Sunday, March 16, 2014

Humble Pie

        Congratulations to the Chicago Mustangs on an undefeated season and a Ron Newman Cup Championship.  I was most certainly wrong to doubt the quality of Chicago and the Eastern division.  They are a great team that play great indoor soccer.  It was a great weekend of soccer in Chicago and a lot of fun to watch.  Also, congratulations to the Cleveland Freeze, what a great first season in the PASL.  

Ron Newman Cup Final Line

This will be short, I am out the door to go do some golfing.  Chicago looks faster and better than the other teams, so I will pick the Mustangs to win.  Chicago -1 o/u 12

Friday, March 14, 2014

Final Four Lines

Las Vegas Legends vs Hidalgo La Fiera  Las Vegas has speed, veteran leadership in Enrique Tovar, who is having one of his best seasons ever playing indoor soccer, a crafty passer and shooter like Ivan Campos, and a skilled attacker in Ricardo Sobreira.  They are coming off of a huge win at home against division rival San Diego and are rolling with momentum coming into their game against La Fiera.  Hidalgo on the other hand has a great team assembled and are no strangers to the PASL postseason.  Chile Farias is having a career year with the Hidalgo team and with the help of key players like De Souza, Ughy, and keeper Juan Gamboa, have led La Fiera to a 14-2 regular season.  If Vegas can come out of the gate with their signature pushy, shovey, and floppy style of play than they could draw Hidalgo, who is the most penalized team of the 4 left, into foul trouble early.  Vegas had the best Power Play in the regular season and could make Hidalgo, a team known to have trouble controlling their emotions, pay by playing short handed more than they want to.  I expect a chippy game from both side, but I really hope to see Sesay rolling around on the floor while the Las Vegas trainer splashes water in his face, something that still makes me laugh when I think about it, and then Sanchez can head butt a guy while some guy on the Las Vegas bench flips off a few kids in the crowd.  So far in the post season the teams that I have favored, like SD, Monterrey, and Detroit, have lost.  That being said.  Las Vegas -1.5 o/u 14

Cleveland Freeze @ Chicago Mustangs  Mustangs 13 - Freeze 4 and Mustangs 20 - Freeze 11.  Maybe the third times a charm for the Cleveland Freeze who just won a huge game in Detroit against the Waza Flo.  Maybe their will be a little luck, a few good bounces, and some unbelievable play from Cleveland's best players to carry them to victory.  I would love to see the Freeze pull off another huge upset win on the road against the Mustangs, but it will take a lot from Hector and his crew. If Mike Mason can get hot and have an unreal game, fending off moments of furious attacks like he did against Detroit, then it will be the Freeze who will be spoiling the show in Chicago.  I will hold my tongue about the Mustangs until after the game so that I don't jinx anything.  Chicago -3.5 o/u 16

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Congratulations!

        Lavishly Handicapping would like to say congratulations to the Cleveland Freeze, Chicago Mustangs, Las Vegas Legends, and Hidalgo La Fiera for making it to the Ron Newman Cup Final Four.  I was way off, way off on my picks.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Lavishly's Line's Playoff Week #3

Cleveland Freeze @ Detroit Waza Flo  Detroit has been my dark horse pick to win the whole thing since before the playoffs started, but even more so since claiming home field advantage.  Now that the team that has beat them 2 seasons in a row in the playoffs is out, the door is wide open for them to go on to the finals and win their first ever Ron Newman Cup Championship.  Cleveland, on the other hand, will not go down without a good fight, and despite being a new team in the league, have some players with some experience like, Allen Eller, who can lead the team to victory with his experience and his ability to draw the extra coverage, open up other players, and deal out the assist.  Grossman, Ostergren, and Gillespie are keys to the Freeze's success, and if they can all have good games, they will certainly be a tough team to overcome.  Detroit is no spring chicken.  They have the talent, the drive, the heart, and the time together in the trenches that make them one hell of a team to try and knock out of the tournament.  They have proven time and time again in the playoffs that they can hang with the best of them, and that they can climb out of deficits at any point in the game.  I am thankful that Detroit is one of the few class organizations that provides their games free to view on the internet and will most definitely be tuning in to watch this one.  Cleveland will put up a good fight and keep it close, but I think, and hope, that this is Detroit's year to claim the top spot in the league. Detroit -1.5 o/u 17   

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Reflections On A Weekend That I Am Glad Is Over

"So why are they playing on that little field?"

"I don't know dude, the Orleans isn't available, some people say that other venues are available, but Vegas has the best chance playing on their practice field." I said.

"Why do they have such queer hair cuts?" he asked.

"I don't know dude.  Camaraderie?  Fellowship?  My soccer team all dyed our hair blonde when I was a kid like 15 years ago, I guess it is still the hip thing to do in Vegas.  That's cool, right?"

"Now what's the problem?"

"I don't know dude," I said "the field is a piece of crap and the center dot need to be fixed, but I guess they had to wait until kickoff to do it."

        I was drunk.  Not the type of drunk you get at weddings, graduation party's, or any other type of joyous occasion, but the type of wild and edgy drunk you get after moving from Escondido to Oceanside in the pouring rain, the only rain we have gotten all year I might add.  The type of drunk you get after dealing with the incompetency of my moving company, Bartle Brothers Moving, INC., who left 1/3 of my crap at my old place, requiring me to drive from Oceanside to Escondido and back around 8 times in one day, in the pouring rain.  Loading and unloading, up and down stairs, driving back and forth, the rain, and my hypochondriac best friend who always thinks my son has the Ebola virus, guess what bro, he still isn't sick, all added up to me watching the game on my laptop in my best friend's garage while we continued to drink beer with shots of liquor.

        I was exhausted, frustrated, edgy, drunk, and hardened with a jaded sense of "what's next to go wrong and blow up in my face,"  and the game hadn't even started yet.  We had the volume up on the broadcast, but we also were listening to some of the classic underground hip hop of our youth in the background.  The first half of the game was a fun game to watch, but after the halftime break and our shenanigans, the second half of the game is harder to recall.  I remember we were dying laughing when Craig Elsten took a verbal shit on everything that was going on, and we were laughing even harder when we thought about how uncomfortable Craig's Las Vegas Legend co-announcer must have been.  I remember texting Brian Zellers and telling him how Detroit Waza is our only horse left in this race, WAZA WAZA WAZA.  I remember not being sad or shocked that the Sockers lost in Vegas because it just followed the narrative of my terrible weekend.  I even recorded the conversation that we had after the game on my phone so that I would have transcript of the raw emotion that I was feeling after the game.  On the recording we talked about a good name for a bar, how awesome the new Deltron album was, how the Sockers losing was somehow my brother in laws fault, how I had jinxed the Sockers by changing my lines, how I had the correct lines at first until Craig Elsten got into my head, leading me to change the lines, we even toasted a shot to the 48 game winning streak.  We talked about Susi, and how he will replace Ray Talia as the assistant coach, especially after Ray's yellow card in the game.  We talked about how the Sockers season began with the birth of my daughter, and ended with this crappy move to Oceanside.  At the end of it we talked about how weak the PASL would have looked if the Sockers would have went on to win a 5th straight championship, but on the other hand how weak the league looked allowing a playoff game to take place in a crappy practice facility that isn't even fit for league play.

        The Flash lost.  I had picked SD and Monterrey to go to the final four and now they are out, and Las Vegas and Hidalgo are in.  The Hidalgo vs Monterrey turned out to be the game of the night, I just wish I could have been one of the 1,300 people to see that game.   It seems that my Postseason Power Rankings had some accuracy to it, and some of you thought that having SD as the #5 spot was too low, I am looking at you Craig Elsten.  Dallas is out, along with SD and Monterrey, but my #1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 teams are still in it.  Cleveland can still pull off a miracle, but it will not be an easy road for the Freeze.  The last games will, I hope, be fun to watch as the last 5 teams in the PASL.  If the PASL is lucky they can double up the rest of the US OPEN CUP games on the RON NEWMAN CUP FINAL GAMES (cough bushleague cough cheap cough pathetic) but the WAZA will spoil that.
    
        I think that the worst part of the whole Sockers loss is that everyone knows that I follow and blog about the Sockers and the PASL, so when anyone saw me they would ask, "How are the Sockers doing?"  I would respond by telling them that they lost to Las Vegas.  They would ask how, and I would say "well some major injuries, and the Legends normal venue, the Orleans Arena, was booked, so they had to host a playoff game in their practice facility, which isn't even legal for league play." and everyone has the same response.

"That's Bullshit!"