On Monday, July 16, Team Pires and Team Clemens kicked off Week 5 of the Weston Adult Soccer League with a 4-4 draw.
Thomas Cools opened the scoring for Team Pires. After some deft footwork outside the box, he was able to find the smallest opening and shot across the goal to the opposite side netting.
Not five minutes later, Filipe Couto would answer. After a battle with WASL veteran Stanley Okoro, Couto was able to sneak the ball just inside the far post for the equalizer.
The next goal would again come from Cools in what will surely be a candidate for goal of the season.
He received the ball on the left side of the penalty box with his back to the goal. With two touches, he had flipped the ball over his defender and spun around to strike a right-footed volley over the outstretched hands of Team Clemens goalkeeper Brendan Blees.
After a much needed break, Team Clemens came out on the front foot to start the second half. Regular to the WASL goal-scoring ranks, Jeff Rothlein let a shot fly from 25 yards out that was parried by Team Pires netminder Joe DeCanio, but the opportunistic Couto was there to clean it up and tie the game at 2.
Less than five minutes later, Team Clemens captain Neal Clemens found himself with the ball at the top of the Team Pires box marked by WASL newcomer Wes Heffernan. Clemens reached deep into his 45-year-old bag of tricks to find a deftly placed heel ball through to Couto.
Couto then tucked it away like the consummate professional he is, notching his hat trick and suddenly Team Clemens was in the lead.
Not five minutes on, Team Clemens was knocking at the door again. A foul on Heffernan 25 yards from goal left Team Clemens with a set piece in a dangerous position.
Rothlein and former WASL captain Mark Bieler stood over the ball. Rothlein ran over the ball and everyone waited for Bieler to play one of his brilliant crosses into the box. Instead, he rolled a pass in front of Rothlein, who blasted a shot near post to the upper 90, giving Team Clemens a 4-2 edge.
Play ebbed and flowed until around 10 minutes left to play, when the constant pressure from Team Pires finally broke the stalwart Team Clemens defense.
Heffernan in a moment of redemption played a ball across the goal to an onrushing Andre Fankhauser, who was able to hit it on stride into the back of the Team Clemens goal.
In stoppage time, what appeared to most in attendance to be a textbook tackle by Mike Scotto on Team Pires playmaker Mike Levene was whistled a direct kick approximately 28 yards from goal.
Cools stepped up to take the shot. Not to be outdone by Couto, Cools curled the ball into the top right corner of the goal for a hat trick of his own. The final whistle followed shortly with both teams taking home a hard fought point.
Team Dacey 4, Team Britz 1
In a rematch of week 1, Team Britz and Team Dacey played Tuesday night in the annual WASL monsoon game.
The game got underway after a short rain delay and both teams came out of the gate hot, looking to string together passes on a slick turf making it even more difficult to possess.
The scoring started when Paul Beiles played a through ball to Enjo Ba, who latched onto the pass and was able to find the back of the net for his long-awaited first goal of the season.
Team Dacey would strike again when Matt Scott controlled the ball on the sideline and sent a dangerous cross in the box to a waiting Sebastian Forero — who rose above the defense and headed it home to send the game into the half at 2-0.
The eagerly-anticipated second half got underway, with Britz pushing for a goal.
On an attack down the wing, Patrick Scully broke through and sent a cross into the box, which Igor Pikayzen powered-headed into the back of the net. Then they nearly equalized as David Sheptovitsky had a couple chances to convert off of a rebound and then a volley, but failed to hit the target on both occasions.
Team Dacey, hearing the wake up call, wrestled back control of the game when Ba found the ball in the box, hitting a shot which took a deflection and ultimately found a waiting Igor Krichevsky on the goal line, who would not be denied the goal. At 3-1 to Team Dacey, towards the end of the game, with the rain picking up and soaking the field, Luke Simboli launched a ball into the night sky. The ball took a unsuspecting large bounce, skipping off the wet field, to a sprinting Lance Scott who cemented the win with his first goal of the season.
Team Shrager 3, Team Bear 3
With the game tied at 2 with two minutes remaining and both teams all but guaranteed a spot in playoffs, Team Shrager went for the win.
Captain C. Shrager, who had been ruled out of the game due to a hamstring injury picked up in Week 3, decided to change into the uniform.
Unbeknownst to his co-captain, he then brought himself on, taking off stopper A Brandfon, in an attacking change to go win the game.
And he nearly did just that.
Team Shrager won a free kick 40 yards out. Sebastian Shrager clipped a ball into the box to his brother, who played a pass across the six-yard box to the back post, where Ben Eglash forced it home. Unbelievable 3-2 scoreline and 5 minutes left to play.
Now Team Bear had been phenomenal throughout the game, giving everything they had and got a chance with the last kick of the game.
Sivinski saved a strike from Team Bear with what many thought, would be the final play. Her drop kick went straight to Ricky Nalbandian, who showed composure beyond his years, to fire the ball into the back of the net.
The game got off to a flier.
Five minutes in, Sam Meyers flung in a throw-in, which Brandfon won out of the air, laid off to S. Shrager, who half volleyed it off the bar and out.
Twenty mins in and the breakthrough came after a marauding run from sweeper, leading to a throw-in deep in Bear territory.
Noah Greenberg took a quick throw from the right, S. Shrager picked up the pass, and from 40 yards out smashed a dipping screamer into the top left corner.
Team Bear were not going to take this lightly and after Brandfon lost possession in the middle to Nalbandian, he slipped the ball through to Valentine, who slotted the ball into the net.
The game was back to 1-1.
Ben Eglash then picked up the ball in the middle. He played a one-two with Lydiksen, before lashing the ball into the goal to make it 2-1.
With 20 minutes left in the half, Team Bear finally got the goal its relentless pressure deserved.
A.J. Taccone won possession before driving at the Shrager defense, and curling the ball into the top right corner, past a diving Sivinski to level the game at 2.