Current CPL Table, Magpies back up to 8th!!

After our win vs On Tap Badgers we make our charge back up the league, this
will continue by a good smashing of Daan next weekend to maintain our
position of 8th.

Robs Celts got lucky last weekend too as Eagles only rocked up to their game with 8 players!!!  Or I don't think the Celts would of won.  Too bad for us, but we can only care about our own results.

Here is the table:

Player Profile - Emre the Turkish Battering Ram!

Emre 

Full Name: Emre Gundogdu
Home City: Bolu, Turkey
Position: Midfield 
Squad Number: 5


Emre is the only player in our team who has been with me on this journey from day 1.  So it seemed only right that he was the first person who gets a player profile.  

Emre is a tall tank of a centre midfielder, absolutely like a battering ram, he is not the fastest but once he picks up some speed he is impossible to stop, and is like a freight train smashing through anything in the way.  I don't mean he is slow by the way either.  Just not like shit off a stick.

He is around 6ft 2 or 6ft 3 and is a big physical presence in the heart of our team, when he cannot make it to the games his presence is sorely missed.  Like a true captain of the team (well vice captain) he is willing to play anywhere he is needed even if he cannot play in that position well.  What Emre said about his playing style and where he is from "Bolu is famous for its large mountain, in the winter with the snow it is impossible to pass like my playing style"

So show your love for our Turkish Battering Ram, and the only other member who has been a part of this group from the very first session.  He is certainly loved by the team mainly because of his friendly nature and aggressive playing style, Emre man the Magpies love you ha! (sounds a bit soppy there) 

Emre in action for the Magpies vs Animals

View from the Opposition - Formosa Celts

This weeks view from the opposition comes from Rob Iwanicki of Formosa Celts.  Magpies want to give out a big thank you to him for answering our questions, even the ones about contested decisions.  Here are the answers:

In the first half of the season we managed to get a 2-1 win, but this time around the Celts beat us 3-0. What do you think was the difference in the two games?

I wasn't palying in the first game (I was in Europe) so it's impossible for me to answer this question.

We have been registering a lot of new players as people are coming and going all the time, and we currently don't have enough people who are here long term yet, do you think this is effecting our performance considering we have picked up good results mixed with terrible ones?

I think it's normal that you not gonna pick up good results if you permanently change the team. Good players don't make a good team. People need to get used to each other running ways, the way of passing or defending. You guys pick up lot of students, but that's not the way how to run a social club in Taipei. 1. Students have not money - thus can't got to a sponsor very often, 2. They come and go and it's difficult to maintain the same level of skills in a team for the whole season You need a core of 10 players, who live here and are committed to the club and fill it with another 10 temporarily students. On the other hand, the other teams never know what team they will play against - you got a surprise advantage on your site.

Who do you think we're the stand out players in our team? (If any?)

You got a good team and if you keep them together for a while, you will win some games. I think you are a team who fights for the 7th place, with the Celts and Daan, but not really able to get more.

We had two headers hit against the bar, but apart from this we really struggled to threaten the Celts during the game, do you think if any of the headers went in, instead of hitting the bar the game would of changed? or The result would of been the same?

Definitely - if the header in the second half went in, it's 1:2 and you know that then everything could happen, especially you would get a push and we would be getting nervous.

Where do you predict Magpies and Celts will finish at the end of the CPL season?

I think Celts will finish above MAgpies as we have the easier schedule left, we got Daan, Shane, BS (Black Stars) and Lions and you Carnegies, Lions, Eagles (place 1,2 and 4) and Daan. You will get trouble to win these games, on the other hand you drew the Animals - you never know

Our team clearly thought you dived in the match. Do you agree with the opinion our team has that you dived? What are your thoughts on this matter?

I partially disagree with it. The ref gave 2 fouls on my in this game as I can remember. After the first foul, you tall centre back came to me an said sorry for hitting me in the face - if someone hits you in the face you can go down, can't you? If not, then it was a dive. Second foul was obvious, someone hit my food from behind and I tripped. You need to remember that I am 40 and my balance is not one of a 20 years old. I don't think there were more fouls given on me.

One of your goals, the second or third I don't remember which was from a cross on the right hand side of the pitch, and our keeper came out to get it. There were a lot of players around, and from the side and what our players said it looked like our keeper got dragged towards our post and pulled away from his own goal, resulting in an easy tap in for one of the Celts players. What was your view on this incident during the game?

No idea, I crossed the ball and was too far away from the action to judge - too many players around the keeper for me to see it. However, if you talking about the second goal, your keeper had plenty of time to avoid the tap of our player, he should use his knee while going in the air. Your game depend a lot of Matteo, I saw 2-3 phenomenal saves by him against Badgers.

Top, Formosa Celts squad, Rob is in the back row 4th from the right (this photo is a little old now but its the only one I could find, below Magpies in action vs the Celts, pitcture is from the first round of the season.

Classic Magpie Moment!!

If you were, or were not there when we made the long trip down to
Kaohsuing for the winter island wide tournament, we all decided to go out and party like bosses on the Saturday night, to erm celebrate our superb (ahem...) performance from Saturday afternoon, and Jeffy going into a blind panic
thinking he had lost his fellow Belizian started running around the club
screaming, WHERE'S HUGO!!!!  WHERE'S HUGO!!!!
Cue, mass hysterics from the rest of us at Jeffys blind panic!!

Club LEGEND #1 - Stefan!

What can be said about Stefan, the catchphrase I'm from Geneva is forever in printed 
upon the whole football club now.  We should all claim we are from Geneva because of Stefan!  A mainstay in our team from the beginning, until he left for the most polluted cities 
in the mainland!  His words not ours!  

His last game vs Daan was actually a comical performance, after him having one hell of a leaving bash, and turning up looking totally drunk never mind hungover!  I even had to call him and ask where he was to play at a 2.15 game!  He arrived like a boss by taxi, looking like he arrived from the club.

There was a moment in the game where the ball was crossed over and he ducked.  The headache was already banging away on the head like a sledgehammer, something planting your noggin on a ball wasn't gonna improve so he gave it a miss.  Daan went on and scored.

Later on in the game, he made a superb professional foul to keep us in the game, seeing as he was the last man he was sent off, and that meant he could not play any games before he left.  A sad way to go out, but legend status had been confirmed!

We got him a t-shirt made when he left Taiwan as he was one of us original 7 members of the team.  

The t-shirt had "I'M FROM GENEVA" on the back, and "I WANNA BE A MAGPIE RANGER, ONLY LIVE FOR SEX AND DANGER!!!" on the front!

Here are the photos:

Back - "I'm from Geneva"

Front, "I wanna be a magpie ranger, only live for sex and danger!"