BIG WIN- VILLA 1 - SLUMS 0

In the previous weeks blog I called out Conor and he responded…in a BIG way!
He told the ref something that included an F bomb and away he went…but we won the game so my pep talk worked. Included in that game against Sommerville, we had a penalty kick that went upper 90!!! Oh but 3 knuckleheads went in early and stole Ryan’s goal, but no worries he got another crack at it. But he cracked it off the post…BBBOOOO! That made the final 15 minutes down a man very tense but we pulled it out.

There was also a great defensive play by Dave, after Rabbito made a fantastic move and was about to shoot Dave swooped in out of nowhere and kicked the ball safely out-of-bounds.

And once again the defense carried all of the load, scoring the only goal and shutting out the other team.

2-1 Loss to Cantonians

I am convinced that Juices’ game shirt has been contaminated by a strange alien symbiote which causes Spiderman’s, I mean the wearers, darkest-demons to come out. I was affected by this lethal mix and then forced to deal with dastardly villains such as Midleton, Bushmills and of course Jameson as well as the enemy within myself. Unlike in the Spiderman movies, and Asian massage parlors, there was no happy-ending.

So is it bad ettiqutte to throw the ball in when the goalie might be dead in the top corner of the box? I think those “Dirty Irish Pricks” were a little over sensitive, so he was bleeding from the ear, WAH WAH WAH! It's not like I threw the ball at him.

It all started out as planned up in the pregame speach. We came out a little cold as we all tried to defrost from the 8:30 ridiculousness. Villa started taking control midway through the first half and really starting stringing things together and BOOM, the Villans strike first. Rabbit FINALLY pops his cherry. As Cantona was taking the goal kick, Tommy yells out "Johnny you are open". Goal kick goes to Garvs head, Rabbit plays the ball from his chest down and one times a shot back left corner into the onion bag. Villa 1, Cantona 0. There were even words of "goal of the year" coming from the Cantonians.. But moments before the half ended, it all started to come crashing down on us. Cantona knots things up at 1 in what looked to be a slow motion goal. Haftime 1-1 and that's about all we really need to remember...

This was clearly our worst game of the season. We did some good things for spurts but did not play consistently through out the game. enough about the game. Why do we get nice Irishmen and not the pricks?

The second highlight was Juice’s penalty shot save. How did they get the penalty shot…………………… Oh after Juice saved the breakaway (started by Jaime handing the other teams forward the ball) , Jaime then decided to stick his hand up and touch the pull as it was headed out of the box. BRAVO JAIME BRAVO!

Post game was truly special in many ways. Drinking on the sidelines watching pop warner football is how we started. Then moved to the streets of Lawrence and then some decided to take it to the local watering hole for what some call 'one'....

Big Game on Sunday against Slumaville on the home field. Again, league is still open so let's do this. Anyone hear from Flynnie?????? Could not imagine a better time for his well awaited return. Peach

WE DID IT

Well, fall soccer is definitely in full swing. We all have been dreaming of the day we could wake up at the ass crack of dawn on a cold 30 degree Sunday morning. For some reason the Harvard squad thinks it's a good idea to play at 9am even though there is no games following them. The Villans started rolling in early this week with the game faces on but some Villans apparently don't know what a GPS is or even mapquest, or maybe the car was just too smokey to see the road signs... About 5 mins to kick we had 14 ready to rock but we were missing one key component, a KEEPER. Brett, who volunteered his services in net was nowhere to be found. First thoughts were that he stopped at the local farm for some warm hot cider and pumpkin spiced donuts and just lost track of time sipping the cider in the apple field... About two mins before kick he showed up just in time to get the gloves on and take no warm-up shots. He did not mention anything about warm cider or donuts, what he did mention was that his car was towed and was EFFIN pissed off.

The Villans then took the field with very different looking squad on the back line. Kav, Gatchell, Sava and Garv did more than hold down the fort. These muther F'ers played 90 mins of stellar defense and shut down these bitches. The first half started very slow and sloppy. Field was small and knowing that these fools were 0-4, we thought it would be ok to just ease into the action which probably was the wrong approach. They struck first and Brett made an amazing save on what some called a 'beautiful header' and he wasn't afraid to let the crowd know it was a hell of a save. Rabbito thought he was playing in a rugby league in the first half as he had at least 4 hand balls.

Second half it all came together and we played like we’ve been playing with each other for years. Donal, who finally decided to show, had one hell of a game moving the ball down the right and left wings at outside half. Ryan and Tommy controlled the midfield and the 3 man fwd rotation put some pressure on the fat slow defenders. The defense continued to hold their own and just shut everything down. The two Villans to find the back of the net were Tommy and Gatchell. Gatch now leads the team in scoring and it was nice to see Tommy get on the board. Final score was 2-0, but the Villans could have easily put in 5-6. So we did it. So we did it. We got a win in the first half of the season.

Guy did show up in the second half in a full designer suit sniffing out any kind of alcoholic beverage…Post game was like no other this week. 9 bud lite cans for the team provided by Paul. Some villans were scared of the one beer, two straw approaches and decided to just hit the showers. Some of us who have problems decided to stick it out and straw it.

This is getting old!

Well boys we did it again, tied a game we should’ve won. We did change things up a little, scoring first, on a blast by our leading goal scorer (drum roll) Brendan! From just inside of midfield I skillful evaded 8 players to then rip a shot upper 90, out of the reach of their outstanding 6’6” goalkeeper.

We then seemed to out play them for the next 20 minutes until there was a weak penalty called against Ryan (mental note). The ensuing free kick skimmed off the heads of our defense and then it was a free for all and they slid it into the goal.

Later in the first half Paul was slid a beautiful ball and then showed he is a true Villain forward and hit it right at the goalie. Then a huge swing occurred, Billerica had a chance to get a breakaway but Phil made a diving kick save that was then cleared down the field and their sweeper tripped in the uncut knee-high grass. The ball came to rest at the 20 and Paul redeemed himself by tucking the ball just inside the post. 2-1 Villa has a halftime lead (first one of 2010).

Then the second half came and we seemed a little flat maybe a little tired at times and then had a little bit more control at the beginning. Now remember when I said mental note? Well that’s because the first goal came off of a Ryan penalty that was weak. Well Ryan got his moneys worth on the next one as he inexplicably kicked a man in the back of his legs at the 17 with the guy having his back to the goal. Despite Juices best efforts to convince the ref first that it wasn’t a foul, then that it was outside the box, they did receive a penalty kick. That was buried in the corner and 2-2 was the final.

Great efforts all around but I would like to point out Garvin and Phil for playing out of their usual positions for the good of the team. Both played really well on defense, unfortunately when Garv got an offensive chance while playing right-back he forgot and skied it over the net like he was still one of our Forwards! And of course thanks to Juice for playing net and doing a great job( neither goal could have been stopped).

Conor’s best play was cooking breakfast for the ref! Kav had his usually stellar game, and I thought our midfield played extremely well spreading the ball around and attacking 50/50 balls.

Hey Rabbito how was the Pat’s game? And Jaime how was eating meat (as opposed to sucking on meat like regulars Saturday nights)?

A special thanks to Scott’s wife for bringing extra white shirts so we did have to share sweaty shirt as we subbed in and out.

One final note- League Dues there will be a 'dead beat' list posted on next week's blog similar to a dead beat dad list for those who don't pay up this week...

PLEASE VOTE FOR PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Deja Vu all over again

Their first goal was no ones fault, just tip your hat to a ridiculous shot. We then had a nice play which got called back. Ryan with a nice flick into the middle that Juice finished, and then the ref call Juice offside. Juice would not be denied today and he and John worked a beautiful give and go that Juice tucked into the back of the net. The two of them played so well together I think we need to combine their names like Brad & Angelina, “Rabbit-Juice” (please email any suggestions.)

We had a few rocky moments in the back, but we held our marks and kept them at bay. Our passing and build ups weren’t the best that we can do, but we did a better job than the opposition, and the Red Shoed forward even mentioned after the game how well we build things up out of the back and mid-field and change fields well.

And then it happened…Rabbito drop the ball back to the defensive player stepping up into the offense which we have been preaching all season. Who was it? Jaime? NO! Conor? NO! Kav? NO! It was me, and thankfully for Acton Villa, because none of those other possess the skill to bury the ball in the back of the net the way I did! I own Dilboy Stadium, 2 games and 2 game winning goals scored in the final 3 minutes.

I immediately came of the field and started celebrating the win in the parking lot.

Some guys were trying to fuk with me and said they gave up a goal with no time left and that I didn’t get a game winner. I didn’t buy it though, WHAT A WIN!!!

Week 2- Rabbito swings and misses!

Well we have done it again, played a tight game that we could’ve won but didn’t. I place this lose solely on Management. With Conor and Guy missing, I made the decision based on past performance to start Rabbito at right defense. Think this would give a nice offense punch to our team, unfortunately I thought the punch would be delivered to them and not in our own groin. Rabbito swings and misses on the 18 and then they finish, 1-0 ten minutes in. Thanks John!!! I should have made him take a breathalyzer before allowing him on the field, my bad.

After that I thought we played pretty well. Gatchell was his usual wrecking ball self in the middle, flattening (legally) anybody who got in his path. Gatchell got us our only goal with a rip that was deflected and landed perfectly in the corner. We passed the ball well in the back and held them to no really scoring opportunities in the second half…welll, except for when Sava turned the goal box into his own personal slip and slide and took the guy out for a penalty shot.

Then came the Savior, Sean Flynn, flying through the air and saving the penalty kick. Sava then decided to run the kicker over again trying to give another penalty kick, thankfully the ref didn’t have the SACK to call a second one. Personally, I loved it when Flynn patted the guy on the back to console him after he had basically just chocked the game away. They only people happier than Sava were his wife and daughter who didn’t want to drive home with Daddy if they had scored. The only player more upset than the kicker was Rabbito who was hoping is whiff would be forgotten if they scored on the penalty kick. Sorry John.

Just to point out a couple of performances, I thought Brady played extremely well and was robbed of a goal (and so was I). Jaime played a solid sweeper despite a back injury which was forcing to sit out until he realized we were forced to play Rabbito on D. Also Flynn played great the whole game not just on the penalty kick, he was off his line quickly getting everything that came into the box. We all as a team did a good job of covering for guys when we made runs, which we did a lot more of and need to continue to do, because we clearly created more pressure and scoring opportunities that way.

We do need to switch fields a bit more (right Tom?), and have our forwards have to check back for the ball and then play it off to overlapping midfielders more. If we can improve on these things we should get 3 goals a game.

Did I mention John whiffed or else we had a shutout and win 1-0? Just making sure I didn’t forget that.

Death, Taxes and Villa Losing Tough Openers

WTF!?!? We played well but lost. Enough said.

What a Win...Part 1 John's Thoughts

Well, what a day we had yesterday to close out the season in Slumaville! I really don't know where to start. A whole lot emotions were going through me as I made the long drive from RI on a cold, rainy Sunday morning. Was thinking about how the 'old john' would have been up until 4am at the after party with the rest of drunks, but things have changed slightly. But more importantly, was thinking about what we need to get done on the field today. I then received a call from another Villan on the ride up and was told that he has only been up for an hour and has already sat on the can twice, thinking about a third. Will not mention any names, but he did also tell me he had a cooler full of piss warm beer ... It was a big day for the Villans with many scenarios in D4N and D4S but bottom line was we needed a win and we didn't even mention the 'T' word. On the ride up I took a final look at our numbers and to no surprise we only had 12. Cam was off funneling beers and god knows what else went on up at the topless donut joint and I would rather not know. The entire defense I think had an outing somewhere and didn't invite Kav, Conor or Salach and Jimmy decided to shut it down the last four weeks. Sava, as we all know with his 'reply all' is off to the World Cup and needs to spend some family time, I mean threw his back out and was scratched from the lineup late in the week. Garv, the utility man decides a trip to wine country is appropriate in June and hits the vineyards. I am not sure what other antics went down but will say I thought we were going to have 13 and Gatchell was just busting balls with the "I'm out"...In typical Eric fashion, he was late to the game and we started with 11. About 10 minutes in we see a blue shirt in the bleachers getting dressed and I believe he was even sipping tea.. He made his way down to the field and looked 'ready' to play. We quickly got Eric on the field giving a breather to a midfielder but as quick as he got on the field, he was sent off even quicker. The tea must have been a distraction to his preparations and forgot his shinguards. Eric then commented after the game "i don't like to where them" when asked why/how he seems to forget to put these on EVERY week. Eric straightened himself out and the play on the field went on. Villa struck first, or should I say Somerville struck first and Villans jumped on the board and took and early 1-0 lead..The rest will follow this afternoon

What a Win...Part 2 Meat and Potatoes

I would like to thank John for part one of the blog…into was nice to get a females perspective of the game!

So now to the meat and potatoes of the action. We passed the ball around like we knew everyones name and liked one another…it was great! I (Brendan)then deftly crossed one to Juice in the middle (shanked it). Juices unrelenting effort forced the goalie to drop it, defenders to panic and one guy to smash it off another guys back into the net 1-0 Villa.

They then had a nice through ball which ended up as a breakaway that they crossed to an open guy for a goal 1-1, nice play by them.

John Rabbito wants an assist for TELLING Ryan to close down #3, the idiot rolled his ankle left the ball for Ryan who then threaded the needle to Juice for a 1 on 1 with the goalie which he easily tucked into the corner, great play by all (except Rabbito). 2-1 Villa

They then had a corner and we didn’t go to the ball as aggressively as we needed to and they ripped a shot off Flynn’s chest and their Douche Bag forward knocked in the rebound with 10 minutes to go. 2-2 The original shot looked like the one Germany’s Podolski knocked the AUS goalie over with Flynn got any Aussie in you, they could use you!

Then with Rabbito (lil pansy, playing defense for the first time ever) all worried about sitting on the lead yelling at me, I saw my opportunity to shine. I came streaking in, or crepping….either way they never saw me, or figured I couldn’t do anything and then it happened. With under a minute to go Tom spots me and hits a missile across the box I skied (a full 6 inches off the ground) and….wait for it…BOOOOYAAAAA slammed a header by the goalie.

I would like to Thank and Praise God and Tom for my opportunity!

VILLA WINS 3-2…………

Or so we thought, the game then continued for 3 more minutes. Whatever the Ref said we were under 1 minute to play before I scored.


Part 3….all the funny events that occurred throughout the game still to come

Heating up!!!

If only the Boston Celtics played like the Villa Villians. Multiple times throughout the NBA Finals, I have screamed at my television, "IF YOU ARE GOING TO FOUL THEM, THEN FU%#&NG FOUL THEM!!" Instead, the Celtics have racked up fouls and their star (I use that term lightly) players have been sent to the bench early for light touch fouls on the perimeter that have not even made the Lakers think twice about driving the lane. Me thinks it's time for the Celtics to take a page out of the Phil Gatchell playbook. Page One of the playbook states, "If the other team is going to score then some muthafucka is gonna have to suffer a broken face." Pretty straight forward: Gatchell wants it to be known that sure, you might score a goal and all, but you better have 911 on speed dial and Acton residents better pay their taxes, cuz you're gonna need the police, firefighters, and an ambulance to take care of the collateral damage. Since Villa only let up one goal versus the lowly last-place Wanderers, Gatchell only had to break one face (or two cheek bones, but who's counting?) on the way to a 4-1 victory. Actaully, Gatchell may not have done anything to break anyone's face. After all, as Cam so eloquently stated, "That dude just ran into Gatchell's aura." Amen. If only KG, Paul Pierce and the boys still had that aura. As for the rest of the Acton squad, the offense clicked throughout the game, stringing together a series of beautiful plays where the ball started in the defensive end, and Villa players worked it through the mid-field, and up to the forward line, where Juice took care of business and put the ball in the net like Kobe Bryant puts himself into trashy white chicks he's not married to. In fact, if it weren't for a certain breaking of one's face, Juice would be a shoe-in for "Player of the Week" honors, as his efforts yielded Villa's first hat trick in recent memory. Instead, Juice has to battle it out with Gatchell. Also, Garv is deserving of consideration, as he continues a Rajon Rondo-like metamorphasis from solid defensive role player to high-scoring "force-to-be-reckoned-with". As usual, the Villian defense was solid anchored by goal-keeper Flynnie and Connor, with Joe, Guy, and Kav providing their typical steady play. The outside mids ran their asses off and contributed to the goals and other scoring chances. Eric set up Garv nicely for a goal, Brett provided a great work rate and some real nice crosses, and Cam's two-way play was steady as always. Rayn, Tom, and the afore-mentioned face-breaker controlled the center medfield well as always. Up front, Rabbit had a bunch of great posessions to go with Garv and Juice's stellar play. As for me (Nick), well... There are two things in life that are certain to happen annually: One, LA laker coach Phil Jackson will bitch and moan about the officiating in the NBA Finals. Two, Nick will blow out his back. Well they both happened Sunday. I blew it out bad. Like, tonight (Wed) was the first time since Sunday I have even been able to lift my daughter (Villa's #1 fan) into her bed. Pretty sad. Sucks gettin old. But at least I'm on Gatchell's team, as a hurt back is better than a broken face.

Memorial Day Massacre!!!!

The Villains had plenty of motivation from Jorge's bulletin board materials. We were on top of them from the get go, dominating with our short passing and smothering defense. For the first time this season we had a clear advantage in win head balls and 50/50 balls. Much of that credit goes to Phil and Dave playing incredible center mid-field. we had 12 players until Eric got taken down in the Penalty Box in the first half, but the loss of player was well worth the goal we were going to score....OOOPPS Rabbito skied one and now we had 11 players and were still tied 0-0.

The second half was much of the same except this time we decided to finish. Garvin, new found striker, hit a great cross that Rabbito could only get a toe on (thankfully) and then Dave picked the right hand corner of the net and buried it.

Next came the unlikeliest of Goal Scorers, Brendan. Having been to lazy to initially run up on the counter-attack he coyly crept into the play and Cam slid him a picture perfect pass which he deftly drilled by the goal from 25 yds out! His post goal celebration was a modified version of T.O. standing on the Dallas Stadium Star at the 50yd line.

With the flood gates fully opened and the other team quitting Rabbito made up for his missed PK (sort of) by hitting a low dipping shot that the goal let go as a protest for the terrible defense his team was playing.

Last be certainly not least was the Defensive efforts put up by Conor, Guy, Kav, Juice (goalie) and Fares. Fares' 2-way play was unbelievable on right side of the field. The defense was in total control of the game. One miscue/disaster was narrowly averted and other than that the didn't have another scoring chance. The entire Def and midfield were on the same page....it was a thing of beauty!

Week 4- VICTORY!!! Part 2

Game 4 looked to be another challenging week for the Acton Villains asthe squad took the field with 9 players in the sweltering 80 degree heat. Meahwhile Burlington was two lines deep and had been practicing for a good hour prior to game time. Fortunately Tommy and Ryan musthave had a crazy foursome the night before(right) because they showed up together with their ladies in tow looking like they just rolled out of bed. Eric rolled in 15 minutes later to give the villains a much needed option off the bench. Early signs in the game were the Villains had the momentum but we were in for another dogfight. The first half was full of opportunities asthe mid field rained in crosses that we couldn't slot home. Our defense was once again a force to be reckoned with as Sava anchored the line andFlynn protected a clean sheet. The midfield controlled the play and opened Burlington up on many occasions - finally Villa's hard work payedoff in the final 5 minutes of the half when Juice volleyed home a Tommy cross to give us our first lead of the season. The second half started started tight again but quickly became a bloodbath and almost deteriorated into a melee. The action was fast and furious and went something like this - Tommy scores from top of the box, Flynn makes unbelievable save on free kick, Juice gets a brace, Tommy gets a red card on BS offsides, Gatchell scores unbelievable goal off of pure hustle and angle, Flynn almost gets into fight with Burlington goon over free kick elbows - Sava takes his back strong, Tommy fires in a 5th goal to leave Burlington completely decimated. Somewhere in there a lot of other shit went down including numerous uncalled handballs, numerous illegal throw ins and way to many sweaty balls. But most importantly every villain performed - definite honorable mentions to Garvin for dead ball prowess and hustle on D, Guy and Kav for tireless clearing, Ryan for lots of good deliveries into the box, Eric for remembering his shin guards and strong control and Rabbit for not spreading his poison ivy to the team. Next week is Sommerville boys. Lets keep this going!!

Week 4- VICTORY!!!

Way to get things going offense.

5-0........ more details to come!

Week 3 - Groundhog Day

Once again we play just well enough to lose a close game. We certainly had our chances but couldn't put the bloody ball in the back of the onion bag (or something like that.)

After falling behind 2-0 on two fabulous shots by the "contagious #4". He had to be contagious because no one on our team ever went near him.

In the 1st half we showed an amazing ability to get to the corner and then shank the ball out of bounds on the crossing attempts. I take some of the blame for this because apparently saying we dribble with our heads down made us pick our heads up too early and miss the ball when we tried to kick it! The team voted after the game that we go back to dribbling with our heads down, it is far less discouraging.

Juice had two good looks at scoring in the first half but Ryan's through-ball was just out of his reach and we never did get an explaination of what happened on the doorstep.

In the second half we dominated possesion and looked like a team that might win. However the Gods, or should i say "Dioses" were clearly against us as Phil's spectacular head took the most unbelievable bounce of the goal post.

On the positive side, Tom fired a missile into the back of the net, and quick moved up the Scoring ladder into a tie for first. Brett made his season debut, and we had 5 subs.

If we continue to get 5 subs for games that can only mean one thing for the opposition....BAD NEWS!!!!!!

5/2 Wanderers FC vs Acton Villa 10:00 AM map
Rahanis Park, Burlington, MA

Another Solid Game Ends with Disappointment-

Acton Villa had another strong showing, despite its lack of numbers (111/2 players). We controlled play in the first half with excellent passing. Entering halftime the scored was knotted at Zero’s. It remained that way until 2/3rds of the way into the 2nd half. A free kick from 30yds out had great top-spin and with the slick field squirted away from Flynn, because of our lack of substitutes we were not as quick to respond to the rebound and they cleaned it up for the only goal of the game.

Our defense looked stellar! We got a nice boost from new-comer Guy, who played a great defensive stopper with Conor and Kav playing their usual stifling defense.

The mid-field worked their asses off and had many nice plays. Sava, Fares and Ryan all did great 2-way work.

We had our chances to score. Brendan and Ryan had the best looks. unfortunately they are 100% Swedish and have no Finish in them! As we discussed after the game we have a great bunch of offensive players who specialize in dribbling with their heads down.

I am pretty sure Rabbito and Cam had chances to score and screwed them up.

Hopefully we will have more players and beers next week, because 12 of each just doesn’t cut it!

Sunday 4/25 @ Home against New England International who lost 5-0 this week.

Opening Day Recap

Great effort on Sunday from all and great turn out. Was awesome to see more than 2 guys on the sidelines eager to sub in throughout the entire guy. Let's keep attendance up. Couple quick highlights from Sunday: -Great to have Flynnie back in the net-Two new field additions we are excited about which unfortunately one came down with the flu (Guy) and the other pulled a groin early (Dave). Looking fwd to having those guys back healthy-Although it initially looked as though I tackled a guy in the box, I did get all ball. Learning lesson- keep playing until a whistle blows-In typical fashion, Juice get's the scoring started for the Villans to tie up the game-BS call at the start of the second half which awarded them a PK -Ref then lost control of the game for a bit.-Sava, great work breaking the yellow card ice-Joe- what can i say. well done keeping up with speedy all game-Must thank myself for the cold beers after the game and also thanks to Garv, Brendan and Sava for the text from my wife asking 'was there a double header I did not know about..' I will end it at that.