West Mifflin begin title defense with win in Borland slop

West Mifflin FC 2-1 Beadling

Vargo; Kutscher, Jeffrey, Pasternak, S. Hasson; Gauss, Pcholinski, Straw, Baguet; Stinner, James

Substitutes: M. Hasson, Wilkinson, Lee, Lacock

1-0 James (11)
1-1 Some Guy (20)
2-1 Lee (61)
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West Mifflin FC's GPSL season kicked off beneath dark clouds and a miserable mist of rain as Les Bleus welcomed Beadling to Borland Park to open their defense of the GPSL Championship Division title. Already without first choice left back Jordan Gasparovic to a Mother's Day picnic that started at 2:00p the defense looked a little shaky throughout. More uncertainty clouded the defense when ironman sweeper Tony Kutscher was lost to an apparent groin injury a quarter-hour into the second half. However, West Mifflin showed why they are defending champions as both the green and the gold combined to fire the Blues into their first victory of the 2012 season through the muck and mire of the chunky Borland pitch.

To compensate for Gasparovic's absence, as well as the paucity of strike options available at the start of the game, Manager Bob Stinner made two smart decisions with the starting line-up. New boy Sam Jeffrey slotted into the left back spot in place of Gasparovic, with veteran Etan Pasternak starting at right back in place of recently-retired Andrew Kufen. Kutsher started at sweeper while Sean Hasson (who smartly did not book a Mother's Day dinner reservation on the only day of the week that West Mifflin FC tries to train :-)) got the nod at stopper in place of the injured Cory Winters. The midfield picks itself and then, of course, Stinner started himself up top with Ark James so that he doesn't have to run that much.

The start of the game was open and clean, each team working the ball around the grimy, WWII replica battlefield as best they could. Jason Straw and Jared Pcholinski were a torrent of physicality in the middle of the park, sticking into tackles and loosing the ball from opponents while Steve Gauss and Matthew Alan worked the sidelines in tandem. Relatively quickly West Mifflin took the lead. After a series of passes in the middle of the park that I'm sure started with Stinner somehow, the ball came to Gauss who played a beautiful through-ball for James. The middle distance runner took onto it, rounded the keeper and slotted it in for his first goal for the Blues. It was a pretty finish and a ringing endorsement of the clubs scouting team.

Unfortunately, the lead was short lived. A bunch of stuff happened and the ball came out to the Beadling winger on the right. He miss-hit a cross that went straight towards Vargo. Vargo backpedaled, turned and leaped backwards only to see the ball drop into the net for the equalizer. It was a soft one but a soft one that can be excused given that the last time the WMFC keeper touched a football was in July in the championship match. But seriously Vargo, that was ridiculous. Just kidding...but seriously...A few minutes later the Borland crowd almost witnessed Stinner's first blown, wide-open header of the season. Matthew Alan received a pass on the left and saw Stinner streaking into the area. He wound up to send in the cross but it was blocked by a Beadling defender.

The Blues had two more clear chances that I can recall in the first half. Straw dispossessed a Beadling defender at midfield and was in one-on-one with the keeper when Matthew Alan, the little turdball, shouted, "CHIP!" Straw tried the chip and sent the ball towering over the net for the season's first skybomb (although it is debatable whether it should even be considered a Skybomb since it was a chip). Moments later, Stinner either stole the ball off of someone or was sent through with a chip and was in on goal. His stride didn't quite match up to the pace of the ball and he sent his shot uncharacteristically wide. Daveon had called for a pass as he streaked down the middle but as is typical, he waited until Stinner's foot was the 1/1,000,000,000th of an inch from taking the shot to call for the pass. Towards the end of the half, Beadling took control of the game and had the Blues pinned back in their half for the last ten or so minutes, but nothing came of the pressure and the teams went into the break tied at 1-1.

The second half was as nondescript as the first*. Other than the winning goal that we will get to in a moment, the only really exciting thing that happened was the season's first real, honest-to-goodness S K Y B O M B!!! Sean Hasson was clean through with a defender or two around and although the disgraceful Borland Park pitch may have had something to do with it, he sent the ball into the air equal to the height of the Freedom Tower and over the net. Not to worry though, moments later James and Lee (sounds like the main characters in a gun slingin' western flick) connected for the winning goal. I have no idea how it happened but the ball bounced around, James got clonked on the head and Lee leaped over three people and somehow put the ball into the net.

And that was it! The Blues start the season off 1-0 for the first time since 2010. They will look to make it four in a row dating back to last season when they take on DP United at (probably) Titan Stadium.

#COYBTWW

*this is code for "I can't remember anything that happened"