Home | Contact | Links

Cosmopolitan League

Featured Content
About First Touch
The best soccer fanzine in the USA for the past ten years.
Archives
Read all the articles from previous weeks' FirstTouch.

Store
Authentic Club jerseys, DVDs, and much more!

Photo Gallery
Our archive of footie fotos, available for stock and personal use.
Team of the Week
The best players in the world compete for a place in the First Touch starting eleven.
Broadcast Schedule
Listings of upcoming US broadcasts of live matches.
Where to Watch
Our complete list of area bars showing live matches!
FirstTouch Desktops
Show your allegiance with original FirstTouch desktop art!
Fantasy League
Sign up for our popular Premiership fantasy game!
Cosmopolitan League
This week's action in the NYC area's amateur league.

April 30th 2006 round up

Jay Mwamba

5/02/06
 


Four goal Tony DeLorenzo (L) in action for
CPR White in their 9-0 drubbing of
table toppers Banatul.

Standings, results and other stats

FIRST TOUCH FOOSBALL
All cosmopolitan League players are invited to play in the First Touch’s inaugural Foosball Festival starts Monday, May 15 at Slainte (304 Bowery & 1st St., 212-253-7030) at 7 pm.
Other dates include May 23 at the 11th Street Bar (510 E. 11th St., 212-982-3929).
At stake will be such prizes as trophies for overall winners, drink vouchers for game winners, free raffles, soccer jerseys and apparel from hummel and Eurosport.
Foosball sign up


Tony Russo returned to haunt his former club last Sunday when he scored once and set up two goals in CD Iberia’s 4-2 defeat of First Division rivals Manhattan Kickers at Icahn Stadium.


Tony, who along with older brother Santo spent three seasons with Kickers before moving to Iberia in fall 1999, took over after Chris Richards had shot the Spaniards in front (10th).

Tony scored off his other brother Vinny’s rebound to put Kickers in a 2-0 hole and after resumption served a corner that Nigerian ace Ron Azinge headed home.

Mike Fitzgerald’s depleted squad was seemingly handed a lifeline when Iberia goalie Ben Kartzman received marching orders following a clash with forward Joe Whiteman (60th).

They responded by pulling one back through Ari Dolegwoski’s solo effort. But Tony wasn’t done yet.
His feed to Carlos Vasquez ended with the ball nestling in the net for number four.
David Carlos made it look decent for Kickers with a late penalty (80th).

Said Russo, basking in the glory: “It was an important game for us, and the whole squad should be lauded for playing an excellent game from start to finish.”

He later explained why he always excels against Kickers.
“I guess I owe a lot of my personal success to the fact that I know Kickers' strengths and weaknesses from the time I played for them. Even though it’s been quite (a while) and they’ve added a lot of new faces, their style of play has not changed much.”
Fitzgerald rued the absence of several key players, among them Hussein Nasreddin, David Taylor, Ryan Olsen and Matt Watkins and Franco Trippichio.

Iberia (5-3-3, 18) moved to within two points of second place Kickers (6-4-2, 20) in Division One (West), with a game in hand.
Iberia’s reserves won 3-2.

BROOKLYN DELUGE

Four days after a 0-0 tie with Lansdowne Bhoys at Verrazano Sports Complex, Brooklyn Italians returned to the same ground to rout Kandia 6-0.
Amir Aliev notched a hat trick, with Leonardo Buttita (two) and Alex Cuba rounding off the scoring. The Italians reserves won 3-0.

CLOSE FURY
Elsewhere, Randy Steketee (49th) and Evan Odim (78th) eked out a 2-1 win for New York Fury over Barnstonworth Rovers, whose Steve Pugliese (35th) was on target at the Metropolitan Oval.
Fury’s reserves prevailed 4-2.
Not played: Albanians-Polonia, Lansdowne-Pancyprian and Athletic Club-Greek-Atlas.

FREEDOM CUP
Pancyrian Freedoms hammered the Long Island League’s Irish Rovers 4-0 at St. John’s University last Friday to win the U.S. Open Amateur Cup’s New York State final.
Sebastian, Pete Halkides, Pete Pavlakos and Steve Andreou rattled in the goals that put the Greek-Cypriots in the national playoffs.
Pancyprian’s reserves were knocked out of the D’Arpino Cup 1-0 by New Hyde Park, who face Shamrock in the semis.

D’ARPINO SEMI-FINALISTS
The Pancyprian reserves aside, it was a clean sweep for CSL clubs in the other D’Arpino quarterfinals.
Chris Megaloudis and Guy struck for New York Greek-American/Atlas’s reserves in their 2-1 decision over Oceanside’s second XI.
New York Albanians had a Mersim Chala trey (15th, 60th, 70th) and goals by Frankie Curanovic (30th), Nino Pjetri (40th), Nino Perisaj (65th) and Kristo Curanovic (85th) in their 7-0 pasting of youthful Forest Park.

Gerad Fahey, meanwhile, connected in Sporting Astoria’s 2-1 slump to fellow Metro Div. 2 Guyana Juniors.
“Great game regardless, tough loss, too,” observed Astoria’s Ed Romero.

BANATUL BASHED
Central Park Rangers ‘White’ did sister club CPR ‘Red’ a massive favor by bashing hitherto Second Division leaders Banatul 9-0 at the Metro Oval, ahead of their local derby this Sunday.

While the Reds (7-1-3, 24) could only salvage a 1-1 draw with lowly Roosevelt Island International, nine-man Banatul’s defeat vaulted them into first place on goal difference.
Tony DeLorenzo (four) starred for the Whites, Dubliner Jimmy Smyth had a brace, while Cory Matheson, Naldo and Dave Briefel added one apiece.

The White’s reserves led 5-1 when the game was abandoned ten minutes from time.
The Reds trailed to an Alex Sinclair penalty (20th) and had goalie Mark Becker to thank for saving another spot kick against much improved Roosevelt, before Matt Shapiro nicked a point.

JAPAN PIPPED
Also in Division Two, Ryu Tsuneizumi’s 30th minute header for FC Japan was not enough to prevent a 2-1 loss to Koha at Red Hook.
“Still struggling for (our) first win in the spring,” sighed Tosh Tatezawa, whose reserves lost by the same scoreline.

RIDGEWOOD ROMP

Dani Anton (35th), Gheorghe Radulescu (40th, 61st), Sotir Valentin (70th) and Vlad (80th) tallied in Ridgewood’s 5-2 romp over Homenetmen at Prospect Field.
Mihran papazian (60th) and George Felice (89th) scored for Homenetmen.
Ridgewood (8-3-1, 25) cut two points off FC Bulgaria’s lead atop Metro Div. 1 after Koko Veltchev’s outfit (29) was held to a 1-all tie by Stal Mielec at McCarran Park.
Mielec’s Karol Gajewski (70th) canceled out Stefan Dimitrov’s opener (50th) for Bulgaria.

McCARTHY BLANKED
Later at McCarran Park, Brazilian Alex Dias and Pole Piotr Kurzyna consigned McCarthy to a 2-0 defeat against SC Ukrainians.
This was followed by New York Wanderers’ 4-1 defeat by Clarkstown with Stephen Anderson netting for the former.

GOTTSCHEE-FEST
Florian Anton (10th, 40th, 60th, 85th) led the charge in BW Gottschee’s 9-1 rout of Bergen Kickers at Overpeck County Park.
German Florez (15th), Milton Ospina (30th), Fabrizio Castro (65th, 80th) and Raul Rodreguez (75th) were also on target, while Neal Ventola had Bergen’s lone response in the Metro Div. 1 fixture.

METRO DIV. 2
Marcos Nascimento notched a penalty for OMM in a 3-1loss to West leaders New York City Infinity All Stars (6-4-1, 19) at Wards.
SC Eintracht’s fourth win of the season, a 4-0 trouncing of Eight Mile Creek, left them four points adrift of Infinity.
Steve Kotiza, Adam Windwer, Peter Maris and Zachary Safos scored at the Met Oval.
“A little lop-sided,” Eintracht boss Wolfgang Radermacher pointed out. “We have to thank goalie Jimmy Dimitriadis. He was excellent.”

GOTHAM STARS
Gotham Argonauts knocked off TAMEF 3-1 at River Bank State Park with a first half blitz by Jo Mikals-Adachi, Dave Peasley and his replacement Darran Cronshaw.
“We knew this would be a hard fought game and challenged everyone to be mentally prepared before the whistle blew,” said coach/goalie Julio Diaz.

Standouts included skipper Nicholas Raudenski, sweeper Nate Appel, stopper Ken Tanaka, and fullbacks Mark Drury and Najib Majaj.
“Everyone on the roster made a fantastic effort to contribute to the victory,” added Diaz.

INCONCLUSIVE
Partizani FC trailed 3-1 to New York Wanderers in Metro Div. 2 when the referee ended the game early (75th) after two opponents squared off, according to Partizani’s Eni Zejnati.
Istvan Bordas scored for Partizani.

MASTERFUL PELE
Wayne Israel (two), Wesley Baines, Lindon Layne, Mark Joseph and Glendon George kept Pele Masters level with countrymen Guyana Veterans ‘B’ atop the ‘B’ Division (East) standings with a 6-0 drubbing of Westchester FC at Randalls Island.
Guyana ‘B’, who are on the 22-point mark with Pele, topped Gjoa 5-3 at Dyker Field. Sal Leanti had two of Gjoa’s goals.

BRASIL WIN
Alexandre chalked a hat-trick at Wards Island as West pace-setters Brasil held off Barnstonworth Rovers ‘B’ 3-2.
“Good kid,” Evandiro said of the 30 year-old. “He’s always scoring – he has about 17 goals.”
“A result which was sadly decided by the referee,” groused Rover’s Dave Sheeran, whose men took the lead against the run of play through two-goal hero Gordan Whiteside.

“A point would have been a great reward, but Brasil snatched it at the death,” he argued.

EINTRACT SHARP

SC Eintracht beat New York Greek-American/Atlas 2-0 at the Met Oval, courtesy of Torsten Holmes (25th) and Thomas Strumpf (75th pen.) to stay two points behind Brasil.

ROCKS EDGED
Also at Wards, Barnstonworth Rovers ‘A’ kept Shamrock winless with a 1-0 decision. Marc Daly, assisted by Darren Green, netted.
And at Queens Children’s Hospital, Jairo Quintero (70th) pegged back Alec’s 48th minute strike for short-handed GH Metros to earn BW Gottschee a 1-1 draw.

FRIENDS OF RORY

Spread the word, but don’t let Rory Finn in on it…GH Metros are inviting all friends of their tough coach to turn up in numbers at this Sunday’s 9 am Metropolitan Oval tussle with Eintracht to wish Rory well.
“If you know of any past and present "friends" of Rory, invite them to the game. Let`s show Rory that we did not forget about him,” said Metros official Helmut Kofler. “It’s a surprise so don’t tell him.”
Rory, 62, is more than holding his own in his battle with the neurodegenerative disease known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.

  
                                                                    

 






FirstTouch is published weekly by David Witchard
©2006, David Witchard/FirstTouch Online

Contact Us

FirstTouch Online is best viewed with Apple's Safari 1.x or Internet Explorer 5.x, at a minimum screen resolution of 800x600 dpi