Hellenic United Athletic Club | Chicago, USA

Written by Jerry Constantine

A beginning of a new era began its quest today as Hellenic United's newly formed Over-40 team started their Premier Soccer League season on the right foot with a convincing 5-2 victory over Bulgarian side Botev Chicago .
 
Although most of HUAC's Over-40 players had a few practices and scrimmages together before today they played with an admirable amount of cohesiveness and nobody could fault any player's effort and intensity as it was an all out attack from the start of the game.

Led by an impressive performance by Dimitris Kollias HUAC rose to the occasion and helped the HUAC midfielder with a total of 2 goals and 3 assists. Playing as a right midfielder in coach Yiannis Kosmas' set 4-4-2 formation, Kollias excelled in that role and he wasted no time opening the score in the 7th minute with a neat shot from and acute angle past the keeper's near post after a nice through pass from HUAC forward Marcel de Bogert.
 
Botev could only trouble the HUAC defense with long balls over the top trying to catch HUAC fullbacks on the counter-attack but apart from the occasional long hopeful shot HUAC keeper, Kostas Hatziaggelou was hardly bothered and had a rather uneventful first half.
 
HUAC attacks after the opening goal continued at a steady pace and in the 16th minute Marcel de Bogert who mimicked fellow countryman, Ruud Van Nistelrooy cooly slid the ball past a diving Botev keeper after a Kollias defense splitting pass.
 
It was inevitable that 3-0 (38th minute ) was only going to be a formality once the entire midfield of HUAC got into their groove and exchanged some nice, slick passing with Raphael Fuchs, Jeff Sammels and Yiannis Kosmas all involved in finding Kollias who cleverly shot past their keeper albeit rather fortunate as he was way out of position and at fault for that one.
 
Second half saw HUAC drop down a gear which allowed Botev more possession in midfield. With nothing to lose on their part they went out with a more attacking purpose and tried to get back into the game and so they did by drawing blood first in the second half (56th minute ) after some scrappy HUAC marking in the midfield allowed their center forward to beat slow Kostas Hatziaggelou from close range.
 
Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity of players strengths and stamina levels to handle a full 90 minutes at this point that created some confusion with substitutions at the HUAC ranks but those are growing pains with any new team being formed.  Coaching/captain duo Yiannis Kosmas and Dimitris Kollias promised for correction to mistakes by next game.
 
Next came (70th minute) the goal of the game by HUAC sweeper Tom Bassias who scored a cracker of a goal from outside the box after another assist from Dimitris Kollias. A shot that send the ball curling, past Botev keeper whom had no option but to just watch it fly by him and in the back of the net.

Botev soon hit back with another goal to make it 4-2 in the 75th minute after some more HUAC scrappy defense.
 
HUAC were only troubled for a bit after that second goal and in the final 10 minutes created enough scoring chances to win 5 games but call it tiredness, call it a bit over confidence or just plain bad luck only one more goal was scored and that came from Jeff Sammels who beat their defense after a majestic through ball by Dimitris Kollias, rounded their keeper and sharply slotted it in.
 
MVP of the match was without a doubt Dimitris Kollias. Kudos to many other players who stood out like Tom Bassias and his defensive partner Nick Panousis who were commanding and also Bill Javaras who was very solid at RB.

Jeff Sammels was in perpetual motion, running all over the field and made some direct bursts at Botev's defense and kept them at bay all day long.
 
All 16 players that suited up performed well in their first game and did what was asked of them to the best of their abilities with maximum effort and little fuss.

HUAC plays International SC up next.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
Dimitris Kollias  7' 38'
Marcel de Bogert 16'
Tom Bassias 70'
Jeff Sammels 85'