| |
Standings,
results and other stats
A week earlier, Pancyprian Freedoms had escaped from the Metropolitan Oval with the slimmest of victories after a penalty shoot-out in the Manning Cup. Last Sunday, it was payback time for Central Park Rangers who routed the Greek-Cypriots 6-2 in the league.
“A good night,” summed up CPR manager Yuval Lion. “We took them apart.”
He called it a complete team performance, but there was special mention for hat trick hero Kwesi Mills, perhaps the hottest Ghanaian soccer export to the U.S. since Freddy Adu.
“He’s a 20 year-old kid with exceptional ability,” said Lion.
Mills, who outscored Pancyprian’s fearsome attacking partnership of former Brazilian pro Julio Cesar Santos and Chris Megaloudis, took just five minutes to find the target.
Julio responded after ten minutes but the visitors were soon chasing the game again when Mills struck on the half hour mark. CPR then took a 3-1 lead into the break, courtesy of Eli Vovsha (40th).
A minute after the restart, Megaloudis signaled game on with a quick goal to pull Pancyprian within one. It would be the five-time CSL champs’ last throw of the dice.
Tony DeLorenzo (55th), most recently plying his skills with the CPR reserves, Vovsha again (70th) and Mills (75th) connected to hand Pancyprian their heaviest defeat since their return to the CSL.
“It was a complete team performance by the boys to get such an overwhelming score against the Pancyprians,” said the proud Lion.
“No disrespect to our opponents, but we outclassed them to notch our first ever league win against them, and continued our strong form of recent weeks,” he added.
“Horrible result,” conceded Pancyrian manager George Halkidis. “I think all the games we played lately coupled with the injuries finally caught up to us. We’ll rebound though and be ready on the 28th.”
CPR’s victory kept them within a point of First Division (East) leaders New York Greek-American/Atlas (5-1-2, 17) who beat CD Iberia 4-1.
Pancyprian (6-2, 18) stayed five points clear of Iberia atop the West.
In the reserve fixture at the Oval, Reinhard Cate scored for CPR in a 1-1 tie.
CUP FORTUNES
Four days earlier at St. John’s University, Pancyprian had blanked Barnstonworth Rovers 4-0 to advance to the New York State final of the US Open Cup.
Megaloudis (20th), assisted by Marc Reeves; Jeff Matteo (60th) Julio (75th) and Tasso Polydefkis (pen. 85th) tallied. Rovers’ best chances were a shot cleared off the line by Jon Simos and another effort off the cross.
Pancyprian meet the Brooklyn Italians vs. Greek/Atlas winners next.
TOWERING ATLAS
Alex Cuncliffe (39th, 70th), Tarik Smith (84th) and Ricardo Ordain (90th) starred for Greek-Atlas in the 4-1 defeat of an Iberia side that’s hit turbulence.
Steve Nyarady (85th) grabbed Iberia’s face-saver at Francis Lewis High School, as the home side lost their third straight in all competitions.
“Not a result that shows the way we played,” said Iberia’s Diego Monteagudo. “Hopefully a week off will let us get our heads back on straight and stop the slide.”
His reserves crashed 3-0.
ROVERS REBOUND
Barnstonworth rebounded from the cup trouncing by Pancyprian to edge Stal Mielec 2-1 in the league at Ichan Stadium.
Mat Levine was Rovers’ “Player of the Day” with his three-goal tally in both games. He had a brace in the reserves’ 5-2 romp, and then bagged the winner for the first team.
Colin Marshal also was on the mark for the firsts, while Matt Lowe, Stavros Zomopoulos and Alfonzo Nanclares struck for the reserves.
Stal boss Artur Kurasiewicz said he was missing five regulars in the senior fixture. Miroslaw Sielczak scored for the Poles.
Jaroslaw Janczyszyn and Pawel Sokolowski were on target in the reserve match.
Rovers, 3-3 (9), moved a point ahead of Mielec with two games in hand.
BROOKLYN POINTER
Defending champs Brooklyn Italians held off visiting New York Athletic Club 3-2 at Verazzano Sports Complex.
Twice NYAC’s Ryan Kneipper and Ladd Fritz tied the game but when John Corrazzo hit Brooklyn’s third, the six-time CLS titlists had no answer.
Matt Friel and Hughes McDonald were the other Italian marksmen.
Brooklyn (4-2-1, 13) joined Iberia in second place in the West, while NYAC (2-4-1, 7) now share the East cellar with FC Bulgaria.
“Wet pitch, tough result, hopefully we’ll come back and beat them in the state cup in a few weeks,” said NYAC forward Hussein Nasreddin.
NYAC’s reserves prevailed 4-1.
FRIEL DOUBLE
Austin Friel, the Lansdowne Bhoys striker with a knack for scoring goals in bunches, notched a brace as the Bronx Irish edged New York Albanians 2-1 at Tibbet Park.
Both teams finished with nine-men at Tibbet Park after a rush of red cards in the second half.
Friel’s double (35th, 75th) upped the Bhoys to 3-3 (9) two points clear of NYAC and Bulgaria.
Ryan O’Kane, Kevin McGeeney and big Paul Tierney scored in the Lansdowne reserves’ 3-0 win.
SUPER GOALS
Polonia’s recovery continued last week with an impressive 3-2 come from behind victory over Bulgaria that thrilled manager Roman Gierczak.
“All three Polonia goals were so far ‘Goals of the Year,’” he raved.
The shooting clinic began after Stefan Dimitrov (3rd) and Galin Andreev (9th) had given Bulgaria an early lead, and after Polonia skipper Robert Rzeczycki had fluffed a penalty.
Lukasz Zajac (31st) pulled one back with a 25-yard rocket. Sixty seconds later, a Lukasz Bielen free kick zoomed into another corner from 30 yards. And three minutes from the interval, Mariusz Kulesza volleyed powerfully into the net.
Said Gierczak: “The whole team showed a lot of heart being down 2-0 after nine minutes to comeback and get three points. Big props to Michal Siwiec for motivating our players.”
Polonia took the reserve encounter 2-1.
PRO-AM
The Polonia-Bulgaria match was brought forward to allow the former to host Polish second division side Slask Wroclaw in an international friendly last Sunday. The professional side won 2-0.
“Polonia gave it their best but it was not good enough to beat a pro team,” said Gierczak.
Wroclaw are coached by Ryszard Tarasiewicz who won 58 caps for the Polish national team.
TOP BILLING
Nick Bill scored once and won the last minute penalty that gave Division Two leaders Manhattan Kickers a 2-1 win over resilient Ukrainians at Grand Street.
Slavetij Martyniuk (30th pen.) canceled out Bill’s opener (20th) before Kevin Norman (90th) nicked it for Kickers (6-0-1, 19).
Ukrainians’ reserves lost 4-0.
CONTROLLED FURY
Ten-man New York Fury, joint second in Division Two on 16 points, edged Frosinone 3-2 at the Elmont Sport Complex.
It was 1-1 when they had a player dismissed in the 65th minute but they still went up 3-1 before Frosinone pulled one back.
Jon Hemmert, Sean O’Sullivan and Charlie Lambropoulos scored
“Kevin Clifford was outstanding (and) Eli Meyers, Ryan Cohen and Scott Rubner had a great game anchoring our defense,” said Fury’s Steven Whitaker.
The reserves tied 1-1.
JAPANESE DÉJÀ VU
FC Japan, whose league form has paled compared to their cup exploits, resorted to their old ways in a seven-goal thriller with Manhattan Celtic at Pier 40.
“So why did we have to lose a game by one goal difference again?” GM Tosh Tatezawa asked rhetorically. “That’s what all the players are asking after this “should’ve won” game.”
At any rate, Japan succumbed 4-3 after trailing 3-1.
David Linn struck twice for Celtic, including the 80th minute clincher. Ed McPherson and Michael Thomas also tallied.
Yojiro Imasaka (25th), Sounghoon Choa (46th) and Ryota Hirose (60th) were the Japan scorers.
“We only had 12 players so it was a good win for us,” said coach Ian Woodcock, whose side (5-1-1, 16) share second slot with Fury.
In the reserve affair, the Vega brothers, Chris (two) and Bryan; James Flynn, James Ingram and Brian Lando accounted for Celtic’s 6-1 haul.
YOUTH SERVED
Youth was served at Evander Childs High School where Kandia pipped Central Park Rangers 2-1 on goals by the 20 year-old pair of Cleve Campbell and Kemar Henry.
“Dramatic game,” coach Colin Hemmings said. “They probably outplayed us, but we’ve learned how to play with heart – we had to dig deep.”
Kandia’s reserves, however, didn’t dig enough in their 5-2 drubbing.
REGGAE BOYZ CALL
Ricardo Geddes, another 20 year-old that plays for Kandia during his summer-long visits to New York from Jamaica, was called up for the Reggae Boyz’ friendly in Kingston against El Salvador last weekend.
The attacking midfielder, a cousin of Cleve Campbell, didn’t play in Jamaica’s 3-0 win.
Elsewhere in Division Two, NIFA beat Koha 2-1 after their reserves had lost 4-3.
METRO ONE
Marko Loncar (77th) and Filip Loncar (85th) scored late to pull
undefeated New York Croatia out of a 2-0 hole against Guyana Juniors and salvage a draw for the Metro Div. One (East) pace-setters.
Croatia are now 6-0-2 (20).
ROCK STEADY
Shamrock, eight points behind the Croats, also needed two late goals to tie Mr. Dennehy’s 3-3 at McCarren Park.
“A scrambled Matt Chicavich goal (55th) should have killed the game but two Shamrock goals in the last 15 minutes saw the points shared,” rued Dennehy’s Welsh coach Ronan Gardiner.
JP Loize (pen.) and Lance Pitterson were the other marksmen for the Carmine Street boys who led 3-1 at one point.
Shane Gallagher (two) and Shawn Baron earned the Rocks a point.
“We have thrown points away in the second half in four games this season. Very frustrating day,” said Dennehy’s official Dan Fallon.
HOBBLED
Neal Ventola, Hoboken FC’s dependable forward, netted the face-saver in an 8-1 shellacking by Metro Div. One (West) leaders Clarkstown at Rockland County Day School.
Six of Clarkstown’s goals came in the second half after Hoboken lost their starting goalie. Clarkstown improved to 7-1 (21) seven points ahead of Guyana Juniors.
L.I. EXPRESS
Long Island United found Long Island City High School a happy hunting ground after knocking off Sporting Astoria 6-4 there.
Frank Savocchi (pen.), Paul Galli, Russell Starr (two) and Will (two), tallied for the visitors, 3-3-1 (10) in mid-table.
“We are starting to hit our stride and get our guys healthy to make a run for the division title,” said Savocchi.
In other Metro One action, Korona Bay Ridge massacred New York Wanderers 9-0.
METRO TWO
The East’s top side United Rocklanders were crushed 5-1 by New York’s Finest at Flushing High School.
Rocklanders (3-2-3, 12) made a false start through Jackson Eugene’s header off an Alfonso Morales cross.
“The team looked strong and cohesive, however we broke down in the second half and allowed our opponents to gain momentum,” said Fritz Bosquet.
EINTRACHT CLOSE
Second place Eintracht cut Rocklanders’ lead to two points after a goalless tie with EMC at McCarren Park.
ZENIT ZAPPED
Astoria Gaels trounced Zenit FC 3-0 in a Metro Div. II match at Randalls Island.
Nestor Allen (38th), Barry Feeney (60th) and Keith Cagney (65th) tallied for mid-table Gaels (3-13, 12).
“Pretty good game,” noted player-coach Michael Doherty.
PREMIER FALL
In a clash of unbeaten sides at Forest Hills High School, Eintracht triumphed 4-1 to hand Barnstonworth Premier their first loss of the season in Over-30 action.
Driss Habil (30th), Tommy Strumpf (42nd pen.), Eric Oran (71st) and Scott Sucher (85th) scripted the Eintracht win but coach John Steigerwald also had praise for his backline.
“Our defense played great,” he said.
Eintracht upped their record to 6-0-2 (20) atop the First Division (East) standings.
Hernan Paredes (61st) scored for Premier (4-1-2, 14), second in the West.
First place Manhattan Kickers subdued tough Barnstonworth Rovers 1-0 at Grand Street.
METROS MELTDOWN
Jopa, Elvis Prorokovic and Sime Bergam had the goals in New York Croatia’s 3-1 win over GH Metros at the Aviator Sports Complex.
Croatia (7-1, 21) top Division Two (West).
OLD BOYS WIN
On Wards Island, Barnstonworth Old Boys beat Westchester 3-2 on goals by Gordon Whiteside (two) and Greg Michel.
“A really good win for us, especially as we had to hang on with 10 players for the last 20 minutes due to injury,” said Dave Sheeran.
“No excuses,” conceded Hugo Guaglianone, who put in a header.
Erik Donis was the other scorer.
SILVER LOSE
Tim Selmani, set up by Phil Esposito, had a goal and then assisted on Anthony D’Eegidio’s second half strike in Silver Lake’s 4-2 defeat by Pele Masters at the College of Staten Island.
CPR FAILS
Mike Conboy (two) and Filipo Posta scored in Central Park Rangers’ 5-3 loss to SC Gjoa at Dyker Beach Park.
SHAMROCK TIE
At the Con Edison Field, Declan Spelnan, Maltese Dolphins’ Irish ace, starred in a 2-2 tie with the Shamrock Over-30s.
Spelnan’s first goal was canceled out by Mushin (20th) but after John Paul (65th) had put the Rocks ahead, his leveler (80th) denied Eoin Sweeney’s crew a much needed win.
GUYANA HELD
Rickland Hutson and Charlie Achinelli exchanged goals in BW Gottschee’s 1-1 tie with Guyana Veterans ‘B’ at Commodore Barry Field.
|
