Ragtag Rebels - Eindhoven United

5-0. Quiet and simple

From the very first second we had a clear chance and Francesco almost scored. Right after that Francesco scores the first goal after a lost ball from the keeper. Their keeper lost many but MANY balls today and some meant goals.

Gianluca didn't come and Stefan was the keeper, he wasn't very busy but still did his job very well.

I don't remember the second goal (Jelmer?)

Third goal was a cool one, Gareth get's in the pitch and the first thing he does is a pressure to the keeper, whom decided to shoot Gareth on the leg, rebounce and goal, first touch=goal: Veni, vidi, vinci (Julious Caesar).

Fourth goal starts in Fernando dribbling a striker in our area then he crosses the whole field but the defenders are more worried of his pass so he accepts the invitation to shoot and scores. Very nice long run and beautiful goal

I'm a bit confused with the goals but we reached the break 4-0.

One more in the second half (Carlos??) and 5-0.

US: Solid defense although we didn't have many difficulties today. To put a "but" I would say that it seems to be tricky when we have Jelmer and Francesco together, there are moments when none of them cover the last guy and we have some difficulties. In the second half we agreed not to follow the keeper (because he wasn't dangerous in attack) and we fixed that minor issue. Again, nothing serious today but something to keep an eye on. However in attack they did couple of very nice 1-2, actually perhaps the best play today was a great combination of them.

THEM: It is not a bad team but they have a serious problem in defense-keeper. They loose very dangerous balls. They also do slow vertical passes keeper-first defender, we recovered many balls just by being quicker there. Their best player today was the number 6, he moves around a lot and we needs to be covered.

Anecdote 1: Today we shot at least 4 times to the post: Gareth(2), Francesco and David.

Anecdote 2: In the second half Stefan receives a long and easy ball out of their defense(from their field) and he plays funny and let's the ball come in the goal. That is supposed to be ok because the rules say that's not a goal. However the referee was even funnier than Stefan and gives the goal!!!. Luckily the referee at the table corrected him and cancelled that. Lesson of the day: you wanna be funny? better do it on wednesdays.

Anecdote 3: Mikkers lost against War GP. Virtually(because we have one more game) we have an advantage of 11 points. Most likely that difference will be reduced to 8 points next week.

Next week we rest. In two weeks we face De Witte Burgh, let's forget about points and differences and try to play a serious match against them.

Linesman: Digo and Fernando

Goals: Francesco, Jelmer?, Gareth, Fernando, ??? Help me at the comments please.

Ragtag Rebels - High Tech Campus

(27-01-11)

6-2. Carlos's show

We got the revenge from our previous draw (2-2) against this team. We started winning pretty early. A stupid ball lost from the defense in midfield and goal(Andre??). Later a very hard pressure from Carlos to the keeper, he gets the ball and with almost no angle he scores. Third goal, keeper out of the area losses another stupid ball and Carlos scores with a chip over him, very stylish.

Some other goals I already forgot (please help me out in the comments) and we reached the break leading 5-0.

Today we only have one substitute and that caused the mess at the beginning of the second half. Actually it was a chaos. We started with 4 strikers on the field and only one defender (Digo). So indeed we started with an unbalanced distribution, then also we got too relaxed due to the score (mistake we didn't do in the previous game). If that wasn't enough, on top of that they attacked with everything and pressed very hard. So... they scored two goals very soon they got really motivated. Later with 2 defenders on the field (Digo and David) the chaos was less chaos and we could control the possession a bit more. That bit of pause eventually made us score one last goal.

US: Funny guy, Carlos. He had to be linesman in the second half so he started pressing like crazy and being a real pain in the ass for their keeper and their last defender. I guess for them was like having TAZ around.

It was definitely a great (half)game from him recovering the ball, scoring and passing, great game man!.

For the rest of us also a nice first half against a team that caused us problems in the first game of the season (although that game was bit unfair in my opinion). Very solid in defense. Almost no chances for them.

Second half: Total chaos, we must learn from this. We should be more mature and don't let this situation to happen, react quicker and take control of the situation.

All and all, it wasn't that bad, it took us a while but we corrected it and get the control back.

THEM: What can I say, their keeper today had Taz in front and that must be very annoying ;). We covered well the empty spaces were Bart is more dangerous so they couldn't do much.

They didn't play bad but made very lethal mistakes.

Linesman: Jelmer and Carlos

Goals: Carlos(2), Francesco?, Andre?, Jelmer?.... help me out.

Ragtag Rebels - Hunter Boys

(20-01-11)

4-0 Victory! A very smart game

At the end of the game, we grabbed our gear and Gianluca said: "This is the most serious game we've played this year". Maybe a bit exaggerated but, in essence, I agree with him.

We started controlling the game, we had some chances but no luck.

They also had few chances (less than us) mainly coming from number 7 and also from far (but really strong) shots from their second line.

We reached the break 0-0.

The best thing we did today was that even though we did not score in the first half, we did not loose the way of playing. We didn't have the desperation we used to get last year and instead we controlled the game and were solid at defense. Due to that eventually we started scoring, then they attacked more, left more spaces and we caught them in some counter attacks (please help me with the scorers in at the comments).

One remarkable goal was the 3-0 I believe. It was a counter attack were Jelmer fights like crazy for a ball not to go out, passes to Fer, he dribbles the defender and scores (goal dedicated to his girlfriend at the stands). Great goal not only for the action but mainly because of the attitude of Fernando and specially Jelmer, fighting like that when we were already leading for two goals.

Finally we played a game keeping patience and control and it really paid off. 4 goals in the second half.

US: GREAT attitude, specially at the second half. Very serious game, patience and control gave results.

THEM: Like in the first leg, the small guy (number 7) was a real pain in the ass, their best player, no discussion about that. He moves a lot and dribbles with danger. The good thing was that most of the times we were well positioned so he didn't have spaces on our back.

They are in general quite big players (except number 7). They have strong shots from the last guy which is, together with the number 7, their biggest weapon.

They didn't make clear mistakes today but we played pretty decently and once we scored they had to take risks that costed them the game.

Linesman: David(for Fernando's glory ;)) and Stefan

Goals: Fernando... and help me in the comments please

Ragtag Rebels - TNC09

Victory 4-1. Nice start of 2011.

It was a nice game. To be honest I thought we were going to be more out of focus but luckily I was wrong. We didn't play brilliantly but we controlled the game.

We started scoring after 10min, header goal from David at Digo's pass. After that we continued controlling although they were pressing from time to time. However we still got quite some chances.

The second half started pretty much the same way. Control and chances mainly from us but no goal... so we ended up paying for our generosity. One counter attack from their last guy, nice pass and goal. 1-1.

Then we got a bit nervous and made a few mistakes but didn't loose focus. They attacked more and even David could have seen a green card after a tackle, but it didn't happen. At this point the match was quite even.

Luckily in the middle of this a long shot from David came in, 2-1.

Then, and after couple of mistakes in their organization they got nervous and started a fight among them first and later with the referee.

Five min before the end of the match they saw 2 green cards (the first one pretty clear: Flikker op! at the face of the referee).

Then they were 2 players plus the keeper and they gave up. Francesco killer instinct could not be stopped and he scored 3-1 with the keeper just looking at him.

One minute later the keeper even went off the goal and Andre lost his virginity 4-1!.

We decided not to pass the midfield until the end of the game .

US: Not a brilliant game but somehow correct. We didn't move a lot in attack and we gave up several nice moves of Carlos because we just did not follow him.

Stefan was the goalie but he didn't have much work today, nice defense then.

Thijs played his first game with us and he was very helpful. Strong in defense and moving well. Thanks dude and welcome to the team!!.

THEM: Nice team that could have ruined us the night when we were 1-1. Their best move is to pass to one wing and then first touch to the guy coming in, if we don't follow our pair we are dead. Their weakest point is that they are not organized, specially in defense. They do crazy substitutions even when we are attacking.

The keeper plays well the ball which makes the pressure a bit more difficult. Their best player today was the last guy, nice play maker. He is short and a bit chunky but freaking skillful and with a leading attitude.

Luckily for us today they didn't have the black guy that plays as striker, it would have been more difficult then.

I didn't forget that we are still leading with 4 points over the second but let's pay attention to the stands when we have 3 games to go. Next week Hunter Boys.

Goals: David (2), Francesco and Andre

Linesman: Francesco, Digo

VSP - Ragtag Rebels

(by Jelmer)

1-5

The game against VSP was the 10th of the season, and the first team that we met for the second time this season. Even though we beat them with 9 - 3 in the first game, we were not underestimating them. We know from last year that they can be hard to beat.

The start of the game was a bit slow, with inaccurate passing on both sides. In a one-on-one situation with their goalkeeper Francesco scored the first goal, and we have not really been in trouble since that moment. VSP was unable to make a strong attack and we created some counter chances, out of which we soon scored our second goal. We were controlling the game, but in a much too lousy tempo. Our opponent didn't really put pressure on us and we created some chances, but didn't score the third....yet. Instead, VSP manged to score the 2-1 before the half time break, a score that was too low considering that we were the better team.

The second half was simliar to the first one: pretty boring. Out of a scrimmage in fornt of their goal we scored our thrid, and since that 3-1 the victory was more or less certain. VSP was not able to put pressure or increase the tempo of the game. On the other hand, also our team was unable to take it to a next level. In good shape we could have speed up the game, create more chances and a higher score. In the end we did score our fourth and fifth goal easily and finished the game without much effort.

Linesmen: Andre & Gareth

Goals: Francesco, Stefan, Fernando, Jelmer (2)

Ragtag Rebels vs "War" GP

8-4. We won a football game in Sparta.

It was crazy today. From the first half we could see tension from them, they got out of their minds and the referee (the old guy) let them.

We started scoring (David), then they equalized, then us again (Fernando), afterward 3-1 (Stefan) and we reached the second half. At this moment the atmosphere was hot, but not that bad.

The fight came in the second half with some actions over Digo and David. Their captain (the oldest and the craziest) got a green card after a dirty tackle to David's knee. Minutes after Digo made a friend (small, blond guy) and their friendship lighted up the whole team.

It was like we were in a fight and nobody told us!.

Then 4-1 after a great move from Carlos! but they were lucky and in two very close actions they made the 4-2 (second line guy entered alone) and 4-3 perfect shot from the last defender (that we didn't cover) . It was from quite far and it went right into the top corner.

Luckily we quickly made the 5-3 (Stefan) and that gave us oxygen. From here on I'm not sure of the order but I think it was, 6-3 (Fernando), 6-4, then David see's a green card for finally pushing back Nigel de Jong (both players saw it) and during his absence Francesco made 7-4 with a great move. Finally counter attack and Francesco made 8-4, that cooled down the people and the match.

It was a freaking street fight. They were responding to small back faults with extremely rough game.

Funny thing was that the "crowd" and the "waiting teams" were cheering for us!!, I guess this team makes friends along the way.

US: GREAT attitude, until we got involved in the fight in second half (3-1 leading). We pressed well and very close to their goal, followed our guy and we occasionally did very nice combinations. Also we were very focused in defense most of the times, big improvement with respect to the last game. We sort of learn the lesson. That, together with nice actions from Francesco and Carlos, was the good side.

The bad side though was that we fought back. Don't get me wrong, I like to show that they wont push us down but we went too far, celebrating the goals on their faces (Digo making friends) and even physically fighting back (which cost us the green card of David). Understandable in these conditions but still a mistake.

THEM: Good team but insane. Here is a video of another game of them, to get an idea. By the way, the referee is also the same.

Their captain is limited as a player but he is the craziest, I think he is the guy in 0:44, always provoking, kicking, shouting... now that I'm thinking, not even when he is like this, I would feel safe playing against him. Their striker (Digo's buddy, short, blond, chunky guy) is technically quite good and very dangerous in one vs one. Today the good news was that he also has that mental decease, so he wasted all of his energy "dancing" with Digo.

Goalie is good, has nice reflexes but when he goes out he looses quite a lot. He is also infected big time, by the way.

The last defender is by far the best, defending is not bad but his strongest point is that he is very dangerous coming from second line. We should always follow him. He protests a lot but he is not violent.

Bottom line, if they would just play, they are a very strong team.

Great attitude, very decent play, understandable mistake of fighting back.

First leg of the league is now over and we still leading the league. Anecdotal but sweeeeeet.

Goals: David, Fernando(2), Carlos, Stefan(2), Francesco(2).

Linesman: Fernando and Jelmer.

Issues: Besides the pain I have in the elbow and in the knee, my ankle is pretty swollen, I'm typing with my foot on the table and with ice on it. I don't see myself playing next week.

Christmas!!

Supporting Jelmer's initiative we should arrange something for Christmas.
Suggestions are so far:

• Bowling
• Indoor Karting
• Night at Holland Casino
• Laserquest

You can state your preference here and you can find the proposal for the date in Jelmer's doodle.

If you have another suggestion please let me know and I will include it in the doodle.

So... Vote!!!