RYE – Field Hockey New York

I needed a little break in order to comment objectively on the end of the 2009/2010 season for Rye. Too fresh was the disappointment after the playoff final lost to Greenwich FHC (0-2) on June 20, which followed the loss to the same opponent in the last league game at the beginning of June (0-1). In between was a hard fought playoff semifinal which was won against serial playoff spoiler Tri-State (4-1).

It would be easy to blame the playoff weekend performance on the obvious: playing the semifinal against Tri-State without Cheetham (red carded in the last league game against Greenwich), the team’s “quarterback”; absences of regulars Geerts and Van Nunen, and the  uncertainty around the keeper situation which was only resolved literally 3 hours before the final.

However, it has to be acknowledged that in contrast to the loss against Greenwich in the last league game which seemed more like an accident given the dominance of Rye in that game, the playoff trophy went to the deserved winner. Especially in the first half Greenwich managed to dominate a Rye site which had not been seriously challenged for almost 18 months. Worse, Rye’s offensive machinery which managed to score a (probably record breaking) 86 goals during the 14 regular season games, was uncapable of producing anything countable in not only one game, but two; with Rye opportunities in the final a rare sight.

We won’t bore you with an analysis about the reasons for Rye’s imperfekt end to the season. The club’s unsuccessful try to defend the title must under no circumstances overshadow a very successful campaign over the last 9 months, first and foremost of course the dominant way in which the NEFHA league was won for the first time in 16 years. it was also the first time that Rye was able to field 2 full teams for a full season. Rye II under the leadership of Harry Labana has been improving throughout the year and build a core of players that will build the foundation for future seasons.

As we enjoy the summer between BBQs and world cup gatherings the beginning of the new season in September seems far away. But some Rye members will not be around for the new start. Over the summer Rye will say goodbye to Basti (Schweini) Kording and Chris Kalasch who both joined the club this spring and from day one were great additions on and off the field. Thank you Basti and Chris for your unconditional support over the last few months, and we hope to have you back soon! Also a big thank you to Thibault Nerincx who was a backbone of Rye I in the first half and then flew in from Belgium to support us again in the playoffs. The time in the US has also ended for Aico Van Nunen who is heading for Milan for professional reasons. We we’re sure that we will not have seen the last from Aico! Thank you for all the miles you drove to be playing with us; it is probably a record in the club’s history!

The 2010/2011 will hopefully bring strong new blood for the club in order to compensate for the constant churn that comes with playing in New York, and indications are that Rye has some interesting additions lined up. Let’s hope they make it past the INS at JFK airport!

After captaining the team ever since the club’s re-birth in 2005, I will be taking it a bit easier on hockey and will be handing over the Rye I on-field responsibilities to Chris Cheetham. Over the last 4 years Chris has shown unconditional dedication to growing not only the team, but also the club and hockey in New York in general. There is no double that Rye will continue on the right track with him! Good luck Chris!

With this it remains to wish you all a long and enjoyable summer. Thank you for all your help during the season. Playing hockey in New York takes a lot of goodwill and sacrifices of players and their families, but I hope the sport pays you back with plenty of satisfaction, fun (and the occasional trophy….).

Go Rye!

Patrick Stutz
Captain Rye I
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Rye FHC – GFHC II 9:0

Rye ended their 16 year wait for a title by wrapping up the 2009/10 NEFHA championship with a 9-0 victory over Greenwich II in their penultimate league game. It has been a long wait for the core of the team who got their first taste of NEFHA success with a playoff victory last season but had only been able to finish as runners up to Greenwich I in the previous three campaigns. It was especially satisfying for goalkeeper Milan Tyburec and veteran defender Peter Jones who are the only remaining members of the Rye team that won three consecutive league titles from1992 to 1994.

As for the game, a potentially tricky encounter quickly turned into a victory parade for Rye. On a warm day that will no doubt be a precursor for the playoffs, Rye dominated possession and territory and quickly opened the scoring with Cheetham converting two penalty corners and Tabassam adding a third by quickly reacting to a loose ball in front of the Greenwich goalkeeper. Rye continued to look sharp as the game progressed, perhaps the reward of a title or the thought of the approaching playoffs snapped them out of their recent lethargy but it was pleasing to see higher energy levels and better execution that has been missing in recent weeks. With a tiring Greenwich offering little resistance, Cheetham completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot and Tabassam and Geertz both converted opportunities. With victory now in sight, the second half provided more of the same and fittingly, captain Patrick Stutz put the icing on the cake with the final goal of the game.

Rye will now look forward to their final league game on June 6th against Greenwich I and the playoffs the weekend of June 20th where they will attempt to repeat last seasons triumph.

Rye 1 came into the return leg of the tie against Westchester full of confidence they could continue on their winning form. Having defeated Westchester 7 to 0 in the first leg, Rye aimed to better the score. Westchester, with the addition of some new players, had other plans.

Rye worked hard to break through the Westchester defense lead by Wouter Plantenga, with David Geerts finally opening the scoring mid way through the first half. Westchester’s new forward, Dennis Akkaya, gave the Rye defense some headaches, though Rye managed to stay on top of his movement. As Rye’s defense tightened up, the midfield and forward line went into action adding two more goals before half time through Cheetham and Stutz.

The second half promised the proverbial opening of the floodgates. However, Westchester managed to keep their cool and only allow one more goal. The goal came from a penalty corner rebound neatly driven in by Anich, following a few well saved attempts from Cheetham. With the game wrapped up, Rye sat back to conserve energy for the run in to the final games of the season and the playoffs.

Rye had an enjoyable and successful day out at the 2nd annual Drew University 7-a-side Tournament. With just four teams competing, the tournament followed a round robin format with each side playing each other twice. Rye got off to a sloppy start in its first game against a Tristate team playing a man short. Rye dominated for much of the match, but conceded two soft late goals to end up with a disappointing 3-3 draw. Rye picked up its first win in the following game against the New York Islanders. A combination of good finishing and a well chosen fill-in keeper gave Rye a comfortable 5-2 victory. Against a skillful Malvern side, Rye was pushed all the way in an open, attacking third game. After looking the more likely winner for most of the contest, Rye conceded two quick goals due to defensive lapses to find itself behind 6-5 with 3 minutes to go. However, two well taken penalty corners by Chris Cheetham, the second after the final whistle, gave Rye a thrilling 7-6 win.
The most complete performance of the day came in Rye’s return match against the Islanders. Rye demonstrated the effectiveness of a well executed simple passing game on the Drew University pitch to easily prevail 6-1. With the withdrawal of Tristate, Rye just needed just a draw from its final game against Malvern to secure the title. That result looked unlikely when Rye found itself 3-0 down with less than 10 minutes to play, but after a goal each from Cheetham and Stutz, the determined comeback was completed when Stutz converted his second goal of the game with just 90 seconds left on the clock to level the scores.

Rye FHC: Stutz, Cheetham, Tiku, Singh, Torres-Puyalto, Kalasch, Von Thein, Khadapkar.

Rye FHC continued their unbeaten run after putting away Rye II in their
second and final meeting this season. After the Rye II defense frustrated
their opposition for the first 15 mins, the floodgates soon opened. A quick
hat-trick from Cheetham was followed by goals from Sandhu, Stutz and
Tabassam giving Rye FHC a commanding 9-2 lead at half time.

The second half brought more of the same with Rye FHC dominating possession
and territory. Rijkenberg and Puyalto worked hard in midfield for Rye II
and Khadapkar added a couple of smartly taken goals to give Rye II some
reward for their efforts. Ultimately it was a comfortable victory and Rye
FHC will be looking to maintain their form heading in to the last four
regular season games.

On a cold and grey Spring morning, Rye 1 gathered on the newest addition pitch to the NEFHA portfolio, Drew University, to again face last year’s final opponent, Tristate. Rye welcomed back long serving players Aico van Nunen and Milan Tyburec, confident with these reinforcements that they could put together a win.

In the knowledge that the style of the pitch would limit the use of the team’s silky skills and favor well executed, basic hockey, Rye put together a game plan for dealing with the ever swift Tristate players. A combination of poor execution of the plan and failure to be decisive in the attacking circle saw Rye fall behind to a smartly finished, counter attacking goal by Randy Christie.

Not content to be behind given that Rye had 80% of possession, central midfielder Alex Anich started to push forward into the attacking circle put pressure on the weakening Tristate defense. A great ball in from Chris Cheetham saw Anich pick up the loose ball, quickly turn and find the ever present Akhlaq ‘Dr Tab’ Tabassam on the penalty spot for the equalizer. With the momentum swinging back in their favor, Rye’s midfield continued to work hard with Sukhi Sandhu connecting yet again with Dr Tab for a deftly deflected second goal.

2-1 up at half time was a relief for an underperforming Rye side. With the task set by a fired up half time speech by Captain Patrick Stutz, Rye went out to the second half seeking the first goal put all the pressure back on Tristate. It was Stutz himself that managed to create the decisive run and beautiful cross to find Dr Tab, yes…again, on the penalty spot for the 3-1.

Despite the breathing space, Rye continued to put pressure back on itself through unneeded errors in defense and turnovers in the midfield and forward line. However, Rye continued to press and was rewarded with a number of penalty corners. It was through one of these that Cheetham was able to pick up his own rebound off the keeper to slot home the 4-1 and wrap the game up for Rye.

With too many unforced errors, Rye 1 has a lot to work on to be able to stay at the top of its game for the remaining Spring half of the season.

There was no time for un-dusting the outdoor sticks and shake off that winter blues. On this beautiful spring day Rye I had to open the 2nd half of the season right away with a crucial match-up against the ever improving NYC Fieldhockey Club. Still unbeaten this season Rye was the favorite, but NYC seems to be improving rapidly and as the young club grows has proven to become a stumbling block for any team in the league. Going into 2010, Rye has to digest the departure of Thibeau Nerincx and Amr Halim, who both left the US over the winter. But the club was fortunate to attract a number of new players over the recent months and is expecting more to move to NY over the coming weeks, and join the two squads. Newcomers for this game were Noni Singh (India) and Christian Kalasch (Germany), both strongly indicating their ambition to become regulars for Rye I. Due to absences and injuries Rye’s keeper position called for an emergency solution. New Australian Liam Von Thien gave his goalie career debut and mastered this task not only successfully, but partly even spectacularly; thanks to Liam for helping out!

Rye started the game as if there had not been any winter break. With fast paced game they quickly took control of the game. The first dive into the circle led to the first short corner, and Noni Singh delivered his welcome gift with a nicely placed flick in the left low corner. Only a few minutes later Rye’s second opportunity made it 2-0: Stutz missed the first shot but recovered the ball at the far end of the circle. His backhand shot found ideally positioned Tabassam, who easily deflected past the NYC keeper. Things got even better for Rye 15 minutes into the game when Sukhi Singh’s break through was only insufficiently stopped by the NYC defense and Stutz was able to profit from the keeper’s rebound to make it 3-0.

Against most other teams this quick result would have prepared for an easy cruise, but at this point NYC managed to step up their game and Rye began to make critical mistakes in the defense, eading to several shot corners, and eventually to 2 NYC goals. When Cheetham buried a beautifully taken penalty shot past NYC’s keeper things were looking up, but even before the half-time break NYC used another Rye defending mistake to narrow the gap to 4-3.

Rye started the second half with a focus on clamping down on defensive mistakes. The game wore on back and forth, but it was now NYC putting pressure on Rye, and only thanks to Chris Cheetham’s resolution and Liam Von Thien’s alertness NYC was denied to equalizer. The NYC pressure opened up counter-attack opportunities for Rye. For the goal of the day Stutz took possession of the ball in midfield, rushing through 3 NYC opponents towards the NYC defense, and found Tabassam in the circle. “Tab” barely took control of the ball and delivered a beautiful backhand flick to make it 5-3, giving a tiring Rye some breathing room; or so everyone thought. 2 Minutes later NYC closed the gap again after renewed confusion in Rye’s defense. The suspension was over after Noni Singh converted his second short corner and secured Rye a crucial win on the way to the championship.

Rye I: Liam von Thien, Chris Cheetham (1), Noni Singh (2), Lennart Cherifi, Peter Jones, Matt Hogben, Alex Anich, Jaspreet Singh, Sukhi Singh, Christian Kalasch, Patrick Stutz (1), Akhlaq Tabassam (2)

Rye brought their 2009/2010 indoor season to a close at the National Invitational Tournament in PA last weekend. The inaugural event played in a magnificent purpose built indoor facility provided a fantastic weekend.

Rye started well, winning all 3 games on Day 1 to secure a final berth regardless of the result in their final group game on Sunday morning. New York Islanders went down 7-4 in the opening game, a North East representative U19 team were dispatched 6-3 in game 2 and in the final game of the day, the USA womens team were comfortably dealt with by a margin of 9-2. Rye managed to build on their momentum from previous tournaments dominating possession in all of their games. Jones and Cherifi were solid at the back, Stutz, Van Nunen and Scherf caused plenty of problems for opposing defenders and with Cheetham and Stutz converting a high percentage of penalty corners rye were set up well for the Sunday’s games.

After a wild Saturday night at the local ‘Red Robin’, Rye arrived on Sunday expecting a couple of tough games with the 76ers (a team consisting of a number of current and former USA indoor international players). They were not disappointed. In the final group game Rye defended solidly and put together some fine passages of play to run out 3-1 winners. It was a tight game with both ‘keepers seeing plenty of action. Rye went into the final, a rematch against the 76ers who has also won all of their Saturday games, with plenty of confidence. It was another closely fought game with Rye having to work very hard to contain Steve Danielson. Eventually, the 76ers crept home with a narrow 5-4 victory. Rye will look back ruefully on a couple of chances that came back off the post and a missed penalty stroke that could have changed the outcome.

Rye FHC: Wagner, Cheetham, Stutz, Jones, Van Nunen, Scherf, Geertz, Cherifi.

Rye came up a little short in the final Big Apple indoor tournament to be played in New York City before the event is combined with the national championship at a purpose build venue in PA next year. Playing in a strong group including defending champions Toronto Lions, Toronto Titans, Boston and New York Islanders, Rye started well with a 1-1 draw against the favorites Toronto Lions. Rye were solid in defence with Cheetham, Stutz and Anich containing the skilful Lions forwards and limiting them to a sole penalty corner goal. Unfortunately Rye struggled to break down the Lions creating precious few chances of their own. Rye responded with a penalty corner from Geertz but with little effective offense from either team a draw was the fair result. In the second group game Rye easily overcame Boston running out 4-0 winners to get up showdown with the Toronto Titans (who had previously lost an ill tempered game to their in city rivals) to see who would qualify for the semi finals. Rye started well and dominated possession but again failed to create many clear cut scoring opportunities. The Titans were content to sit back and try and hit Rye on the break and moved in to a 2-0 lead through a penalty corner and a breakaway goal that really took the wind out of the Rye sails. The second half was more of the same, Rye controlled the game but continued to have difficulty breaking down their opponent. A third Toronto goal on the break sealed the result before the teams exchanged scores in the final seconds to make the final score 4-1. Rye finished their group games with a comfortable 4-1 win over the Islanders but the Titans and Lions took care of business in their final games to finish in the top two spots and move on to the knock out rounds.

The two Toronto sides went on to win their respective semi finals and met again in the final with Lions running out 3-0 winners. Although playing in a tough group and enjoying periods of good hockey Rye can have no complaints with the result. They will need to create more scoring opportunities if they are to enjoy the success they have in the outdoor game on the indoor court. With a group of players who it seems will be in New York for a number of years, Rye will have every opportunity to make the necessary improvements and compete for the Trophy next time around.

Rye FHC: Milan Tyrubec, Chris Cheetham, Patrick Stutz, Alex Anich, Matt Hogben, Randy Christie, Dennis Akkaya, Lennart Cherifi, David Geertz.

The Monday following the superbowl always leaves people feeling a little worse for wear. Rye’s indoor players will be feeling rather more tired and hungover than most after a couple of nights on the town in Boston and 5 games of indoor hockey. The tournament, hosted by the Boston Minutemen at MIT in Cambridge MA, provided a great tune up for Rye FHC ahead of the upcoming Big Apple International Indoor Tournament at the end of February.

The weekend started well with the team taking in plenty of Boston culture but spending 7 or 8 hours in the ‘Cheers’ bar and sampling as many different variations of Sam Adams as were available. Lennart Cherifi, the teams German defender, quickly dispelled the myth that Germans were good drinkers by doing a number on himself very early in proceedings to the extent that we nearly persuaded him to sing ‘Neun und Neunzig luftbaloon’ in an empty karaoke bar. Lucky for him the team became distracted slating Matt Hogbens bright yellow and orange shirt…yes Matt…I’m sure it looked great in Java when you bought it…

Rye began the tournament with huge success…getting all of their players to the facility at 9 am on the Sunday morning. Surely, the hard part was done. Running for 5 games with no subs did prove somewhat difficult for both Rye teams but in general Rye will be pleased with their final warm up competition. Rye Pirates won all 5 of their games and the Buccaneers won 3 of 5 with the two losses both being closely fought.

The weekend was great fun and no doubt people are already looking at their calendars for the next time they can use hockey as an excuse to hit the beers in Boston.