The day dawned cold and miserable, and proceeded to get worse. A rare midafternoon game was not to bring any respite from the constant downpour, so CPR decided to try and turn the elements into their advantage by vowing to work harder and battle their opponents into submission in the miserable conditions. For reasons unknown, the referee did not appear to be in any hurry to start the game, apparently placidly content to chat with the opposition despite it being 15 minutes past kickoff in brutal conditions. When the game finally started 3 things were immediately apparent. Firstly, CPR heeded their pregame talk and worked hard on both sides of the ball, hurry and hassling opponents while making good runs and positively communicating with each other. The second was that the opponents would not be easily cowed, and although they quickly started jawing amongst each other they were still physically asserting themselves and capable of speed and athleticism. Unfortunately the third thing that was apparent was that the referee was more interested in making decisions that kept the game even for his entertainment. The fact that he was getting paid to be a neutral arbiter did not seem to enter into the calculations, much to the bemusement of both teams. Some of the decisions that he waved play on for were so jawdroppingly bad that players actually stopped play only to see the official amiably waving play on.

	More often than not it felt like the referee consulted his coin before deciding who to award the ball to.

From incomprehensible officiating it was on to incomprehensible defending to gift CPR the lead. Jones lofted a speculative ball up to Fink, but the defender was in excellent position to take charge of the ball. However instead of a pass to another defender, to his goalie or a simple blasted clearance he decided to commit the defensive cardinal sin of getting fancy. Attempting an inexplicable bicycle kick he only succeeded in falling over himself, allowing Fink a one on one with the keeper that Fink finished with aplomb. CPR continued to work hard and created a couple of more clear cut chances, but as has been their wont lately they squandered a chance to stretch the lead by either blasting the ball over or hitting the ball wide when it would be easier to score.

At half time there was universal agreement that a single goal was not going to be adequate to win the game, especially with Pele starting to assert themselves for the last 10 minutes. With the referee shading the opposition to help make it an even game, this was not going to be easy, especially combined with CPR’s penchant to fade in the second half. The second half opened with both teams attacking with gusto. Normal physical play was starting to get out of hand as the referee combined his quixotic decision making with a much more dangerous inability to grasp when to take control of a game, refusing to tone down the aggression and by extension letting the game get out of hand. Although not averse to physical play by any stretch, CPR were also not looking to suffer serious injury in a Sunday league game but the referee was unable to comprehend that. Almost inevitably, the opposition scored with one of the wilder scrums in a penalty area that you will ever see, bodies flying all over the place, and fouls aplenty. The referee remained an interested observer and although the easy thing would be to blame him for the numerous fouls committed by Pele the truth was that CPR had plenty of chances to boot the ball to safety but could not quite manage to do it.

Remarkably, CPR showed resilience in the face of the deflating equalizer and came straight back to attack the Pele goal with aplomb. The opposition keeper had seemed weak in the first half, but to his credit he managed to hold on to every ball that came to him, albeit most of them quite gently. In the miserably slippery weather holding on to the ball was no small feat. Meanwhile the physical play predictably escalated with the referee sprinkling in random free kicks but no yellow cards, with the finale a superbly executed professional foul by Edmunds to prevent a one on one with the keeper. Surely a straight red card with any referee with a modicum of knowledge of the game, the peacenik referee did not even proffer a yellow card, incensing Pele. CPR continued to have the better chances but could never quite get a venomous enough shot off on the keeper, and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. This was a slightly disappointing result as CPR had the better clear chances and a lead, but previous iterations of the team have also seen them fade and give up late goals to lose a game like this. Although if Fink carries out this threat to leave to the West Coast it would be a blow to the offense, one hopes the return of Nizam would somewhat offset that for a title challenge in the Spring stanza.

	It’s great to be a peacenik, but when you’re a referee adjudicating an increasingly physical game, this is a dangerous recipe indeed.

Competition: Pele

Location: Randalls Island #75, Randalls Island

Conditions: Miserably wet weather, but fun when you were actually playing and not watching

Fans: 1

Result: 1-1 (1-0 at H/T)

Goals: 1-0: Fink Assist Jones

Yellow Cards: None, although Cornejo was supposedly given one by the referee who ended up having difficulty fishing his cards out from his pocket and decided not to bother, although another official might have given a straight red for coming straight through from behind.

Red Card: None, although Edmunds really should have had one.

Mike D’s aka No Shows:  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Manuel Casanova.  Texting 5 minutes before the car leaves to say you’re not coming still counts as a Mike D..

Conboy’s aka Reverse Mike D’s: None.

Old Man of the Match: Lots of strong performances including the spine of Edmunds/Jones/Mershon/Morse. But for a strong performance offensively & defensively Venkataraman received the honour of drinking out of the chalice this week.

Old Man of the Bar: Keyser Soze

Team Bar Showing: 9 out of 15 (56%)

Team Bar Night: 2 ½ out of 5 – Not helped by a lot of people either skipping out on the bill or shortchanging, fortunately for the first time this year.

Team (No new profiles this week): Mark Becker (GK), Mark Resnik (DF) , Lars Murray (DF) , Andrew Jones (DF) Steve Teesdale (DF), Mark Edmunds (DF), Steve Morse, Manohar Venkataraman , Creighton Mershon, Jose Cornejo, John Hodges, Yuval Lion, Adi Gallagher, Ernesto Teran, Kevin Fink

Scouting Report: Pele are a solid team, and although with a penchant to vociferously disagree amongst themselves they have physicality, speed and athleticism to help them overcome this.

Goalie: His appearance does not generate any respect, but he managed to catch all the balls that came to him and couldn’t do anything about the goal. Grade: B

Defenders: Smart defenders with good physical tools and a solid understanding of the game. Although they allowed CPR some space on the break they were able to recover. Grade: B.

Midfielders: Physical and with the ability to spread the ball around, they passed crisply and spread the ball around the field. CPR had to have an exceptional game to contain them. Grade: B+

Strikers: Excellent speed, they only lacked chances due to CPR’s dogged defending. Grade: B