First and fore most no need to welcome cbcs to BGP I have been here for quite some time. and just for the record I do not get my feelings hurt so need to throw that out there, but I have sat back and watched the threads all year, and feel it is time to voice my opinion. I have been able to make it out and watch a lot of games around NKY this year and have truly enjoyed watching what these kids do. Not team in particular just enjoy watching these boys put all their heart out on the field. Holy Cross has def. had their ups and downs this year as a program. You can see that in their record and the few games I have been to. I have sat back and watched a lot NKY top programs bash holy cross. Just in regional threads alone it has been all about how dirty Holy Cross is, and then as people post it goes from team to one player in particular. I have been able to watch almost every program in nky play this year, and every single program has at least one player who plays this way. Some programs are even a lot worse than this player. At what point and what level of soccer does this not happen. What are you more upset with, that he plays hard and wins calls or are you more upset that he is able to get inside the head of your kids, and take them out of their game. If you want to put the blame on anyone put it on the refs. if you all see so much of him being so dirty why cant the refs see it. Last night it finally happened. the refs as well as coaches know the style of play and there is always on every team going to be a player who tugs shirts gets extra physical in your eyes throws elbows. but why bash a program with a bunch of kids who go out and play their absolute heart out. talented not really, physical absolutely. from talking to holy cross coaches they train their boys hard to be in shape and not be afraid of the game turning physical. I have watched holy cross coach pull one of his best players out of a game and send him home for losing his cool and cursing on the field during a game. I also have had conversations with NCC and Coopers coaching staff about their programs and about the games they had against HC. I was lucky to be able and attend both of those games. NCC who was the only team to be able to beat HC by 4 goals. MCdonald said they play hard, they play with every bit of heart they have. He was impressed with the effort and no quit. Never once did he discuss any dirty play. Coopers coaching staff, never said anything negative about holy cross but was greatly impressed with the progress they have made from last year. as well as the fact they are not scared to go up against anyone despite the small size of the program. if you want to watch a straight up no physical soccer game and just see the fundamentals I invite you out to my 8 year old sons games. If that is what you want to watch. Soccer at any level from high School on up will never be what you expect, there is going to be "dirty play". I never saw any opposing player come out of an HC game that was hurt and not be able to return, but as I said I did not see all of their games. I was able to see the game last night. boys are boys emotions run high. do I condone pushing and acting vicious off the ball, absolutely not. He lost his cool and got carded which is what should have happened. and he didn't return to the game. From reading these blogs all year all I can do is congratulate HC on a well fought year. because it seems as though every team was expecting to cake walk all over HC. and from what I have seen all HC did was make every team earn their victory from start to finish. Good luck to all the teams finishing out the regionals. I look forward to watching Thursday nights games.
On a side note, as an avid deer hunter that buck that interrupted the game was a trophy. Beautiful Buck and would have looked great in my trophy room.