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A fine afternoon for the Pelicans

Posted by Pelicans FC - Manager at Mar 4, 2010 9:54AM PST ( 0 Comments )

EAST POINT, GA (February 28, 2010) — Screaming Pelicans moved into 4th in the table standings by hitting a depleted AMG Silverbacks for seven at Atlanta Christian College.

The Pelican side proved they can prosper without their duo of Hollaway and Wells on the outside as goals from Josh Abebe (two), Lawrence Monroe, Drew Millett, Luqman Abdur-Rahman, Jem McAbee and Mike Lamond set the seal on a fine afternoon for the Pelicans.

It moved them up to 4th ahead of Havoc with a +4 goal differential.
AMG managed two consolation goals but the Silverbacks side has now failed to win in their last ten league games.

Pelicans dominated from the start and Josh Abebe could have put them up in opening minutes. But the Ethiopian international failed to beat the goalkeeper with his early shot. The Ethiopian International, also known to his fellow Ethiopian fans as JopoSumbaHopo BopoBopo, put the Pelican side ahead in the seventh minute with his second strike.

The buildup was beautiful and paid off when BopoBopo placed the ball into the net with swift precision of a toe ball.
Lawrence Monroe went for a header inside the 6 when Ricky Well’s cross found him cutting across only to be fouled for the PK. Abebe added a second for Pelicans in the 17th minute with his clinical finish on the PK.

AMG’s first real attempt on goal arrived in the 23rd minute but AMG big man striker’s shot from the edge of the six area was saved by Cantonis leaving a rebound that left him scrambling to make a second save.

AMG had not won in the league since beating Wings Select in November and they were not in the same class as the Pelicans. Playing shorthanded did not help their cause either.

The gulf was underlined in the 28th minute when the Pelicans went 3-0 in front with another simple move.

In the 37th minute, McAbee got clear of the AMG defense yet again and finished his first goal of the season for the Pelican side. But it mattered little as Pelicans made it 4-0 a few minutes later with Mike Lamond cleaning up a loose ball after the AMG keeper was unable to hold on after making a great save.

Pelicans were now playing some vintage stuff and moments later Lawrence Monroe was only denied by his own doing before Pelicans were cheered off the field at the interval.

Pelicans made a few changes at half-time. Captain duties were given to Abebe aka BopoBopo as Monroe took a rest. Luqman Abdur-Rahman got a second half start up top in place of Lawrence Monroe, who collected a slight knock midway through the first half.

But Pelicans still dominated and in the 52th minute, Drew Millett notched his first goal after being sidelined for 3 months and it was pure simplicity for Pelicans.

AMG hit back in the 70th minute when the AMG midfielder fired home a free kick after Pelican defender Justin Patteson was tossed from the match. Justin thought for a minute he was reenacting the Nick Forester Charleston bar fight where Nick got slapped by a woman who stood all of 4 feet tall.

But Pelican’s sixth duly arrived in the 73rd minute when Luqman tallied his 3rd goal on the season when he beat the keeper from just inside the 18.

AMG got another one back on a counter attack, making it 6-2 and the Pelican side finished making it 7-2 in the 85th minute when Monroe tallied his first goal of the match.

Next week, we play Ga Tech FC at 1pm at SPSU. Remember to go to the website, or if you can’t, shoot Steve a text or e-mail stating your attendance. It’s imperative that you do that or you too will be given a new name using the African Name Generator and feel the wrath of Steve “SumbaTopoVumba CopoNopoTembeNembeSumba” Cantonis! Josh… I love you man!

ON Sunday 3/7, it will be our first game against a Tech team that now has 2 Pelican players from last seasons squad. As Josh said last week, I want them to remember us and to do that we will need to out work them and pressure to the very end to earn a W in this much anticipated match up.

- Pelicans FC Match Report Details -

STARTING SIDE: A. Zhelyazkov, C. Reilly, J. Patteson, J. McAbee, D. Sanogo, L. Monroe, M. Skurski, J. Abebe, D. Millett, D. Johnson, S. Cantonis

SUBSTITUTE: L. Abdur-Rahman, M. Ricketts, M. Lamond

MATCH: Screaming Pelicans FC vs. AMG Silverbacks
DATE: February 28, 2010
TIME: 1pm ET
COMPETITION: League Match

VENUE: Atlanta Christian College
ATTENDANCE: A lot
WEATHER: Sunny

EAST POINT, GA (February 21, 2010) — First let me introduce myself. My name is Josh Abebe, I don’t know what Farmville is, I do have a facebook profile, but do not have an app for it on my phone. Most of my time during the day is spent making fun of people who’s teampages profile pictures look like zombies. http://www.teampages.com/accounts/22676-Michael-Clark I love you Michael Clark! I’m back.

The game was not a real match to be quite honest with you. The Bafana team plays with skilled brilliance, only to be outmatched by the Pelican prescision, bravado, and swagger, only seen in recent memory by Tyger Woods out at the House of Blues this past December (I know it’s spelled incorrectly, I did that to protect what little money I have in my bank account right now).

The game was won on the defensive side of the ball. The Pelicans were repeatedly bludgeoned by the corrupt officials and linesman, but played through their nonsense controlling the opening half. They limited Bafana’s chances to long balls, which were swiftly cleared by a sound minded defense. The defense was led, prior to Red Card Terminal Ejection, by fleet of feet Scooterski, and sound defenders Colin and Weber. Every time Bafana played their patented long ball switches, one of the three would clear the ball. Thus it went for the first 15-20 minutes, back and forth, the eb and flow of the game was developing.

The opening came shortly after the 20 minute mark, where super sub scientist, Luqman, played two give and go’s to progress from his third of the field down to the Bafana third. Upon receiving the final ball, and beating his defender in the corner, he crossed the ball through the face of the goal mouth, where a streaking (not naked, and as fast as his little feet could) Cory beat the Bafana defender across the face of the goal for the finish. Pelicans were up 1-0. Good work by Luqmon, and the forwards and outside midfielders stringing passes together to get the goal. It was a thing of beauty. Not to be confused with Bafana’s next goal.

Shortly after this goal, approx. 25-30 minutes into the game, Sooterski tracked down a Bafana forward, who had received one of their long crosses, streaking towards the outside of the box. With him was Colin, and Alex. Three defenders, on the one forward working his way to the corner flag. Scooterski made an attempt at a tackle…and by attempt, I mean it was a valiant effort made by a committed forward, converted to playing sweeper to support his team…He missed not only the player, but the ball. The ball was later scooped up by one of the other Pelican two defenders around the box. Because the Bafana team and the referees agreed to have dinner the night before, the referee not only red carded Scooter, the sweeper, but also gave the Bafana squad a penalty kick. In reviewing the situation, and locaiton of the slide tackle which started approx. 1 yard outside of the box and finished inside the box, he stated, that the foul was committed at the end of his slide. A brilliantly poor excuse for reconciling his tab that he left for Bafana at the aforementioned dinner. The score was tied up 1-1, after the penalty kick conversaion. Until that point, Steve had kept a clean sheet, and had the defenders in perfect position the entire game.

The half ended with Pelicans missing a few chances, and shutting down Bafana’s chances similar to the way that they had the entire first half. The only other real opportunity came, when the large one they call Abebe, worked a give and go with Cory, to streak through on a break away. The chance was just missed, by an errant pass to Lawrence following up the play to the wide open goal. Although down one man, they had not taken the fight out of the flying birds of prey.

The second half started much the same the first was played. Bafana making streaks into the Pelican half with long balls, and some very skilled posession, but with very few real chances. The ones that they did have were cleaned away by the Pelican keeper, or by the defense. The next few chances from the Pelicans came from what can only be called, the fastest man on the pitch. Ricky Wells had been saving his game breaking speed for these two moments. The first one he split several defenders, and before the referee could get his oppressive whistle to his mouth to find a reason to call the Azzuri for a foul, Wells had missed the target just wide. The second came just as quickly as the first ended, with Ricky stringing a few passes together on the right side, and then shooting through the defense, to slot the break-away goal just to the lower right of the keeper. A touch of class, by a classy midfielder. Pelicans up 2-1, at home, in the sun, all is good, even though we were down a man, and down on the foul count by a ratio that appeared to be 5:1. The next goal from Bafana was one that won’t be discussed more than this sentence… "it won’t happen again."

With the score now tied 2-2, and less than five or so minutes left Le Bleu turned to their super sub once again. With a cheeky move, not seen by most of the defenders, as well as his own team, Luqman slid from the defensive position that he filled, upon Scooterski’s unpleasant departure, to the forward position. After several tidy clean ups on both ends of the pitch, the ball leaked through into the midfield, where Pelican’s obtained posession and put two or so passes together. Then with a deft touch of the right Hallux of the #13 in the midfield, the ball squeaked through to Luqman. With speed only seen on the pitch by Ricky Wells earlier, Luqman raced through to the goalie, and finished the ball just outside of the keepers reach to put the Screaming Pelicans FC, up 3-2. That was all it would take. Down to 10 men, with the oppressors complaining that we still had too many men for them to contain, and the referees agreeing with them, we still overcame. The referees, and our opponents thought we were the evil ones, but we showed them. We sure showed them good.

I’m going to close this Game Recap, with some fond motivational words, I read on the walls of the BP urinal off South Cobb Drive: "Evil will always prevail, because good is dumb."

Next week, we play AMG Silverbacks at 1pm at ACC. Remember to go to the website, or if you can’t, shoot Steve a text or e-mail stating your attendance. It’s imperative that you do that. Every game we don’t, Steve loses one year off of his life…Seriously…I love you Steve.

ON Sunday 2/28, when we go out and play AMG, I want them to remember us. Not because of how unbeliveably good looking we are, or how much their women want us to give them children, but because of how much better than them we were.

- Pelicans FC Match Report Details -

STARTING SIDE: A. Zhelyazkov, C. Reilly, C. Morgan, D. Sanogo, L. Monroe, M. Skurski, J. Abebe, R. Wells, S. Cantonis, D. Weber, A. Cameron

SUBSTITUTE: L. Abdur-Rahman

MATCH: Screaming Pelicans FC vs. Bafana
DATE: February 21, 2010
TIME: 1pm ET
COMPETITION: League Match

VENUE: Atlanta Christian College
ATTENDANCE: 1 (Super Sub Scientist Luqman’s inspiration)
WEATHER: Sunny

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Perin Cup – Round 1 - Valentine's Day

Posted by Michael Clark at Feb 17, 2010 3:22PM PST ( 0 Comments )

Pelicans FC Match Report –

Before getting into the actual match, I must introduce myself. My name is Michael Clark. I do a little writing on the side for Team Pages. I was asked to substitute for Screaming Pelicans main beat writer, Josh Abebe, whose pregnant wife has requested he spend less time on his computer and more time focusing his attention on her. She finally put her foot down Sunday evening when they missed their Valentine’s Day dinner reservation because our beloved Josh was too focused on updating his virtual Farmville property on Facebook that he lost track of time. Needless to say, Amanda ended up eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by herself and therefore Josh is banned from the computer for a few weeks.

Moving on to Sunday’s Game. Due to inclement weather, the location was moved to a turf field at Riverwood High School. Even though there still was a little snow on the field, it was in good condition and was ready to finally fit in the Screaming Pelicans’ first Perin Cup game of the year. This wasn’t your regular ADASL game, it was the final Round 1 Perin Cup game. All the other teams had already played their Round 1 games except these two, and some teams had already played into Round 2 of the Perin Cup. But to get to Round 2, you have to win Round 1. That’s right, this is the annual winner move on tournament that occurs in the middle of the ADASL season.

The Pelicans came out looking good while sporting their new Slalom Consulting sponsored Black long sleeve jerseys. The enemy wore Red and only about half of the members of Stars SC team displayed a sponsor on their jerseys. Still a little rusty from the layoff due to game cancellations (this was only game 4 in 69 days), Screamin’ started off slow. Stars SC took control of the ball right out of the gate, putting Screamin’ on their heels. They had a few good looks at the goal, which was defended by Steve “I’m not only the manager, but I’m also a player” Cantonis. Steve and the defense were able to hold off this 6.5-minute barrage and the Pelicans settled down and prepared for a fight. In realizing that they needed to control the middle part of the field, Screamin’ started their offense through the aforementioned Josh Abebe and Diapa Sanogo in the center midfield. Diapa used his electric foot skills to keep the ball away from multiple Stars SC players at once. It was fun to watch from the sidelines.

Because it was Valentine’s Day and most of the members of Pelicans FC are lovers, not just soccer players, they only had 1 sub. Stars SC, leading Division 2 (I believe that’s what the Screaming Goalie said before the game) in their ADASL league, had about 5 subs, so the Pelicans were outnumbered. Just to have enough players, The Pelicans pulled up David Weber and Michael Clark (that’s me) from the Division 3 team. Clark was coming off a bad foot injury and hadn’t seen action in a game since November. Clark actually subbed in for Weber about 30 minutes into the game. Alex moved back to defense so Clark could play up top with Corey Morgan. The first half was filled with 2 heavyweights exchanging blows, but unable to knock the other down.

At the half time score of 0-0, possession was almost even and it was still anyone’s game. Stars SC realized they needed to put more pressure on the Pelicans’ midfield, which included shutting down the powerful presence of Ricky Wells and Brian Holloway on the outside halves.

The first 2 minutes of the 2nd half saw both teams with great chances at a free kick just outside the 18. Though both opportunities were great, each team couldn’t take advantage. At one point, one of the Pelican midfielders hit a through ball to Alex up top, who got behind the defense but was knocked off his feet by the Stars SC goal keeper. No foul was called but Alex was a little shaken up. Stars SC took the lead 1-0 less than 10 minutes into the 2nd half with some great passing. The Pelicans not wanting this to get away from them, made some moves by subbing Corey back in on top giving Michael Clark a much-needed rest. That guy just doesn’t have the endurance he used to. Plus he had some weird facial hair going that I think was slowing him down.

The Pelicans had a few more runs, but it just wasn’t enough. Stars SC was good on the counter attack and they scored 2 more goals before it was over. One was a lob over the reaching hands of goalie Steve Cantonis, into the back of the net. There wasn’t much the defense could do about the counters. It was a ‘lose and go home’ game, so when the Pelicans got down, they started pushing people up to get an equalizer and they got caught a few times with nobody home on defense.

All in all, it was a good game against a great opponent. The Refs did their job and didn’t have much of an impact. It was cold, but a beautiful day for soccer.

- Pelicans FC Match Report Details -

STARTING SIDE: A. Zhelyazkov, B. Holloway, B. Boggs, C. Morgan, D. Sanogo, D. Johnson, G. Tucker, J. Abebe, R. Wells, S. Cantonis, D. Weber

SUBSTITUTE: M. Clark


MATCH: Screaming Pelicans FC vs. Stars SC
DATE: February 14, 2010 (Valentine’s Day)
TIME: 1pm ET
COMPETITION: Perin Cup – Round 1

VENUE: Riverwood High School (last minute change due to weather conditions)
ATTENDANCE: 1 (John G. Clark, aka Pelican Soccer’s #1 fan)
WEATHER: Cold and Wet

EAST POINT, GA (February 7, 2010) — Playing in their third game after the winter break, the Pelicans FC first team fell to Havoc FC in front of a sellout crowd of 3 at Georgia Soccer Park. The field conditions were perfect, if you were a pig looking to roll around in the mud and had a dollar to burn on your admission fee to the park.

Playing their 3rd game in 62 days, the Pelicans FC had the better of play in the first half against Havoc. In the 19th minute on an attempted clearance by international star, Jay Hornback, the ball spun over his outstretched leg sending Phil Lewis of Havoc through on a breakaway. After Phil Lewis’s conversion, the Pelicans pushed forward in hopes of the equalizer and Havoc was able to capitalize with four more goals in for a 5-2 victory.

The loss to Havoc put the Pelicans on a 2 game slide, and was the team’s second loss at Georgia Soccer Park this season.

The match is the second of two meetings between the teams. “There’s no doubt that you want competitors and we are competitors,” Abebe said. “The second half for us is not what we’re all about. When you have a game that feels like this at the end you don’t forget it. It’s something that we will always on the inside talk about, be honest about, and hopefully we can use it in a way that we’re better from it today.”

Abebe said, “Our focus now is on playing Stars SC in Roswell (North Springs HS) during the Perrin Cup first round. We start over on that day and have a chance to do something the Pelicans club haven’t done this season, win a first round cup game.”

Cold and wet conditions and a “soft” ground combined for a measured pace to start the game, but as the minutes passed the Pelicans settled in nicely. The first decent chance came in the 9th minute off a Walter Voit shot hitting the cross bar and deflecting out. The rebound led to a scramble in the area where Pelicans attackers nearly won the scrum, but the ball deflected out for a Havoc goal kick. Havoc would tally a second goal off a corner kick that was deflected in by a Pelican player.

After the quarter hour, the Pelicans began to find space down the flanks, serving numerous cross into the Havoc penalty area. At the other end, the backline stood solid in dealing with the limited forays of Havoc into the attack with 3 strong saves by Cantonis, while midfield pressure contained Havoc’s efforts to find any rhythm.

In the 32nd minute, a quick counterattack gave the Pelicans a numerical advantage heading to goal, with Lawrence Monroe leading the charge. Cutting down the outside, he slid a pass to Robert Hajnal, who took it the rest of the way, sending a low screamer past the keeper and in the back of the net.

The half ended with Havoc being awarded a questionable free kick just outside the 18. Havoc converted bending the ball around the outside of the wall and beating the Pelican FC netminder who made an attempt but had no chance to cover that much ground.

Pace quickened in the opening minutes of the second half as Walter Voit came on to join the Pelicans attack and, along with Lawrence Monroe, gave the weary Havoc defense fits. Both teams aggressively pursued attacks to goal. In the 58th minute the Pelican defense was caught on a counter attack. Havoc striker and leading scorer, Phil Lewis, came on another breakaway; his first attempt was knocked wide by the Pelican keeper who came off his line like a tractor stuck in the mud. Unfortunately for the Pelicans the ball stopped dead in the mud where a scrappy Havoc side was able to put away the loose ball. The Pelicans immediately tried to get forward, and Havoc responded with two consecutive chances to double the lead, with Cantonis making a near post save to keep the Pelicans remote chances alive.

In the 72nd minute, Pelicans got one back to make it 4-2. Defeating an aggressive, but slow Havoc back line, Walter Voit came in alone on the right side receiving a well placed cross and buried a low blast past the Havoc keeper.

In the final minutes, Phil Lewis closed out the scoring after Havoc was awarded a PK, beating the Pelican keeper to his left as he guessed correct, but couldn’t get there quickly enough.

The defeat was the worst by the Pelicans since a 7-2 loss to Real Pish on April 17, 2009.

Pelicans captain, Lawrence Monroe, had some inspiring words after the game, “The rules of soccer are very simple, basically it is this: if it moves, kick it. If it doesn’t move, kick it until it does” while his last words were the most inspiring, “next time score more than them!”

Before the game, the Pelicans debuted their new long sleeve jerseys showing off the new sponsor, Slalom Consulting

- Pelicans FC Match Report -

STARTING SIDE: W. Voit, L. Monroe, B. Hollaway, J. Abebe, D. Sanogo, A. Zhelyazkov, L. Abdur-Rahman, R. Hahnal, B. Boggs, J. Hornback, S. Cantonis

SUBSTITUTES: M. Ricketts, J. Patteson, R. Wells

GOALS: W. Voit, R. Hajnal
ASSITS: L. Monroe, D. Sanogo

MATCH: Screaming Pelicans FC vs. Havoc FC
DATE: February 7, 2010
COMPETITION: ADASL Regular Season
VENUE: Georgia Soccer Park – East Point, Georgia
KICKOFF: 2 p.m. ET
ATTENDANCE: 3
WEATHER: 40 degrees and cloudy

A person familiar with the deal confirmed that Slalom Consulting has reached an agreement with the team to provide 2 new long sleeve jersey sets. The jerseys will arrive just in time for this weekend’s games on Jan. 31, the person said on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been officially announced.

Slalom Consulting is a business and technology consulting firm combining local expertise with national reach. We solve our clients’ biggest business challenges through insight, experience, and innovation.

Our local, flexible model has repeatedly earned us recognition by national and regional programs for service excellence and work environment.

Atlanta clients include Coke, AT&T, IHG, Manheim, Cox, and AutoTrader just to name a few.

www.slalom.com