A wet and wild weekend in BDSL. The scoreboard in Premier is eye opening along with some big wins for clubs who needed it. Here's some quick thoughts from this past weekend.

 

1) Premier Opens Up

I wrote in my preview of the top BDSL division how I thought that the top four teams were fairly simple to predict but early results here are making me look silly. Clarence secured another 3 points with a 5-1 beat down of BSC International. The Yotes have netted 6 goals in the first two games and no one has scored more then 1 goal for them. This balanced attack is paying out for them. Heading south Lackawanna FCY also is running riot in the early going here. Reports from their contest from this weekend suggest that the 3-1 scoreline was even more comfortable on the field. LFCY has proven to be effective both attacking and defending which has them leading the division. Couple these results with Buffalo United SS and Queenston FC misfiring early and suddenly outside of Amherst Sharpshooters and BSC Raiders the race in Premier just got a whole lot more interesting. 

2) You get a Goal and get a Goal and you get a Goal and you....

Last week I noted the amount of clean sheets keep across all of BDSL being a point of interest. This week with a mix of suboptimal lineups and wet weather the flood gates opened up. 10 games had at least 6 goals in it and most all games featured at least 3. While there probably fewer fans out for games with the weather and Mothers day considering though who did brave it were in for excited offensively driven games.

3) Odenbach Ownage

In D2 the Odenbach conference is flexing it's muscles here. 4 teams stand undefeated with three favorites in NY Elite, USAB FC, Great White Buffalo and then the surprising surging WNY United Reds. USAB has seen its link to Buffalo Bantu payoff with Zein Omar Abdulaziz leading the way. NY Elite boast one of the best back lines in the division and keeper Ethan Hahn continues to impress as well. Reds have finally found some attacking help to buoy their always study defense. The ever dangerous Great White Buffalo,has yet to conceed at all and are riding high with a pair of 3-0 victories to open their campaign. This conference race should be one to watch this season. In Simpkin, I'd certainly want to mention the hot start for Delco Academy whose committed disciplined approach has them out to a 2-0 start as well.

3) Digging Holes

The season might only be 2 weeks old but there are some clubs are already looking at a big turnaround to right their ships. In Championship Niagara FC has limped out to a 0-2 start. Hammered by Beast City week 1, they looked a bit toothless again last night vs Roos FC. It should be noted that line up wise striker Kyle Jones has yet to appear but still back to back shut outs for NFC isn't ideal. Life without some of the losses suffering proving harder then felt. In D1 where just going to gloss right over whatever happened to Buffalo Celtic on Sunday. It hasn't been the prettiest of starts for them though. In D2 a pair of promoted teams are struggling early in Lasalle and Medina. Medina is the more puzzling of the two with loses to Reds and rival NY Elite. Yes its early. But 11 game season means ever single one counts here. Some tough early results around here though.

 

4) Road Trip

Olean 1854 FC home field has been a fortress for them in their young existence. They had never lost at Olean Middle School and had conceded just 2 goals in those 5 games. And while they remain unbeaten there, Dutch United is the first away team to collect points of them. Dutch scored 3 times in the mud and muck as Justus Hoffman netted a dazzling hat trick to lead the visitors. While its just a draw its a great sign for Dutch in the long run. Props to them for being the first team to break Olean at home.

 

5) Rain and Fields

I dropped some hints on Twitter about what the behind the scenes discussions have been like the past 2 weeks. May has been especially miserable but this is not the first time. Right now we've moved roughly 1/3rd of all the games we've played to turf fields ran by the league. I recall a time when I first joined the BDSL board and then President Bryan Staniszeski would talk about how great it would be scheduling wise to be able to do more of what we can do at Nichols. It was a pipe dream but 5 years ago. But times have rapidly changed. I have in my spare time outlined a working schedule for 2020 that would work where every BDSL team would rent through the league and all games would be played on turf at only 7-10 different locations. This dream is something I believe we should consider moving forward. While I understand that some would argue the added cost to teams for this I would urge you to consider the greater good here. The plan would allow every team to charge players $125 a season and cover all operating costs aside from uniforms. This doesn't include what some teams collect from sponsors either. So IMO its very feasible. 

And if something like this doesn't work for our teams that still want grass or to secure their own fields that's fine. I can accept that. But I would warn that going forward we could start being very strict on what is an acceptable field for the league. Without naming a single field teams know the ones I'm talking about here that routinely are proven to be unreliable for us. I would also say that regardless of what happens banning grass fields for May is a real consideration too for us. This would mean you could get a grass field but should you get a may home game it will be at a league turf field and that's that. Western New York weather has proven to be undefeated vs us and doing the weekly game and ref shuffle is becoming predictably stupid when this doesn't need to be the case. It's time for some us to really consider what's best for the league here. There will be a lot more debate about this I'm sure but I feel it important to put this out there now so we can flesh out what is and isn't possible.