Cape Cod v Boulder - PDL Final (R)

[fanmaster]

At the half, it is tied 0 - 0

[fanmaster]

Update @ 58:00 Cape Cod's Eric Reed shot a rocket from 25 to 30 yards out that scored. Cape Cod 1, Boulder 0

[fanmaster]

Update @ 73:00 Jason Thompson scores for Boulder knotting the score @ 1 - 1

[fanmaster]

@ 99:00 Cape Cod's Schmidt made a beautiful side kick goal off a corner to win the game. Congratulations to Cape Cod Crusaders for winning the 2002 PDL Championship.

[superdave]

Man, that was a fine match. The skill level on display was much, much higher than I expected. Of course, part of that is because the marking in the midfield wasn't too tight.

MLS is gonna be alot better league in 5 years, I believe.

[eric_appleby]

Good game, good crowd. Cape Cod Times gives attendance as 2,239. Thought it was closer to 3k myself. There were 2k for the friendly with the Revo last monday, and it was a much bigger crowd last night.

I've been watching the Crusaders since 94 and the quality of play at this level has greatly improved.
It was a really enjoyable night for the Cape and supporters of the sport.

[Shredder]

Was the game held at Cape Cods home stadium?

[terp fan]

The game was very high paced similar to a college game which makes sense since many of the best players are college players. The best player for either team was Jaqua the front runner for Boulder, does anyone know where be plays?

[Dave Marino-Nachison]

Jaqua plays for Clive Charles at Portland. I think he'll be a senior this year.

Some years back he was "linked" with Liverpool by an early iteration of TeamTalk but I have no idea whether or not that had any credence.

[MassachusettsRef]

Originally posted by Shredder
Was the game held at Cape Cods home stadium? Yes, it was played at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

[Bleacherbutt]

[i]The best player for either team was Jaqua the front runner for Boulder, does anyone know where be plays? [/B]

I disagree. Jaqua was the best Boulder player.

The best player on the field last night was the attacking mid for Cape Cod-- Methembe Ndlovu. He has eyes in the front, back, side, and top if his head. His abililty to hold the ball and distribute was phenomenal. My only regret was that I didn't see him play live and I was limited to the view presented from the director and camera. His vision and ability to connect are top notch. Very Valderrama-esque (at his peak) performance. Any idea where he plays.

[Chowderhead]

Truly a fine match. The night was perfect. Boulder seemed the more likely to walk off with it but the Cape pulled it out.

The party whistles and plastic horns were a nuisance. But the postgame celebration and pitch invasion made up for it.

Let's see if Cape Cod can pull off the double by taking care of Vermont Tuesday night for the New England Cup.

Props to Nelson who drove down from Peabody to check out a PDL game. He even said that he planned on LISTENING to the Revo game on the way home.

Boulder had class and are to be commended. They also had some fit ladies walking around.

[Chowderhead]

Originally posted by Bleacherbutt


.

The best player on the field last night was the attacking mid for Cape Cod-- Methembe Ndlovu. He has eyes in the front, back, side, and top if his head. His abililty to hold the ball and distribute was phenomenal. My only regret was that I didn't see him play live and I was limited to the view presented from the director and camera. His vision and ability to connect are top notch. Very Valderrama-esque (at his peak) performance. Any idea where he plays.

27 years old. Native of Zimbabwe. Dartmouth grad. Serves as assistant coach to the Cape's Paul Turner. Contemplating retirement from footy. Class act.

[Bleacherbutt]

Originally posted by Chowderhead


27 years old. Native of Zimbabwe. Dartmouth grad. Serves as assistant coach to the Cape's Paul Turner. Contemplating retirement from footy. Class act.

Thanks Chowd. Ah, so he had about 3-5 years experience over the others on the field and it showed. I believe he also played in the A-League for Connecticut last year. He was memorable when I saw him play against the Rhinos. It looks like he is the Crash Davis of minor league soccer. Hopefully you'll get to see him play one more year.

[Dr Jay]

Or "Mo" is totally a class act. Not only was he the backbone of the PDL National champs, he was their assistant coach as well. He also served as the head coach of the Bulldogs Super Y U-15 boys team this season where he did an outstanding job.
Mo has played for his native Zimbabwe's on their National team.

I have not heard what his plans are next year but he will not be coaching with Mass Pro Soccer so the report that he is retiring from PDL may be true.

[fanmaster]

Try this link:

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/sports/xzis9.htm

I think this is the same person?

[Testudo]

Originally posted by Chowderhead


27 years old. Native of Zimbabwe. Dartmouth grad....

Dartmouth and Zimbabwe? I smell an Andrew Shue connection. He did play a role in bringing Digital Takawira to MLS's attention. I think Digital is still knocking around in the A League, and is still high in the all-time scoring leaders for MLS. And he had a nifty goal celebration.

On the game... What a great game to be PDL's first ever on national TV. Fox Sports World comes through again. Every single goal was quality. Several of the players are young MLS prospects. The Boulder players may end up making more noise in the MLS in the long run (Dunivant, Spiteri, Jaqua, Jason Thompson, Wagenfuhr). It certainly looked like home field was an advantage for the Crusaders. Reed's goal is described as a "rocket" above, which is not the whole story. It was a well-placed dipping blast across the goal mouth and over the keeper's head into the upper right corner--immediately after he had stolen the ball from a hapless central defender (seriously, this guy was in no way hapful; he was without hap). Reed looks a little short, but that play was all skill. What is his story?

The second was a perfect centering pass from Jaqua finished by Thompson. Sanneh and McBride, eat your heart out. The golden goal looked a little junky--a goal mouth scramble for the ball. But the Crusaders did well to keep the ball moving into a dangerous position and the finish was a rapid fire low blast tucked just inside the post. Spiteri had it well covered and it took that shot to beat him. Clutch. Spiteri seemed to be in command the whole match and didn't give up any soft goals. The other guy (Perkins?) was spectacular at times for the Crusaders.

The play in the midfield and the passing generally was kind of choppy. The Rapids Reserves had this big white rasta guy in the back--for comic relief I guess. As I understand it, these teams weren't even among the top 7 seeds in the playoffs. That's pretty impressive. It looks like Boulder might have been bolstered with more reinforcements from top colleges, so they were perhaps better than their seeding.

Notably, the Des Moines Menace had an undefeated season (including wins over Boulder) and put up unbelievable offensive numbers but lost in the Central Division semis. They have this one 23 year old Czech guy, Tomas Boltnar, who had something like 59 points this year (24g, 11a, or something like that) during the short PDL season. They also got knocked of the US Open Cup on a golden goal by the Rochester Ragin' Rhinos.

In short, it looks like we are developing a viable Fourth Division, with an emphasis on younger players. Another good sign for the future of US Soccer.

[cusoccer82]

Originally posted by Testudo

The Rapids Reserves had this big white rasta guy in the back--for comic relief I guess.


This is the infamous Kevin Wickart. Formerly a youth national team player that recently got expelled from Wake Forest for serious drug infractions. Rumors have him going to SLU as a walk on this fall.

[SueB]

Actualy, this was NOT the first PDL game to be televised on national TV. Last year's PDL final was also televised live on Fox Sports World. But it was a disaster because it was a "Final Four" setup hosted by Des Moines, which promptly lost in the semifinals. So about a dozen people came to watch Westchester defeat Calgary 2-0 in a poorly played affair played by two tired teams (semifinals were the night before, and at least one of them was an OT game).

The league wised up this year. Semifinals and finals were played in SEPARATE weekends, which ensured fresh legs AND a home crowd. The product on the field, and the crowd made it much more memorable.

[ROAVA]

great game great fan support and did anyone notice the ref...
no well thats a good thing he controled the game let the players play and did not screw p the game like the MLS refs do hope he moves up as well