The Moscow Bhoys
Text and photos by Nick Rees
The Moscow Bhoys team was started initially in 2006 by Rikki Ferguson who had a reputation as a strong player and as having an equally strong opinion. He was joined by Kelvin Pang (owner of Buddies Café) and the two former-Flagons set about starting a team.
After not scoring a single point in their first 15 games (nearly a whole season), the Bhoys eventually beat Expo Solutions to register their first win during a season in which they conceded almost 100 goals.
Nevertheless, the Moscow Bhoys management of Rikki and Kelvin were as inseparable as Bonnie and Clyde, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, Miss Piggy and Kermit or even Posh and Becks. This helped create the team spirit from which the future success was to be built on.
Defeats turned into draws and draws into victories as the Moscow Bhoys showed the rest of the league what you can do with a team with a lot of effort, a huge recruitment drive and a great deal of organization.
Within 12 months, they had a big team sponsor who provided new kits (and soap-on-a-rope for some reason!). Suddenly the rest of the league watched as the Moscow Bhoys unexpectedly started winning and winning and winning!
The Bhoys had the league’s best player in Hosein who dominated the midfield in a way no other player did. His pace, skill and talent saw him chopped by many a lesser-able player (me included!) but he was always a gentleman, never reacted and let his football do the talking. Sadly for the Moscow Bhoys and the whole of the league, he left Russia recently.
In the winter of 2006/7, the Moscow Bhoys came second in the league in a season where they could have actually won, had points not been deducted from their score for using illegal players.
Finally, in the summer of 2007, they won their first title. With Zhenya a strong goal keeper, big Alex the Greek in defence and Hosein in midfield/attack, they had a great spine to the team but also their other great weapon was and still is Momo! He’s faster than an amphetamine fueled cheetah on turbopropelled skates!
Pos |
Team |
Pld |
W |
D |
L |
GF |
GA |
Pts |
1 |
Storming Cloggs |
14 |
10 |
2 |
2 |
61 |
28 |
32 |
2 |
Moscow Bhoys |
14 |
10 |
2 |
2 |
58 |
37 |
32 |
3 |
Lundbeck United |
15 |
9 |
2 |
4 |
54 |
36 |
29 |
4 |
Moscow Flagons |
14 |
7 |
1 |
6 |
43 |
43 |
22 |
5 |
Expo Solutions |
15 |
7 |
0 |
8 |
38 |
50 |
21 |
6 |
Real Brothers |
14 |
6 |
2 |
6 |
39 |
32 |
20 |
7 |
Pasha FC |
14 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
40 |
53 |
10 |
8 |
Bordo |
14 |
2 |
3 |
9 |
34 |
58 |
9 |
9 |
Young Spartans |
14 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
22 |
52 |
8 |
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David Denning is one of the few Americans in the world who can play football and has great talent, but ask him to shoot on target would be as pointless as inviting Michael Jackson to sing at your birthday! He’s aided and abetted by his fellow Americans Mike Pryadilnikov and Scott Burns who both know where the back of the net is. One question: why do Americans say “shoot the ball?” Someone’s going to bring a gun one day.
Finally, we have the Allianz Rosno twins – Stefan Schmid and Norman Uhde who have totally differing skills, but typify the unity of the Moscow Bhoys. In the winter 2007 season, the Moscow Bhoys became the first team to go the whole season undefeated which, considering the strength of the league now, is an amazing achievement.
The top of the league is extremely exciting at the moment with the Storming Cloggs and Moscow Bhoys locked at the top, Lundbeck just 3 points behind and the Flagons just hanging on 7 points behind.
We can’t go an issue without mentioning Juan “Ka” Lopez – he’s top of the scoring charts and his wife just gave birth to a lovely boy. Congratulations from everyone in the league.
The league’s moving from strength-tostrength and thanks to the new sponsorship from Allianz Rosno, we’re adding new teams and recruiting new players so please visit our new site, www.moscowfootball.com and click on the link!!
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