November 23, 2003 Richmond Derby Game All Tied
Richmond Pioneers 0 Carib Islanders 0
A keenly-contested 'local derby' between Richmond Pioneers and Carib Islanders produced a rare result in Old-Timers soccer – a 0-0 tie.
As in the corresponding fixture last year, the Islanders—sadly—chose to bring in a couple of 'ringers' for the game. By contrast, the Pioneer squad was depleted, missing half of its regular starting midfield.
The game was disjointed early on, with neither team able to assert itself. Gradually, the Pioneers started to create more of the chances, and the physical play of Eugene Kishmere was causing the Islander defence problems.
Ken Johnston had the first clear cut chance, but his shot hit the bar. Not long afterwards, Johnston was fouled in the penalty area, and from the resulting spot kick, Johnston uncharacteristically hit the bar again, and the ball was eventually cleared.
The Islanders battled hard but created very few genuine chances at the other end.
The second half was a tale of chances galore falling to the Pioneers, but the longer the game went on, the more it looked like one of those games when nothing was going in.
The Islander 'guests' were causing some problems on breakaways, and although there were a couple of anxious moments, the Pioneer back four were giving nothing away, with Mike Mogul and Ken Kan having solid games.
In the meantime, Kishmere had a great chance on a breakaway, another chance went begging when the ball agonizingly trickled along the Islander goal line before being cleared, and Bogdanovich narrowly missed the top corner on a long range effort.
The final whistle blew with no goals to show for either team. The Pioneers' unbeaten streak remains intact and now stands at 17 games.
Man of the Match: Mike Mogul, with second star to Ken Kan
Next week: Away to Langley Aces.
Stop the Pop Ups! This website is a free site from 20M.com. Because it's free, we have to put up with those pop-up ads. If they really annoy you, download this free popup stopper software. Gary says it works really well.
- Based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, the Pioneers play in the Over 50 Division of the BCOTS (BC Old Timers Soccer League). The league has over 40 teams from all over the Lower Mainland region
