"He's on fire!"

Greetings all and welcome to the second half of the RSSL 2nd Division season. Albeit a week behind since our Subway game was rescheduled for a later date due to city-wide field closures. So Happy New Year and let the games begin.

January 30, 2005 - FC DSBH versus Vancouver Firefighters

In this corner, adorned in white decorated with a flaming dog's head, FC DSBH. At the time, ranked third in the standings. At its disposal, a high ranking division scorer, a high ranking goalkeeper, returning injury reservists, and most of all the return of the "Master of the Diving Header", Chris Gat. In the other corner lay Vancouver Firefighters. Journeymen of the sport. Veterans of the Vancouver Metro League, these warriors seek to spend the remainder of their competitive career not going silently into the night. In addition to that, they were able to stifle us in our last encounter, resulting in a tie.

First off, the field was in tawdry condition. However, the field and its water hazards called it down the middle. No favouritism, each team received equal punishment. Despite these conditions, within time DSBH would adapt, or at least pretend they did. Upon doing so, the scoring would commence. Offensive touches came as often as raindrops that day. The only question was whether the ball would get into the net by lucky bounce or by sheer force. Leading our boys in the offensive yet again, Andrew Fleming. Not once, not twice, but thrice would he score. A hat trick. A term we dearly miss hearing about up here in the north. Further padding of the scoreboard came in the way of a healthy (finally) Dom. His goal was funny to say the least. Dom drove towards the net, gets tackled, and is lying on the ground. However, due to the field conditions, the ball lay motion less at the top of the box. Dom and his defender down. The Firefighter goalie undecided as to whether he should approach the ball. The decision came too late as Dom rose to regain possession of the ball and knock it in. By the last quarter, we had a comfortable enough lead whereby Dan was able to play out as a forward. In this rare occasion, not only did he run his heart out, he scored as well. Good lord, what have we done.

The defensive end of DSBH remained solid as ever. Solid mid-field play by Graham and Elliot ended most attempts of an offensive drive by the Firefighters. Furthermore, with the addition of Gat, the defenders' strength increased tenfold. As indicated above, Dan was moved out to striker. To fill the void was none other than our very own Jon Ho. In baseball terms, he was our closer. An excellent one at that. Not only did he maintain the clean sheet established by Dan, but, he made a crucial save. This was off of a direct kick. Vancouver Firefighters launch the ball. Gat instinctually heads the ball. Jonny, adjusts his airial positioning and with a light tap knocks the ball over the crossbeam. Dan earned his 3rd clean sheet, while Jon garnered his 1st clean sheet of the season aswell as a 0.00 G.A.A.

With the conclusion of the game, the score was left at,

FC DSBH - 5

Vancouver Firefighters - 0

Not a bad way to start the second half of the season, no?

So until February 6, 2005 when DSBH faces the Haywood Hawks . . .

Go DSBH, Yeowwwwww . . .