FC QUAKE 3 Amherst Alliance 1; Disrespect

I don't want to spend much time on the game, as I am still fuming this morning about what transpired in the 7th minute moment of silence for Pepper, and really disgusted by our opponents behavior majority of the game towards the ref (who did have an awful 2nd half but still) and us. Those of you who knew Pepper or care about morality, stay tuned or just skip my game summary all together. I don't mean what I am about to say about majority of their guys, so try not to take this the wrong way those of you on that club who know yourselves, but a couple bad apples absolutely ruin the harvest in this case. I had some good laughs and exchanges with their Forwards, but man some of the guys playing CM and D for them need to grow up.

Quick Game Summary: Tiny, hard WSSC Field E kept backlines on their toes as balls that wouldn't be dangerous otherwise could easily turn into shots from the 18 in this one. We came out fast, pressuring their backline as we knew we could from last years experience, and immediately should of made them pay more than we did. I am not sure how many times it happened, but Walker and Mammoliti terrorized them early and it produced 2-3 point blank looks that we missed frame on. We went up 1-0 off a turnover near MF-line (Again MF being about 40-45 yards from their net). Kerr took the space given after hustling to create the TO, and sent a flick over the top to Ricky, who admittedly has a fortunate first touch/flick off his own back heal, quickly set his feet and ripped a spinning full-volley that was pretty much a blur into the top netting from a little inside top-right corner of 18. Literally one of the nicest strikes I have ever seen in person, my god what a find we made with this guy (Thanks Eaton). They equalized around 35th minute off a pretty harmless looking FK off a god awful foul call against me that myself and their F #8 had a good laugh about. Floater into the box dipped a little on Eaton as he went to ground ball-in-hands the impact jarred it loose just enough and we failed miserably to help him out, allowing an Alliance player to be first in to poke away from his hands and tap in. After some good hooting and openly-mocking shouting on their part, we proceeded to dominate the last 8-10' of the half, and with a minute or so less were rewarded when Walker did his usual best impression of the Hulk, muscling off 2 defenders and slotted it across the 6, right through their CB's legs I believe, onto the foot of Iwankow who paused to make no mistake before tapping it home. Personally meaningful and important goal by one of our heart-and-soul veterans Jay. 2-1 QUAKE at half and a very justified lead, felt a little unlucky to not be up 2 or 3.

2nd half: We came out playing well first 5-10', possessing and having a couple build-ups leading to dangerous looking final balls, but we were just a step off a couple times. A game that was already chalked full of chirping had the lid blown off of it when the ref made an unfortunately bad PK call in our favor, probably something that is called 1/100 times for just a tiny shirt tug and stepping-on-of-toes in the act of a clearance. That being said, their behavior from that point out was ridiculous, the call will never be changed. T. Bonadonna calmly stepped up to the spot, and finished side-netting with pace. They argued the ref didn't ask the GK if he was ready, and he very well not have as his head was probably spinning, but regardless he didn't have a chance of stopping the perfect take from Bonadonna. 3-1 Quake. Rest of match we were very complacent and settled back to protect the 2 G lead. We need to be better to keep ourselves well-shaped and higher, as the game proceeded to devolve into Alliance non-stop mocking the ref, and the ref making ridiculous calls against us to try and make up for the PK. Again the good-natured guys on their club up top were finding it pretty hilarious how horrible it became against us at that point. All of this resulted in a couple dangerous FK's for them, but Eaton was there for the 1-2 good looks they had. Game finally ended, bunch of their guys proceeded to ask me if the ref was my best friend (I don't even know his name) we went back to our sideline and had a spirited discussion about how disappointed we were in our play despite W, as quite frankly we all felt we could of blown that team out on this day as they really failed to threaten us in the run-of-play.

Moment of Silence and other Deplorable Behavior: I wouldn't get into this as in-depth as the way I am going to right now, but we have guys on our Club who not only were teammates and friends of Pepper, but have spouses who are friends with his family, and asked I do this, so this means a lot to me. I made sure moment of silence was well known pregame, at the coin toss, etc. 59/60ish people at the match observed it perfectly and with respect, some of who, including our own Jason Iwankow were sobbing on-field. #15 for them never took a knee, stood on sideline waiting to throw the ball in, then laid down in the grass and exclaimed "Jesus, I would rather just take smoke break!" and continued to lounge and keep talking... Lucky for him Jay was too beside himself in the moment to hear it, as when told about it after the match by his wife and good friend of Peppers family, he absolutely looked like he was ready to hunt that guy down. Play resumed and Mammoliti took the initiative to run him over the first time he had the ball (Best YC ever taken, hit him harder next time). You know its bad when a very well respected and respectful veteran AR tells you at halftime that he would of absolutely fought the guy if he were Jay or any of us that knew CP#7...

As for the rest of the game, there was a huge scene made by their entire squad when ref asked one of their guys to take off his necklace, their was an absolutely vicious late tackle against Kerr that could of been a red, that had Kerr down for a couple minutes and several of their MF/D men mocking him, and then there was the PK call... Do I agree the call was awful? YES. But ref will never change the call afterwards, and quite frankly we were the better team so a 3 point result for us was absolutely the fair and right one. The way Alliance treated the ref, and the rest of that game was disgusting. An older, veteran ref would of been pulling cards on them about once a minute for the remaining 20 minutes, but instead I think he was intimidated and did his best to makeup for the call the rest of the way, calling foul after foul on us for a variety of ridiculous reasons, some of which involved their guys slipping and falling untouched and not close to a FCQ player, and getting a dangerous FK from it (Sigh). Regardless though, I felt bad for the HR who did not call a horrible game up to that point, and was brutalized for that call by Alliance. Some of the stuff I heard from them was deplorable and warranted YC's, then RC's for repeat offenses, but again I think they had the HR completely rattled. It wasnt only directed at the ref, Kerr was called out for coming back into the game after that first half foul (Dude is now on my list of top-3 toughest ppl I have ever played with after the beating I have watched him take these 4 weeks), their pretty atrocious center defenders calling myself a sloppy, horrible SW who "just boots the ball every time" (Heard this one last year too from them, just remember you guys are still yet to score a "normal" run-of-play goal against us in 3 matches only a couple FK's, we have scored 5).

None of this compares to the garbage #15 pulled in the 7th minute, but driven off that moment and what occurred after the PK call, the rest couldn't go unsaid. Its a shame a beautiful moment and game was ruined yesterday by about 3-5 bad apples, hopefully those guys can learn from this embarrassment. Good luck rest of the way.

Since I saw Amherst making the case on twitter that I am completely off-base, flat-out wrong and "astoundingly" biased just wanted to get out front and say this. People that really know me know me on and off the field know I am a good guy, teammate, friend etc. Everything I wrote above was based on what I saw, heard myself, was told by the guys I trust most on this team, and also people who were close to CP7 who were on the sideline and extremely offended and upset. What #15 did was not a misunderstanding, it was disrespectful and anyone with any ounce of common sense or decency couldn't possibly of misunderstood the situation after the first 5 seconds or so. Some of the other stuff was bad, but again, paled in comparison obviously. I also felt that the ref's bad call situation deserved its mention as it was about as bad a call as I have seen, but an even worse reaction that persisted for remainder of the game. I have never heard as many wise comments or gestures directed right into the ears and eyes of a HR over one call (Except for that You Tube video from some Spanish League of a player full speed drop-kicking a ref in the chest, that was worse) Regardless, guys who I have become close to and have been in this League a long time, including 5+ years on Celtic United with CP7, and have family still playing within the Celtic Clubs were wronged/offended and didn't want this let go. Could I of spared the embarrassment of the couple Alliance guys I am talking about? Sure. Did they deserve to be spared it, no. Jay, as one of the nicest and most respected guys I know, said word-for-word to me after reading the above "Anyone who has a problem with anything you just wrote, or you for writing it, can come talk to me personally." This wasn't about me.

So sorry about whomever I offended, but again it was about a couple individuals not your Club. As for "astoundingly biased" goes... Not sure if saying that we felt we could of scored more goals, or that we didn't feel threatened outside of set pieces qualifies as "astounding" but to each his own. Its all opinion based obviously.

That's my secondary thoughts after thinking about it for a while, ill let it go from here. Respond as you see fit.

Sean, my name is Chris Aurilio, I wear #3 and I am the Manager of Amherst Alliance. I know my team better than anyone else. I hand picked each and every one of my players based on who they are as people more-so over their skill in soccer. As such, I take full responsibility for any of their actions. You're dealing with me and me alone from this moment forward. I'm upset for a multitude of reasons, and I'll have them heard. I don't know why we had to make this so public to the whole league, but that's fine. This is what you wanted, so this is what you'll get. You and I actually had a pretty jovial conversation after the game yesterday so I have to say this whole thing caught me completely off guard while at work this morning. I'm going to go through your whole post sentence by sentence and try to respond in the best way that I can. Thankfully, you wrote everyone a novel so this should only take me a year or two. For all of you reading that are only interested in the important part which is at the end, skip ahead to my comments about the 7th minute.

Quick Game Summary: Before I get going, I agree that your assessment was overall fair, but I did have a few issues that I'll address. Okay, for starters, you did not "terrorize" our back four. I didn't realize that your 2-3 shots from well outside the 18 that were either sky-ed well above the bar or slow rollers to our keeper counted as point blank. We felt the pressure, yes, but you weren't incredibly threatening. Mammoliti's goal was definitely incredible. I can't remember the last time I saw a goal like that in person and I give him credit for sure. Absolute stunner. We came back and scored on a pretty benign FK, also correct. And you bet your ass we were "hooting and shouting" after we scored. As did you on your first goal. As does everyone everytime someone on their team scores. I don't get your point here, were we supposed to sit on the sideline and snap our fingers for him like a hipster poetry bar? That comment was a needless attempt to make us look bad. Following the goal you did not "dominate" the last 8-10' of the half. I read all of your write ups and you're pretty obsessed with that word. I'd say possession was 50-50 throughout the game and there was no point where either team dominated the other. Choose your words better. I wasn't on the field for the goal, but your 44th minute goal right before half sure was some crappy defending on our part, that's the honest truth. That through ball went through all 4 of our defenders and found Jay easily. Class act by the way, talked with him throughout most of the game and he's a good guy. Always liked him. It deserves to be stated that my starting CB partner who's 6'3" 220 couldn't make the game so we were short in the back both in stature and minutes. Regardless, as the spheroid bounces, we found ourselves down 2-1 at half.

2nd half: Again, possession was 50-50 with both of us looking dangerous at times. The referee was doing a really great job. At half, we actually all commiserated on how well he was doing. He kept the game in line and I actually disagree with you, I don't think the game was chirpy at all until he made THE call. I was standing maybe 2 feet away from what happened. DiCarlo is not only the best Defender on our team but in my opinion the best player on our team. He and I think Mammoliti or Walker (I honestly don't remember) were shoulder to shoulder going after a ball and DiCarlo made an absolutely brilliant tackle coming from your player's side. He wasn't behind him at all. The moment I heard the ref's whistle I sprinted to the PK spot to meet him there. I very respectfully asked what the call was for and he informed me that DiCarlo "pulled your player down from behind with his hands." I literally have no idea how the play could have been interpreted that way, nor could any of the other 30+ players, 2 ARs, or countless fans in attendance. One the field I spoke with Mammoliti who looked at me and shook his head in acknowledgment. I subbed off shortly after that and made a plea to your bench, and all of your players agreed as well. There was 1 person on that field that saw that as a malignant challenge and it just so happened to be the one person in charge of the game. We felt like we were gaining momentum, and to have it sucked away like THAT was the worst feeling. Were we upset? Of course we were. Had you been in our shoes you would have been equally as heated and don't tell me otherwise. From that call forward the referee turned the job he was doing completely on its head and almost every call was downright comical. I have 21 good guys on my roster. I have 3 or 4 who get very passionate about referees and I've repeatedly gotten in their face about it dating all the way back to last year. I don't tolerate that behavior, and frankly I think you're severely exaggerating our reaction based on what happened. We were pissed, and we let it show, even questioning some of the fouls he was awarding against you guys, but it was never "deplorable" and I want that to be very, very clear to everyone.

Moment of Silence and other "Deplorable Behavior": I've been in this league for 6 years. I love the BDSL. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't enjoy it. I personally met Chris Pepper on only a handful of occasions, but I respected that man a great deal and he was a shining light in this community. Alliance, just like Quake, had former teammates of Pep's in attendance yesterday. Just like you Sean, I gathered my players and explained the moment of silence to everyone during pregame, the coin toss, the whole nine yards. In all the commotion, #15 (who I've known for a very long time, we call him Aidan), was busy warming up our keeper during the pregame chat and completely missed what was going on. What I want you to do now is to put yourself in his shoes. Take a moment. Really visualize this with me. Aidan is not a gigantic BDSL fan like most of us reading this forum post. He doesn't follow all our Twitter accounts, and he doesn't get crazily involved, and all the buildup and prayers this week were completely foreign to him. He has also never played a Celtic team as far as I know so he had absolutely no idea what was going on in the community. He shows up on Sundays and plays soccer because that's what he loves to do, much like all of us. That said, the game kicks off without a hitch. Aidan is the kind of guy that gets into a zone on the field. He plays and plays and gets lost in the flow of the game. The 7th minute rolls around, the ball goes out of bounds and Aidan was on the sideline ready to take the throw. The referee halts play as he has the ball over his head. Aidan was still ready to go and I believe the first thing he said was "Wait what? What's the call?" The referee then said, "We're doing the 7th minute thing." That's a direct quote. Aidan, who as I previously stated has NO IDEA what's going on, replied with "What 7th minute thing? Are you taking a smoke break or something ref? Come on let's go." It was at this point that I yelled over to him and explained the situation. When he realized what had happened his heart IMMEDIATELY sank. Again, I've known Aidan for a long time, and he is not the type of guy to disrespect someone like that. I could physically see the pain and hurt in his eyes. He's a genuine human being and just like the rest of us he felt the gravity of the situation. From then on, he and everyone else on the field got down on one knee and paid their respects to CP7. It was a beautiful moment, and I absolutely love the BDSL for putting it together. Could it have been handled differently? Of course. But the entire situation was a misunderstanding from the get-go and I won't have you berate my player anymore than you already have. He felt awful. He still feels awful. It's asinine to insinuate that he did what he did on purpose, shame on you for that. In response you immediately sent Mammoliti after him like a heat-seeking missile which did in fact warrant a Yellow Card. Ironically, Aidan told me that Mammoliti continually apologized to Aidan about the whole thing as the game went on. Fair play to both of them. They were squared away. But you had to bring it back up Sean. Why are you choosing to tarnish a good memory over something so trivial? Have a heart, and let's agree to put this behind us.

I'm gonna try and tackle the rest of our "deplorable behavior" in a more concise manner. We did NOT make a "huge scene" out of the necklace thing. For those who weren't there, the referee asked our player to remove a necklace. He was rightfully annoyed that play had to be stopped over something so trivial, but agreed to take it off. Literally 30 seconds later on the other end of the field the ref caught one of Quakes players wearing a necklace, asked him to take it off and then said "All right if anyone else is wearing jewelry please just take it off now" and I counted 4 or 5 players from both teams, myself included, that put there hands up to take off necklaces. Everyone was laughing about it, it was actually pretty funny. A very light-hearted moment for you to call a "huge scene."

Okay, that "ABSOLUTELY VICIOUS" late tackle on Kerr that "should have been a Red" was on Tony. Tony is 5'2" and weighs maybe 140 pounds. I don't know if you've ever seen Kerr, but he's at least 6'0" and pushing 190. Tony stepped his leg in on a light, albeit late challenge, and Kerr went writhing to the ground like he had been tackled by a rhinoceros. Again. Tony is 5'2". He has to sit on a phonebook in order to drive. Did I make a comment telling Kerr to get up? You're damn right I did. I like Kerr a lot. We chatted the whole game, and I agree that he's a tough player. But that challenge was a soft foul and only a foul. Not even close to a RC or even a yellow. I don't know about the legitimacy of my players calling him out  for getting back into the game after that foul either, but I doubt any of my guys would have said anything. As for our "pretty atrocious" CBs calling you out for booting the ball down the entirety of the field every time you touch the ball, Hi. That's me. If you have a problem you can say it to my face. You want my honest opinion? I think both you and your CB partner can be really great players, and are so much better than using that tactic. I know how good you can be, so to see you boot the ball literally every single time one of you touches it is just astounding to me. It blows my mind. You have the skill to play it neatly out of the back yet you choose to rocket it right at my keeper and give us possession back. I actually had a chuckle with one of your guys who I won't name because I respect him and I don't want you to get in his face, but he whole-heartedly agreed with me that that's all you guys are good for. Does it work for you? Sure. But it's pretty ugly soccer and is definitely not something to be as proud of as you are. I kicked that habit in house league when I was 10. Strive for better, I know you're capable of it.

You guys were the better team yesterday. I won't argue with you there. You won, and I'm not foolish enough to believe otherwise. I play in this league to have fun with my friends; I love the game of soccer and to be honest all of this drama was completely unwarranted but you seem like the kind of person that thrives on this. I've already spent way too much of my time on this and I don't really have anything else to say. It was a good W for you guys yesterday, you were definitely the better team and it reflected in the scoreline. But please don't come on here via a public medium and berate my players. It just wasn't enough for you to post it on Twitter, you needed the thrill of the flashing lights too. Aidan is truly sorry for what happened. I know that, and I think the rest of the league knows that now, and that's all that matters. I won't respond to this thread or Twitter drama anymore. Keep on doing what you do Quake. I know what my team looks like in the public eye and I for damn sure know what your team looks like as well. Frankly, I'm happy I'm me. Cheers.