Boards Floodlit Soccer Team

jason2501

i was there the first nite and can make it back 2nite, with my younger brother and his friend if were stuck.

ziedth

Hi Jason,

Welcome back.

Game at 8.

I don't have a number for ken or mark but hopefully they at least lurk on here.

I'd say bring as many as we can, seems to be about 18ish at the moment and if we have 12 on 11 or something it won't make any difference really.

I say bring who we can.

jason2501

no bother c ya l8tr

natnifnolnacs

I've been away for a week or o but I should make it back down next week hopefully. When the team does get picked and start playing matches will the be mid week or weekend?

ziedth

Right Lads,

Good old game tonight, we are booked full pitch for next week but back to our old time of 7 and we'll have to up the money to €10 a head because i'd we keep it at €5 the pool will get eroded away very quickly.

I think once we have a starting 11 picked and a bit of shape we'd have a decent team. I played completely out of position this week to try and fill in the back line and I'm sure a few other people did too so we'll have to try and do something about that.

kensutz

Good game and struggled with fitness after coming out of hospital. Didn't help that I went out cycling this afternoon too and tried to recover too quickly

Shy_Dave!

Yeah decent game considering it was or first! We have potential there.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Shy_Dave! wrote: »

Yeah decent game considering it was or first! We have potential there.

only problem tho is that some of us just keep forgettin where we are when switching keepers, especially the MF's and Defenders

nkay1985

ziedth wrote: »

Good old game tonight, we are booked full pitch for next week but back to our old time of 7 and we'll have to up the money to €10 a head because i'd we keep it at €5 the pool will get eroded away very quickly.

How much was it for the full pitch tonight Matt? And how much is in the kitty at the moment?

alco.29

Ha ha dave nothing yet but i will keep ya informed lol... Lads the father asked me to tell everyone to be there for bout 6.45 next week to get the teams picked then we can play for the full hour. Oh and everyone needs shin pads. Good game though tonight i enjoyed it.

ziedth

nkay1985 wrote: »

How much was it for the full pitch tonight Matt? And how much is in the kitty at the moment?

It's €120 for the hour and I'd say about 250 maybe 300 in the pool.

I know it's really like 7 each but that is was to hard to give change ya know?

nkay1985

ziedth wrote: »

It's €120 for the hour and I'd say about 250 maybe 300 in the pool.

I know it's really like 7 each but that is was to hard to give change ya know?

Ah yeah if we had 20 every week we could pay €10 each for two weeks and the third week would be covered. That'd only be fair if the same people were turning up.

jonnyfingers

Hi guys,

Enjoyed the game tonight. Legs held up fairly well considering it was my second game of the evening!

Now onto the big decision. Do we enter a team in the Floodlit Soccer League or not?

First a few basic truths:

• Teams have to be submitted before July 16th so that doesn't give us much time to make a decision.
• We may not even be guaranteed entry if all places have already been filled up (a quick email to the organiser will clear this up).
• Regarding fees, there is definitely a player registration fee, its cost I'm not sure of. There may also be a team registration fee.
• The squad can have unlimited numbers. A minimum of 7 players need to be on the field at the start of a game. Subs are rolling and unlimited.
• Games are 60 mins with 5 mins for H/T but will usually be shorter.
• We'll need a set of jerseys, shorts and socks and all players need shin pads and Astroturf boots.
• The cost of each game is €110 per team I believe. Usually each member of the match-day squad will pay €10 with the extra money going into a kitty to cover expenses, e.g. times when not enough players show up to cover the cost, buying extra jerseys, balls, or a night out drinking!
• If a match is forfeited the forfeiting team are expected to cover the full cost of the match, €220. If the team pulls out of the league they are expected to pay their share of all their remaining fixtures. Now this might be a hard rule to enforce should we enter and pull out at a later stage but something to keep in mind.
• The team will usually play between 20 and 30 games in a season. At €10 a go this is no small cost. It is spread out over 9 months though. But also this means that a core team will need to stay intact for 9 months. Extra players can be signed throughout the season. There is a transfer deadline but exceptions can be made in some circumstances.
• Matches are played Monday - Friday from 6pm to 10pm with the last game kicking off at 9:15pm. However there will only be a maximum of one game a week so it will only be one evening per week that you need to be free. A full fixture list will be provided if we do enter so at least you will know in advance when you need to be free. This is where a large squad is necessary to cover absences, e.g. shift work, sickness, holidays, etc.
• The 25m line is the offside line. Offsides are only valid inside this line. This means the defense usually park themselves on this line and don't venture too far up the pitch from it.
• Slide tackles are a no-no. And for good reason. If you slide on an Astroturf pitch (especially on the Waterpark pitch) you will gash yourself. On my team a few years ago one of our players cut his knee sliding. It didn't heal for three months!:eek: But any slide tackle results in a free kick to the other team.
• A yellow card also gets you 10 mins on the sidelines to think about what you did. Bottom line: Don't get a yellow.
• Refereeing can be very hit and miss, mostly miss actually! Decisions will go against you. Some of them may be blatantly wrong and most of them will be offsides and throw-ins. Accept them and move on. Non-acceptance = yellow card = 10 mins in the sin bin.
• If we do enter a team the manager will be responsible for picking the team for any given match day. For things to run smoothly his decision needs to be final. We will have to come up with some way to confirm availability each week. A text message should suffice. Some may be disappointed as not all players will play a full game but this is unavoidable. I would hope that the rolling subs feature will be utilised. Handy for anyone worried about their fitness and you can be subbed off and back on again. This should also allow most of the team to play a significant part in the match. I would also hope that we could use squad rotation to give everyone a go. Due to absences this will naturally happen either way. But all decisions will be down to the manager.
• An assistant manager is highly recommended. This can be somebody in the squad and should be somebody who can make the majority of the games. The manager will always miss a few games during the season so the assistant can slot in and do the dirty work for him.

All that may sound a little overwhelming but I just want everyone to know the facts before saying yes or no. There is a time commitment. There is a financial commitment. However after the initial start-up cost (registration, buying a kit and some basic gear) the cost is only €10 a week which should be manageable. Drink two pints less at the weekend and you have it covered. Plus you'll probably play better in the next match! Other than the cost you just turn up as much as possible and strut your stuff on the pitch. Simple.

Having played FSL football before it is very enjoyable. You get to play competitive football on an all-weather full-size pitch. No signing for a junior league team where you sit on the bench for every game. No playing on a flooded muddy pitch. No slide takles or studs up challenges injuring you. You can score a screamer from 40 yards*. You can pretend to be Ronaldo beating players on the wing*. The rolling subs feature means nobody will be too knackered. It's an opportunity for the members of the squad to get quite an active social life. A team that drinks together stays together! (Click here for more info on that)

But at the end of the day we may get hammered. We may also do some hammering. But we'll most likely be in the 2nd Division where the quality is only OK, so don't be too worried about that. A decent goalie, defender, midfielder and striker will go a long way. I think we have that and more.

Bottom line is to decide what we want out of it. Do we want to win the league? Well that won't happen. Do we want some competitive football where we'll likely be towards the bottom of the league table at least until we get used to playing together? Where we win some and lose some but have a bit of craic along the way? If so then we should enter a team. I'm up for it anyway.

I think everyone who would like to join the team should PM (unofficial team administrator!) Ziedth with their name, email and phone number and he can compile a list. It might also be wise to mention any availability issues, e.g. shift work, being on call, other planned weekly activities that might clash with a match. Also if you know of any of the lads that don't post here who want to play can you pass on their details too. If we get enough numbers we go for it. If we don't we continue to play 7-a-side.

In fact there is the distinct possibility of continuing the Monday night 7-a-side regardless. If the FSL team was playing on the Monday night anyone not on the team could play the 7-a-side. If the team isn't on that night it would be a good opportunity to get a bit of training in with the others.

If anyone does not want to be part of the FSL team please don't feel obliged to sign up. As I said the Monday night soccer will survive and if you only want to play that, do just that. We're lucky that that game is open to quite a large number of people so we should always manage a 5-a-side at least.

Lastly there are some official challenge matches being organised by the FSL organisers, sort of pre-season friendlies if you will, which would be ideal for us as a new team if we go ahead and enter. I would suggest someone make contact with them if we do enter.

Other than that I leave it up to you.





*the following not likely to happen in a match!

nkay1985

Did you mean to leave the team name thing blank?

Nice post anyway. I, for one, would like to give this a go. It'd be interesting to play somewhat competitive football once a week. I wouldn't be too worried about being beaten or whatever. I'd imagine that would be inevitable for a brand new team starting out but I think once we got used to playing together we'd be ok. If all else fails we'll just fire long bombs in behind the defence for Dave to run onto.

Shy_Dave!

Hehe Niall!
Great stuff jonny, excellent write-up on the situation.
I'll post a few thought tomorrow after a good sleep.

P.S We HAVE to be called 'The Boards United' :D

jonnyfingers

nkay1985 wrote: »

Did you mean to leave the team name thing blank?

Whatever do you mean?:P

nkay1985 wrote: »

Nice post anyway. I, for one, would like to give this a go. It'd be interesting to play somewhat competitive football once a week. I wouldn't be too worried about being beaten or whatever. I'd imagine that would be inevitable for a brand new team starting out but I think once we got used to playing together we'd be ok. If all else fails we'll just fire long bombs in behind the defence for Dave to run onto.

Exactly. Football is a simple game. Go in with the right attitude and you'll enjoy it win, lose or draw. I'll be happy as long as I get a few games in midfield.

nkay1985

jonnyfingers wrote: »

Whatever do you mean?:P

You and your edits! :mad:

jonnyfingers

Shy_Dave! wrote: »

Hehe Niall!
Great stuff jonny, excellent write-up on the situation.
I'll post a few thought tomorrow after a good sleep.

P.S We HAVE to be called 'The Boards United' :D

Thanks Dave. My next novel will be published soon............:D

Not a bad team name either. Simple and too the point. The Ronseal of team names if you will, does exactly what it says on the tin.

What's more The Fonz feels the same way.

nkay1985

jonnyfingers wrote: »

What's more The Fonz feels the same way.

I didn't know Kev was in Happy Days.

ziedth

nkay1985 wrote: »

I didn't know Kev was in Happy Days.

LOL, I love it!!!!

I am also totally behnd this but one of the lads raised a good point yesterday,

sure we seem to have the bones of an 18 man squad now but you can bet that a number of them will jump ship when they don't start. I'm happy to say I don't care about starting I just love being involved in a team again. So we have to make sure that we have a commitment from everyone because if it does turn out that we start to pick up a few injuries and drop outs and we get hammered in a couple of games that might lead to a decision to pull out and Johnny has already made the point that we are expected to pay the remainder of the money and I'm not going around looking for money off people either ya know?

Ideally, we would have had another few months playing full pitch before we gave it ago but here we are.

I honestly do think we have the bones of a decent team and we're not gonna win any leagues but it could be a laugh and an experince.

alco.29

I think you should go ahead and enter us into the league. If people do drop out im sure we could always pick up a couple more that would be interested they were still about 4 or 5 missing from last night who usually turn up most weeks. With a bit of direction and instruction im sure we have a decent team there between the lot of us..



Boards United for the league

tombliboo83

Definitly on for this!!We should wrap up registration quickly, get a Kit sorted (200-300e) and then arrange some friendlies! And then go for some beers. It is a commitment, we just need to realise that we're not all going to always play a full game and it will be pissing out and cold in Winter but as Johnny said, it's much better than playing on a muddy pitch.:)

jonnyfingers

Update: I think the player registration fee is only €5 which is nothing really. Also just saw on the FLS website that anyone who signs up now gets two free footballs and two free player registrations!

Regarding Kits, Azzurri do a kit building thing on their website. Price is around €200 for 16 jerseys I think. I'll keep looking around for cheaper kits. The cheaper the better.

For anyone interested in our potential opponents here are last season's team photos. http://www.floodlitsoccer.com/div2squads.html

Shy_Dave!

I played one and a half games for one of the div 2 teams back in february when they were struggling for numbers.
Got dumped into the centre of midfield and got subbed at half time in one of the matches...I guess I was taking too much time trying to actually pick a pass instead of hoofing the ball up the pitch. :rolleyes:
Then I was never called back by them, so I guess I have my own little revenge mission. If we keep playing good decent football with short passing we should beat most teams in the league from my short experience in it.

tombliboo83

I totally agree Dave, we need a good passing game (we have the surface for it) someone to be strong in the middle and we'll score a hatfull of goals . I know an awful lot of those guys from the pictures who aren't blessed with skill so I think we could be hopefull for mid-table. Best of luck to Uraguay!!

jonnyfingers

I'm all for short passing. But never underestimate the power of a hoof!

nkay1985

jonnyfingers wrote: »

Update: I think the player registration fee is only €5 which is nothing really. Also just saw on the FLS website that anyone who signs up now gets two free footballs and two free player registrations!

Where did you see this stuff? I don't really understand what it means to get two free player registrations for every player registration! Does that mean that you can register 3 people for the price of one and get two footballs as well?

kensutz

No you get 2 footballs for the team and 2 players can be registered for free.

alco.29

Lads the only thing about a good passing game is that up there we are not going to get anywhere near the space and time we get in the kingfisher. There will be fellas up there in on top of ya kicking the legs of ya. Its very competitive... So are we signed up yet for the league. I would hate it to be too late.

jonnyfingers

kensutz wrote: »

No you get 2 footballs for the team and 2 players can be registered for free.

This is, of course, what I meant.

alco.29 wrote: »

Lads the only thing about a good passing game is that up there we are not going to get anywhere near the space and time we get in the kingfisher. There will be fellas up there in on top of ya kicking the legs of ya. Its very competitive... So are we signed up yet for the league. I would hate it to be too late.

True but I'm practically the Irish Wesley Sneijder. I'll pitch a tent in the space I'll find.

Have we all PM'd Ziedth with our details yet? Name, email, phone number and date of birth.