VISITING
AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE
OCTOBER
2011
Carpathia
Kickers
Men's
1st Team
Forwarded
by Carpathia Donauschwaben
The Men’s 1st Team is currently playing through their 2011 MPSL
league schedule as well as participating in the Gerhard Mengel State
Cup and MPSL League Cup tournaments. They are currently in the quarter
final round of the GMSC and the semi fi nal round of the MPSL Cup.
This year’s team is being coached by first year coaches Sebastien
Gouverneur and Jeppe Lagerbohm. Both of these gentlemen had solid
playing careers for the team before stepping up to the coaching ranks.
They bring a wealth of soccer knowledge and high level experience
along with a youthful excitement. Adding veteran captains Ryan Rzepka
and Ian Daniel to this equation and you should have no doubt that this
team is in great hands.
As the 2011 preseason got underway, expectations and excitement grew
to almost a fever pitch as the team prepared to begin defense of its
2010 season winnings which included: MPSL League Cup Championship,
MPSL Premier Division Championship, USASA Region II Amateur Cup
Championship, and USASA National Amateur Cup Finalists. The 2010
season was going to be very difficult to follow up, but the roster was
shaping up to be as good as or even better than last year. The team
received a bye to the Michigan Amateur Cup final against Canton Celtic
FC which was played in early May. The boys started very strong finding
the back of the net early in the match but Canton managed to get a
hold on the match’s momentum and never let go.
Unfortunately, the Kickers ended up on the wrong side of a 4-1 result.
This was a pretty devastating blow to the squad and the club in
general, but the new coaches rallied the team in preparation for the
remainder of the season which included a return trip to the UGH Club
in Northeast Philadelphia (the site of the 2010 USASA Amateur Cup
Finals) for the National Donauschwaben Tournament on Memorial Day
weekend. A very positive attitude filled the air as the team prepared
for the weekend. By only allowing only 1 goal through four matches,
you would think the Kickers were firmly in the driver’s seat to make
the final.
But only scoring 2 goals in four matches won’t get you very
far….as the team unfortunately found out by missing out on the final
match for the second straight year. Fortunately, this team is filled
with positive thinking, never say die veteran leadership that would
not let these two negative situations detract from the remainder of
the season. The team responded with two solid MPSL League Cup wins to
land in the semi’s, and a closely fought second round GMSC win
against a team that we completely controlled for almost the entire
match. Coupling these two tournaments with a 2-1 start in league
play…things are shaping up to turn out much better than the season
started.
The team is really working hard to find that mix of players that will
finally start getting balls in the back of the net. We again have one
of the strongest defensive groups in the entire nation; we just need
to find the offense to complement that defense. To a man, this team
realizes and truly appreciates the support they have behind them and
are working as hard as they can to bring home every piece of hardware
that remains for them to win this season. We invite you to come on out
and watch the boys play, you will not be disappointed!
GO
KICKERS!!!
Mike
Dolan
1st
Team Manager
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