Buffalo Celtic 3 Hamburg Monarchs 1

I will start out by saying Mulroy was in terrible shape when we arrived for the game.   Garbage all over the field, the nets in terrible condition and broken glass all over the one end of the field.   Who ever manages this field needs to do better with its maintenance as it is not fair to the teams that play there.   We, Buffalo Celtic cleaned up a good bit of the field with Hamburg doing a ton of garbage pick up when they got there.    The field had no corner flags either.

Now onto the game...  we had about 200 players show up and Hamburg may of had 4 or 5 subs.   The weather was good outside the tornado speed winds ripping across the field.   The play went back and forth for most of the first half with neither team taking full control.   There were some nice chances by both teams but nothing on the scoreboard until 1 minute left in the half.   I forget who hit this ball but it was a rocket, knuckler from just over the 18 that handcuffed me.   This shot was hit hard and moved all over the place eventually going from my left to the right.    I managed to get my hand on it but it still carried into the side netting.   One I would like back but a well deserved goal for Hamburg.

The second half starts off with Buffalo Celtic taking the restart, passing it to our outside mid who place a beautiful cross field pass to a wide open player who skips a pass to Richie for a beautiful finish from inside the 18.   Score tied at 1 within the first minute of the second half putting us back into the game.   A little bit later we added a second goal, again by Richie Brinkman, who expertly finished his penalty kick after one of the Hamburg defenders were called for a handball in front of his net.    A third goal with about 15 left I believed iced the game for us.   Armond June rifled a shot off the cross bar which I think was helped there by a nice save by Hamburg's keeper who played a great game, followed by a header off the bar by Josh Fritz that bounced to Richie's feet for a nice finish from close range.

Now here is were the fun started...not really, but it added a different ending to what was a great battle between the two teams.    With 3 minutes to play, we take the ball to the corner to help kill time.    Now, I have to admit, I hate this tactic as I feel it takes you away from what got you to be in the lead and open to losing control.    Hamburg pushes it out for a throw in.   The Hamburg player turned his back to the play and our guy plays it off his back for another throw in.   This happens three times before the ball goes over the fence and into the brush.   Hamburg is upset by these tactics and some of us are starting to voice our concern to get back to playing.   The Hamburg player, like a ninja, jumps the fence grabs the ball and jumps back over.    A little more than just upset at this point he guns the ball under hand at our player doing the throw ins catching him in the family jewels.    Our player responds by throwing the ball in off of this player as he ran back into position catching him in the back of the head I believe....well, all hell breaks loose and they, a unified front of Hamburg players, attack our guy who was throwing the ball in.    Once peace was restored and cards handed out we were able to finish play without any further incidents.   A real shame as it was a well played game.    I hope we either never have to play at Mulroy again or they get their act together and clean up that field before teams show up.   If this is a one off, than I am sorry for spouting off about the conditions but know that the league/teams pay good money to play there and that it should be in better condition/maintained.  

Buffalo Celtic goes into a big game on the Island Tuesday riding a 2-0-2 streak hoping to get into playoff contention