Rebels vs. Top Dogs

One of the early bird game featured the Top Dogs going against the Rebels. The match was off to a late start due to a tardy arrival of the game’s referee (unofficial cause: he was seen unloading his entire stock portfolio in the parking lot outside of the Hangar). Despite the late start, neither side wasted any time getting sweaty. Rebels held the early advantage by way of advanced statistics, but were held off the scoresheet by a mix of all-Swedish-poor-finish and strong defending by the Top Dogs. Whilst both sides would have settled for a scoreless half, Top Dog’s Vic Cristiano would not have any of it. After receiving a crisp pass in the Rebels zone, he connected on a laser-beam into the far corner behind Brad Hughes. Top Dogs 1:0 at the half.

H2 saw a tight battle of speed and precision. Top Dogs had their chances via counterattacks, with several prime scoring opportunities left unexploited. Rebels had their chances as well, with Amogh and Zain buzzing around the Top Dogs’ net like bees. They finally solved the wall of Jeff Simsons part way through the half when Zain redirected a long pass from Vlad into the Top Dogs net. With both teams exchanging chances, it seemed almost inevitable that one side would wrestle away the victory in the dying seconds. The Rebels’ travelling fan base would not be disappointed when Zain got his second of the game with only seconds to spare to secure the Rebels victory. 2:1.

Vlad

Scorpions vs Orange Crush

The Scorpions season started with a little bit of turmoil. Kick-off came promptly at 6 pm for most, but not for all.  Leon and Jarry were nowhere to be seen.  The Scorpions were wondering where they were but didn’t have time to figure it out.  Orange Crush on the other hand, were not curious. The opening half was what one would expect from the season opener – both teams played conservatively and didn’t give up much to the other. It was eventful but not fruitful and they went into the half tied at 0-0.

The second half saw the game open up and it was Dillon Suresh who scored the first goal of the season for the Scorpions. In the last 5 minutes, 3 things happened: 1. Shahin scored 2. Dillon scored his second 3. Leon and Jarry showed up.  They looked onto the field in stunned amazement at what they were witnessing – their team was playing but they weren’t on the field.  Obviously, their late arrival helped give the Scorpions some more sting in their attack and they scored 2 late goals to make the final 3-0.

Ivan

Bandits v Sharks

The Sharks were ferocious in this exciting encounter. Meanwhile, the Bandits entered the arena missing some key players, including their Captain Seamus Lynott. They were able to arrange a loan of Andrew Winnett, Captain of the Top Dogs, as well as borrowing Scorpions Jarry Ahmad and Leon Perelman. When the whistle sounded, the Sharks came out hungry and looking for blood. Led by Captain Theo Blanchard, they were sharp out of the gate and up a goal after half time.

In the second half, they continued to press, while the Bandits fought hard. Despite some good opportunities and excellent shots from John Di Re, they were unable to find a tying goal. New league keeper Brandon Graham stood tall for the Sharks, denying several opportunities for the Bandits. Meanwhile, the Sharks were able to find a second goal thanks to a nice 1-2 combination between Amanjol Zhangeldin and Mohammed Etleb which ended with Mohammed scoring past Prathesh.

Leon

Titans v Legacy

As temperatures were reaching record highs for October on opening night, TCL players were staying cool in the Hangar with their new threads.  Titans sporting yellow versus Legacy featuring royal blue.  This 7pm primetime matchup would not disappoint.

With two stingy keepers Bonner and Murat, you just knew goals would be few and far between.  Titans on the offensive early, a quick pass from Calum McNeil split through the Legacy defenders to John Altinian had Kevin Bonner scrambling to make a tough save.  On the other end, Vitali Tarnovski volleyed a rocket off the post. Both sides continued to battle hard but neither were playing for the draw.  The lone goal in this match came late in the 2^nd half with two minutes left. Tim Liu got the ball in his own half and went end to end shooting a missile through the legs of Bonner. A late push from Legacy almost tied it, but Murat continued his voodoo magic and kept the ball out with a force field. Titan 1 – 0 Legacy final score.

Paul

The championship match is set and we’ll see Direwolves vs Lightning next Wednesday.  Direwolves needed a penalty shootout to get past Emeralds in an intense encounter.  It was Alex Salcedo who scored for Direwolves while Sam Modarresi netted for Emeralds.  At the end of regular time there was no winner so on to the shootout.  Everyone crowded around the west side net of the mighty Hangar.

First up was Ozan Durukan who has a strong fan following and they were in the crowd cheering him on.  He did not let them down as he scored to make it 1-0.  Kevin Bonner’s attitude has always been that if you take a great penalty, he’ll make a great save and that’s just what he did. The advantage was with Direwolves after round 1.

Bad News Hughes is no stranger to mind games and he messed with the mind of Dale Burgess who was next up to the spot.  The pressure of the moment didn’t get to Burgess though, who scored to make it 2-0.  Up stepped Ronalduy who needed to score to keep Emeralds alive.  Currently tied with John Altinian as the all-time leading goal scorer, few would bet against Ronalduy in the moment.  Bonner’s not a gambling man but if he was he’d bet on himself, stop the penalty and be the hero….and that’s what happened!  Direwolves move on.

The second semi-final was a very different affair.  It didn’t take Lightning long as Seamus made a great run, beat 3 players and then beat the goalkeeper to make it 1-0.  A few minutes later Seamus scored again, this time a powerful shot from distance.  It might have been the shock of being down 2-0 or maybe it was adrenaline dump but Nightmares didn’t recover and Lightning went on to win 7-1.  It’s a tough way to end the season for Nightmares but it’s not reflective of their quality.  They had a great season with more highs than lows.

This sets up a glamorous final in which the top 2 teams from the regular season will battle it out.  Direwolves & Lightning will kick-off at 7 pm and a full preview will come next week.  At 6 pm, Emeralds and Nightmares will play for third place while Vaders and Red Bulls will once again do their thing.

The quarter-finals have been played and 4 teams are moving on.

Nightmares Knock-Off Red Bulls

Prior to kick off the two teams got together to pose for a photograph and there were smiles around.  However both of them knew what was at stake and put on their game faces once that whistle blew.  Like most playoff games, this one was fought in the midfield as both teams found it hard to create clear cut chances.  Nightmares scored first through Hans Wang and led at the interval.  Five minutes into the second half and the game was even again when John Altinian scored from close range.

The word “hero” and “Metinho” go hand in hand and a fiercely whipped corner was met by the equally fierce eyes of Metinho who headed the ball so hard that he tore the fabric of space-time.  Nightmares celebrated like they had just won a quarter-final match.  Congratulations to Nightmares and good luck in the semi-finals.

Direwolves Vanquish Vaders

After his own game finished, this writer headed over to get the result of Direwolves & Vaders.  As he walked by the referee he asked about the result and was told that “the black team won 3-1”.  This was great news as not only did the top seed get knocked out, but the wildcard spot was currently held by the Bulls.  The reality was that it was the silver team who had won and after consulting the legal team, it was determined that no, we can’t accept a 3-1 win for Vaders just because the referee said so.

The highlight of the match was Alex Wong’s wonder goal.  He got the ball off of a corner kick, chipped it to get some height and volleyed a bullet past the Vaders keeper.  Everyone stopped and clapped for Alex in the same way that the fans of Juventus applauded Ronaldo’s overhead kick in Turin.  Direwolves move on.

Lightning Edge Emeralds

After a tense 50 minutes, neither team was able to score so they headed to a shoot-out.  The shootout is one of the most intense and nerve wracking part of any match.  When it’s your team shooting, the net looks so small and far away from you.  When the other team is shooting, the net all of a sudden gets so much bigger and they can’t possibly miss.  Rumour has it that mysterious injuries popped up and prevented some players from shooting.  It was the brave ones, the ones who never close their eyes who stepped up to take the penalties.

• Emeralds: David – Yes
• Lightning: Seamus – No
• Emeralds: Sam – No
• Lightning: Dillon – Yes
• Emeralds: Paul – No
• Lightning: Christy – Yes

The final score was 2-1 Lightning on penalties. The loss wasn’t all bad for Emeralds though, as they won the wild card spot and move on to the semi-finals.

The semi-final matchups are:

• Direwolves vs Emeralds
• Lightning vs Nightmares

Week 20 had more goals than the previous week, but only a few more.  Everyone has tightened up their defenses and played more conservatively.  With 2 draws out of the 3 matches, it wasn’t exactly a decisive week but Direwolves have definitely inched closer to securing 1st place.  They drew 1-1 with Lightning with both goals coming in the first half.  The opener came from Lightning via ASB and the equalizer came from Alex Wong.  This result kept Direwolves ahead of Red Bulls by 6 points with only 3 matches remaining. Lightning remain in a battle for 2nd place with those very same Red Bulls.

In other action, Red Bulls scored late to draw against Nightmares.  Knowing that a draw did them no good in their chase for 1st, they pushed bodies forward at every opportunity.  That opened up space for Nightmares who had more one v ones with Murat than we can count.  Murat stopped every single one of them though – something the Red Bulls will be even more dependent on heading  into the playoffs.  John Altinian’s return only confirmed the worst fears for Red Bulls, that his season is likely over.  Metinho shed no tears for RB.  The final result was 1-1 with goals from Theo and Altinian.  The result suited neither team.

Emeralds were the only team who actually won on the night with a 2-1 result against Vaders.  After Duy and Victor C traded goals, it was Captain Callahan who launched himself into the air and absolutely crushed a header past the Vaders goalkeeper.  The result pulled Emeralds out of the basement and they have no intention of returning there.  In fact they’re now within 2 points of 4th place. Vaders have been swapping for 5th and 6th for the past month and as far as they’re concerned, they’ll swap again after next week.

It was the week of the “6 pointers” and some teams got big wins.  A “6 pointer” is a game in which the two teams are very close in the standings and a win either way can have an impact of 6 points.

Red Bulls started the week 5 points behind Direwolves and if the gap increased to 8 points then 1st place would be out of reach.  Direwolves weren’t too worried so they sent 6 of their players to help out other teams in the 6 pm game.  It didn’t seem to affect them in the first half as they carried the tempo.  They were rewarded with a nice volley from Kaveh off of a corner.  The half ended that way but not without a minor kerfuffle.  Red Bulls started the second half on the power-play and scored through John Di Re who made it 1-1.  Shortly thereafter Di Re scored again off an Altinian cross from midfield which Di Re headed in past Bonner.  Late in the game Direwolves were pressing hard and pulled the goalkeeper.  Mohit forced a turnover and clinically finished into an open net.  Red Bulls are now within 2 points of Direwolves and the battle for first place is on!

Lightning needed to win in order to keep pace at the top and that’s just what they did.  Emeralds were in tough this game as they were missing half of their team.  They did however score first as Scott Thompson rose majestically to meet a cross and power the ball into the net.  Unfortunately the good news stopped there as Lightning scored 3 times through Valeria, Hamid and Dillon to go into the half up 3-1.  In the second half, Emeralds lost Sam due to injury and after a couple of own goals later, they lost 6-2.  Lightning reminded the league that after a mini-slump they’re back and still aiming for first place.  They have their sights set on Red Bulls next week.

Vaders showed their teeth with a 4-2 win over Nightmares.  This was enough to get them to 5th place albeit on goal difference.  While this writer only saw a portion of the second half, Nightmares looked like it was their first game together.  It was an uncharacteristically disjointed performance.  That’s just my opinion.  For another opinion we turn to Captain Fernando who said that it was his machismo which caused Nightmares to crumble.  Winnett, Victor C and Bob T took advantage of the fear and scored the goals for Vaders.  Theo and Adrian did not get the memo and scored for Nightmares.

Now the gamesmanship begins.  Most teams are less concerned with where they finish in the standings and more concerned with who they’ll play in the quarter-finals.  The team that everyone wants to avoid is Direwolves.  Should they drop to 2nd place ahead of the quarter-finals, then all of a sudden ending up in 6th place doesn’t look so bad.

The match between Vaders and Emeralds started out slowly but quickly heated up. Vaders had super saiyan Metinho on loan which Captain Callahan did not take kindly to.  A clip of the back foot when the referee wasn’t watching sent Metinho tumbling to the ground.  Vaders opened the scoring through Vlad who soon scored a second after some nice passing. Emeralds pulled one back late in the game and then poured on the pressure when Bad News Hughes joined the attack.  In the end Vaders held on for the 2-1 victory.

Red Bulls overcame Nightmares 3-2 having fallen behind 1-0 early in the match. They knew Wayne and Bernard were unavailable, but also lost Scott Tudo before kick-off.  Scott had tried to fit in a haircut before the match but there was 4 people ahead of him in line, instead of the usual 1.  He didn’t get out until 6:50 pm.

In the primetime match, two goals from ASB were not enough as Lightning fell 3-2 to Direwolves. They had a 2-1 lead midway through the second half but Direwolves did what they usually do and found a way to win.

The Emeralds pulled off an impressive win over the league-leading Direwolves.  Captain Alex was confident heading into the match and turned down the opportunity to take John Altinian on loan.  Emeralds did not turn down the opportunity.  Alex Wong opened the scoring mid-way through the first half.  Sam evened things up with an assist by Altinian.  It would be Zach to play the role of hero as he finished from in close to give the Emeralds a 2-1 win.

Direwolves weren’t the only giant to fall in week 14. Nightmares shut-out Lightning 1-0 on a Natasha goal.  Shutting out the Lightning is no small feat as they had averaged 3.15 goals per game heading into the context.  Mutlu Kayhan records the shut-out.

Red Bulls edged Vaders 3-2 in a match that had its share of controversy. Vlad & Winnett scored for Vaders while Altinian and Di Re netted for Red Bulls.  The score was 2-2 with 5 minutes left when Bob Tian made a run up the right wing.  The referee called the ball out much to Bob’s disgust, which he demonstrated by continuing his run and having a shot.  In the final minute of the game, Altinian chased down a ball at the right corner flag and played it back to Ivan.  VAR would’ve shown the ball as out however the referee did not.  Ivan shot a hopeful ball towards the net when Di Re snuck past a defender to head past Frankie for the winning goal.  Luck was with the Red Bulls on this night.

Red Bulls Down Direwolves

History repeats itself and yesterday was no different. Red Bulls kept their undisputed win streak against Direwolves. Although, John Altinian took his sweet time in the change room and started the game without any warm up, he scored the opener within his first minute. Ivan managed to block 3 quarters of Direwolves’ attacks all by himself leaving not much work to his friends. Alex had a few opportunities to score, however cut short by a solid defense by Gabe. Also another shot was saved by the Red Bull post. Before the first half was over John A. scored another to make the score 2-0. Second half Direwolves began to press harder and find more opportunities. One of those was rewarded by a goal when Ozan secured a pass from the side and scored from close range. Getting nearer to a tie or even a win, Direwolves started playing faster with more pressure. On the other hand Red Bulls felt generous and wasted a clean shot to an open net and failed to score another one. After all, Red Bulls didn’t budge and game was over in their favor. Red Bulls 2 – Direwolves 1.

Murat C

Nightmares & Vaders in a Thriller

General Trabulsey’s scouting report was thrown off as Dave Ashton took the net for Vaders. The game started quietly with solid defensive play on both sides. A break finally came in the closing seconds of the half as Winnett snuck a pass behind the Nightmares defense to Bob “Balls Out” Tian who faked the shot, passed it across the box, and gave Victor “Better than Ronaldo” Cristiano an easy tap-in. 1-0 Vaders at halftime!

The second half started as quietly as the first, with both sides exchanging goal kicks. Metinho, hearing the snores coming from the stands, made a break on a corner kick, climbing the ladder, and slipping a header through the legs of Dave Ashton. What an embarrassment for the substitute keeper! 1-1! Vaders were now feeling the pressure, maybe a little more than they’d expected, as an aggressive play on the Nightmares keeper won a free kick. With the Vaders defense pressing, Metinho picked up the ball at midfield and found himself 1-on-1 with the keeper. He made no mistake and slipped the ball to give Nightmares the lead.

Down 2-1 with little time left, Vaders threw everything they could at Nightmares. With seconds left, Winnett threw a last desperation cross into the box. Vic got a foot on the ball, and couldn’t believe he missed! Or so he thought anyway… A clear goal and a tie game! 2-2 final!

Update: Teachers’ Indoor Soccer League are testing Metin’s pre-game bananas for PEDs. When asked for comment, Metin insisted, “I swear they’re just vitamins!”

Dave A

Controversy Mars Lightning & Emeralds

The Primetime matchup featured the Emeralds versus Lightning. Seamus and Dylan who are neck and neck in the Golden Boot race, stood shoulder to shoulder in this one creating numerous opportunities for their team. But it was Lightning power forward Aaron St. Bernard who put on a show with a sneaky ball through Emerald defender David Aston’s legs and gave Lightning a quick chance off the post. The very next play Lighting Captain Markos Lau broke the rules and fouled Emerald mid Sam Modarresi.  It would have just cost them a free kick but Markos showing his passion for the game, but more importantly his displeasure with the call (ref), kicked the ball away earning a 2 minute penalty! The Lightning would apply tons of pressure on the power play but the score would remain nil-nil at half!

In the second, Hamid Mirhashemi broke through down the wing and crossed a beautiful pass to Valeria Nunez who put it just wide. There was arguably some contact in the box but the ref still mad at Markos didn’t award Val the PK.  On the other end Emerald’s striker Zach Siewart had an amazing chance from a tough angle. Lightning keeper Prathesh Senthil made another amazing save.  Finally, having seen enough Emerald defense Victor Arcentales, playing his former team, put the ball on net from the mid, Mario ducked (on purpose obviously) and the ball ended up in the back of the net. 1-0 Emeralds. Not to be denied, Lightning pressed hard and St. Bernard would burry to tie the game 1-1.  Just minutes later on an awkward clear by Emeralds, the ball went off the cross bar and out to a waiting Seamus who was there to tap it in for the game winner….WAIT, NO, ‘Bad News’ Hughes made an unbelievable diving save to smack the ball away on the goal line. With Lighting doing the Barca swarm on the ref, General Trabulsey on loan from Nightmares would capitalize and score on the other end.   What a finish! Emeralds upset Lighting 2-1.  After the game, Brad checked with the Hangar staff and luckily they do have VAR.

Paul C

It was a tight match in which the Direwolves squeaked out a 1-0 victory over the Nightmares.  Ozan Durukan netted the only goal while Kevin Bonner recorded the shut-out.  Lightning kept pace with a 7-3 win over Vaders.  It was a first in the TISL as 2 players, Seamus & Dillon both scored a hat-trick.  Finally, Red Bulls snapped a 3 game losing streak with a 4-2 win over Emeralds.

Direwolves FC are the 2017/18 TISL Fall Champions!  They clinched the title with an impressive 4-1 win over Lightning.  They were the most impressive team in the first half of the season and remain favourites to win the league title.

In other action, Nightmares got back into the win column with a 2-1 result against Red Bulls 2-1.  It was Metinho netting a late winner.  Vaders fought back to earn a draw against Emeralds.  Mohammad slotted past Ashton late in the game and it finished 4-4.

This season has been the closest one yet.  There are only four points separating 2nd from 6th and three teams are tied for 4th place.  See you all in January!