Crusaders FC 1 Buffalo Celtic 1

Another week and another game that we had let slip away. Outside of our week 1 loss were we were sleeping for the first 20 minutes of the game and Crimson Spal ran all over us we feel that we should of won each of our games this year only to lose a lead late and/or not put it away when we had the chance to end up with a close loss or tie. Outside of one of the nets being crooked the field at West Seneca was is great shape. Both teams came with several subs which was very much needed in the heat yesterday especially for some of the older players on the pitch (All on Celtic as they are young and in shape with a Crusaders forward saying I am older than his dad which was only made funnier as my sweeper who is 11 days older than me was right behind him laughing at me). Then it got a bit awkward with him saying something about having big old balls for playing so far up the field...weird but I guess he was giving me a compliment.

First half saw chances for both sides and as has been the case all year we missed too many of what were almost surefire goals by not even putting them close to frame OR even worse taking 1 too many touches and losing the ball. Crusaders were awarded a free kick for a hand ball that was at least 4 or 5 yards outside the box. Now had the linesman, Jorge, been in position he would of seen that the inadvertent hand ball was outside the box and could of helped the Referee make the right call. I will say that our referee did do a great job yesterday and his other linesman was working hard up and down the line. The Crusader taking the PK shot a rocket off my left post causing the ball to bounce out to an oncoming Crusader who shot another rocket to my right that I was able to get a hand to and carry wide. Crisis averted, thanks Jorge. A short time later another rocket was fired into the box that deflected off of one of our defenders that I was able to get a paw to and keep the score at 0 going into half.

The second half saw a number of opportunities for both sides only to have the score stay at 0. Both sides had plenty of chances but just could not finish. Midway through the 2nd Richie Brinkman takes a shot towards net from an extremely bad angle that went through the hands/legs of their keeper and rolled in to give Celtic the 1-0 lead. Short time later a Celtic forward was sprung on a break away, goalie falls down in front of him and somehow we still manage to hit him with the ball...not sure how we managed to not score but that is the story of our season so far. With about 5 or 6 to go, the Crusaders found themselves wide open in front of net just beyond the 18 and hit a rocket that dipped just in front of me to my left to tie the game. One I would like to have back as I would normally have those smothered but great shot and well deserved on their part. We seemed to be gassed a bit at that point and did not close the guy down in time. Another tie in a game we felt we should of won.

Our Man of the Match was Clement Dousteyssier, our French Import, that played amazing on defense for us. He was routinely left shutting down 2 players most of the game by himself. We are exploring our options of making his loan deal from PSG permanent. Will keep you all posted on contract talks. I am told this is the first game they had all of their players at and will say to all the teams that played them before this week...you were lucky as these guys can play. If they continue to get numbers to games than I am thinking they are going to be moving up the standings quickly.