Pelicans FC Blue

The Pelican’s got one point out of a possible 6 in their last two matches, tying Ouzo 2-2, and losing to FC "Yeah!" 1-3.
Game Facts
Ouzo def. – noun
an anise-flavored, colorless liqueur of Greece
Hangover def. – noun
1. the disagreeable physical aftereffects of drunkenness, such as a headache or stomach disorder, usually felt several hours after cessation of drinking.
2. something remaining behind from a former period or state of affairs.
3. any aftermath of or lingering effect from a distressing experience
In taking these two definitions, we can put a message into the first half performance vs. the Greek Bastages.
Looking to rebound from the previous loss in game 1 of the season 0-5, started slow. Chasing the central midfielders for Ouzo, who ran like gazelles, through a field of wheat, the Pelican’s initial game strategy did not work. The Ouzo midfield found seams inside the Pelican midfield, and through the flanks, and quickly took a 0-1 lead, on a great finish from 35 yards after a poor defensive clearance. Their second goal came on a counter attack, as the Pelican’s were on the defensive most of the half trying to figure out the strategy to defend and attack this aggressive team. A team that has scored more goals in D2 than any other team. Down 0-2 at the end of 45, the Pelican’s decided a different strategy. In lieu of forcing an offsides trap, they dropped, and let the attack come at them. With an active goalkeeper making save after save, they proceeded to keep the Ouzo attack out of the goal, and began striking up their own attack through attacks from the right flank and Ricky Wells. Although no defender in D2, can handle the speed and agility of one Mr. Wells, agent 007, the Pelican’s found difficulty getting him the rock in the first half. The second half was an entirely different story. Brian Halloway, and the Pelican Midfield found energy from strong tackles from Bryce Boggs, Justin Patteson, and the Pelican’s defense, transitioning behind the Ouzo midfield into streaming flowing attacks. The opening came midway through the second half, as the Pelicans found Londell McGlone in the penalty area, where he was agressively fouled (which may have come to haunt him in the later part of the game) and awarded a penalty kick. After giving anonymous short goalkeeper for Ouzo a sneaky look to the right corner of the net, Josh Abebe finished expertly into the left side of the net. 1-2, Ouzo, with the Grecian squad, starting to crack from the insides. Turmoil ensued, as the two dominant midfielders for this team appeared only to play with themselves, both literally and figuratively, not passing to anyone else on their team.
On an ensuing counter attack by the Pelican’s, with everyone pushed forward, and all of Ouzo pushed back, Ricky Wells, beat his man for the 27th time in the half, and launched a cross into the 18, which landed at about the 12, onto a defenders head.
The ball careened out to the edge of the 18, where Josh Abebe proceeded to take a posessing touch, and a second touch left footed volley, which slammed off the crossbar, landing behind the line, and then in the back of the net. 2-2, which was where the game ended up, even though it shouldn’t have…
With 9 goals going into the Ouzo match, Londell McGlone was the Pelican’s leading goalscorer for the year. With a keen eye for goal and finishing on breakaways and 1 on 1 shots outside the 18, Londell hasn’t missed many he should make…but…in the 89th minute, Ricky Wells proceeded to beat his opponent on the right side of the midfield, like he stole something. The 28th time he beat him, he continued his run up the touch line, where he placed a trickling ball across the 6 yardline with an awaiting and excited Lonnie. With is woman yelling at him on the sideline, the goal was all but in the back of the net, when he mishit the finish, trickling the ball just wide of the post. 2-2 finish, good comeback by the Pelicans. Good resliency, and good game-time adjustments by the entire team.

The second game in this post found the Pelican’s in their semi-final match of the Perin Cup. Advancing further and further each year, winning this match would put the Pelicans in the final vs. either GA Tech, or their sister/brother team Pelican’s White. Their match this day was vs. FC Ljiljan.
Blue fell down early, as FC "Yeah," started a trend that the Blue side would not be able to stop…On a one-on-one with the goalkeeper FC Skeet Skeet finished the first of their three goals. The Pelicans showed resiliency, and were never out of this game, even though the scoreline did not show it, as they came back from down 0-1, to tie the score up. Going into the second half it was much more of the same, with the Dirty South Bosnians, finding range on a sequence of break-aways and short handed runs, putting the Pelicans down 1-3, which was the final score. The Blue side showed that they could play at the first level, by keeping constant pressure on the opposing goalkeeper, and in the opposing 18. With several chances, and posession in the final third, the Pelicans side was beat solely on counter attacks, and typically against the run of play. Good tough game, thanks to Lawrence Monroe, and Drew Millet with their unsung contributions in the back.
Next match vs. arch rivals Bafana, 2/20, @ 1pm @ ACC. Let us seek to, "…crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of women."

(Stone Mountain, GA – January 29, 2011 – by Alex Cameron) Pelicans FC Division 2 team (Pelicans FC Blue) played Sting Gold at Granite Park for the final spot for the Perrin Cup quarterfinals. It was certainly a showdown to remember and came to be one of the greatest fights in Pelicans history. Sting Gold, a Division 1 team that has a name for making it far in the Perrin Cup Tournament, had their hopes and dreams cut short in an upset that just about made them cry like babies after the final whistle. The match consisted of brutal tackles, world-class saves, and excellent movement from key players on both squads. Let’s review how the underdog Pelicans wrapped up a 2-1 victory over Sting Gold.

For most Pelicans, it has been many years since anyone had played under the lights. Arriving early and warming up, the Pelicans were determined to chalk a “W” and keep their Cup chances alive. At the start of the game, Pelicans FC took strong possession and moved the ball well through their central midfielders Josh Abebe and Bryan Hollaway. Sting was unable to gain control and found themselves playing kick ball. With Drew Millet and Aleks ‘the Bull’ Zhelyazkov holding a defensive stance as stopper and sweeper, those long balls were short lived from strong man marking and well executed off-sides traps. The first strong attempt at goal came in the 15th minute from a quick counter attack in the mid line where Hollaway made a sharp pass to Abebe who sent a floating through ball to striker Alex ‘the self proclaimed stud’ Cameron. With the keeper charging, Cameron’s low strike to the far post was saved by the keeper’s big toe. Momentum had strongly grown in favor of the Pelicans.

As the game went on, both teams became more physical. Brel Clark, outside mid, ended a Sting counter attack when nearly injuring Sting’s top goal scorer in a 50/50 ball. The 6’14’’ Sting striker came down hard landing on his shoulder after Brel quickly used his low center of gravity to flip him off his back. More and more tackles acquired in frustration for both teams and Pelicans defender, Richard Murray – outside back, found himself head to head in the air (literally). Forced to come off the field because of a bloody nose, Murray later on said “it was a tough play for both of us, you should see the other guy!” Murray would not return to the match and x-rays later revealed a broken nose.

Back and forth, opportunities arose. In the 25th minute, Pelicans created havoc when Hollaway made a precision cross to outside mid Ricky Wells. As the ball cleared over the 18 and to the corner of the 6, Wells put his head on a ball that sailed over the keeper into the far side netting. Truly a goal to remember! It’s incredible how Wells has managed to score many goals from his hot spot! Excellent work by Wells and Hollaway!

With a 1-nil lead, Pelicans only gained more momentum. The second goal came in the 35th minute when Striker Lonnie McGlone acquired the ball on the outside 18. He made some impressive moves, juked two defenders, pushed the ball central and shot a rocket over Sting’s keeper in the upper netting. Truly a perfect strike for the teams leading scorer! Pelican’s fans were chanting, hooting, and hollering as the half ended at 2-0.

After halftime, Sting Gold came out with vigor and crashed the Pelican’s goal with nearly every player for 45 minutes. It was a defensive battle full of constant through balls and crosses in the Pelicans back line. Luqman Abdur-Rahman (Sweeper) held his defense tight and any through ball that got past him was quickly swept up by all-star keeper Aaron Ingham. The game took a change when Sting was awarded a penalty kick after a controversial tackle in the box. Keeping his cool, Ingham read which side the kicker was targeting and made an incredible diving save off the line. But wait! It get’s better… Following up on the rebound, the Sting midfielder had his second opportunity to score; however Ingham shut him down again with back-to-back saves and cleared the ball out of threatening territory. The play was truly one of the best thus far this season!

With the penalty as a wake up call for both teams, momentum only grew for Sting and they caught some luck when finishing off a deflected shot from Ingham. Aaron later said “Hey, I can’t make every save! Ever heard of the law of large numbers??” With the game at 2-1, both teams made strong efforts with a barrage of counter attacks and tedious tackles. Sting even had 3-4 free kicks from scoring distance to even up the match, but the final whistle blew and the Pelicans had done what nobody expected!

Everyone on the Pelicans squad was elated with victory, relieved, and exhausted. With this win under their belts, PFC Blue will be meeting the winner of FC Ljiljan in the quarterfinals. Great victory by PFC Blue and stellar goalkeeping by Aaron Ingham!

PFC Blue continues their push towards the top of the regular season table… Get out there and cheer them on!! Til next time…

(Sandy Springs, GA – November 21, 2010) – Pelicans FC Blue stepped on to the pitch determined to continue their dominance over a feisty Bafana team. Bafana, which is South African for "the boys" were just that on the day, "boys"!

Following a match that saw the Pelicans FC Blue squad drop hot fire on Havoc 6 times over, Bafana knew a clean sheet was as likely as a Noah Fasil Abebe diaper weighing less than 5 pounds after an afternoon snack, that boy is massive!

And so the match started with a quick yellow card handed out by Josh Abebe’s idle and boyhood hero, Ali "the blind, def, dumb and lazy referee", for what surely looked to be weapon on the Bafana midfielder’s wrist, or was it just a yellow Livestrong bracelet. Why was he wearing a bracelet, I’ll reference the earlier part about "the boys".

Bafana took it on the chin early withstanding the Pelicans barrage, but even Glass Joe gets lucky every once in a while, and they were able to sneak one in finding the back of the net midway through the first half. Pelicans FC Blue gathered at halftime to regroup down 1-0. PFC Blue knew they had Bafana in the cross hairs, and it showed as they continued the early first half attacks and found the net twice behind goals from Bryan Hollaway and Sam Hamilton.

Somehow Bafana kept it interesting, and down 2-1, they brought it level off a second counter attack goal. PFC Blue had seen enough and unleashed “The Crackin” who netted the match winner and 2nd goal to put the match away with less than 10 minutes left. A wiley fan on the sideline erupted on the 3rd goal. In her pink plush track suit she yelled out “Lonnie”, “Lonnie"... “it’s about time you scored after missing all those other chances!”

A second strong performance by the Pelicans FC top team showed that the 6-0 drubbing of Havoc FC wasn’t a fluke and earned the squad their 3rd regular season win on the season. PFC Blue currently sits as of this match at 3-2-2.

The Pelican’s Blue Squad, arrived at ACC with fire in their eyes. A fire that spit out a rain of heat from the eyes of the River Hades, which rained upon the unassuming Havoc squad, early and often.
En route to a 6-0 win, the Pelican’s found goals from Ricky Wells, Ricky Wells, Brian Halloway, Ricky Wells, Ricky Wells, and Sam Hamilton.
If you are curious to how the game went, Ricky scored with his face, his hand, and his feet. From good shots off the foot, deflections, and header goals, after Ricky Wells was done, there wasn’t a whole lot left from the Havoc team for Sam and Brian to finish off.
Up 2-0 at the half, after dominating not only posession, but the SOG stats, the Pelican’s managed to continue the shut-out from solid performances out of the back. Goalkeeper Aaron Ingham made several key saves, and had some assistance from the crossbar, en route to completing his shut-out. Editor’s MOM Justin Patteson played a key role in shutting down Havoc’s top goalscorer, and Alex Cameron made their best player run all over the field, before he agreed to switch positions, in order to get the ball more, and to try to make more happen on the field.
A very complete and dominating victory, and a good bounce back from the Pelican’s, as they ran over, around, and through Havoc.
The challenge will be to put two matches like this in a row. Next match versus Bafana on 11/21, @ 11am. Bafana is 1-3-2, but has put up an average of 3.5 goals a game, with leading scorer Shaun Camay with 10 goals on the season. Over six games, they have 21 goals.
Quote of the day:
I must break you. – Drago, Rocky IV
Determination
Persperation
Championship