16 Feb 2009 | Rugby

BOYS YOUTH SOCCER PREPARING FOR PLAY OFFS

After two months of games , players from the Intermediate Youth Soccer League are readying themselves for the play offs which commence next week. Final standings going into the play offs are as follows:

FINAL STANDINGS

VOPAK OILERS 16 pts
AC MILLIES 12pts
CABLE BAHAMAS STARS 3 pts
GB SHIPYARD WANDERERS 2 pts

Whilst the league standings appear to show Vopak Oilers and AC Millies are the favourites to progress to the final , In reality it will only take some minor tweaking for Cable Bahamas and GB Shipyard to move from ‘also rans’ to ‘serious challengers’ .

Bar about two games this season, all matches have been very evenly balanced with two goals at the most separating the teams.

Vopak Oilers have consistently proved to be the team to beat and somehow manage to find a way to win their games. With Mel and Nathan shoring up the defence and Joey and Michael adding energy in midfield this team still looks difficult to beat.

AC Millies have a youthful team full of recent graduates of Coach Brad’s and Coach Randy’s Under 11s programme. Dean, Michael and Trevor may all be small in stature BUT they are all good ball players and can be happy with how they have accustomed to the ‘big league’

Cable Bahamas Stars have surprisingly struggled but certainly have the players to create an upset. Between Aldeir, Dan the Man and Liam there is a good chance this team could spring a surprise.

Similarly GB Shipyard will be looking to players such as Aaron, Adam and Alex to cause the upset. Indeed they were close to beating their next opponents (Vopak) in their last round of games.

Playoffs begin February 18th at 5pm at Freeport Rugby & Football Club with the following games:

Vopak vs GB Shipyard

Cable Bahamas v AC Millies

All parents and spectators are welcome.

The Intermediate Youth Soccer League forms an integral part of the Dolly Madison Youth Soccer Academy. Please contact Mark Hardy at 357 5403 or mhardy_srph@yahoo.com for more information

Club youngsters defeat visitng US team

16 Feb 2009 | Rugby

BOYS SOCCER TEAM DEFEAT VISITING FLORIDA TEAM

A late 30 yard ‘ screamer ‘ from Sam Taylor helped seal a well deserved victory by Dolly Madison Youth Soccer Academy against the visiting Westminster from Fort Lauderdale at Freeport Rugby & Football Club on Saturday.

Taylor’s goal with 10 minutes to goal capped a fine overall team performance over the two days by the Grand Bahama side and put his team into an unassailable 4:2 lead in the game. Earlier , the local Academy side , featuring the best 14 to 18 year olds on the island , had stunned their visitors with a lightening quick two goal burst in the first 2 minutes of the game. Less than half of the players on the pitch had touched the ball after the initial kick off before Taylor had burst through a stagnant opposition defence to slam the pull past the keeper for his team’s opening goal. Within a minute the score was doubled as Marco Borsetto continuing his efforts from the previous evening danced his way through the defence to make it 2 ; nil after less than two minutes.

Credit must be given to the visiting team who could easily have buckled at this point but they defended manfully and fought back well. The game appeared to be well and truly won once Jason Raad added a third goal midway through the half for the Freeport team who thus went into the half time interval 3 goal to nil to the good.

However as the local team began experimenting with formations and players , the visitors got back into the game with a long range shot early in the second half. Indeed a looping header with 20 minutes to go from Westminster forced a rethink by the local coaches who had previously looked to ‘sit on their lead’. Now with a quarter of the game left their team now had to look to win the game once again and thus a more attacking formation was played with the team switching to 442 once again.. This resulted in Sam Taylor’s second goal to secure to secure the victory.

The previous night had since a much more comprehensive victory for the local team by 4 goals to nil. Whilst the score line flattered the local team slightly, they did play far better football on the Friday. The midfield and forwards in particular worked very well together and created some excellent moves. Local coaches Andrew and Henry were particularly pleased with Richardson and ‘Gunsov ‘Navarrone who helped ‘steady the ship’ after the local team was put under pressure in the early stages. However a couple of tactical changes by Freeport helped the team solidify the midfield and get back into the game. Perhaps as a prelude to the following evening, Freeport stunned the visitors with two goals in quick succession as the effervescent Chris Malakious scored two goals in 3 minutes. The first was particularly impressive as he turned his defended and unleashed a powerful shot into the net that left the keeper rooted to the spot.

As the local team continued to press forward they were unlucky not to increase their lead as both Borsetto and Roberto hit the woodwork. Eventually both players (Marco Borsetto and Roberto Bascon) did indeed score to make the final score 4 nil to Dolly Madison Youth Academy.

Their Head Coach Mark Hardy was pleased with the overall performance of all his players but singled out his defenders as the foundation of the team‘s 2 victories. He noted that the performances of Kingsley, Tristan Phillips, Preston Rolle, and Kevin Charlton gave the rest of his team the foundation to build upon . Some of these guys played out of position but all of them were immense and , whilst they did not score, they all played a large part in the two victories.

Coach Hardy took the time to thank the visiting team for coming over adding that they hoped to travel to the US next year and , in addition, aim to bring additional teams over in conjunction to Westminster so that a proper soccer tournament could be held. He also expressed his gratitude to the game officials ( Eon, Eon and Ghassan) and the committee at Freeport Rugby & Football Club ( especially James , Phil and Kirk ) for their hard work in assisting to get the weekend running smoothly.

The Dolly Madison Soccer Academy continues to run every Wednesday from 5pm at Freeport Rugby & Football Club.

WEEKEND BONANZA

15 Jan 2009 | Rugby

who said there is nowt to do in Freeport !

Well mosey on down to the club this weekend to see more sport than you can shake a mid-sized stick at .

It is a busy week for football ( the real type not this namby pamby one you have wear pads for ) and rugger ( now THATS a rough sport and no pads – unless you were cabin boy) in Grand Bahama as:

visiting Westminster Academy High School varsity girls and boys teams from Fort Lauderdale arrive to play games against two local select youth teams

the flakes from Kelloggs come in for some good old fashioned fisticuffs on the rugby field

The Westminster boys team visited in December 2007 and played the Dolly Madison Youth Academy boys, winning their first game and tying their second. They enjoyed that experience and decided to come once again, this time bringing along their girls’ team.

The games schedule will be as follows:

Friday, January 16 – Girls at 5:30pm
Boys at 7:30pm

Saturday, January 17 – Girls at 10am
Boys at 6pm

Jumbled up between the 2 footy games on saturday is the rugby game at 2.30 – 3 ish which will followed by good natured banter and light revelry in anticipation of the second boys football game.

Head Coach of the Dolly Madison Youth Academy, Mark Hardy said he was extremely pleased to be renewing acquaintances with Coach David Bishop and his team. “The games last year were extremely competitive and more importantly everyone involved enjoyed the occasion. We look forward to continuing the interaction in the years to come, as it makes for a great experience for the players, on and off the field,” said Hardy.

Coach David Bishop of the Westminster Academy boys team said, “It is a highlight of our soccer year to compete against this team. The Bahamian teams are so incredibly talented, and our boys really enjoy playing against them. We also enjoy spending time in the beautiful Bahamas, as we do some mission work. This year we’re glad to bring our girls’ varsity soccer team as well.”

Coaches Donnie and Mary Knowles who also run their successful girls programme from the Club are also looking forward to pitting their wits against the US team in a highly anticipated match .

Come down and join us