Yaletown Football Club

WINTER TRYOUTS COMMENCE

YFC has opened its doors for experienced and interested players in playing Div2 with a great social and skilled team. All new and old players are welcomed as YFC is looking for players in all positions including goalkeeper.

Experience in Div 1 and/or 2 is an asset. We are a second Div team; therefore, 2nd Div or higher skill equivalent is a must.

Tryouts:

• Tryouts Begin Next Thursday Aug 7, 2008 @ 6:30pm. And will continue Every Monday and Thursday until the team is picked. 
• Tryouts will take place on Prince of Wales pitch (map)
• All new and old players are welcome and MUST attend tryouts to secure a place in the team.

Gear:

• Bring Running shoes as well as footy boots.
• And don’t forget water.

See you on the field.

Nima

nimafarah81@hotmail.com

YFC 8 - 0 Alianza

YFC played a relatively stress free match today against Alianza who only had 7 to start the match and ended with 9. Marvin De Cauwer, Aissa Aggoune, Dan Rankin, Jackson Castellanos, Nima Farahmand and Arnie Emmerson scored the goals to take an easy win from a depleted Alianza squad.

Heights FC 0 - YFC 1

On a day where something resembling “football” was played, YFC deservedly won 1-0 against an inept Heights FC side. From the get go YFC controlled the midfield and were consistently winning and keeping possession. Most of the 1st half was played in Heights’ half, with some slick passing and great movement throughout the YFC side. The defense was tremendous the entire game and a new fangled 3-2-3-2 formation bore some sweet fruit. With Jackson Castellanos and Stuart Trann playing just in front of a back 3 of Minoru Echizenya, Dan Rankin and Arkadius Was there was hardly a whiff at goal for Heights in the first half.

The goal came from a ball won by Man of the Match, Jackson Castellanos who then worked it across to eventually end up on the boot of Antonio Rabelo. Antonio then crossed beautifully to Steffen Mennekes at the far post who headed powerfully past the helpless Heights keeper. The goal seemed to throw Heights into a frenzy of name calling and screaming at their own players. This was just the beginning.

Heights continued to be ineffective in all areas of the park, with exception of a few central players who did quite well in the midfield and defense. Their main problem was getting so upset at just about everything. Their anger was directed at just about anything you could imagine, screaming at the ref, their players, YFC players… you name it, they got mad at it. A challenge from Martin Sosa brought their frenzy to a breaking point, the player involved in the challenge rose to lash out at Martin, throwing him to the ground. Inexplicably, the ref yellow carded them both when clearly the retaliation deserved something stronger.

Dirty play continued throughout the first half, with many hard body checks flying around and dangerous lunging tackles all over the pitch. A freekick to the left of the Heights goal resulted in a crowd around the ref, which eventually led to Nima Farahmand taking a sweet freekick that tipped off the keeper’s hand into the top corner. As YFC celebrated this beautiful goal, the players noticed the ref had blown for a foul of some kind. Somehow the freekick had been deemed indirect, and somehow the ref decided that no contact had been made by the Heights keeper and disallowed the legit goal. Definitely a bit of a head scratcher.

On to the second half, where perhaps 5-10 minutes in a Heights player ran by Stuart Trann claiming that he was going to punch the YFC keeper in the face for not picking up the ball soon enough. Stuart encouraged the player to give it a try and see what happens and he received a punch in the face himself. The referee had his back to the incident, and shortly after Stuart was red carded for a strong challenge on the Heights player who had struck his face. YFC was now down to 10 men for approximately 40 odd minutes.

YFC continued to play very well and created numerous scoring chances even with 10 men. Arnim Wiek had a great headed chance from close range go over the bar and Pierce Joneson was through on goal only to be body checked off the ball by a reckless Heights defender. The ref allowed this sort of physical play much to the chagrin of YFC who felt they deserved many a foul. One such tackle on Nima Farahmand was very cynical and could have caused serious injury, but luckily Nima escaped to play on.

The last 10 minutes of the match saw YFC tire a bit and they were hanging on for the 1-0 win with the possession going to Heights to finish the match. They were pressing hard and won a number of freekicks and corners that were well dealt with by Sherman Lai and the YFC defense.

YFC won this hard fought match by out playing their opponents in every aspect of the game. Unfortunately the match was marred by shameful behaviour from YFC’s opponents, one player repeatedly shouted racist remarks at our Japanese attacker, Kenji Okuma. Additionally the coach of the team took the time to run all the way around the pitch to confront Stuart Trann, swearing and cursing and eventually telling him that his team was going to jump him after the game. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to happen when you want to have fun and play football.

YFC 1 - Westside Strikers 1

YFC drew over the weekend on a sunny day at Adanac Park against a strong, organized Westside Strikers side. The game started rather even, but eventually Westside were able to control most of the play and almost all the first half was spent on the YFC side of the field. There were few attacking forays for YFC, and when the ball did move forward it was a bit haphazard. However a great freekick from Antonio Rabelo met Dan Rankin’s head only to go agonizingly wide. YFC played a 4-4-2 for the duration of the match, sticking with the winning formula from last week but the boys couldn’t seem to get anything going. The half ended 0-0 with the possession tilted towards Westside and perhaps the better chances too.

Ten or so minutes into the second half saw Westside break through with a well taken goal when their forward got in one on one with our last man and beat Sherman Lai low to the right. This forced YFC to chase the game, which has led to some decent play in recent weeks. A gilt edged opportunity presented itself half-way through the second half where Nima Farahmand broke away down the left wing. He made his way into the box and a few passes too many eventually led to Martin Sosa faking out his mark only to shoot into the keeper’s arms from 8 yards.  This was by far the best chance of the match and given the work YFC had to put in just to get the few chances they’d had, it felt as though the game was going to end in defeat. A freekick late in the match changed that however, with Antonio Rabelo stepping up to lob a long ball just inside the far post and under the crossbar. Westside’s keeper crossed a few wires it seemed and flailed at the ball as it went through his arms, while perhaps worrying about who was coming flying in to meet the freekick. The match ended shortly after in a deserved draw.

Man of the match went to Jackson Castellanos whose tireless play in central midfield resulted in many balls won and efficient build up play.

YFC 3 - Alianza 2

Yaletown picked up all three points Sunday afternoon with a well deserved and hard fought win against Alianza. The match started out badly for YFC, with Alianza players doing their best bulldozer impressions for our keeper,  John Bardsley and Alianza grabbing 2 goals in the opening 20 minutes. Shortly after the second goal, yet another reckless body check resulted in John hyper-extending his elbow and leaving the match with Sherman Lai replacing him.

However thats where the bad news ends. YFC took control of the match slowly starting close to the 20-25th minute, with the midfield working hard to cut off Alianza’s passing and the defense moving the ball forward well. Several breaks and good runs eventually led to Pierce Joneson being fed a sweet through ball around the 18. and he deftly put the ball past his mark and fired low and past the keeper. The celebration that ensued brought cheering from the Alianza bench as Pierce ran full tilt up the sideline twirling his shirt around his head. The play went YFC’s way the rest of the half with several good chances coming from corners through Dan Rankin’s head and a good chance for Gustavo Baratto. The next goal was also the result of yet another corner and it found Antonio Rabelo’s boot for a perfect, unstoppable volley and one of the best goals in any season. The half ended 2-2 shortly after.

When the 2nd half began the play kept going YFC’s way with hard work in defense limiting Alianza to no significant chances since their 2nd goal early in the match. Small patches of inconsistent possession marked most of the 2nd half, but the breakthrough eventually came. A good move down the left flank resulted in Pierce getting a shot in on goal that was saved and Gustavo cleaned up the rebound from 16 yards out to win the match.

Monte Cristo 5 - YFC 0

Not much to say here really, everything went wrong and this is a perfect example of how far below our potential we can perform.

YFC 1 - IFC Polonia 2

From all accounts this was one of the best matches YFC has played so far this Summer league. A goal from Arnim Wiek was cancelled out by 2 from Polonia, and perhaps a draw would have been a fair result.

YFC 6 - San Salvador FC 2

A serious goal fest with strikes from Nima Farahmand, Steffen Mennekes, Chris Platts, Arnim Wiek and 2 from Kenji Okuma. San Salvador pulled back 2 goals from the spot, but were controlled and well beaten in the end.

Salvadoreno 4 - YFC 0

Summer league can be a tough time for YFC as a few of our regulars during the Winter season do not play and we’ve lost a few key club members recently. This game YFC only were able to field 9 players and were beaten 4-0 as one would expect against a skilled Salvadoreno side. Recruiting is currently underway and we’ll hopefully beef up the squad a bit to avoid results like this.

El Salvador 3 - YFC 2

Yaletown played out their first loss of the summer in the second game of the MSA season. Against a skilled El Salvador side, YFC started a bit disorganized and were unlucky to concede the first goal on a rebound that fell perfectly to an El Salvador player.

The game was in El Salvador’s control for most of the first half hour but eventually YFC began to assert themselves by creating a couple chances with some good wing play.

After the restart, with the score standing at 1-0, some good passing and great movement in the midfield and wings resulted in great football. However most forays into attack resulted in ineffective finishing, and with Yaletown pushing hard for an equalizer spaces were left for El Salvador to exploit and they grabbed a nice second goal after a run into the box from the right winger.

YFC never gave up though and kept pressing, a pass from Jose Burgos found Nima Farahmand who finished low after a good run through the opposition defence. YFC continued to create chances, with shots from midfield, good passing behind the defence and crosses into dangerous areas but were unlucky on this night. El Salvador took full advantage of their chances all night and tucked one in from close range past first time YFC keeper, Fernando Villegas after a run from the right and a square ball onto the striker’s boot.

The game slowed down a bit, with YFC still pressing to score however some tired legs began to show and with no subs the likelihood of scoring dwindled. The referee, who did well all evening, saw a handball in the box after a YFC shot from the 18 and a penalty was awarded. Arnim Wiek stepped up and executed an unstoppable spot kick to the side netting with the keeper guessing correctly.

All in all YFC put in a good performance and were unlucky to concede first which made them chase the game and leave space for El Salvador’s skilled midfield and attack to take advantage of. The finishing wasn’t there today and the opposition did well with their chances.