Thanksgiving is a time of generosity and giving. This Saturday, the heavens opened up and gave the Rinos as much rain as it could muster…i.e., the Rinos match was played through freaking hurricane Katrina like weather. Tonight, for the first time, skill wouldn’t separate winners from losers! This game was going to be won and loss in the trenches. This game was going to be decided by who had more grit and which team could get “fired-up” in the freezing rain to steal the W.

Before the referee could even start the game, the field was soaked, the players were soaked, the ball was a mess, and the rain wasn’t letting up. The match started with the Rovers attacking in swarms; their players would sail down the river they called their field and start peppering our goalie with shots that flew out of the muck like torpedos. The Rino’s defense had a hard time adjusting to the Rovers early in the match, but 10 minutes into the game we settled down and started shutting down their advances. With the defense able to stop the Rovers charges, we could finally start to generate our counter-attacks.

The Rinos mid fielders took charge of our counter attacks and, time after time, they were able to find Juan streaking in behind the Sapperton defense and generated numerous one-on-one situations for our strikers. However, these chances end with the ball hitting the fence behind the goal as mother nature screwed around with our strikers concentration. But, all the blame can’t be pushed to the rain, because this has become a recurring problem for these young Rinos; we just can’t seem to close the deal! The Rinos cannot score….whether this be a mental block or a physical one, it has led us to own a horrific goal differential and has put immense pressure on our goalie to pull clean sheets outta his ***!!

One of the key moments of the game involved Jordan crushing the Sapperton’s stopper when they both went up for a header in their 18 yr box. Jordan came in at a sprint and took off to put the header away, but instead met head on with their stopper, who then had to be helped off the field! Unfortunately, this collision stopped Jordan from heading the ball into the top corner of the net, but he still sent his message to the Rovers defense.

The “miss-play-of-the-game” honours were taken by our goalie, Anthony, on one his many determined efforts to ink in his 3rd clean sheet. After standing in the freezing rain for almost 90 minutes, Anthony got a bit too excited and a little loopy. He went after any ball as if it was a dry, warm snickers bar. On one ball that was sailing wide of the goal, Anthony tried to chase it down, only to have his feet run straight into his left post. Tripping over his feet like a drunken mess, he ended up face down in the watery hell that was all around us!

This match, unfortunately, ended just as it had started, 0-0. Huge disappointment?? Maybe….but walking away with 1 point and the confidence to know that we are creating legitimate chances to win games is more reassuring than the overall score. Slowly, but surely, the engine on these young Rinos is churning, and soon it’ll be firing on all cylinders…..just wait and see!

Next Saturday night the Rinos play UBC metro on the road in a game that has a bit of a personal feel to it. UBC signed two strikers that played for Rinos 21 squad last year and its time we show them what a big mistake that was!

On a cloudy, starless night the Rino’s lit up the night with their own emerging stars. This was possibly the biggest game in the first quarter of our season. A loss here would push us to the bottom of the pile, while a win would propel us to the top 6 in the league. Sensing the pressure bearing down on these young Rino’s to follow in the footsteps of previous teams, Haydn brought out the big guns; he pulled out the old red Rino jerseys to help guide his young team about Rino’s winning ways.

As soon as the whistle blew, this team in its blood red jersey’s, looked exactly like previous Rino squads. They were flying around, pressuring every ball, and made every player on the other team dread getting the ball. All those uber-complicated drills that we ran with Ekrem at practice finally started to pay off. When we touched the ball we showed the discipline, urgency and ability of an emerging star studded team. With every pass we penetrated Inter’s defense, and had legitimate chances to get the numbers rolling on our scoreboard.

Each and every one of our 17 players brought their A game and left it all on the field and were crucial in getting the W! John, Davis, Jeff and Max created their own defensive islands on the outside and stranded any striker coming down into their area. Sebastian, Juan, David, Jonah, John and Petro dominated the center of the pitch and their one touch passing completely disseminated the Inter defence.

The TSN turning point of the game came midway through the second half when Davis lit the Rino’s on fire by scoring the game-winning goal. Off a corner kick, that was bent into the center of the 18 yr box, Dhiren got up and tried to head it into the top corner of the goal, but it was blocked. Davis saw this ball slowly falling to the ground and recognized his chance to propel the Rinos to their first W and took it! He wound up his left leg and let it loose on the unarmed ball, sending it to a place where all it touched was net.

Davis’s goal gashed Inter and now they were bleeding. The Rino’s smelt this and attacked in swarms for the last 15 minutes of the game. We kept Inter pinned down and didn’t let up until the ref forced us to by blowing his whistle.

We’re going to enjoy this win at practice on Tuesday, but come Thursday, it’s time to prepare for the Sapperton Rovers. The Rovers have kept pace with some of the top teams in the league, but are still looking for their first win…..and the Rino’s plan on keeping the Rovers on their search for that elusive win after next week.

Next Saturday night, when everyone else will be home stuffing themselves with Turkey, these Rino boys will be out in New Westminster fighting for their 1st road win of the season!

On a night reserved to hit up a bar and watch Monday Night Football, the U21 Rinos hit the road to play a crucial game in North Vancouver against a team that was scoring at will against opponents. The Rino’s already had a tie and a loss and were now hungry for a win. We were out early in the pouring rain at confederation turf warming up and getting seized up to fire on all cylinders against a team that had been doing just that.

The first 15 minutes of the game were controlled by the Rinos, as our new striker, Etienne, reeked havoc amongst their backline with his size, speed and skill. Haydn’s twist on the 4-4-2 was working perfectly and it seemed like we were going to reap the rewards of our hard work when we got a free kick from about 24 yards out. Juan stepped up and bent it like beckham, but sailed it just past a diving goalie and nicked the post on its way out of bounds.

Soon the tables were turned when Norvan had a free kick for themselves from 25 yards out. Their striker got lucky, like the Irish, and his huge rainbow kick found the pot of gold in the top corner of our net. This goal didn’t deflate the Rino’s as we fought back even harder for the next 60 minutes, holding Norvan to a 1-0 game, heading into the last 10 minutes.

Feeling the pressure to score and the need to win, the Rino’s started pushing themselves harder and left it all on the field. We pushed up for every ball, playing an all-out attack game for all the marbles. This is when Norvan took advantage, catching us on our heels on their counter-attack, they went coast to coast to ripple the mesh on our side of the field.

Unfortunately, along with the loss, Jonah suffered a mild concussion when Brent decked a Norvan player who slammed into Jonah, using him to cushion his fall. Davis also nearly suffered a concussion when his dome came in the way of another shot smashed by Juan that could have been the TSN turning point of this game!

The highlight reel of the game was hogged by our goalie, Anthony Bayer, who made some mind-blasting saves on a couple break-aways. David snuck into the honour roll list by ripping a knuckle-ball shot in the last few minutes that came close to beating the goalie, but unfortunately it only resulted in a rebound and a lost opportunity.

Currently, the 21s stand at 0-2-1 and play a must win game this Friday night at point grey! With the amount of built up anger, frustration and energy, the Rinos smell blood and plan to rip apart the “ICSF Inter” when we turn on the flood lights at our turf on Friday night!

Playing on the biggest stage, at home, under the Friday Night Lights, the 21s came with a vengance. After a brutal loss the week before, this young team was looking to prove themselves where it mattered the most, on our turf!

The game was tough battle between two extremely talented teams. Pegasus had the size advantage and were favoured to win. However, we had the grit, speed and heart to go in hard for every tackle and sacrifice ourselves for the better of our team.

The Rino’s had numerous chances to score including a freaking bullet of a free kick taken by Taz Khan that pinged off the post, just millimeters from rippling the net. Another chance came when David Gazin had a chance at a rebound that took a “pegasus” bounce and shanked off David’s tightly wound volley.

Our goalie, Anthony Bayer, had an “Buffon” worthy game, by making 2 key saves on a break away to keep his clean sheet!

While Jonah, David, and Petros controlled the turf, Dhiren shot down anything that went up in the air. The defence took Haydn’s words to heart in, “Bend, but DO NOT break!”. Jeff and John dominated on their sides on D, and were key in forming the WALL that is our defense!

Finally, the highlight of the night came when James got engulfed in a Broo-haha with 2 of the other team members, which almost cleared the benches and started a UFC showdown!

At the end of the night, the U21s walked off our turf with our heads held  high by tieing Pegasus 0-0 and successfully protecting our house!