CSL Roundup: Bhoys bow to Brooklyn Italians

The Bronx Irish failed to reproduce the form that earned them a 2-0 victory over Manhattan Kickers in their season opener.
“We were poor and disappointing, but the [bad] refereeing helped the scoreline,” Bhoys coach Damien Dunleavy complained after the tempestuous match at the Verazzano Sports Complex, which also saw the Italians finish with 10 men.
Lansdowne were chasing the game almost from the start when the Italians’ Chris Beltran pounced on a defensive error to score in the second minute. Lansdowne took a while to settle down and it wasn’t until 10 minutes from the interval that they managed to draw level, teenage winger Conor Hunter connecting from a 20-yard free-kick.
Brooklyn Italians then retook the lead on a strike by Nicole Ciricione (50th). Within minutes a Lansdowne player was dismissed, and then another.
The Italians took advantage of their undermanned opponents to net two late goals through Ciricione (80th) and Giuseppe Ferrara (85th).
Dunleavy conceded that Bhoys deserved to lose in light of his team’s sub-par performance and the absence of defense kingpin Boyle — away on GAA duty with Clare.

RESERVE REVERSAL
The Lansdowne reserves rebounded from the previous week’s 1-0 loss to Kickers to beat Brooklyn Italians’ second team, 3-1, in the curtain raiser.
Anthony Toner, Brendan Beattie and Damien Mescall scripted the Bhoys’ first victory in Div. I.
“Good game,” coach Sean Hall summed up. “We were 1-0 up then gave away a stupid goal. We battled back, though.”
Midfielder Michael Rubothan earned special mention from Hall in what the coach otherwise called a good team performance.

SHAMROCK EDGED
Shamrock have predicted rocky times ahead early in the season as the club regroups following a massive turnover of players, and rocky it was at Msgr. McClancy where both the first and reserve teams were shutout by Polonia.
The latter were thrashed 3-0 on goals by Martin Podpiliski (two) and Michael Siwiec, while the former succumbed 1-0 to Mariusz Mazur’s first half effort (41st).

CELTIC POWER
Manhattan Celtic, coached by Bray native Ian Woodcock, dispatched Ridgewood 3-1 in a Metro Div. I fixture at Wards Island.
David Lin (22nd), Michael Thomas (70th) and Ed McPherson (85th) were the Celtic scorers, while Danut Anton (26th) had Ridgewood’s lone response.
“It was a pretty good game,” Woodcock said.

HAMILL, CREAGH SHINE
David Hamill and Chris Creagh tallied for SC Eintracht in a 4-2 loss to FC Bulgaria (formerly Magura) in a Metro Div. II match at the Metropolitan Oval.
Koko Veltchev, Rado Belev and Galian Andreev (two) produced the win for Bulgaria.