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| Stinner accepts a game ball on behalf of the 2011 GPSL Championship Division Champions. The Blues will refuse promotion. |
Sporting Club of Pittsburgh 0-1 West Mifflin FC
Vargo: Kutscher, Kufen, Gasparovic, Winters; Pcholinski, S. Hasson, Gauss, M.Hasson, Baguet; Stinner
Substitutes: Pasternak, Lee, Degerolamo, Isadore, Nickel, Lacock
0-1 Degerolamo (41)
Some turd - yellow card (76)
West Mifflin lined up Sunday for their second finals appearance since their re-institution as a Club. The combination of several eras of West Mifflin soccer came to a head; joining forces with a handful of friends and acquaintances to form a unit that when fully intact, plays some formidable football. It was West Mifflin's first ever GPSL Final and it was being played one day after their first ever GPSL Semifinal. It was a weekend of firsts for the Blues and they took to the E Pitch looking to bring home their first piece of silverware. Ahhh, fine, they were looking to secure their first piece of silverware...and they were looking to secure it from a bunch of absolute and total jerks.*
The last time these two teams met was back on July 10th at Schenley Oval when Sporting Club romped the Blues to the tune of three goals to nil. Of course, West Mifflin had played a makeup game the day before and only had eleven guys, so a clean-cut, objective picture of how good Sporting Club really are wasn't exactly clear. However, when the game kicked off, WMFC looked comfortable and poised.
It wouldn't have been a playoff game at Graham Park if it wasn't hot as fuck all and that's exactly what it was. The Blues started the game with a change in formation as they opted to go with five across the middle to combat a strong Sporting mid-field duo that torched the Blues the first time around. Pcholinski, Gauss, both Hassons and Matthew Alan formed a wall in front of Winters and the defense. Stinner started as the lone forward. The game started off a back and forth affair, each team having their share of possession. Sporting had a slight edge in possession, but West Mifflin followed their blueprint: soak up pressure and hit on the counter. The defense, yet again, was beyond stellar - it was outstanding. There isn't enough praise that can be heaped on the defenders and goalkeeper.
And thank the maker for them, because also just like the blueprint for the previous ten games of the season, the Blues offense's allergic reaction to putting the ball in and around the mouth...of the goal, was flaring. Stinner was the first to have a chance when he was played through brilliantly by Pcholinski. For the first time all season, Pcholinski didn't wait a split second too long to make the pass and force the forward into an offside position. Stinner was through on goal. He carried into the box and wound up for a shot but touched the ball just a tad too far and having to take a huge lead step, dragged his foot across the mud before sending a trademark dinker straight at the keeper. It was a sign, however.
After Stinner's chance, Sporting Club took over slightly, keeping the ball in the attacking end and knocking it around. They didn't really create many clean chances, but it was easy to see how the Blues may have been opened up three times in the previous meeting. Things settled a bit after that stretch though and the Blues regained their gusto. Several long balls were sent over the top of the spotty Sporting back four allowing the West Mifflin forwards to run on. As the game went on, the back four looked really exposed and as West Mifflin got more comfortable, a goal looked increasingly more likely. About four minutes before halftime, the breakthrough was made.
Anthony Michael James Earl Jones LOL Kid GARBAGE Degerolamo went the entire regular season without scoring a goal. In fact, I'm not even sure Degerolamo's shots on goal for the season extends to a second set of fingers. For a man with a K/D of 2.05, those numbers simply weren't good enough. It didn't help that a day earlier in WMFC's semifinal victory over Arsenal, Degerolamo squandered a couple chances to put the Blues ahead. He was visibly perturbed by this and Stinner noticed.
I said to him: don't be a bitch...you little bitch. When you go 8-10 do you cry about it? No, you go 35-3 the next match. YOU GAAAAARBAAAGGGGGEEEEEE!!!!!It had to have had some kind of affect on the forward because finally, after 961 minutes of drawing blanks, Degerolamo came through. Jared Pcholinski, carrying the extra burden of a 12 pound mosquito bite on his forehead, darted through the middle with the ball. He danced through defenders with Degerolamo out on his right. Just at the right moment, Degerolamo made a run towards the end line and Pcholinski placed the ball into this path perfectly. No failed spin-move needed here - only power. Degerolamo blasted it as hard as he could at the less-than-imposing goalkeeper. I can't say the keeper had no chance because I was on the bench at the time, but let's just say the finish was pretty like this.** With a firm understanding of Degerolamo's propensity to be a camping twatcup, it probably was lame, but it doesn't matter, because the Blues (who wear white - and who were playing against a team actually wearing blue) were 1-0 to the good, and they took the lead into the break.
West Mifflin rested up at the half, but there was a buzz around the bench area -the excitement from being close to a first championship. Or, it may have been the hangover oozing from Tony Kostelnik's pores. Either way, the mood at halftime was a relaxed anticipation to start the second half, knowing that the team was 45 minutes away from silverware. That confidence manifested itself in the Blues play the first 15 or so minutes of the second half. It only took ten and a half games (and granted, a full compliment of subs on the bench) but the Blues passed the ball around remarkably well. The ball went from: defense to the center mids to the wings, if there was nothing available there it went back to the center mids who would try the other side. If they couldn't get it to a winger it went back to the defense who would work it around amongst themselves and then back to the center mids - and so on and so forth. It was beautiful. Perhaps the work done at those one or two practices back in April and early May finally came to fruition. Ehhh, then again, probably not because it only lasted about a 1/3 of the half and what came next almost destroyed WMFC's hopes of pulling off the win.
Just before the shift from beautiful and fluent to disturbingly negative,Vargo made one of the best saves of the season. He was out cutting off the angle on a striker who had made his way into the area. With two defenders around him, he put a hard, low shot on target. It's really kind of hard to describe, but Vargo reached behind himself to stop the shot by pinning it against the ground. It was surely either going into the net or straight into the path of another Sporting player who would have put it in. It was a gem. Vargo played extremely well the entire game and made several really good stops. He was vocal and demanding the entire game, made good decisions and came and collected when needed.
It wasn't all moonlight and roses for the Blues, however. After that wonderful spell of Arsenal-esque passing, the Blues decided to try a little Birmingham - which would have been fine, except they took it to a dangerous extreme. Instead of keeping ten men inside their half of the field and pressuring the opponents up high, they kept ten men within their most defensive quarter of the field. The midfield were pushed all the way back between the center circle and the penalty area causing the defense to be packed up right behind them, leaving Sporting Club acres of space to mount an attack. Luckily, Mike Hasson noticed this and subbed on as a second central defender and sorted it out. After they got sorted out, the Blues were able to stretch Sporting, who had reverted to a 3-4-3.
West Mifflin had so many chances on the counter that I couldn't possibly describe them all here. The two most prominent chances involved Lee. On the first chance, he was clean through on the keeper with Sean Hasson outside of him. The goon of a defender had something as well, a fist full of Lee's shirt. Lee eventually broke free and the ref played the advantage but somehow the opportunity went begging. A second time the same goon nearly tore Daveon's pants clean off of his legs as the fleet-footed forward sped after a gorgeously placed through-ball sent rolling past the pressing Sporting midfield. The turd was the last man and clearly should have received a red card, but it was only a yellow. No one was complaining too much - other than Kostelnik who didn't even know the rule until someone on the bench said something - with the victory so close.
After a few more minutes the final whistle blew and the bench poured out onto the field. The Blues had done it - they can now call themselves champions. Who would have thought this would be how the 2011 season ended after getting trounced in that opening friendly, 4-0? After four seasons the cards finally all fell in exactly the right places at exactly the right time. It appears as though Managing Director Bob Stinner has found an ideal mix of youth and experience for his Manager, Bob Stinner to work with. So,congratulations to the boys. It was an outstanding season to be sure.
Thank you to all who played this year: all the regular players that have been playing since 1995 and 2008; players that came in midway through the season to provide cover for players on vacation, or at picnics that they could very easily have left and gone back to after the game but instead abandoned their teammates to play against a good team in the 98 degree heat and lose 1-0 on the fucking flukiest goal ever; all of the new guys that Bob Stinner scouted, negotiated with and signed all on his own no matter what anyone says and even though one of the two players that became centerpieces of the championship winning team are related to Mike Hasson and the other just so happened to play college soccer with Mike Hasson it was still all by Bob Stinner and Bob Stinner only and if there are any more signings in the future this truth will remain; and even players like Tom Klein who has been suffering with a lacerated vagina and Chris Reed who had his ACL torn by some tosser deserve thanks for their contributions earlier in the year.
It was fun boys. Let's try to do it again next year.
*I actually had no problem with anyone on the team.
**Barcelona, their players, their fans, basically anyone involved with them are complete and total c**tchops.
