Who looks better in GOLD than we do??!! Huh?! I ask you! : )
That's right!...our talented team of party boyz, misfits, junkies, drunks, and one fossil blew into the Big Apple and came home with a shinny new Gold Medal...and one BIG ASS TROPHY from the 10th Annual NY Indoor Classic Tournament! WOO HOO!
As Matt Shambroom correctly stated as we all sat undressing, exhausted, after the Final, "It took all 9 of us!"...and it did! This is a grueling, one-day, day-long tournament that I've expereinced for at least 7 of the 10 yrs it's been held, and Jay Higa, Kevin Vilke, and Brian Burns have also experienced the torture a couple years each too.
There were a total of 14 teams entered into the tourny and games started on Satruday at 12Noon and our Final ended somewhere around 10:30pm that nite. Each team played 6 "preliminary round" games lasting 16 minutes each (no halftime) and then the top 12 teams advanced to the playoffs with the top 4 of those getting a "bye" the first round. The Spikes played a total of 9 games this day.
First, the basics! Our 9 teammates consisted of (in alpha order by first name): Adel, Barry, Brian B., Gil, Jason Davis, Kevin Vilke, Matt Shambroom, Patrick J., and Thorsten. For those who dont know, Jason and Kevin recently left our rainy climate for the snowier one of NYC in the last year or two, but we were thrilled to have them with us this weekend! They are Spikes FOREVER!
The 14 teams consisted of 2 from Boston, 3 from NYC, 2 from DC, 2 from Team Americas, 1 from Toronto, 1 from Philly, 1 from Atlanta, 1 from Florida, and the Spikes. The tournament draw happened at the bar party Friday nite, and the Spikes ended up in a bracket with: DC Risky Business (their 2nd team), Boston 1, Americas NY, Toronto, NY Harlem 1, and Atlanta (I swear...we ALWAYS play ATL in a tourny!).
The Spikes went 5-1 for the 6 Preliminary round games, with the results and goal scorers for each listed above.
The Toronto game was unfortunately more lopsided than we would have normally liked. But after the loss to the Americas in the previous game, and with Boston, Americas and us all having 1 loss, we needed to get our goal differential up as high as we could to get in the top 4 teams and get a bye the first round of the playoffs. Unfortunately, Toronto was the vicitim of that strategy; but it worked.
The Spikes ended up as the #2 team in the overall standings after the Preliminary Round. The top 4 were:
#1 - NY Green (5-0-1)
#2 - SF Spikes (5-1-0)
#3 - Americas NY (5-1-0)
#4 - Boston 1 (5-1-0)
This meant that 3 of the top 4 teams in the tourny came from our bracket! After a first-round playoff bye, the Spikes had to play the Atlanta team again in the Quarterfinals. And they had gotten much better during the day. But we started out strong and went up steadily in the game to a 3-1 lead. Then, with about 2 minutes left, ATL scored again as we got caught upfield a little too much and narrowed it to 3-2. But we held firm for the last 2 minutes and won the game by that margin. Adel had 2 of our goals and Thorsten the other.
We then faced the Americas NY team again in the Semi-final, the one we had lost to earlier in the day. The first game was not a good one for us as we did not play "our game" and the way we know how to play. This time, we started out from the first whistle playing as "The Spikes" and with the confidence that when we do play "our game", there's few teams that can beat us.
But this is my FAVORITE PART of this tourny!! : ) About 2 minutes into the game, my buddy, my team-joining-partner, my all, Miss Confederacy, Patrick Johnston, gathered a bouncing ball about 3 yards or so inside the mid-field line on the left side of the field. He then side-winded a waist-high ball on a full volley with his LEFT FOOT that shot like a frickin' ROCKET past the other team and the Americas' goalie into the top left corner of the net! SWOOOOSH! 1-0 Spikes! The "shot heard 'round NY" shocked Americas (and us as well!!) and set the tone for the entire game! Patrick's goal was easily THE GOAL OF THE TOURNAMENT for the Spikes...and probably for all the teams! Spectacular!!
We rode that momentum to a 2-1 lead thru the first 9 minutes of the game with Thorsten getting the other goal. Then, with about 2 minutes left in the Game, and the Spikes on a "power play", Thorsten rocketed his 2nd goal of the game into the net to put us up 3-1 and that's how it ended...earning us a place in the Final at the expense of our arch-rivals. ; )
Meanwhile...on the OTHER side of the bracket....the NY Green team that was seeded #1 had lost to the NY Harlem team that we barely beat in the preliminary round. That NY team then went on to face the #1 DC team in the SemiFinal on that side that went into OT and then to PK's (that also lasted forever). Finally...one of the NY guys netted his PK about 15 feet over the goal and DC Spin was our Final opponent.
The Final was an awesome game!! It was alot of back and forth, even though I strongly believe the Spikes dominated the play and easily had the better chances on goal the first 8-10 minutes. In fact, we hit the yellow tape that outlined the goalposts of DC's goal SO MANY TIMES in the first 8 minutes that it was practically peeling off! About a dozen shots hit the outside of the post or 6 inches to the outside of the post in the first 8 minutes. Finally...Adel broke the scoreless tie about 10 min. into the game on a pretty fake and shot that alluded their goalie. But DC came right back and tied it up a min. later on a strong shot from their best forward. Then Gil came thru for us with about 3 min. left and and put us up 2-1 (for good, we hoped). But DC pressed and squibbed in a goal with less than a min. left to tie it up 2-2. Overtime! 3 minutes worth (no golden goal).
None of us wanted to go to PK's on this...least of all Kevin! : ) Both teams pressed for the winner up and down. With about 50 seconds to go, Jason gave me a thru pass that I tried to tip/deflect just past the arms of their diving goalie and into the corner; but it went just wide by a few inches. The ball then went back and then to the oppposite corner where yours truly controlled it, and heard Gil yell: "Barry top!!" (I thought he wanted me to "top" him at first....). I sent the ball that direction and Gil launched a beautiful half-volley, left-footed shot that snuck in under the crossbar in the top corner. There was about 20 seconds left when DC hurried the ball to kick off again, but they couldnt muster another shot in that time and the Spikes had their first Gold Medal in the NY Indoor Classic, 3-2! : )
This was truly a TEAM effort! As Matt said, it took all 9 of us, and all our energy and skill to survive this tourny and day. I want to especially acknowledge the work that Kevin did for us in Goal all day. After not really playing much for the past year, Kevin just got stronger as the day went on and made several show-stopping saves that helped us along the way! THANKS KEV! : ) And while Adel, Thorsten, and Gil dominated the scoring for us, there was no way we win this without the VERY strong defensive skills of Patrick, Jason and Brian, and strong midfield play from Matt.
Thanks again and Congratulations NUEVA YORK SPIKES for a fun-loving, hard-playing, story-telling, story-making, UNFORGETTABLE weekend!!! Gold looks GREAT on us!!! : )