Springfield Mens Soccer League

SMSL- Spring 08

May 5, 2008- Don't miss the "Do Something to Billy's Picture" contest on the features page. 3 exciting entries so far.

Updates

May 5, 2008- Hey! Did anybody notice? Spring seems to have finally snuck in. 'Bout time. We're tired of watching and playing soccer in gloves and hats. Couple of unfortunate blow-outs this week, but the big news is that Bob's wasn't on the receiving end of one of them! Don's had no turnout and didn't have the people to hold back Hampton Inn. CC United played a very good game and put two in the net, but the midfield play of Prairie Archives was too much. Prairie Archives refused to continue its newly established tradition of giving up a crucial own goal, which didn't help CC United much. Bob's and Xochimilco had a game of it, as did Springfield United and Cavanagh Madonia. The Corner continues to methodically win and remains atop the table.

Games are this Saturday- not Sunday- due to Mother's Day. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS "NO PAY- NO PLAY" WEEKEND. If you haven't paid, the SMSL Registrar will be at the fields all day and you will not be allowed to play.

Post season tournament will be an eight team tournament. That means that 2 teams from the regular season will not make the tournament. Right now there are 4 teams with 7 or fewer points. Lots of thing's can happen. If Bob's beats Sammy's in Week Nine, for example, and CC United gets by a depleted Don's Chimney Sweeping, then the bottom 4 teams could trade places. Could be interesting.

Also interesting to note we have about 4 players playing with 2 yellows. A third yellow means sitting out a game, so be careful out there gents.

April 20, 2008- The standings have tightened up a bit- no runaway at this point. Those who picked the Corner as a "sleeper" are feeling smart, others point out there is a whole 'nuther half of a season to go. Couple of new team pics and everything else should be updated. Schulte on top of the scoring table for the moment, but as they say, there is a whole 'nuther half a season to go. Supplemental draft on 4/21 may bring a few new faces.

Refs are not perfect. They blow calls. Players are not perfect. They often are simply not in a position to see things (like offsides) and are emotionally invested in the game. Yelling and screaming at a ref or a linesman doesn't do anybody any good. If you are playing and you don't like a call because you think "the ref has it in for me" or "that lineman is an idiot" or because you think you know the rules better, don't jabber and whine to the ref, keep your mouth shut. Talk to your captain and talk to the field marshal. Team captains can talk to refs and try to clarify difficult situations. The SMSL field marshals are there to help make sure things run smoothly and appropriate actions are taken. Field marshals fill out referee evaluation forms and can make note of concerns and player input regarding a ref or a game performance. As one might expect, field marshals respond better when spoken to by rational individuals than when they are yelled at by raving lunatics. It's soccer- it's exciting and we all get caught up it it. Keep your wits about you and don't do anything overly stupid. And apologize for it if you do.

April 6, 2008-Back at Centennial and the wind was there to welcome us. Somebody give the Park District some money so they can plant some pine trees or put up a screen or something. Fields were not in as good a condition as all would want, but they were in much better condition than they would have been had we been playing on them for two weeks already. A no-time-left penalty kick to tie the game at noon and a 7 goal blowout at 2 were among the highlights. Schedule and standings updated.

April 8, 2008- Anthony Dickenson writes in: "Here is heads up for all football fans. If you can't get home or you work in front of a computer (as I do), if you have Windows XP or higher you can watch football on ESPN360.com. Today I watched Liverpool beat Arsenal (sorry Ryan) in the Champion's League. While I watched that game, on a smaller screen was the Chelsea/Fenerbahce game (sorry Sami). The games are live and in English and Spanish."

You do need to have Internet Explorer, download a plugin, and your ISP has to access it, but it is pretty cool. We watched a little rugby this very evening.

sports.espn.go.com

April 2, 2008- Help us out and write something, take some pictures, or send us some ideas for the Web site sometime this season. Any sort of content we could put on the site would be great. A game summary, speculation about who will win the FA Cup, why Barrolle is better than Hearts of Oak, what soccer in Springfield needs, the top 10 strikers of all time, anything we can put out here that people might think was interesting to read.