After a year of struggle, the Rinos were underdogs in their biggest game of the year! The sun was out and you could feel the tension and uncertainty shining in the air. The regular season was a tale of 2 halves. The first 10 games of the season, the Rinos were on fire, but for the last 11 games it seemed as if the Vancouver rain had washed away that flame. Today the Rinos came out of the gate knowing that not only was there season on the line, but there pride was too. Coach Haydn had put a lot of effort into this team and we wanted to reward him with something more than a keg of beer.

Right from the first whistle intensity was wired through the team; starting from the core, as our captain beamed a volley just passed the bar which was pinged to his foot on a free kick by David. That had set the tone for the rest of the game and for the next 30 minutes the Rinos were dominating the pitch, yet they could not find a way break the ice. They needed a spark and it was delivered through unorthodox methods; Taylor”s verbal retaliation to the opposition”s trash talk sparked a flame for both teams and the game on the pitch was taken to whole other level….it was now personal!

In the second half, our new recruit, Jack, showed us how soccer was played in his homeland. He gave us a glimpse of some good “ole english “football” (i.e. do what ever it takes to score and score with any part of your body). Within 15 minutes of being on the pitch, Jack scored a goal with his hip as he masterfully hip-checked the ball and the goalie on a corner kick past the point of no return! After that the Rinos opened the flood gates and the goals just kept coming!

The next goal came on a penalty kick which was awarded to the Rinos when one of the opposition”s players decided he wasn”t good enough to use his feet, and decided to guide the ball with his hand….in his own 18 yard box! Jonah made no mistake when given the opportunity to take the penalty and buried it in the top corner of the shelf, where mom keeps the peanut butter!!!

All these goals got our strikers hungry for some goals and both, John A. and Paul were determined to get their jersey number on the referee”s score card. Paul was first to the punch when he found himself behind the Sapperton defense with the ball and decided to show us he had read the textbook – “How to score on a break away”! He deaked left, broke right and wired a shot past the vulnerable goal keeper and then unfortunately proceeded to show the Rino”s a Let’s proceed to scientific best-horoscope.com for Cancer. celebration that should be saved for male gigolos only!

By this point in the game, Sapperton was starting to get frustrated and began attacking with a vengeance. They threw everything they had at our defence and superstar goalie, but ended up sprinting the other way to stop our virulent counterattacks. Our goalie, Chef Bayer, had one of his best games making some key saves on some tough shots and helped ink in his 6th clean sheet of the season! Our outside full backs also had great games and locked down any striker forcing his way onto their turf. John W. put on an acrobatic show while trying to stop one Sapperton”s best strikers and decided that he had to pull of some very tough somersaults in the air (completely necessary) to successfully do so. David Gazin, for the secong game in a row, played sweeper for the Rino”s and did a mind blasting job, as he stubbed every player who got past our stopper, either through legal tackles or through his masterful shoving which went completely unnoticed by the geriatric referee.

Johnny Alphabet threw down the final goal in our round of 16 match that was so well placed, that it went threw the goal and out the back, without rippling the net! Neither the crowd, nor our team even knew we had scored until Max started yelling something along the lines of how “we should appreciate every goal we score, since they are so rare”! It was an awkward moment, at best! That goal brought the game to an end, but apparently Sapperton was a bit confused and thought that the referee”s game-ending-whistle was a sign to start dropping their gloves. Sapperton and it”s uncouth fans decided they wanted to fight us for a comment made by one of our players that was completely taken out of context. Being the smart, classy team the Rino”s are, we shrugged off their “challenges” and walked away with our body part”s and pride unbruised and intact.

The Rinos celebrated this major upset/victory that night

and partied like it was 1999 !!!

The time that elapses between the referee’s first and last whistle is 90 minutes; and that is exactly how long you have to play the game at a high level to be successful in this league. Comebacks are common in this league and are bound to happen if you let up your intensity, even if only for 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the Rinos had to learn this the hard way for the first time this season against PCOV.

This game had been hyped up by many Rino players as it was the debut for 3 new players that Haydn had signed from the Langara Falcons squad, Brody, Anpayo and Arved. The first half lived up to this hype as the Rinos were determined to dominate PCOV on our home field. We hadn’t lost at home all year and we didn’t plan on making any changes to that tonight.

PCOV and us were well matched. The first half almost seemed like a tennis match, both teams were exchanging rallies (shots) without either team hitting a winner. It was a dangerous back and forth, but our defense (probably top 3 in the league) shut them out with Arved, Geoff, John C. and Dhiren playing lights out.

The second half was where we learned that soccer matches aren’t won after 75 minutes. About 25 minutes into the 2nd half the Rinos were rewarded for their constant hustle and concentration. Etienne chased down a ball that was just about to cross the paint on the touch line and crossed a beauty back over the 6 yard box. The ball met James, who was at a full sprint, at the opposite corner of the 6 and james made no mistake crushing the ball with this head into the net! The Rinos erupted with cheers and everyone seemed to forget that we still had 15 minutes left to play…..

With 10 minutes to go the Rino team that had just scored had completely disappeared. Their was only one team left playing at a high level and that was PCOV. Naturally, one of their players sensed this lack of concentration and effort on our part and exploited it. He went coast to coast with the ball, dangling everyone in his way, and set up another one of his teammates for a tap in goal. It was the worst feeling in the game to give a victory so close to the end, but it was a feeling that was necessary for this team to feel so that it will never happen again!

The game ended at 1-1 and both teams walked away with a point, but the only team that left hurting were the Rinos.

Intimidation is usually the X-factor for most away teams. Intimidation due to the opponents size, skill, crowd noise, or sometimes even their notoriety can make a huge difference in a game. Playing our match 20 kms away from our home, against a team that already had 2 players suspended indefinitely, another suspended for 3 games, and numerous other players proud of their dirty yellow cards, intimidation was going to be a huge factor for this small, classy west-side squad.

It was a nice, clear saturday afternoon in Burnaby, but once the whistle blew both these teams were going to forget about “nice”…..it was going to be a downright dirty battle against, probably, the dirtiest team in the league.

Cliff Avenue had 3 giants on their team who were taller than 6″5 and seemed to be prime to control this game through the air. However, we stepped up to the challenge and made sure we out hustled them, out jumped them, and made sure we kept the ball away from these freaks of nature. We laid our bodies on the line and went hit-for-hit with Cliff Avenue. 30 minutes in, Malcolm got past their stopper and was sprinting down the center of the pitch, one on one with their sweeper, when he decided to hip check Malcolm. Malcolm was thrown 5 feet into the air before he landed on his hip. Unfortunately Malcolm was down and out with a bruised hip and had to be helped off the field; they had just taken out one of our key midfielders and now we were pissed. Davis, David, Etienne, and Dhiren went looking for revenge and laid the lumber on anyone with the ball. Cliff Avenue was dropping all over the field and they started whining to the referee about our hard hits, who just waived the play on!

Almost halfway through the season these Rinos were starting to grow up and players Kort sagt, The Dark Knight Rises™ ser ut som a v?re fantastisk tillegg i serien av spill og en flott fj?r i hatten for tilhengere av Microgaming casino fra og med september. were starting to step into their roles and cement their position on the team. John A, Taz, and James were one of these and finally started bringing their “game” week after week and were key in changing the scoreboard in this game. John set up our only goal in the game about 20 minutes into the second half;  he pinged a ball about 2 feet off the ground all the way from the left corner that beat the goalie and the players in the box and found James for a diving header at the far post. As soon as the ball broke the plane of the goal line, we saw the anger and frustration burning in the eyes of Cliff Avenue players and we knew this game was just going to get dirtier, harder and faster. This match was far from over and now it was time to see whether we could close out this victory and cement ourselves within the top half of the league.

The next 25 minutes were played in our half. Cliff Avenue attacked with an urgency and used their size to their advantage and kept us on our heels. Their advances created numerous chances to score, but our goalie, Anthony, stone-walled them on every shot and was determined to get his 5th clean sheet of the season.

Another key thing to note was that Davis Murton started as our stopper in place of Max and did not miss a step. Dhiren and Davis showed some quick chemistry through their ability to switch naturally between stopper and sweeper on the go, confusing the Cliff Avenues” strikers and they also successfully shutdown Cliff Avenue”s abnormally tall players.

When the final whistle blew, the Rinos had inked in their 2nd consecutive win and finally were living up to their expectations. Granted we still have a lot of work to do to get better, but rolling of back to back victories is a good start in getting our engines going.

This Friday night we play a huge game against PCOV on our home field. Let”s see if these Rinos can pull off 3 straight victories?

Coming off of a big loss to UBC, and sliding down the rankings, the Rinos needed a big win to cement their position within the league. It was about time we started playing at the level expected of us and it was about time we started doing our job!

Haydn’s motivational speech started a night that would be the TSN turning point for this team, this season, with 6 simple words that hit home, ” Are you ****ing ready to win?” This coming from a coach who was the epitome of composure, who never yelled or even raised his voice, was enough to let us know that he had had enough of our shitty soccer, and that it was time for us to either go big or go home!

The match started and the Rinos immediately took their game to another level. Each and every one of our players hustled for every ball, won every 50/50 ball, won every ball in the air and they punished the other team for ever touching the ball. Our blitzkrieg style of soccer stunned KLM and it took them awhile to get their feet under them. The Rinos were playing tough, fast and most importantly, we were playing smart; we started spreading the ball around and played a calm, controlled game.

The first goal came in the first half off of a huge hustle play. David went up mono-e-mono against one of KLM’s midfielders and won the battle, and secured the ball. Then without thinking he pinged the ball across to Etienne who did the rest. Etienne, at a full sprint, controlled the ball and drew 4 KLM defenders. Just as they were about to collapse on him, Etienne looked across and found a lonely John standing at the opposite corner of the 18 yard box. Once John touched the ball, he wasted little time beating the keeper by sniping it into the bottom left corner of the goal. The mesh rippled, the crowd roared, the scoreboard churned, but most importantly, in these past 20 seconds, Haydn got a glimpse of the brilliance that he knew he was responsible for.

The 1st half ended at 1-0, but the game was far from over. The end of the first half almost saw a changing of guard for the Rino Defense; for the rest of the game, the Rinos would have to play without their Captain, Dhiren. His departure left a big hole in the defense and the Rinos would now have to fill that and protect their lead at the same time. And by god, they did exactly that and more!

Max stepped in at sweeper, Petros came in at stopper and with John and Jeff flanking them they stepped up and initiated their lock-down! They stopped every KLM advance and allowed the rest of our team to play aggressive and with a confidence, knowing that their defense would protect them from any mistakes.

In the second half the Rinos opened up a one/two touch clinic and admission was free! We started showing off what we were learning at practice and our hard work was finally paying off. These string of passes set up many offensive movements and produced legitimate chances for our offensive to make the KLM defense look like a sieve.

John was on fire tonight, and netted his second goal of the game, and the season, midway through the second half and was set up by James.

Hustle was the theme of this game and our third goal was set up by nothing but hustle. Jonah started the play by putting up a threw ball for David who, at a full sprint, laid himself out to cross the ball into the box and found goal hhungry Juan waiting for a tap in goal at the 6.

Another highlight of the game was Anthony’s save on a penalty kick, that was given up towards the end of the game. Had KLM scored here, they would’ve been right back in the game, but Anthony would not have any of that! He honed in on the ball and rejected it like a hot girl rejecting a nerd. TRIVIA fans: Anthony is 2-0 on penalty kicks this season……even Jeff Thom doesn’t boast those kind of numbers 😉

In the end, these young Rinos finally grew up, and without their Captain they led each other to their 2nd win of their season. I guess they showed us that they do have the mental toughness and concentration to overcome adversity, and to just do their job! These are the kind of players that great teams are made off and these guys are just 18…..this league is going to get nasty surprise over these next 3 years!

Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell once said, “Concentration and mental toughness are the margins for victory.”

We hear coaches talk about toughness all the time, and I am sure most of you probably think, how can a team not be tough, certainly a player has to be tough to play in this league. But being tough is not for just one moment, it requires being able to overcome adversity and still focusing on the task at hand. It means being able to not worry about the future and doing your job.

At this point of the season, we are finding out which teams have mental and physical toughness to overcome bad starts, bad series, bad halves and bad results.

In a classic battle of experienced and tough versus young and skilled, the former prevailed. The common thread between these two teams was that we were both coached by a great coach, Ekrem. However, during the course of the game it was clear that one team really understood and emulated Ekrem’s work, while another was still trying to work out the kinks.

The match was an extremely competitive and physical one, that unfortunately ended against the Rinos. However, the loss came almost exactly as had our earlier one to Norvan Pacific; the Rinos had a lucky goal scored on them in the first 10 minutes and then let in another one in the last 10 minutes. In the 70 minutes between these two tragedies, the Rinos played lights out! We won every ball in the air, we were the first ones getting to 50-50 balls and pressured every pass. On the other hand, we had nothing to show for this effort. We barely took 7 shots, and of those 7 only 3 were on target. This leads directly to our recurring issue which is ripping the Rinos apart; our lack of scoring. Having only scored 2 goals through 6 games is worrying, as it constantly puts pressure on our defense and keeper to stone wall the other team match after match.

In the end, this game came down to mental toughness, physical fitness, and experience and unfortunately UBC Metro weighed in heavier in all three of these factors. The Rinos ran all over the field chasing down UBC players and didn’t have anything left in the tank to mount a comeback. The Rinos have the heart to play from behind, but the mental toughness to do so is going to come with experience and concentration! Can we rise to the occasion? It will be a test and will require that every day there is a commitment to improvement, not winning. This is not going to be a quick fix and will take the mental and physical toughness Russell talked about.