Kickers enter post season on high note-Carman Valley Leader

Club defeats Revolution
By Gene Still
Friday September 16, 2005

Carman Valley Leader — The Carman Kickers were playing a waiting game off the field as of press time. The Kickers were waiting to find out where exactly they would finish in the final regular season standings in the Fourth Division of the Manitoba Major Soccer League. However unlike previous years, Carman wasn’t necessarily left on the outside looking in as far as the post season was concerned. Instead it was a matter of what their playoff seed position would be. Regardless of where they finish and who they face in the first round of the playoffs, the Kickers are heading into the playoffs on a relative high note. Unlike previous stretch runs where Carman faded, this latest edition of the Kickers has performed strongly down the stretch. And that was demonstrated during their final home contest on September 10 when they entertained the Lusitania Revolution. Fresh off a 2-1 triumph over the Reservoir Dogs, Kickers’ Coach William Hoogerdijk prepared his squad to face the Revolution with their playoff fates – at the time – uncertain. But Hoogerdijk said the team just focused on the task at hand, defeating Lusitania. And that attitude showed by the fact that the players took an almost business-like approach to the match. “I didn’t sense any tightness or nervousness at all in the guys. It was just like; ‘we’ve got to come out and we’ve got to play well and get the win’,” he said. “We just can’t rely on somebody else ‘screwing up’ (losing). We’ve just got to go out and worry about taking care of winning our own games.” And that’s exactly what the Kickers did as they came away with a well deserved 3-1 victory. Carman opened the scoring thanks to Tyson Kamminga around the 20 minute mark of the opening half. It remained a 1-0 contest until near the end of the half, during injury time, when Lusitania’s Helder L Neto knotted the score. “We just kind of let down just a little, and they took advantage,” said Hoogerdijk. However, instead of being discouraged after carrying most of the play for the opening part of the game, he said the club was upbeat during the intermission. “We felt pretty good at the half. We had the better of the scoring chances,” he said. “We should’ve been up but their goalkeeper was standing on his head to keep them in the game.” And Carman refused to be denied as they scored twice, courtesy of Lyle Vanveen and Peter VanKerkhof, in the final half to earn the victory. “We came out at them and started creating some chances,” Hoogerdijk said. “Everybody did their jobs whether it was scoring or defending.”