Up and downs

Golden's inconsistency since the beginning of the season leaves every one with uncertain ideas of the team's future. What will happen, we don't know. What we know, is that the Management Team didn't take any Christmas holidays, instead they got together on an urgent meeting to discuss where the team is going, and where to aim at.

Last Sunday Golden suffered a 4-0 defeat at hands of direct rivals to remain in the category, FC Rietlanden. The previous weekend, Golden got an amazing and inspiring 7-1 win at home, against Noordburgum Helden, team that defeated FC Rietlanden on a previous match. Due to this fact, the coaching team and the players got over-confident, maybe the reason for the loss.
This result was unacceptable for the Management Team, and now there's a trail of mystery and fear in the club.

Soon after the match, Romanian mid-fielder, Ionel Bâlea, announced he would like to leave the club and requested to be transferred. After a long meeting and some negotiations attempts, the player stood up and left the room with no more words.
It is true its performance has been decaying over this season, his form is not the best, and his skills had been diminishing. However, his experience could still be valuable for the team.
Ionel is the 3rd player transfer-listed this week, together with Arne Goedee and Leslie Bierenbroodspot.

In order to compensate and to bring experience to the team, Management had brough 38 year old player, Mehmet Ali 'the turkish thunder' Akbaşak. The idea of the club was to bring someone with experience and a good football vision to the team. Mehmet has not yet been seen in the pitch, but it has been making a lot of improvement in the trainings. All is left are his amazing stories of great plays from his youth and a formidable playmaking skill that is boosting the team's morale.

The team now prepares to fly to Spain for a friendly match against Nachos Team, a team from the Spanish IX series. Good opportunity for the young players to keep improving those assassin skills, Cobra Strike, and Dragon Kicks.

Until next week...

"They've thrown me with a dead chicken head!"-.

One of Golden's Financial Managers was recognized by some supporters in the parking of a well known shopping mall after Sunday's match, and was psychologically aggressed by these people who were displaying a choir of insults and finally threw a dead chicken's head, landing in the roof of the car.

"It was outrageous", the executive said, "I've never felt so scared since my wig fell on the floor of the stadium's toilet and I had to bend to get it back while in the middle of a 4vs4 fight over rented deodorant by some inadequate and unmannered subjects...not to mention that my chichi was getting cold, it gave me the creeps", he added.

Certainly, is no man's joke to be in a The-Godfather-movie-situation, and luckily for the victim that he was able to coordinate a swift escape with his car.
It is said that his wife was left behind, sacrificed for higher means of safety.

When asked about the meaning of his 'chichi' the executive left the press conference leaving a thread of mystery and sexual orientation.

New series doesn't seem to be fit for a goal-swarmed Golden

Two matches in the new series had proven to be enough to give Golden the first tastes of the VII series, where two loses, 3-0 and 0-4, put the team in last position and a frightening goal disadvantage.

First match, against recently promoted Ondolindë, didn't show much of a skill difference but a tactical one. The away team managed to overcome Golden's supporters chants and aimed for a winged-attack tactic to get passed on to Golden's defence and score whenever their attackers proposed to. It's been a long time since Golden doesn't show this inferiority against one of their rivals, but this is attributed to the lack of experience of the players as well as the proficiency to maintain composure on difficult moments. A few unpredictable players, turned out to be little lambs rather than the lions we're normally used to see.

Second match was the same slice of pie, with a taste of elephant excrement that will not be forgotten easily. One of the best teams of the series had diminished a proud and astonished Golden side, 4-0, with full dominion of the mid-field and flanks attacks. Despite the attempts and heart the team showed, result showed the real difference these two teams have and how much Golden is lacking in order to succeed in this division.

Question remains open, will Golden be able to compose and put up a tactic to maintain the category, or will they be the little bug everyone smacks out of the bed?

Management team now focuses on the team roots and youth formation in order to train the pillages for the next season, while transfer of the most expensive players could make some room for money investment.

A new season starts for GLM

Today is the first match of the season and a hopefull Golden's side faces the other promoted team from the VIII series: Ondolindë.

Ondolindë has a richer team in terms of skills and comes from a very good win on the first match of the KNVB Beker Cup, while Golden comes from a very shameful loss in the KNVB Beker, overwhelmed over the 2nd half of the match after being ahead 1-0 during the 1st half.

This match will set the course for major success in this season or give us an idea on what we're into. We hope the best and will tune our HT-live to follow our debut in the VII series.

Youth team secured top spot on the AAA league and earned well deserved rest

The Golden Mascaritas had taken the challenge of joining a long range tournament and completed the task as real men succeeding on achieving the top spot of the series for this season.
The team started strong in the beginning of the season and that surely helped to get the desired result by the end of it, despite the struggle on the last few matches.

Our young pupps' starting 11 by the end of the season was a bit different than the ones who stepped in the very first match, setting the course for success but not able of getting real credit for it. Those bright talents, now playing on the 1st team, set the course for success and are also responsible for this achievement, thus big thanks to Dorus Verberne, Gerry Beishuizen, Aart Eggers, Reint van der Werff, Juul Borghuis, Myron Massalt, Johan Kraak and Gabriel van Gessel. These are the pupps whom became Wirehaired Pointing Griffons of death and will continue giving happiness and dead chickens to the team.
Congratulations also to the lads whom are taking part in the current youth squad, now reinforced by Jopie Roos and Ewoud Starre, proven to be valuable additions to the team specially in the last decesive match of the season.

GM then finishes the series with a 1-5 win against AS Latina Juniores, an important win to secure top spot and finish the series categorically, as in the previous match AS Latina Juniores raised to the top spot after GM stumbled upon a very strong and ever growing FC Wolvers Jr.'s side, losing 4-2 ona very challenging away match.
As mentioned, the team struggled in the previous matches due to the departure of key players like Johan Kraak, an impressive goalie, and Rreint van der Werff, surfing all along the wing, dodging sharks and ocean garbage. Defender Dorus Verberne and Gerry Beishuizen were also ey departures, however the good job by our scouts helped the team filling the gaps in the Defence and Attack. However, the young pupps were able to overcome the disadvantage of not having a proper goalie or a good net-burner scorer, and won the most important match of the league against AS Latina Juniores to secure the desired goal for the season.

Looking towards the near future and next season, we need to say is going to be tough as most of the defenders and midfielders are now near the age limit for the youth team and will be either going to the 1st team or leaving the club. On the bright side, we have new additions that will give sparks and thunderbolts in the next season, like Tommi Pieneman, Dolf van den Brandt, Jopie Roos, Ewoud Starre, Tijs de Rudder, and Thomas Havelaar. We keep the scouts busy in this crucial moment of the youth team and are spearding the 3 of them all over The Netherlands to find young stars also on other reagions rather than Amsterdam. We are aiming now to Eindhoven in order to 'steal' players from our rivals town.

See you next time, have a good start of season!

Football Appreciation by El Jaguarão

Luis Suarez Burns in the Looking Glass

Last weekend's Ajax's match against PSV was one to forget for Luis Suarez. He hasn't been performing as good  as he should be, considering he was a key player on Uruguay's climbing to the top 4 in the World Cup. 

He has been Captain of Ajax for quite a long time already, and was rewarded by Dutch Football Association with the Golden Boot for being top scorer of the 2009/10 season, as well as the Dutch Footballer of the year award, however none of that is being showned in this season so far.

For the past 4-5 matches Ajax has not been performing well, and Suarez hasn't been able to guide the team as Captain in order to get results. He hasn't been able to score in the Eredivisie as often as he was used to, and he feels  the pressure, it can be seen on every Ajax's match.

The  match agains PSV was no exception to this, Suarez tried to lead the team but couldn't put it together to elaborate a good score opportunity. Ajax had a few chances to clash the score, one was an amazing shot from about 40-50 mts from Suarez which almost caught Swedish goalkeeper, Andreas Isaksson, out of position, but the homing missile wasn't enough and ball was out for a corner. During the match PSV make sure to step on Luisito's toes, that took him out of the match for certain periods of the game. Trashtalk with Brazilian defender, Marcelo, from PSV continued to upset Suarez mood  and performance in the game, then Afellay's theater act in an attempt to simulate an agression from Suarez after a dangerous foul against the Uruguayan, and finally the foul from Lindgren, totally overacted by Afellay, which earns him a red card and left a very spicy atmosphere in the pitch. Immediately after that, PSV's Otman Bakkal entered in discussion with Suarez that ended with the Uruguayan's teeth on Bakkal's neck, action that was unseen by the referee (standing a meter away of both).

Luis Suarez was a time-bomb at this point and something like this was about to happen sooner or later. As mentioned, he has a lot of pressure as Captain of Ajax, and as previous top scorer of the Eredivisie.Since the end of the World Cup he had only 1 week off, like the rest of the Ajax's players who played for the Elftal, and he shows he is tired, physically, mentally, players need that to perform well.

Suarez's action had earned him a suspension of 2 matches by Ajax, whom also charged him a fee that will be donated to charity, and 7 matches by the KNVB (Dutch Football Association) for the same. Hopefully this will give him the rest he needs, and will help him think about his performance and will come back in better shape. 

Sealandia's trample wasn't enough as Golden fox stealed the day

Golden has finished top of their series and achieved promotion to advance towards the VII series. 12 wins - 0 draws - 2 loses, was enough to remain top of the series and advance to the next challenge. Although, series finishes with a bitter taste, as Sealandia made Golden's transpire in their stadium and stamped a clear 4-1 defeat. What could have been Golden's best match of the season almost turned into an ugly ending of the season as they finished 1st half losing 3-0 and received the 4-0 unexpectedly at 54' after an impressive break through by Sealandia's forward Vito Finazzi. The locals exploded in chants and thought promotion was theirs, only to shush 5' later when Ionel 'the Fox' Bâlea sneaked a goal that gave Golden the promotion due to goal difference, despite the lousy play.

The numbers:
55- The goal difference that allowed Golden to stay top of the series and promote to the next level.
15- Goals for Sófocles Garrido to achieve top scorer of the series.
950879- € had been gathered from the entrance fee during this season.
5- Was the amount of cigarettes coach Tommi Marttala smoked on every half-time break.
10- Stamped in the back of Ionel's t-shirt, and on each supporter's heart, is the lucky number of the season.

Thanks to all the supporters and to Golden's Management Team, as they are also part of this achievement. Now it's time to celebrate with the team and start looking forward to the next season.

By the way, congratulations to White Samurais and Harimau FC, for reaching promotion and manage to retain the category (with strong tiger claws), respectively. However, our warmest regards to Raging Aliens whom had been demoted in advance last weekend by staying in 7th position, best of luck for the next season.

Golden's new member

We're glad to announce we finally have our own writer, who will be updating the blog regularly as well as posting news of the football word and updates of the most unusual football leagues.

Hereby I introduce you to Tito 'el Jaguarão' Coimbra, Brazilian with Portuguese roots. He piles up ton of experience working as journalist for Brazilian 3rd Division Team, Brasil de Pelotas, where he was also contributing to the Brazilian Press Networking, sharing data and statistics of 3rd Division series, as well as presenting a few columns on local newspaper with unusual football news, Ronaldinho's shampoo choice, Robinho's favorite samba step, and Taffarel's favorite hobbie after retirement: Jarabe Tapatío Dance, now reaching the 15th National Contest, with Taffarel defending the title since year 2000 (would World title come next?).

Please join me in welcoming Tito to the Golden's family.

Golden's stumble raises exciment for the last two games of the season

Past weekend has been a difficult one, specially after the match with FC Esco 2010 concluding on Golden's first loss of the tournament, and FC Esco's first win against Golden.

A strong mid-field was set by both teams, however Esco's showed better form and skill, which helped them to regain possession quickly and aim for Golden's box. Match was even, hard battle on the middle, and it took 30' for one of the teams to make a move, Reint van der Werff found an opening and outran the defenders with incredible acceleration and speed, only to have his shot kissing the right post, with a goalkeeper who was only watching the ball's route and going for the Goal Kick.
Only 10' later Esco's supporters would make the stadium roar when their team broke through Golden's defense and beat Huibert Reijnders and put the opening goal. Soon after, another distraction on Golden's defense helped the locals to raise their advantage and score another goal in a similar way.
A very discrete second half didn't show too much of a difference. Mid-fielders were fighting back and forth for possession, with Esco still managing the ball and attempts of goal. However, Golden was able to create a few opportunities. First one, wasted by a clumsy defender's finishing, and the second one finishing in a good goal from Ionel Bâlea and putting 2-1, shortening locals' advantage in the last minutes.
Not enough for Golden's aspirations, now we reach a nerve breaking end of season, two matches left and only 3 pts. from Top Series:  Golden, runner-ups: Sealandia, and raising challengers: FC Esco 2010.

The numbers:
FC Esco hosted the match with most attendance between these two teams as 13751 supporters filled the stadium--only nearly 1000 supporters from the GMW.
Golden still holds the bigger goal advantage when they beat Esco on 18-07-2010 in their stadium and 12000 whitnesses.

Next week's rival for Golden is Jaïr United, a very important match for Golden's goal of the season: Series VIII title and promotion.

Golden's goal for this season gets closer and closer

With an impresive winning streak of 9 matches, Golden sets pace to keep 1st place and achieve promotion.

Full of youth and hard work, Golden aims to achieve but had failed in previous season's, and aim high for improvement and greater means.
An amazing improvement has been noticed in the time, Golden is phyisically and mentally stronger than the rest of the teams in the series, due to the experience of great pillars in the team, as Ionel Bâlea, or Sófocles Garrido (current top scorer of the series), and also due to the continuos waves of young players from the youth division, whom not only helped to keep motivation and ambition of the team but also economically, as few young stars where transferred to International clubs.

Everything's set for this weekend's match, however Golden is keeping a close eye on an interesting match: Sealandia vs FC Esco 2010. FC Esco has improved a lot since they reached this series, and fought with categorically on all their matches. Sealandia showed a lot of hard work since the previous season, but still does not convince on their way of playing.
Golden had won 4-1 and 2-1 against Sealandia and FC Esco respectively. Being the match against FC Esco a very close one, won in the very last minutes by a last grasp free kick smashed towards the upper right angle of the goal by Sófocles Garrido.
The fight for the title and promotion will be between Golden and these 2 teams, however FC Esco seems to be too far (18 pts.) in order to reach the top of the roster. Sealandia (24 pts.) follows the steps of a calmed Golden (27 pts.), who will be paying attention to their match today, hoping for FC Esco to put its locally into count as a factor to overwhelm a desperate Sealandia.

Good luck and success to you all!

Golden starts with the right foot

After the impotence and dissapointment from the previous season, Golden seems to go back to a previous tactic which gives good results on their first match against Sealandia.
Indeed, playing in your own stadium, for your own supporters plays a great advantage for the local team. Golden always knew how to exploit this advantage and Sealandia, morally overwhelmed, sucumbed to a mid-field pillage performed by Golden, with a 3-5-2 formation. The extra mid-fielder proved to be a good tactical advantage, even though attacks were pushed to the wings.

Home goalkeeper, and one of Golden's young pillars, stopped an incredible ball winning the 1-on-1 against Sealandia's forward. Huibert 'the wall of fire' Reijnderts, who was promoted to the first team in the last matches of the previous season, seems to be one of Golden's wise investments.
Other of this young and fresh players from the youth team is Reint van der Werff, who has been nicknamed 'the lightning gazelle', is not only loved by their comrades and the club but a very docile and skillful player, confirming the veracity of the nickname.However, this gazelle has showed the consistency on its spirit and overran the oposition wingers with relentless pace and a strong heart, until an attack from its side created a cloud of confusion on Sealandia's box and the opportunity for Gerry 'the diving eagle' Beshuizen to peck the ball and score the first goal of the match. Sealandia's defenders were trapped in a pinball without flips and watched the action like any other supporter in the stadium.
The match reached a balance of equallity after the goal, the battle was trasferred to a mid-field war zone, with Ionel 'the turtle' Bâlea carrying the banner of pressure and leg-crunching. A loose ball to the wing was fetched by Reint who once again drove a canal through the wing, reached and passed over the last line of defenders and delivered a well placed pass to the box, received by Sófocles 'cushin-chest' Garrido with amazing control, but the shot was easily engulfed by Sealandia's best-like goalkeeper--he was ugly.
Not too long supporters had to wait to celebrate another goal, as Ionel had embraced the number 10 on his back, and stomped the opponent's defense to finish with exquisite handling and give supportersa good reason to show their lungs with victory.
First half ended soon after the goal, and over-excited supporters never stopped chanting their songs diminishing the rivals and pumping Golden's hearts.
Unfortunately, an error from central defender, and unexperienced acquisition, gave Sealandia the opening they were waiting for, and shortened their distance. The wall of fire had been splashed with a bucket of cold water, but suddenly explode like burning steam towards his defenders, for letting that isolated play go so far. 2-1.
The match continued very balanced, until Sófocles showed three fingers in his hand, giving the signal for a well prepared set pieces, directly from the lab. The shot on goal suddenly took a curve, and Eckehard Rademake put his foot in the right place to smash a volley home and give calm to the team. 5' later Reint took advantage of an exhausted defense and zig-zaged to face the keeper, faked the shot and delivered a lob ball leaving the keeper with a silly feeling of impotence mixed with boredom. 4-1, final score. Big boost for Golden at the start of the season.

Let the hard work continue, and the ever growing team will lead us to victory.

Our fellow friends!

We'd like to congratulate our friends from Harimau FC, Raging Aliens and White Samurais, for the great campaigns and efforts they've put on this season. The four team of us are made of the same net, are part of the same copper, and have shown courage, guts, skill, spirit and heart on to this sport which is making us all proud today.

Harimau FC, still with mathematic chances of reaching promotion, stays on a 2nd position chasing leaders TheArrowRangers. They are the 2nd team to concede less goals in the series so far, and are playing a key match today against 3rd place holders. Today Harimau can catapult themselves towards they wish to reach 1st position by defeating TheArrowRangers in their last game this season. Best of luck for them!

Raging Aliens had played an amazing season so far, being the only team in the series who still didn't lose and the one that conceded less goals (7) showing how tight and secure their defense is. However, competition hasn't been tough enough and The Aliens didn't find still a worth opponent in their series. Friendly match against White Samurais proved they have still a lot to learn and improve. We hope the best for them and support their ongoing pace of improvement getting better and better every week.

White Samurais, are in their best shape ever this season and hopefully they'll be able to reach their goal and promotion. However, they still have a 3-match way to go meeting their main rivals this season, YuyiNxD, in the very last game. With no match in loss and only 2 goals conceded, the Samurais show they are fit and up to the challenge, ready to make the jump, although they found a worth antagonist that threatens their promotion and shows roughly the same performance along the way (The Samurais had lacked a bit more punch to create and score clear chances). Amazingly enough, these two teams had tied their first match, and as no other team has been able to put a stop to their own winning spree the series are only exciting because the winner is not yet defined, and it won't be until the last match. A big success to White Samurais, they will need to show their determination on the pitch and claim victory.

As far as Golden concerns, these 3 teams wins will be received as our own, and each title of theirs will be celebrated as our own.

To Victory and Beyond!

Series close to an end in excitement

Golden's chances for title were vanished two weekends ago, however current leaders Afc de Kampioenen and Power-Cats are engaged in a close encounter after Power-Cats cut 3 points distance after defeating Afc 5-2, with home supporters giving great morale advantage to the team.
Golden is now in a comfortable 3rd position, which doesn't seem to change until the end of the series, as Fc Esco 2010 sneaked an away win against Jaïr United which drove them closer to the mid-roster positions and helped Golden to slipped out of the grasp of the annoying United (one of most detestable rivals Golden's ever had) and has the chance to bury them even deeper in the series as they face each other today at Golden's Arena.

A meeting between Power-Cats' Chief of Operations Manager and Golden's Manager took place someday in the past week and some bonding between both teams had been initiated. Golden's last match of the season is against Afc, thus if Power-Cats wins all their matches from now on and Golden sneaks a tie or a win against Afc,  Power-Cats will go through to the next Series. An incentive from Power-Cats is still being in discussion by both Managers, due to the importance played by Golden in the scene. Irrespective of this aspects that are being discussed, the team seeks revenge and are hungry for a bit of the spotlight they seemed to reach on the previous season but that has been totally dim this year due to the tough start in first matches of the series, although it has been a considerable climbing back from 7th to 3rd position, a great work done by the Coach and players, overcoming physical and mental disadvantage.

Golden will aim to win on whatever circumstances, against whoever steps in the pitch, and is opened to improvement to achieve a major goal, with joy, honesty and blood-taste.

Mascaritas vs Runners

It's done, both youth teams from GLM and WS will face each other in a couple of days, as we received the young uruguayans in The Golden Ring.

We expect a good football practise, for sure it will be a good experience for the young  lads.

Golden will take care of accomodation for the uruguayans and have already arranged a few tours round the city, as well as free t-shirts and flags from our team.

Golden's chance for title blastered by wild Power-Cats

With 5 matches and 15 points in play, Golden's chances for the title are remote due to the great form showed by Afc de kampioenen (1st) and Power-Cats (2nd); 9 points separates Golden (3rd) from Afc and 4 points from the wild Cats.
Golden tried to impress and put their best play in the early first half. Sófocles Garrido surprised with an amazing play, dodging opponents and scoring on 20'.After that Golden grew in confidence and they could have smack another one; a shot in the post by Paolo Serra Ruda and an unfortunate shot after an overdone play by Gerry Beishuizen. On 36' Ionel Bâlea received a nasty tackle and couldn't play at his top level, affecting Golden's chances directly. Golden's number 10 showed a lot of guts, but couldn't pull the strings of play as usual, and mid-field was overran by the goal-hungry Cats. It only took 4mins after Ionel's injury for Power-Cats to reach the equalizer.
2nd Half was all for Power-Cats, as they were the ones managing the play at will. It didn't last long the equalizer as the Cats were swarming on Golden's area, like a pack lions in a  gladiator's arena. Huibert Reijnders couldn't do much on both of the Cat's goals on 57' and 81'. Match finalized 3-1 and Golden was condemned to the mid-table positions, things must go terribly wrong for Afc or Power-Cats in order to allow Golden to move further. By the look of it, Golden's coach's (Tommi Marttala) time will be over soon, even though he catapulted Golden from the IX series it seems that the VIII are too much of a hastle for his skills and tactics.

Now Golden is focused on the next friendly match on Wednesday and going back to playmaking training until the end of the season.

Away win sets the pace

Golden achieve an important victory against Sealandia in their own stadium (het eiland) last Sunday, and climbed to the 3rd position.

The teams where evenly matched and it seemed from the very start that it was going to be a close event of football. However, recently promoted Gerry Beishuizen silenced 'the island' on 18', scoring his first goal in his professional career, certainly off to a good start. Seiland didn't cope with the situation and, supported by the whole stadium, they pushed forward until they reach the equalizer on 33'. It took Golden 5 minutes to put themselves on top as one of Golden's top scorers, Sófocles Garrido, stamped his mark with an academic  definition on 38'. 1st half finished with Golden managing the play and touching the ball with delicacy.

Instructions received, team headed for the beginning of the 2nd half, which didn't start on the best way. Sealandia pulled a well elaborated set pieces and scored surprinsingly after one of their forwards anticipated everyone at the nearest post. The rain played its part, and during briefs moments sparks were noticed on every clash for divided ball. Dirty football and guts transformed the pitch into a greco-roman coliseum, and every ball was being fought to death. A killing shot on 71' by german forward, Eckehard Rademaker, pierced into our opponent's heart when the ball entered the goal right up there in the angle, where the spiders sleep, totally unreachable for the goalkeeper. On 72' the referee blew for a penalty comitted to Ennio Mangano, who was sentenced with a yellow card earlier in the game for faking the foul in the area, however this time the foul was noticed and the penalty scored by Markus Ueberschär. 2-4 was the final score on this tough match, under heavy weather conditions.

The team is confident that good results will follow when we meet against Sealandia again next Sunday, but this time in the Golden Arena. Winning is a must in order to continue the chase towards Power-Cats and Afc De Kampioenen.

**Player of the match: Sófocles Garrido was without a doubt the player of the match, showing his heart and strenght on an overflowed pitch, leading the team to a well deserved victory. SAMBA, SAMBA!**

Jumped 3 places in 3 matches

First of all, we'd like to thank our friends from Raging Aliens and White Samurais for the great support received. Certainly our friendly match against the Aliens set up the mood for the 3-1 win against one of our direct opponents of the season: Power-Cats, and give the Aliens a very good football practice in return. Their position on their series couldn't be better, as they lead the roster with 3 points distance from the current runner-ups, nottingham prisas f.c. (Best of luck to RA on their next match, by the way. Sure they will have an easy win against San Eugenio, and hopefully pingmenoste will beat nottingham).

Going back to Golden, amazing display of football at our home stadium last weekend. Our goalkeeper training is showing good results, earlier than expected. Huibert is getting better and better, and has proved we made an excelent decision by bringing him from the youth team. Our midfielders performed graciously, with an unstoppable Tobias Haldbæk, who certainly took the banner and lead the rest of the midfielders into a ball-thirst rampage of marking and knee-snapping. Sófocles Garrido, put an incredible display over the wings, embracing the 'jogo bonito' style all brazilians have in their blood, and scoring two decisive goals to bring victory and make our supporters dance on the streets.

A big THANKS to all the fans and club members whom filled El Dorado Arena and showed a carnival of joy and happiness, for sure another big reason for the fabulous Golden's performance.

Next match is an important one, against Sealandia, another direct rival. A win on this match will let Golden climb at least one position further and keep chasing Power-Cats for the Runner-Up position.

Challenge accepted

Recently formed Raging Aliens dared to challenge Golden to a friendly match, taking place this week. The Team is once again on a trip to Uruguay, where they enjoyed themselves plenty of times, though this time there will be a winter setup.

"Winter is not really tough down there, I mean...not as tough as in The Netherlands", young uruguayan, Juan Stipanicic, declared. He expressed it will be good to be back in his homeland for a few days. Opportunity will also be suitable to visit our friends from White Samurais, hopefully assisting to the match at Area 51.

Preparations are on its way in order to reach the match on our best from and condition. Hope the Raging Aliens will be at their best to receive us as well.

Good results felt like a smooth breeze after stressed start of series

Golden had prooved well on matches against the weaklings of the league, however the series have just started and this is only the beginning.

A 5-1 home win agains Blood Sweat and Tears and a 5-0 ('lottery') delivered at mario en sonic's stadium served well to regain confidence on our supporters. Those 4 members leaving the club a week ago came back apologizing for doing so and were spared only by the price of paying the beer round for the all the other guys at the canteen (Welcome back!).
Friendly matches had been good practice for the 'B Team', who managed to achieve a 1-1 tie and 3-4 win during extra time, both against romanian teams.

Upcoming matches will be very hard as well, as we put ourselves against the best teams of our series, Power-cats and Sealandia, whom are scratching the top of the roster. Sure we'll give them some hard bone to gnaw.

Until  next week!

Staff Changes

I'd like to announce that due to discrepancies on management strategies the Management Team had decided to cease the continuity of the Directors, including the Chairman and proposed me the position, and I accepted it. Due to this drastic change I will not be able to perform my duties as Coach, however we still have Tommi to put his mark on the team towards strategy and training.
Every ship needs a Captain and this one is certainly led by the winds of victory, honesty and dark magic. Wild seas awaits us ahead, and we shall tighten the ropes, and harden our skulls in order to get past this.

Ahoy!

Youth team secured short league trophy

The Golden Mascaritas had won the International short-league tournament with one match in advance. Consistency, discipline and the presence of key young stars, such as Gerry Beishuizen (fw), Dorus Verberne (df) and Reint van der Werff (wg) had brought happy moments for the youngsters whom improve day by day.
We're sure will help on the First Team's recovery once they reach promotion.

A big 'thanks' to the scouts who managed to spot these young players in different regions and introduced them to the team.

Keep up the good work everyone!

Injuries time

Serious injury made Golden's romanian pac-man-mid-field-monster, Ionel Bâlea, to stay out of the pitches for 4 weeks.
In addition, Golden's veteran forward, Kjetil Fosse, is still recovering from an injury suffered 2 weeks ago and is expected back in training next week.
Italian skillful mid-fielder, Ennio Mangano, is recovered from an injury that kept him out of trainings for the past week. He called his doctor whom arrived from Italy 3 days ago, as Golden's doctor was fired nearly a month ago due to expenses reduction.
Clodoveo González Cuenia is fit and ready to take his place back in the team, after a nasty injury that prevented him from playing the past 2 weeks.

We wish the best for the injured players and hope they're back on their feet in no time.

Climbing the Everest

The worse start of season in Golden's history made a few supporters leave the club, also first time it happens since the new Management Team and coach assumed the position accepting the great challenge it was.
The club now decayed into its first 'crisis', it hit the wall of the VIII series due to tough teams on the series. Furthermore, Golden's financial plan is starting to crack like an antartic iceberg slowly affected by global warming. The investment in a few mid-fielders turned out to be not very succesful. Crowded training sessions may have affected the mood and the overall performance of the team, and transferlisted players didn't bring too many coins, nor goals. The coach may also not be with the best motivation, and certainly is not transmitting the same to the players. Lots of factors are found to explain the bad performance of the team in the past 3 matches, however it's time to show improvement once again.

Hang in there guys, climbing starts now.

Transferlist

Transferlist had been established and reaches the largest number of offers on Golden's history:

Jens-Peter Schuchardt
José Luis Arens
Vittorio Pedulli
Bo Preenen
Claudio Omar Rinaldi
Nino Willing

We are looking forward to see what opportunities are opened for these players, most of them very young and full of skill.

Bo Preenen had annihilated the nets back in the youth team, and reached the first team a few weeks ago. His talent had delighted the coaches in the youth team, as he was a flexible player, changing from mid-fielder to forward depending on the tactics chosen. He was called 'stiertje' by his collegues, meaning 'the little bull' due to his natural ability to stomp for a header in whatever circumstances. Sometimes that is also use to get free cola cans from vending machines.

Nino Willing, another youth star, is also reaching the first team after a very good campaign in the youth division. Switching from a forward position to a defender position, it makes him a very flexible player too. His speed set the youth pitches on fire for a couple of seasons, and his ability to gain posession and reach the ball on any circumstancies owned him the name of 'de vanger', meaning 'the catcher'.

Now everything's is defined and we need to wait a couple of days to know for certain the destiny of these young stars.

Sour taste after series finished

Sadly to announce, the team didn't reach promotion this season, after leading the series for almost the duration of the tournament. Other teams had arose strongly by the end of the season; Jaïr United, Power-Cats and, already promoted, Afc Danswijk. The loss against the lastly mentioned team set Golden to its destiny, and confirm we'll have to remain in the same division for another season.
Last match left a 6-0 against the weakest team of the series, The Mutans, which raised the morale a bit. However, the team knows we need to improve as the upcoming season will be tough, even tougher that the previous one.

A couple of friendly matches had been played, setting a pace for upcoming matches in the Dutch Cup (KNVB Beker) matches and the next season.

Sour taste after shameful tie

Golden flew to Turkey to face SS Rapido at their home stadium, the SS Rapido park, and definetely one of the warmest and sunny places the team has ever been. The locals had showed a friendly attitude from the beginning, and welcomed the team with arms wide open. However, in the field there's no room for friends, and the match contrasted shockingly with the previous experience.

SS Rapido prooved well the name they embrace by scoring the first goal of the match on 9'. Then the match went into harsh paths, with fouls cutting the play every 2-3 mins. On 30' Jan Willem Polman was leaving his mark behind to face the G.K. 1-1, but the defender slid from behind interrupting the action with a foul. Red card was more than expected and SS Rapido's defender didn't even wait for it to be showed  to leave the pitch.
Locals faced deception once again, on 41', when previously warned Georg Assman received the second yellow card and leave his team with 9 players.
Golden couldn't take advantage of their numbers, and the few opportunities ended in the hands of SS Rapido's G.K..

Second half was certainly aiming  for something better, as Golden was tuned and focused to reach the goal. However, all our efforts vanished over and over again with an unbeatable G.K. on rivals' side.
The match reached the point of boredom, and Golden had to wait until the very last minute in order to make it even. Jan Willem Polman pull out a moment of greatness and fired in the hole to put the 1-1. Time was running out, and a childish Bogdan Lupescu got his second yellow card by simulating a foul inside the box.

Final blow and a sour taste for Golden, whom couldn't manage to break rivals' defence and were expecting another result due to the numerical advantage.

Series Overview -- 2 games 'til the end

A very exciting end of season and a lot in play in the last 2 games, certainly the toughest games for afc danswijk who will face Golden first, and Jaïr United in the last game.
Afc has the highest goal difference, and a hold of 30 points. United holds the same ammount of points but a lower goal difference. Golden fell into an unfortunate 3rd position, only 2 points behind of previous mentioned teams.
4th place finds AAS with 17 points, 11 behind Golden, and 5th Power-Cats with 14 points. A leaderless The Mutans is placed in 6th place with 10 points, and in 7th we find jaxa struggling to remain in the division only 1 point behind Mutans. Relegated Ricardo's is last, facing one of the worse crisis of the club, with only 3 points.

Next match will defintely put some shape to the roster towards the end of the season and set the candidate to achieve promotion.
Golden aims to win against AFCD to come back to the top position, while United watches carefully and waits to face AFCD in the last match. It'll be time for AAS to try to sneak a win, or a tie, against United although is unlikely possible. Power-Cats face Ricardo's for a win to take over 4th position again. Jaxa must win if they want to remain in the series and send Mutans deep back to IX series.

Hope of championship is still alive

Golden emerged victorious this Sunday, and struggled for the result, as AAS showed a remarkable resistance, overwhelmed only 10' before the final blow.

A cloudy and electric sky contributed to raise the tension in the atmosphere, while 12000 supporters were filling every place of El Dorado Arena to witness the match of their favorite team once again, and an important match to keep alive the chances in this league.

Match started with the loudly chants of the excited supporters, Golden pushing the play towards the center and AAS going for the opposite tactic, play towards the wings. 19' were necessary to pull out the first Golden's chance towards the rivals' goal. A rough play and an evenly matched mid-field cut goal chances on both ends. However, Golden showed tenacity and toughness and was able to create a couple of chances that didn't finish in the back of the net due to pure luck on rivals' side. Although that didn't last for too long when veteran defender, Olaf Meutstege, stomped his way to AAS' box and capitalized a smart move of the ball by the mid-fielders, dodging a couple of defenders and placing the ball on the opposite side of the goal, totally unreachable to the G.K.. A demonstration of experience and guts.
1st Half ended with not much excitement, and with Golden controlling the ball, and with that the play.

2nd Half looked more promising after a few moves from the center, however we had to wait until 56' for some action in the box. Bad definitions and good positioning on away team's defenders and G.K. prevented Golden from increasing the lead in most of the 2nd Half. It was only on 86' when Paolo Serra Ruda took a loose ball, after a foul that had earned him a yellow card, and sprinted through a desolated mid-field to reach the box and 1-1 with the G.K.. He faked the shot two times, creating the opening he wanted  to smash the ball into the goal and claim the 2-0. AAS' players were not able to reach their side on time to prevent their goal from falling again, and were devastated morally, seeing how all their efforts went straight to the garbage bin because of a silly mistake after a free kick.
With little time to play, and with AAS showing no will to shorten Golden's lead, came 3rd goal of the night when Markus Maria Ueberschär shot from mid-range, after dodging his personal mark, putting the ball where the spiders sleep, right in the angle of the goal. Impotence and deception were perceived from the raging defenders and the sad G.K..
Golden kept possession and waited  for the end of the match to come, passing the ball backwards to a bored Norbert Szilágyi, who didn't have a single intervention in the match and took the chance to show some jugling skills with the ball, ending the show-off with René Iguita's famous 'El Escorpión' move, for the rejoice of the supporters.

AAS came to El Dorado Arena with hopefull desires of shorten the points distance in the series' roster, but had to come back home empty-handed. Golden keeps the chances to reach 1st spot, only 2 points away from afc danswijk and Jaïr United, whom hold a higher goal difference.

Firendly match boost morale for weekend challenge

The team traveled to Finland this week in order to face rauta-jalat, currently playing in VIII series of the nordic country.
The young pups found a rough field to play on, with grass in poor conditions and a winter that stayed longer than expected, threatening the nordic lands with snow and cold winds from the pole.
It was a match of crashing shankbones, ripping shirts and jostles. A match of dirty football, with a referee that didn't put restrictions on locals flying kicks, and hidden elbows to the ribs of our young pups. The match was escalating on every jostle for posession, and young Jens-Peter Schuchardt had  to leave the match on 20' with a twisted ankle, product of a violent stomp of rival forward. The match was not very well played and seemed complicated until Golden scored on 23', finding the weak point on a surprised defense that didn't mark Golden's forward, Arne Goedee.. Another 2 goals followed very quickly, on 29' and 33', by Glen van Aalst and Bogdan Lupescu respectively. Golden set the pace on the remainings of the first half, with a nice and simple play until the half-time blow.
2nd Half was promising for the locals, as they managed to score on 56' after a good combination. It didn't last long though. All hopes were vanished when Bogdan scored again, this time with an spectacular scissors-kick after a well set assistance from the wing. Golden controlled the play beautifully, nullifying the opposition's mid-field, eating the grounds like pac-mans. The diminished rauta-jalat didn't find spaces to advance with the ball, and were continuously losing posession i nthe mid-field. Golden's play turned out to be a great 'samba' when the 5th goal was celebrated, after a 34-passes-play and a run from winger Ivan Maykov, delivering a volley that entered the goal whiplashing rivals. A few more opportunities for Golden couldn't finish in the net, due to the, rather lucky, intervention of local goalkeeper.
Locals' supporters celebrated massively the 2nd goal of their team on 79', when a flash-like winger put 5th gear on a split-second to deliver a long pass to the center of Golden's box, finding forward Janne Rantakari who released all the rage within in one powerful volley to the high-center of the goal. Nothing to do for a point-blanked Huibert Reijnders.
Soon right after Raemon Hoes shushed the whole stadium when he received the ball unmarked in the rival's box and with a fancy move leaped the keeper with the ball pressed between his knees, scoring on an empty goal, and setting the final 2-6.

An entertaining match this was, despite of the injury of our german defender; certainly a good experience for the whole team.

Staff Changes

The team's performance decreased a bit in the past few games, and it raised concern within our sponsors, whom care only about where to put the money to make profit.
Anyway, management is taking proper actions to balance the finances of the club, thus a few changes had been done in the club's staff in the past week.

As all the team is bearing an amazing health status, all the medics had been fired. We kept the physiotherapist though, we still care about massages. The goalkeeper coach was also released from his activities, as no progress had been spotted on our goalkeepers. Moreover, he was always chewing that mango bubblegum everybody hated. Rest of the staff remains the same: assistant coaches, sports psychologists, spokepersons and physiotherapists; all of them shaping the spirit and productivity of the team and the club.

Overconfidence killed chance to remain on top

Unexpected result last weekend makes us slip down to a third position in the series. Power-Cats took out they little sharpened claws, and got us in our weak points, while we couldn't set our astonishment aside to secure the lead.

We went out with our classic formation, setting our style once again, while Power-Cats improved a 3-4-3 formation (displayed on the previous match against Golden) to a 4-3-3. The locals nullified our scorers most of the time, outnumbering them, and their goalkeeper showed what he's worth for with a great performance. We didn't have majority on ball posession, however our play and control were better, letting us finish the 1st Half with a 2 goal lead.  2nd Half was a whole different story,, when Power-Cats managed to overcome a 0-2 and get the lead 3-2 on 73', when one of their forwards sent the ball inside the goal with a rather lucky scissor-kick. Fortunately, for us, we scored in the last minutes and secure at least 1 point (although in this instance of the tournament it feels we had lost 2 points instead).

We all knew the match was going to be close, but we were expecting the win to remain on top. with this result we fall 2 points behind afc danswijk and Jaïr United.

This is not the end yet, there're still 3 matches and even though Power-Cats made us stumble on our road to get the title, we are supporting them to display the same quality of play next weekend, against our direct rivals Jaïr United.

Next match will be tough for Golden as well, when a diminished AAS will probably try to surprise us in the same way Power-Cats did.

Underdog 3' away from hopeful tie

Last Sunday the team had a very sad defeat against one of the toughest opponents of the series, whom managed to come back from a 1-0 loss, scoring the 1-2 only 3' away from the final blow.
Certainly one of the most unfair results, considering that the team controlled and had the opponent seized over the 1st half. However, Jaïr United showed great effectiveness scoring 2 out of the 2 opportunities they had. United goalkeeper showed himself on splendid level, and was key for his team's victory.
Even though Golden had most of the chances, our lack of creativity and clarity on definition were mainly the reasons why we end up with such a harsh feeling in the throat by the end of the match. Match was under control, and our prayers were not answered when rivals scored by the end of the match. It confirms that a team shall not rely on such things as prayers, and the team scoring is the one taking 3 points home.

It has been a very difficult weak for the team, as team spirit was obviously affected by the defeat. Shadowed 2-5 victory, by our 'B-Team', on our last friendly in Denmark didn't help to maintain our image within our supporters who knew we were underdogs on the match with United, but were hopeful on getting a good result after Sunday's 1st half. However, team raised great dissapointment.

Time's running out, and we'll need to put the team together to obtain a good result next Sunday. Important match to raise confidence is the one we have on Sunday, we need to show the rest of the teams we're still alive in the tournament.
If everything continues as expected, with no further surprises, the last two matches of the season will be defining the new champion and promotion for that team. It'll be a close call and without doubt the most exciting tournament this club had so far.

Fasten your seatbelts, the caterpillar is going down.

Team keeps growing

In the past few weeks the Management Team has  been very busy carrying on the new youth plan, leaving almost no time for blogging.
Lots of things happened since the new season started, from new players in the team to the weekly waves of fans that are willing to support us filling our stadium every weekend.
With new teams in the series comes new challenges, and this season was tough for sure. It seems we had a hot start, however all the teams are applying changes in strategy and players really quick to be able to catch up and climb as high as possible. The end of the series is going to be tough, and important clashes will be decisive and exciting, and even tough the team seems to be running out of steam we are confident we'll be able to put a good fight until the end.

The 'B Team' is showing great improvement and it was demonstrated in the past friendly matches. The last one was against one of our friend's club: White Samurais FC.
A 0-0 tie showed an amazing improvement on our rival's team, and was an amazing experience to our young players, as I'm sure so did for the Uruguayan chaps.
White Samurais are aiming to reach the top of the Uruguayan League VI, and will meet their thoughest opponent this weekend when they calsh agains 'pelusitaFC'--name that raises more laughs than respect.
Best of luck for the samurais on their league match.

The youth team keeps growing and growing, and the league changed seems to vitalize the players with a fresh feeling, despite of their loss 2-1 this week against 'Hoochies'.
Mid-field seems to have weakened with the departure of a few key players to the 'First Team', however defense is toughen up and a new addition to the team will probably set a wall in our goal, as fifteen year-old goalkeeper Johan Kraak sent Jason de Fijter direclty to the bench after showing great skills in training.
It is expected that some other key  players in the youth team will be leaving by the end of this season, or as soon as they're ready for the 'First Team' cahllenge.

Future is bright for the club, Management is happy with the results and is planning a big party at the end of the month, open to public. For more information please contact the administration of the club.

Thanks for reading.