Cataraqui II – Three Match Round Up |
With the muse having abandoned me a couple of weeks’ ago, you may have noticed a lack of match reports (especially if you scored a goal were looking for a few meagre words of praise). Fear not! The scribe is back with reports on the last three games. I admit that my memory does not take me back as far as it used to, but hopefully I can recount some of the events of the past 3 weeks.
Well, Cataraqui II went 1-1-1 for the team’s last three games, and in the words of Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, “It could so easily have gone the other way”. Since time flows forwards and my memory tails off going backwards lets take the games in reverse order.
Cataraqui II defeated Johnny Mac’s 3 – 1. I had a good view of this game sitting it out on the touchline following my injury the week before. Further I was ably assisted by commentators Bobby Armstrong and Stevie Friars who were sitting with me. Although Matt Storms was allowed a little too many hours on the ball before he finally scored, the defence played the rest of the game very well indeed. The Johnny Mac top goal scorer was effectively shut out of the rest of the play (a recurring theme, by the way). Joel Badour once again showed the importance of following in when he got the equalizer from a cross from the right. (The man is an advert for cigarette smoking – he runs like a hare and doesn’t look a day over 40). Surely the highlight of the match was Ben Bowen’s shot from just a few tens of yards over the half-way line (yes, Ben you had crossed into the opposition half). The ball flat footed the keeper (who had mysteriously been expecting a cross ball) and sailed majestically into the back of the net. Val Tomsons’ clinical finish against someone he might have been friends with capped off an excellent performance. We are back on the winning track.
Cataraqui II tied with Joga Bonito 1 – 1. In a game of flashing yellow and red (the entire JB bench was carded at one point) it was left to Rob McDonald to tie things up against league leaders Jog Bonito. A classic “put me on and I’ll get you a goal, coach” situation resulted in Rob calmly side footing an unstoppable shot past the hapless keeper. League top goal scorer Jared Savory (no, not the spicy guy from Subway) was effectively marked right out of the game by Ted Bailey, appearing only on the yellow card list, not the scoring list. Maniac Morton was put through beautifully by Warren Tutty only to be let down by a hamstring muscle which picked a very inopportune time to pluck. Many thanks to Paul Blais whom summed up the situation by saying it served me right for being so far out of position. This was an excellent team performance against a high flying group of players who came out expecting a fairly easy time of it. We really took it to them for the whole game, and were unlucky to come away with only one point.
Cataraqui II lost to Brandees I 2 – 3. OK so I admit that my memory is struggling with this one. It strikes me that this was a hard fought game with a 2008 type of result. In other words we were on the wrong side of the decision. Joel and Jason got 2 nice goals and I do remember some crunching tackles, but when I reviewed the match report I was surprised to see no cards. Perhaps I was disgruntled enough not to write things up at the time, but I have learned my lesson.
As an aside, many of the players have commented on how much fun this season has been. While I am sure this is helped by the fact that we are winning our fair share of games (unlike last year), I think it is also a reflection of the great group of guys that are playing together, not just to win, but also for the fun. I wonder if the other teams have the same turn out for the post game show in the Toucan.
Ross Morton
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