By Jay Mwamba

Former tennis pro Gilad Bloom salvaged a 1-1 draw for Manhattan Kickers against champs New York Greek-American/Atlas with a late equalizer at the Grand Street Field last Sunday.

Former tennis pro Gilad Bloom salvaged a 1-1 draw for Manhattan Kickers against champs New York Greek-American/Atlas with a late equalizer at the Grand Street Field last Sunday.

Bloom, 42, a two-time Olympian and former Davis Cup star for Israel, beat Atlas goalie Steven Diaz with a swerving free kick [79th] to notch a vital point for Kickers.

The goal canceled out Diego Velasquez’ 65th minute strike for Atlas.

“At age 42, I’m at the height of career and playing with kids half my age,” remarked Bloom, who runs a tennis academy in the Bronx that bears his name.

One of the purest scorers in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League, where he’s plied his skills for ten years, the 1988 and 1992 Olympian and one-time NYAC hitman now has all two of Kickers’ goals in the top flight this season.

Colorful Australian goalie Bernie Sheary was Kickers’ other hero at Grand Street after his stoppage time penalty save from Atlas skipper Arthur Kulov.

Atlas GM George Mellis had no complaints with the result, although he noted the absence of several key players.

“No Michael Todd, no Josh Trott, no Gio [Savarese], no Kevin Meyer, no Michael Mellis,” he tallied. “People didn’t show up but the kids who played from the reserve team did well.”

Kickers’ reserves won a 4-3 thriller.  John Slover, Scott Conti, Joe Whiteman and Chris Beddows scored.

POLE-AXED
Second place Barnstonworth Rovers, three points adrift of Atlas in the West, thrashed ailing Polonia 5-1 at Icahn Stadium.

Andy Abramovits[63rd], Steve Pugliese [70th, 75th] and Matt Levine [80th, 90th] did the damage.

“This is not the Polonia that we are used to [seeing],” observed Rovers coach Stravos Zomopoulos.

Matt Levine also had a goal in Rovers reserves’ 5-3 victory, making it three on the day for him. Lucas Werthein [two], Ron Baskin and Nick Lynch were the other scorers.

PROFLIGATE PANCYPRIANS
Pancyprian Freedoms hammered Brooklyn Italians 4-1 at John Dewey High School, but still got the thumbs down from boss George Halkidis.

He counted at least six missed chances by the East joint leaders.

“We cannot keep the opposition in the match by squandering opportunities. Against better competition it’s going to hurt us,” he griped.

Panagiotis Halkidis [15th pen.], Tasso Polydefkis [28th] and Julio Cesar Santos [75th, 85th] were on target.

Pancyprian took the opener 3-1, thanks to Nicholas Varvatsoulis, Panayiotis Despotopoulos and Billy Bourekas.

STAL CRUSHED
NEW YORK Athletic Club crushed Stal Mielec 7-0 to stay level with Pancyprian in the East.

“Although we were missing five regulars our performance [was] inexcusable,” admitted Artur Kurasiewicz, whose reserves lost 2-1.

CPR FIRST
Andy West and Conor O’Donoghue were on target in Central Park Rangers’ first win of the season, a 2-1 decision over New York Croatia in Boonton, New Jersey.

Marko Loncar was the Croatia scorer.

“We got out first goals and win of the season, in a game we mostly dominated but had to come back from behind to get the deserved result,” said manager Yuval Lion.

MUZZA SALVO
Steve “Muzza” Murray was the star of CPR’s 8-0 reserve romp with five goals. Amos Zereoue, Christopher Clarke and Shane Lennon also got on the score sheet against ten-man Croatia.

IRISH DERBY
In the late game at Pier 40, Lansdowne Bhoys blanked Manhattan Celtic 4-0 to end a two-game skid.

Conor Hunter [20th], Alan O’Hara [34th] and Kirk Smith [60th, 80th], tallied.

The Bhoys reserves had goals from Tom [30th], Jason Kennedy [70th] and Carlos Abatte [80th] in a 4-3 loss.

John Tanios [10th], who also had an assist, Slawek Balon [11th, 35th] and Herve Diese [55th] crafted Celtic’s first win of the season.

“It was a good performance by the whole team but a man-of-the-match performance by Slawek on his debut,” said Tanios.

ROCK STARS
Elsewhere, Irish eyes were smiling at Mercy College where another five-star performance saw Shamrock bounce Turkish American SC 5-0 in a Division Two fixture at Mercy College.

Paddy Geraghty [15th pen.], who manned the posts in the Shamrock seconds’ 6-1 goalfest, Shawn Baron [60th, 70th], Benny Griffin [80th] and Ciaran Moloney [89th] made it three wins out of three for the Irishmen.

The Rocks, 5-0 winners over Ukrainians the previous week, improved to 3-0-1 [10], two points behind leaders CD Iberia.

In the reserve tussle, hat trick hero Shawn Duda, Benny Griffin [two] and Rory Laurey secured the points.

RAMPANT HOBOKEN
At Overpeck County Park, Hoboken FC beat Ridgewood Romac
5-0, their biggest margin of victory in years.

Sandy Valentin got the requisite hat trick [8th, 27th, 62nd] with Jason Tondreau [33rd] and Sean Kelly [69th] accounting for the other goals.

Hoboken’s reserves had set the tempo earlier on with a 5-2 return, courtesy of Adam Karrlsson-Willis [14th], Claudio Goregoitia [31st], Mike Mania [51st]) and Alex Marti-Donati [60th, 64th].

KANDIA FIGHT-BACK
Despite drawing first blood, Kandia had to rally back from two down to snatch a point in a 3-3 tie with FC Bulgaria at Evander Childs High School.

Damion Roberts [5th] opened the scoring early, then had to pull one back before Bruce Tulloch leveled after Bulgaria had led 3-1.

“Despite coming from behind, the three points were there on the table for us to claim so this draw is a case of points lost,” rued Colin Hemmings.

Ryan Steadman clinched a 2-1 win for Kandia ‘B.’

RED STREAK
Central Park Rangers Reds made it three wins in a row with a 2-0 result against Pythagoras Samos at the Met Oval.

Robbie Newman and Ilija Zlatar scored.

Bola Adeeko, Phil Lubkowicz [two], Trygve Cossette and Simon Nwosu got the goals in the CPR reserves’ 5-0 triumph.

JAPAN PIPPED
Clarkstown held off FC Japan 2-1 to come away from McCarren Park with full points in a tight Second Division encounter.

Andre Brown slotted in the winner off a searching ball from Justin Koblish.  This, after Takao Nakasuji’s header from a Shigeru Aoe free kick had pegged back Claude Darling’s go-ahead goal for the visitors.

Takao later missed a penalty that could have tied the game.

The reserves drew 3-3.

WINLESS UKRAINIANS
New York Fury’s 2-0 shutout at McCarren Park kept Steve Kovalenko’s New York Ukrainians both winless and scoreless.

“We’re improving a little bit [but] just not scoring,” said Kovalenko, whose second unit had a goal from Lukasz Prawezkik in a 3-1 loss.

LUCKY SEVEN
With hitherto joint leaders Korabi crashing 2-1 to Mr. Dennehy’s, VV Nieuw Amsterdam’s 7-1 rout of FC Partizani moved them into sole first position in Metro Div. One.

Justin Carr, Darran Cronshaw and Nate Price had VVNA 3-0 up at the interval before josh Salsi, Ronnie Swinkels, Carr again and an individual effort by Cronshaw iced it.

Eros Canaj got Partizani’s face-saver.

“I think the result illustrated what we can do when we focus as a team
for the full 90 [minutes],” said C.P. de Vera, whose men [3-1, 9] are now  three points clear of Korabi.

BATTLING DENNEHY’S
Korabi led 1-0 after 45 minutes against Mr. Dennehy’s at the Greenbelt Recreation Center before succumbing to goals by Lance Pitterson and J.P. Loize.

“As always against a young and skilful Korabi side, it was a very competitive game, one that we are delighted to come away from with our first three points of the season,” said Ronan Gardiner.

ACOSTA CLINCHER
Sporting Astoria great Patricio Acosta returned to notch the winner for his ten-man side in a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Astoria Lions at Long Island City High School.

Sporting were a goal down and a man less — Matt Lightner having being ejected for dissent – when Alister Warner leveled off a Jorge Monsalve cross.

Then three minutes from time, Acosta popped up to nick the points.

“A well deserved win,” Ed Romero summed up.

GOTTSCHEE TIE
Also in Metro Div. One, Dominick Cinquimani’s penalty kick earned BW Gottschee a 1-1 tie with New York Eagles at Mitchell Field.

HOME SWEET HOME
Metro Div. Two pace-setters Homenetnmen kept their hundred percent record going with a 7-1 drubbing of newcomers Casa Galicia at Red Hook.

Tigran Nikoghosyan [38th, 39th, 73rd] and Vardan Tigranyan [21st, 23rd, 53rd] both had hat tricks, with Andranik  Balian [26th] accounting for the other goal.

STAND-OFF
Barnstonworth Rovers and NYPD battled to a 3-3 draw at Commodore Barry Field, with Thomas Obaseki [20th], Sergio Restrepo [30th] and Brandon Rowley [85th] on target for Rovers.

ALBION RAMPAGE
Once Jason Cyrus struck in the opening minute the rout was on at Red Hook where new boys Albion SC demolished veteran Over-30 campaigners Westchester FC 6-0.

All the goals came in a blistering first half during which Odinga Bascom [19th, 30th, 43rd] hit  a trey and Matt Patterson [25th] and Sam Carroll [35th pen.] added one apiece.

“All credit to Westchester FC, they played hard despite the score line, but I think Kent Bailey and Odinga Bascom were just too much for them to handle,” said Cyrus.

GOOD OL’ BOYS
Dave Sheeran was a happy camper after his Barnstonworth Old Boys dispatched hobbled SC Eintracht 2-0 at Randalls Island on Barry O’Driscoll’s brace.

“Once again, our defense was solid, giving me a very quiet morning in between the sticks!” beamed Sheeran.

“Too many injuries,” Eintracht’s Tommy Strumpf explained.

CELTIC JIG
Rookie side Manhattan Celtic’s first ever win in the Over-30 division was a memorable one as they whacked RTG 5-2.

Celtic were led by Brad Andrews [two], debutant Craig Renaud, who also assisted on Ian Pollard’s ice-breaker, and Saul Kato who tapped in Greg Macek’s flick-on from an Ian Woodcock corner.

Paul Watling and Mike Smolinsky replied for RTG.

PREMIER CLASS
Nedgy Nazon [51st], Duane Pena [60th], Maurice Wellington [70th] and Kendall Villareal [75th] connected in Barnstonworth Premier’s 4-1 defeat of Brooklyn Italians.

KICK BALL
Manhattan Kickers’ Over-30s also mauled Barnstonworth Rovers 4-1on Randalls Island.

The in-form Paul Cowler [two], Jeff Saunders and Phillipe Regard [the latter making his debut] produced the win.

Kicker goalie Raj Gandasha earned Man of the Match honors.

MARIO DEUCE
Mario Angelucci had a goal in each half in Shamrock’s 2-1 result over Brooklyn Gunners at the Verazzano Sports Complex.

Angelucci’s brace [16th, 58th] brought his two-game tally to five.

GOTTSCHEE FALL
Elsewhere in Over-30 action, Xavier Lee had BW Gottschee’s consolation in a 3-1 loss to New York Greek-American/Atlas.

And NYPD beat Hoboken 3-0.