The Chelmsford Sunday Soccer Club's Blog

Considering that our first game of the year feel on a Sunday where there were multiple religious holidays and it was a bit cool out, I think that playing 6 v 7 was a good start. I am sure that we can build on that.

9:00 AM kick-off at Harrington. White shirt/dark shirt. No “Where’s Waldo” shirts and no grey shirts (other than for goal keepers.

Do yourself a favor and come early enough to have a long proper warm-up before kick-off. Avoid injury. Also, since Harrington can be seen from the street and the highway, we’ll appear to give the impression that we know what we’re doing if we are seen warming up.

If you are reading this on your phone, you should see animated fireworks emojis going off. I programmed those myself. Pretty proud of them.

This Sunday (April 17th) we resume playing soccer. We are playing at the fields at the Harrington School.

Please note that we are very protective of CYSA fields. So, we do not play on them if they are wet. But the weather looks good for us to get it going again this week.

A thanks to The Bruce for coordinating our field use with CYSA.

A few housekeeping items:

Anyone high school age and over can play as long as they are respectful of the people and the game.

When we don’t have people who want to play goal keeper, we take turns sharing the duty.

If you wear a grey shirt, you are the goal keeper for the whole game. Just sayin.

Bring a white shirt and a dark shirt so that we can balance (and sometimes re-balance) the teams. This makes it more fun for everyone.

I feel, deep in my bones, that we could — if we really wanted to — start the game at 9:00 AM. This means that the getting to the field, warming up, balancing the teams, and the cozy little catch-ups actually have to be done before 9:00 AM.

This does not mean that you should skip warming up. That leads to injury. Injury bad.

No coaching. I don’t care if you’re playing on the team with your kid. No coaching. Sure we coordinate with each other, but no coaching. This is a game where we often see players play positions other than where they play for their team. I actually encourage people to move around on the field.

We always find a way to make it work with the numbers and the people who show up. Soccer is a game. It is supposed to be fun. Come and play. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Lawrence

P.S. We got a nice thank you from Vyach for those of us who have been supporting his effort to send battlefield medic supplies to Ukraine.

I will post soon about our return to playing. We’re aiming at April 17th. But, I have something more important to talk about today.

Our old friend Vyach Mayorskiy is gathering battlefield medic supplies and getting them to his native Ukraine. My wife and I have ordered something off his Amazon wishlist. These items will be sent straight to Vyach and then he will get it into the right hands.

It is the most sobering wishlist I can imagine.

Ordering something off of it will help a little and perhaps save lives. I do not usually stray from waxing poetic about playing soccer, starting on time, the evils of grey shirts, and jokes that only I really find funny. Now would be a time where I would make some joke about how Dave B never really gets Vyach’s name right.

But, no jokes. Serious stuff here. The Ukrainians need every bit of help the world can give. So, if you can help, — even a bit — I think it would be good. The items that Vyach is sending are to save the wounded it at all possible.

Here is Vyach’s message.

---

“Second package is getting ready!! Keep them coming!!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2YC6XPBE5FJ2S

These are high-priority medical items – tourniquets are of the highest need. If you order off this list and specify shipment to my address (default if you order from the list, otherwise:

Vyach Mayorskiy
40 Parker Rd
Chelmsford, MA 01824

We will get them over to Donetsk region, Ukraine into the right hands.

Thank you very much for all your help and support!!

I will post soon about our return to playing. We’re aiming at April 17th. But, I have something more important to talk about today.

Our old friend Vyach Mayorskiy is gathering battlefield medic supplies and getting them to his native Ukraine. My wife and I have ordered something off his Amazon wishlist. These items will be sent straight to Vyach and then he will get it into the right hands.

It is the most sobering wishlist I can imagine.

Ordering something off of it will help a little and perhaps save lives. I do not usually stray from waxing poetic about playing soccer, starting on time, the evils of grey shirts, and jokes that only I really find funny. Now would be a time where I would make some joke about how Dave B never really gets Vyach’s name right.

But, no jokes. Serious stuff here. The Ukrainians need every bit of help the world can give. So, if you can help, — even a bit — I think it would be good. The items that Vyach is sending are to save the wounded it at all possible.

Here is Vyach’s message.

—————

“Second package is getting ready!! Keep them coming!!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2YC6XPBE5FJ2S

These are high-priority medical items – tourniquets are of the highest need. If you order off this list and specify shipment to my address (default if you order from the list, otherwise:

Vyach Mayorskiy
40 Parker Rd
Chelmsford, MA 01824

We will get them over to Donetsk region, Ukraine into the right hands.

Thank you very much for all your help and support!!

8:30 AM at McCarthy this Sunday. If that is occupied, we can move to Graniteville (right across the street).

Saturday’s weather should thaw the ground. Sunday is supposed to be dry weather.

We’re at Murphy. 8:30 AM kick-off.

White shirt, dark shirt, no looking at your cell phone on the field, and let’s have some fun. We can talk about where we should play the December games. See you all at Murphy.

Tonight is the night where we “fall back” and reset the clocks. This gives you the potential to get an extra hour of sleep and puts us in danger of actually starting the game at 8:30 AM.

Not to be opinionated, but I think that Daylight Savings Time is a stupid idea. In my mind, it serves no useful purpose and I wish they would do away with it. Not to complain, but I also think that it is badly implemented and New England is in the wrong time zone anyway. Not to focus on the wrong thing, but I say that we move New England to the Atlantic Time Zone and then stop changing the clocks twice a year. I am not saying that I have relatives who never actually change their clocks. But, I have heard worse ideas.

I am glad that we had this talk about soccer. I hope to see everyone at Murphy Field for an 8:30 AM kick-off time.

Lawrence

Part of keeping up this blog is to be a bit obsessed with weekend weather. Today is ookie-ook outside, but Sunday looks good. Rain will end Saturday night and temps in the 50’s by our kick-off time. I am not sure that we will see another Sunday this nice this month. It might even be the last nice day we see this month.

Kick-off at 8:30 AM at Murphy Field. Seems simple enough, but …you’d be surprised.

At the field we are going to talk about where we are playing in November and December as well as an option for January, February, and March.

Bring a white shirt and a dark shirt and an ability to pass the ball.

Lawrence

This Sunday we are playing at Murphy Field. Kick-off at 8:30. This is annual “No Excuses Sunday”. So, be there ready to play. No excuses.

Last week saw the return of the legend Tony Rabbito to the field. I hope that we see some more returning players this week. It was a good game last week. But we all know by now that I want everybody to play. More fun when there are lots of players. If too many of you show up, we have a plan for that. Good problem to have.

Last Friday afternoon I came into my house and asked my family to come meet the new member of our family. I had just returned from Soccer Stuff in Acton with my new soccer ball. Some of you met “Umbro” this past Sunday. If you have yet to meet Umbro, come out and play Sunday. You don’t know what you’re missing.

If you want to be the full-time goalkeeper, wear grey. Otherwise, bring a white shirt and a dark shirt.

Lawrence

There was a traffic detour that caused us to start a bit late last week. But…only a bit. Murphy is set-up this season with one big field and two small ones. While waiting for people to arrive, we just started playing small-sided on one of the small fields. It was a good, crisp game. When we got numbers, we moved to the big field. In this way, Murphy is a perfect place for us to be right now.

Weather looks great for Sunday. Kick-off at 8:30 AM. Perhaps you might want to leave a little extra time to navigate construction detours. See you Sunday.

Lawrence