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Week eight round-up
Jay Mwamba

11/8/05
 

 

Standings, results and other stats



There's no stopping New York Albanians.
 In imperious form since rebounding from a 9-1 thrashing by Polonia, Albanians claimed their biggest scalp of a five-game winning streak last Sunday, edging defending champs New York Greek-American/Atlas 1-0 at Cardoza High School.
Abdullah Bedai, one of just two holdovers from last season in a retooled side, bagged the only goal of a tempestuous match that saw the Greeks finish with eight players.

"Dangerous tackling," Albanian president Nino Pjetri explained Atlas' three red cards.
The Bronx outfit, whose reserves were held 1-1, improved to 5-2 (15), four points clear of Polonia atop the Cosmopolitan Soccer League's First Division (East).  

Pjetri lauded his youthful team, the product of some intensive summer recruiting in the Albanian and Kosovo immigrant communities of Pelham Park, and said its biggest challenge would be Pancyprian Freedoms on December 10.
"We've got some young talented players," he said, mentioning 22 year-old Mesim Shala who arrived in the U.S. a month ago.

 POLISH SHINE
Polonia (3-1-2, 11) held off Kandia 4-2 at McCarran after nearly coughing up a 3-0 lead.
Gene Smalls (51st) and Anthony Andrews (56th) had just about gotten the Jamaicans, 6-3 victors in the reserve tussle, back into it when Polonia punished them on the break. 

DeSANTOS BRACE
Brazilian Julio DeSantos got his requisite goals (55th, 65th) for Pancyprian Freedoms in a 3-0 romp over New York Fury at the Metropolitan Oval that preserved the chart-topping Greek-Cypriots' hundred percent record (6-0, 18) in the West.
Taso Polydefkis was also on target.  

STREAK SNAPPED
Pancyprian trotted out a baby-faced side against Fury 'B' and lost its first reserve game in 38 starts, 2-0.
"But that's not the reason (we lost)," said GM Lefteris Eliades. "The reason is that we couldn't put the ball in the net. We missed a penalty and 20 other chances."
The Pancyprian reserves fielded three 15 year-olds, including goalie Christian Jordanu.     

HOT SHOT NASREDDIN
Quicksilver forward Hussein Nasreddin scored four goals in three days to keep Manhattan Kickers in contention for Cup and league honors.
His first brace came in Kickers' 3-0 Manning Cup victory over Forest Park in Glen Cover last week. Ian Pilarski also scored.
Nasreddin hit another double to steer Mike Fitzgerald's men past luckless Lansdowne Bhoys 2-1 at Tibbets Field in Yonkers.  Dessie Beattie tallied for the Irish.
Kickers (5-2, 15) remain three points behind Pancyprians. 

FORZA BROOKLYN
Javier Panteleon, Filipo Giufre (two) and Chris Beltran handed Brooklyn Italians a 4-2 win over the Mark Semioli drilled New York Athletic Club at the Verrazano Sports Complex.
The Italians' Under-17 side blanked NYAC's reserves 3-0.

IBERIA TOPS
A Victor Avwonton goal lifted CD Iberia past Barnstonworth Rovers 1-0 at Ichan Stadium on Randalls Island.  
"We're getting better," proclaimed Iberia coach Adolfo Marcello.
The reserves tied 2-2.

BANATUL BACK
 Ardi Barbu's brace in a 2-1 decision over lowly Astoria Gaels at Commodore Barry Field shot Banatul back to the top of the Division Standings at the expense of idle Central Park Rangers White.
Banatul improved to 5-2 (15), two points better than CPR.
Glen Richie scored for Gaels, whose reserves won 3-1.

JAPAN THRILLER
 FC Japan dropped a seven-goal thriller to CPR Red at the Metropolitan Oval despite leading three times.
Steve Morse, Adi Gallagher, Heino Oostergard and Creighton Merchon eked out the 4-3 win for CPR after strikes by Tomohiro Tsuchiya (two) and Ryu Tsuneizumi.
"We played another tough game and matched up evenly with a quality
team, however, it was very disappointing that we gave them a chance
to come back," rued Japan GM Tosh Tatezawa
          Japan's reserves slipped 2-1.

CELTIC DELUGE
Manhattan Celtic (3-2-1, 10) climbed into third place in Division Two on the back of a 6-1 thrashing of NIFA at Pier 40.
Barry McConnell (20th, 40th), "Great Dane" Stefan Nyvange (48th), Michael Thomas (70th, 75th), and David Linn (85th) saw off NIFA.
"NIFA have some good players but a lot of them played both games," said Celtic boss Ian Woodcock, whose reserves came from 3-1 down to win 4-3.

KOHA EDGE
Halit Kajkaj (15th) kept Roosevelt Island International winless in Division Two with the only goal of the match for Koha at Wards Island.
Koha's reserves triumphed 7-1.

 UKRAINIANS GORED
SC Ukrainians' Marcin Trzaska (44th) became the first player to score on FC Bulgaria striker-turned-goalie Koko Veltchev. But it was in vain as the Metro Div. 1 leaders run off 4-1 winners at McCarran Park.
Boho T. (20th), Stefan Dimitrov (35th, 40th) and George Iltchev (67th) connected for the Bulgarians (5-0, 15).

WANDERERS CLIMB

New York Wanderers (4-1-1, 13) pipped ASA McCarthy 2-1 at Grand Street, thanks to Michael Grazewski and Adam Soldofsky, to join Ridgewood in second place.
At Queens Children's Hospital, BW Gottschee came from behind to edge Clarkstown 2-1on goals by Hugo Correa (30th pen.) and Daniel Giraldo (60th).

COMPASSIONATE ROUT
Also in Metro Div. 1, Homenetmen hit short-handed Bergen Kickers for eight at McCarran Park before taking their collective feet off the gas.
"We felt sorry for them because we've been in the same boat," Garo Anastasian empathized with eight-man Bergen.
Razmik Nenejian (10th), Rafael Ramirez (15th, 30th, 43rd), Shant
Simonian (25th, 36th), Raffi Nenejian (60th) and Haygaz Aydoudu (72nd) tallied.

RIDGEWOOD OUSTED
Catalin Laibner had Ridgewood's sole effort in the CSL club's 4-1 Flamhaft Cup loss to Yonkers Portuguese.

METRO DIV. 2
Ciaran Moloney netted twice (15th, 75th) at Msgr. McClancy High School in Shamrock's 3-1 upset of hitherto undefeated Metro Div. 2 (East) leaders Guyana Juniors 3-1.
 Bingo O'Driscoll (35th) got the other Irish goal, while Julian Cambridge scored for Guyana.
8 Mile Creek blanked New York Wanderers 3-0 at Grand Street, with Jon Plensa, Gilles St. Martins and Danilo Ribeiro the marksmen.

RARE WIN
Allan Treacy (75th) earned SC Eintracht a rare victory in Metro Div. 2, 1-0 at the expense of FC Partizani at the Metro Oval.  
Partizani had a chance to level on the stroke of full time, but Hassan Husseini failed to convert a penalty, while Eni Zejnati's equalizer from a corner was disallowed because of a foul by Eder Sala on the Eintracht goalie.
"They were a tough team," Eintracht coach Wolfgang Radermacher conceded.
"Six new players had their debut for Partizani in a game that could have gone either way," observed Zejnati.

TOUGH TIE
A 1-1 tie with CD Iberia was all Gotham Argonauts had to show for all their possession at Wards Island.
"Total domination. Couldn't finish our 17 great chances," lamented Nicholas Raudenski after Iberia canceled out Steve Tranter's 35th minute penalty with a spot kick of their own (80th). 

SPORTING THWARTED
Sporting Astoria conceded a last minute goal in a 2-2 tie with New York City Infinity All Stars at Randalls Island.
With Astoria down 1-0, ace forward Sebastian Acosta played provider, setting up Jaime Reixach's leveler before Tom White headed in a Gerry Fahey ball for the short-lived lead.
"With ten minutes left all we had to do was hold the result. Unfortunately for us Infinity didn't give up," said Sporting president Ed Romero.

PELE REBOUND
Lindon Layne (two), Joel Wickham (two) and Laventan Deterville starred in Pele Master's 5-0 drubbing of New York Greek-American/Atlas in an Over-30 tussle at Cardoza High School.

EINTRACHT TRIUMPH
At the Met Oval, SC Eintracht dispatched Westchester United 2-0 on Joshua Lee's late deuce (75th, 85th).

BRASIL PIPPED
Lindon Angel (two) and Mark Agard combined gave Guyana Veterans 'B' a 3-2 win over SC Brasil at Wards Island.
 At the same ground, Guyana Veterans 'A' succumbed 1-0 to GH Metros whose Nelson Garcia scored.
Elsewhere in the 'B' Division, BW Gottschee and Shamrock ground out a goalless draw at Msgr. McClancy.





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