since the Slashers dominated much of the play. The ball was in Clinton's half most of the time. Clinton, however, did well on the breakaway. They had three shots on goal from such breakaways and two flew in, giving Clinton a 2-0 lead by half-time. Clinton's scoring with such high goals-per-shots percentage was a portent of things to come later in the day. For the second half we put Drew Matthews in goal. Clinton lost a man, who was double-rostered with their comp. team. I'm not sure if the man advantage really helped us, the Slashers did not realise they were a man up, but we did come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2. In the first half the Slashers looked tired and sluggish, the 7:45 AM kick-off no doubt contributing to that. We played much better in the second half and continued to dominate. All our goals were scored by Andrew Napier. Group Game 2, versus Derby: I expected Derby to be the team to beat. They looked more like a comp. team than a rec. team. They even had two nice shirts, one a change colour, compared to our t-shirts and pinnies to change into if there was a colour clash. You can always tell how team warms up and their attitude, the way they are kitted out and the loudness of the support from their followers and parents if a team is comp. or not. I decided to put Sam Connor in goal in the first half. Jonathan Rosenberg had now arrived, so we were up to having two substitutes. Derby started out well and dominated the ball at first. They were passing the ball very nicely and eventually started testing Sam who held them out well. The Slashers managed to break out and play in Derby's end too, eventually, but on one such raid the midfield was slow to get back and Derby broke through our bare defence to easily slot a goal past Sam. It was only 1-0 at half-time, so there was much hope we could come back like we did against Clinton. We put Steven Gagliano in goal for the second half, his first time in the nets this season. He did very well. I have to say that the Slashers gave as good as they got in the second half, but it was Derby who found the net again, making it 2-0 with less than 9 minutes to go. At that point I didn't think we could get it back. Cruelly, Derby scored again just before the final whistle. I didn't think we deserved to lose by as much as 3-0. In the end, I thought that if we met Derby again later on I still fancied our chances of beating them. Group Game 3, versus Westbrook: Last year in this tournament Westbrook had entered two very good teams; one of which went all the way to the final and beat us twice, including in the final, and the other we had to fight very hard to beat. I wondered if this year's team was a merger of all the players who went up to the U-14 level to form one very good team. They had, however, lost 3-1 to Derby and, very surprisingly, 3-0 to Clinton. I had to hope, then, that we could do just as well against them. It was a crucial game for us owing to how all the results had gone for the group so far. To avoid Derby in the Semi-finals and to get Clinton, we knew we could not finish as first seed, but we wanted to finish second or third seed -- there was actually no distinction between the two since they meet in the Semi-finals. Jonathan Rosenberg played in goal for us for this one, and he agreed to play in goal for the second half too. He did a really excellent job. Westbrook gave us a tough game and I wondered how on earth they had contrived to lose both of their earlier games. This was a very even contest. Finally, in the first half, a speculative shot from Andrew Archer arched over the Westbrook goalkeeper and just under the crossbar. It was the break we needed. It was 1-0 at half-time. The second half was equally competitive, but Andrew Napier scored our second goal to give us the much needed breathing space. Jon Rosenberg had to make a couple of tough saves to preserve our victory. 2nd Seed versus 3rd Seed Game (Semi-Final), versus Clinton: As expected the Slashers earned the second seed and Clinton came third. Derby and Westbrook played in the other Semi-final just before our game and Derby won 2-0 over a very hard-working Westbrook team who did not deserve to leave the tournament with an 0-and-4 record. I tried very hard to warn the Slashers that their Semi-final would be a very hard game and that they should forget that they beat Clinton before. I did tell them they were well capable of winning though. To be honest, we had not played very well for much of the tournament. There was not enough passing and not enough shooting. There was way too much dribbling, particularly from the forwards. I wanted the Slashers to pass and shoot a whole lot more. I told them that this was the biggest game of the day for them, since if they won, they would be in the Final and would at least earn a second-place trophy. There was every chance we could do well and progress. By now, Claudio Zampino had arrived and we were at full strength; 14 players for the first time this season. I decided on putting Christian in goal for the first half and Steven in goal for the second half. I wanted to save Sam and Drew for the Final if we progressed. Sam, however, had hurt his thumb since our third game and I'm not sure he would have been fit enough for goal in the Final. Paul Colebaugh was also injured, his toes were very sore. His contribution from now on would be limited owing to this. Clinton played us hard in the first half and it reminded me of how our first meeting had gone with them. We had confidently set about attacking their goal, but, again, not enough real shots on goal were being taken. Again some of the players were dribbling too much. Clinton punished us for not capitalising on our early dominance and broke away to score on us on basically their first threatening attack. Not again! Fortunately, from the kick-off we went fully on attack. Claudio Zampino's cross flew across goal and hit the inside of the far goalpost and into the net. The half ended at 1-1. While I knew it would be a difficult game and 1-1 was indicative of that, I felt slightly upset that the Slashers were still not playing well. They needed to kick up a gear or two and they needed to cut out the dribbling and take more shots. The second half slowly turned into a nightmare. Our play was not very good. Passing was uneven and too many players where bunching up instead of spreading out. Plus, when we did break across the half-way line, the dribblers were still slowing us down. I do not recall one shot on target the entire second half. Clinton, meanwhile, had stepped up a gear. They were being more enterprising and they were taking their shots. I think they had four shots on target on the second half and three flew in with little or no chance for Steven to save them. It was a hard lesson the Slashers deserved to learn. Clinton won 4-1 and while I think the score did not reflect the closeness of the game, there was no doubt Clinton were worthy winners. Coach Archer's Post Tournament Thoughts: After reaching the Final last year with several of the same players when we were a U-12 team, I was desperately disappointed not to make the Final again. While I always knew it would be tough to beat Derby, I thought we were the second best team in the group and I fully expected us to get to Final. The group games meant very little -- except to avoid finishing as fourth seed thereby avoiding meeting the favourite in the Semi-finals. Everything went to plan during the group games. We finished second and drew Clinton for the Semi-final, a team we proved we could beat -- in previous seasons too. I felt quietly confident that we would progress to the Final. The last group game finished at about 12:15 PM. Our Semi-final game kicked off at about 4:30 PM. It was an awfully long time between the games and I'm sure it contributed to our poor display in the Semi-final when the muscles are tired and stiff and the momentum had completely gone. It was a long day, from 7:45 AM to 4:30 PM, but, that could be said for Clinton too and they had another game to look forward to. Also, my selection of goalkeeper for the second half may have hurt us. Steven isn't our best goalkeeper, but he is one of five I have trusted to put into the goalkeeping rotation. I was saving Sam and Drew for the final (remember, it was only 1-1 at half-time, so we justifiably expected there was a chance to progress) and Christian had just played in goal in the first half. Jon had just played the whole game in goal in the third group game. I could have asked Andrew Napier or Andrew Archer, but I was depending on their goalscoring potential for the second half. So, unfortunately, I was limited in choice. Steven had done very well in an earlier game, keeping a shut-out in his half of the game, so I felt comfortable asking him to rise to the occasion again. I think what hurt us most of all, however, was our inability to get a passing game going, particularly in the latter third of the field, the attacking third. Instead of passing through or behind defenders a couple of players were adamantly trying to dribble their way through. Players who would have made a run for a pass would no longer do so, because they knew they would not get a pass. This all contributed to our failure to get into scoring position where we could take shots on goal. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. We only scored six goals all tournament, three of those coming in the second half of the first game. Which means we only scored three goals in the other seven halves. I always thought we were going to be better than that.

1st June, Friendly, Home versus North Branford, Won 2-1 The Slashers were expecting a touch challenge from North Branford after we had beaten them 3-2 in a League game earlier this season. This time, however, we did have Sam Connor and Peter Lam who were unavailable for that earlier game. Drew Matthews started in goal in the first half. We had one substitute today, which was perfect. Both teams started well, but I was impressed with how the Slashers were playing. They were doing lots of passing, something we had talked about since our previous game, the loss to Clinton in the Clinton Tournament. The Slashers pressed their attacks, but there weren't too many shots as yet. After about 20 minutes, North Branford caught us on the break. Too many Slashers were too far away and made too little effort to chase back. North Branford went down our left side with only four or five defenders able to get back. The Slashers then appeared to stop as the North Branford winger crossed the ball into our goal area and another North Branford player fired home. The Slashers complained that the ball had gone out for a goal kick, but the North Branford player had brought it back into play before crossing it in. Later on, many of the spectators told me the same thing. The referee had obviously missed it. As the old adage goes, you have got to play to the whistle. Within a minute the Slashers were back level after a superb run down the right wing by Peter Lam saw him cut inside into the penalty area and fire home his shot. It was the perfect answer to North Branford's controversial goal. The Slashers confidence continued to grow for the half and they attacked with gusto, but it would still end 1-1 at half-time. Christian MacDonald played in goal for the second half. The remainder of the game went back and forth with neither team really looking like scoring. It looked like the game was going to end 1-1 until five minutes from time when Drew Matthews fired home the Slashers' winner from inside a crowded goalmouth. We won another close game, but this shows the character of this team. They just keep going and going. Defensively we are very hard to break down. The only time we give up bad goals is when teams catch us on the break and our midfield do not get back quickly enough. This happened again today in the first half. We talked about the problem at half-time and the team greatly improved. Another area we greatly improved in was cutting out the excessive dribbling up to goal. We still did it a little bit, but we did a lot more passing today and it made us the better team. We just about earned our victory.

2nd June, League Game, Home versus North Haven, Won 2-0 This was a rearranged League game from earlier in the season when the original game was postponed owing to heavy rain. I had heard that the North Haven team were very good with some double-roster comp. players amongst their ranks. I felt that this was going to be the most challenging team to us this spring season. For this reason, I planned on putting Sam Connor in goal in the first half and Jonathan Rosenberg in goal for the second half. Unfortunately, however, Jon did not show up, so I decided to wait an see who was going to be the second half goalkeeper at half-time. Usually, you can get a sense of how serious teams are from the way they warm up, their kits, etc. North Haven were dressed in a very comp.-looking kit and they did some comp.-looking drills before the game. This all followed logically from what I had heard. Add to this, the North Haven coach also coaches the U-14 comp. team! For this reason, I had talked to the Slashers about playing at speed, lots of passing and lots of shooting before the match. As the match started, the Slashers tore into North Haven. We were dominating in almost every aspect of the game. Either North Haven weren't as good as I was led to believe or the Slashers were just not allowing them to get into their normal rhythm. For all our dominance, however, we just couldn't turn it into goals. We just weren't taking good shots and some of our decisions in the penalty area didn't give us the best opportunities to score. At the other end, Sam in goal had not had to make a save. The half ended, disappointingly, 0-0. Steven Gagliano went in goal for the second half. I think he agreed because he hoped it would be easy today. He was right. I recall him only needing to make one substantial save. The Slashers continued their dominance, but this time, after my half-time team talk, we were taking more shots. It eventually paid off as we began to wear down a resilient North Haven defence. With 15 minutes to go, Andrew Napier finally drilled home a shot. After so much possession and attacking, it was like a great weight off us. The Slashers continued to attack and with just over 5 minutes to go, Drew Matthews added our second. The goalkeeper had made the save, but the force of the shot made him go back over the plane of the goal line. Luckily, the referee saw that it was a goal. I must admit I was a bit worried about this one after all the things I had heard about North Haven being good and having some comp. quality players. As it turned out, we were just plain awesome on the day -- the whole weekend, in fact. We passed well, we played well as a team, we were brilliant in defence and we were starting to take good shots on goal again. It just shows that this team have good quality after all. I wished we could have played in the Clinton Tournament like this. I know we could have made it to the Final at least.

8th June, League Game, Away versus Meriden, Won 3-1 There was no way we could tell how good Meriden were going to be. We knew they had lost 4-1 to Guilford and beat North Branford 2-1. When their players began to show up for the game, many of them were big and older-looking. I immediately expected a tough, physical game. The Slashers arrived at Meriden with 12 players, missing Claudio Zampino and Paul Colebaugh. Meriden claimed to only have 10 players. From now on, you have to keep track of the numbers of Meriden players, because, quite frankly, I'm still confused. At the start of the game, I was going to play with just 10 as well, and then we would have two substitutes. I informed the referee of this and then he stated his son, from the comp. team, could be available to play and asked if I was agreeable. I agreed because it allowed me to play with 11 players too. The less substitutes the better and I would only have one sub now. Meriden would not have any. I had Christian MacDonald start in goal for us to give us some stability in the defence. The game kicked off and got under way. After a while I looked down the touchline at Meriden's "bench" and noticed they now had three substitutes! During the game, the Slashers players would come over to me and tell me that there were two comp. players on the pitch. Sure enough, two of their players were making an impact on how Meriden played. You could tell they were comp. players because they had their names on their backs above their shirt numbers. I looked down the touchline and there were still three substitutes. Two comp. players were taking the places of rec. players on the field. I was very upset. I allowed only one comp. player to play when they were short. Now they had even more players than I did -- and two comp. players in the game as well. I felt taken advantage of. The Slashers were playing well, but not that well, and Meriden were causing us some anxiety because we were not defending well. We also missed several chances ourselves. Nonetheless, Andrew Napier scored after about 20 minutes to give us a tentative lead. We managed to hold this lead at half-time. Incidentally, the referee was playing 45-minute halves. At this level, we have always played 40-minute halves. It was confusing. At half-time I talked with the referee and pointed out that Meriden had three subs now. I said I allowed one comp. player to play when they were short, but, they snook another one in. I told him I thought it was a bit rich for Meriden to do that, especially since I had only allowed one comp. player when they were short -- but they had more players than I did now! I requested Meriden to play without their two comp. players in the second half. This would still leave them with one sub -- exactly the same as the Slashers. All fair and even again. The referee said I was perfectly within my rights. We started with Jon Rosenberg in goal for the second half. We started to dominate completely. Meriden definitely missed the services of their two comp. players. The Meriden players were yelling at me, I couldn't hear what it was, but I guessed they were not happy about their two best players not being able to play. Sam Connor scored almost immediately to put us 2-0 up. The Slashers continued to dominate without scoring from their close chances. The Meriden players were getting more physical and several tackles scythed down the Slashers players, but the referee chose to ignore it. The play was getting rougher by the minute. In fact, the Slashers were not getting many calls in their favour, even when they earned them. I saw several Slasher throw-ins given the other way. I had to bite my lip. We were winning and dominating, after all. The only way Meriden attacked was on the breakaway. They caught us one time and despite heroic efforts by the defence and Jon in goal to prevent them scoring, the ball still found the back of the net -- after Jon had been knocked down. Jon was treated for possible concussion for several minutes. I was told by the players and the parents later that the Meriden players were offside before the goal. Oh well, complaining about it was not going to change the referee's decision anyway. It was 2-1 now and I was rueing all the missed chances we had had earlier. Midway through the second half, I saw Meriden lining up their two comp. players to come in as subs. I couldn't believe it. When they came on, I was furious, and I immediately called the referee to halt the game so that I could talk to him. It was now pointed out to me that Meriden had been playing with just nine players. I must admit, I had not noticed. If this was the case, then Meriden were playing with strange tactics, since they kept four players standing on the half-way line guarded by our defenders while the rest of their team defended on their own. I was then told that one of the Meriden players was injured and had to leave the game. Please bear with me here -- remember, at the start of the second half, by my count, they had 12 rec. players and two comp. players -- the latter who should have gone home, in my opinion! So, they had 11 plus one sub. who could legitimately play So, I'm confused. If one was injured and had left, surely they had one sub to replace him? They should have had 11 players and no subs. Instead, they had nine on the field and three off the field -- two of whom were comp. players. So, why wasn't the rec. sub in the game? Instead, they tried to sneak the two comp. players back into the game without my permission. It was just like a "shell game." I had no idea what they were doing with their numbers. When I explained I did not know they were playing down to nine players or else I would have played down to nine too, I got strained, exasperated looks from the Meriden coaches. I was furious and frustrated and let them know it. I protested about the usage of comp. players in rec. games, but I said that they could use their comp. players to make up their numbers. I really didn't want to bring two of my players off at this point, I would rather the comp. players come on. So, the game got underway again. I then noticed that Meriden were still down to nine players on the field. I looked down the touchline again and saw that they still had one other player other than the two comp. players. Was he the injured player? He looked fine to me. So, what happened to the other two rec. players they supposedly had in the first half? Anyway, despite my agreeing to them playing with their two comp. players for the remainder of the game, they chose not to and made a statement out of it. "We'll play with just nine" yelled the coach to his players. With just 10 minutes (of a 45-minute half, remember) to go, I was left wondering if I should pull two players off to equal the numbers again. I had told Meriden it was OK to use their comp. players. By this time, I was so deeply upset I was past caring. My position was that I had given Meriden a chance to use one comp. player when they were short, and instead, they used two and ended up with more players than I had. Then, they had tried to sneak comp. players into the second half too, without my permission. If anyone should be upset, it should be me! So, I continued with 11 payers on the field for the rest of the game. This was not our fault! As it happened, we scored again, through Andrew Napier. Shortly afterwards, the final whistle blew. I should have been happy because the Slashers played really well, but their 3-1 victory was marred by Meriden's antics with their comp. players and their attempts to be martyrs about playing two players short the whole second half. For me, our victory was hollow. I shook hands with the Meriden players later, but both of the Meriden coaches unsportingly turned their back on me. It just deepened my frustration and rage. They were attempting to make me into the bad guy here and I must admit I was guilt-ridden about playing with two extra players all of the second half, albeit for most of it unknowingly. With my experience, I should have noticed. But, at the same time, I question the motives of the Meriden coaches. They had intended to play with two comp. players all along while claiming they were short. They had attempted to pull the wool over my eyes and I didn't let it happen. To make matters worse, the referee's own son was one of the comp. players. When I requested that his son and the other comp. player not play in the second half, it was no coincidence to me that his calls became more and more one-sided. The fact that he allowed some pretty rough tackling -- for this age group -- especially from behind left me with a poor opinion of him as a sport too. Added to all of this, the Slashers players later told me that the Meriden parents were making some disparaging remarks to them as they played. It was a good win for us, but it was completely spoilt by some unsporting tactics with many concerned from the town of Meriden. On reflection, I should never have allowed the comp. player(s) in the first half and we should have played 10-a-side the whole game. That is a lesson I will have learnt for next time.

13th June, League Game, Away versus Wallingford, Won 7-1 This was a rearranged League game from earlier in the season when the original game was postponed owing to Wallingford not having a coach. If you may recall, Wallingford's original coach quit earlier in the season and Wallingford Youth Soccer League tried to find a coach in time for our scheduled League game on May 4. I was desperate because our two previous games had been cancelled by our opponents. Well, it didn't work out and so we had three games straight cancelled on us. Wallingford's new coach did call me on or around June 2. Although there were only two weeks left in the season, I was eager to play. Our weekends were fully booked up at the time, so we mutually agreed to play on an evening when both teams practice, which turned out to be Thursday, June 13. Wallingford's new coach is a very nice guy and I think he has been left in a bad situation, picking up a team half way through the season. His team has not had much coaching this spring until he came along. When we were arranging the make-up date he told me his team had lost every game. I thanked him very much for doing what he did, taking the team over as he did. The Slashers are a pretty good team so I was a little wary of what our team might do to Wallingford. On the night, we had 10 of the roster of 14 show up. Wallingford had 17 all together. Unfortunately, no referee or referee assistants showed up. Therefore, I offered to referee the game (heck, I had no subs to manage!) and Wallingford's coaches were fully agreeable. I said it was OK for Wallingford to start with 11, giving him 6 subs. We started Christian MacDonald in goal to reduce our "strength" a little further. During the whole game Wallingford were subbing six players at a time. >From the outset it was obvious Wallingford were not that good as a team. Their skills weren't that great and they didn't have much speed. They didn't play together well as a team, but they had a few good individual players. It wasn't long before the Slashers started to outclass them with nice passing plays, deep runs down the wing, quality crosses, etc. I didn't feel the need to "coach" at all from my unique position on the field. Only occasionally did I have to make a point to one or two of the players. Wallingford played stubborn defence for 20 minutes before Madison finally scored. Madison scored three more times in the next 15 minutes. With 5 minutes to go in the half and 4-0 up already I told the Slashers to back off from scoring and just play possession. I would rearrange things at half-time. For the second half I decided to put Andrew Napier into goal. He has never played in goal before! I completely shuffled the team around -- putting defenders in as forwards, forwards pulled back as defenders, etc. I told the Slashers that I didn't want them to score -- but I privately told Dan Lane and Charlie Creller that they could score if they wanted. They never get to play forward very often and rarely, if at all, have ever scored before. So, if they could score, they deserved to. The second half got under way, and within 10 minutes we were 5-0 up. Peter Lam, who I put back as right defender, had made a run through Wallingford's team and found himself one-on-one with the goalie. What's he going to do? Score, of course. He couldn't help himself, he told me! Well, I took him off the field as a reward :-). At this point I told Wallingford's coach that he could put a 12th man on the field. They needed it. So, now it was 9 v 12. The Slashers were still the better team, and with huge confidence, they were naturally very goal hungry. They did their best to just play possession, but they were going by Wallingford so easily they were always getting themselves into the penalty area. Some Slashers players were purposely shooting wide by 20 plus yards at times. Some, however, couldn't restrain themselves and sure enough, Madison scored again, 6-0. This time it was Andrew Archer. I withdrew Andrew as his reward too! So, now Madison were down to 8 v 12. There were still some 20 minutes to play too. After this, I was giving any close call to Wallingford and I was even giving them calls that should have been Madison's. I was also turning a blind eye to any Wallingford players who were offside if they got that far down the field. I was also "coaching" Wallingford -- telling them to watch out for offside, telling them where to run and pass, etc. Even with all this, Wallingford couldn't get a clear chance on goal. Jon Rosenberg -- who hasn't scored all season before today -- found himself breaking through on Wallingford's goal, and Bob's your uncle, it's 7-0. I took him off the field as well! With 10 minutes to go, we were now 7 v 12. Finally, Wallingford were starting to make an impact. Madison were still trying to play keep-away, but they were no longer hustling about. When a pair of Wallingford players broke through what was basically a one-man defence (!) not one Madison player chased back to defend and Wallingford scored. I spent the final minutes giving Wallingford all sorts of calls to give them an extra chance. I was looking to give them a penalty if I could, but the best I could do was to call the goalkeeper for handball outside of the box when he was about to punt the ball down the field (he was still a full yard inside the box when he released the ball with his hands to punt it). We gave Wallingford practically a free shot on goal from the resultant free kick, but all the player could do was shoot wide with the goal at his mercy. I added time on to give Wallingford more chances. Finally, when a Madison player started to break down the field, I blew the final whistle before he could get his shot off! We tried to be as sporting as possible. The Madison players, naturally, were very goal hungry and they found it very frustrating to be restrained by their coach. From my position as the referee for the day as well I was at least able to try to give Wallingford extra chances and extra calls in the second half. You can only do so much to give the other team chances though, while at the same time trying not to humiliate them. It is a tough balance. At some point the weaker team has to take advantage of all the extra chances you give them. Unfortunately, some are not able to. After the game the Wallingford coaches seemed fairly happy. They know their team needs work and I think they saw we were trying to help them, not to crush them.

16th June, League Game, Away versus Guilford, Cancelled The Guilford coach telephoned Coach Archer to cancel the game owing to him enter his team into the Cheshire Invitational Tournament. Unfortunately, he only gave us one weeks notice -- in the final week of the season. Attempts to schedule against alternate opponents were unsuccessful. Instead we had a Fathers versus Sons game on Saturday, 15th June. Actually it turned out to be more like Sons versus The Rest! We had mothers, sisters, younger brothers, etc. on the "Fathers" team. The score doesn't matter... it was a great competitive game and a great deal of fun was had by all!