The Kodiak players arrived between 30 and 45 minutes early to prepare. They even helped set up the field although they were playing away from home. Many Olympique Montreux players arrived late. Some wasted time whining about the size of their jerseys or griping about the numbers they were assigned. Worse was the fact goalkeeper Martin Martinez arrived so freaking late that OM already had a regular field player dressed up and in goal to start the game. With Martinez barely having enough time to change, he was rushed into the game without warming up. Kodiak took advantage of the lack of discipline the keeper and others caused to score on a free kick. Since the keeper never warmed up, he was just not fit to play and performed very poorly in the entire game.

“When your keeper is Martin Martinez, garbage like that happens,” Bel-Ami said, “Martin has never been able to complete a season with OM. Signing him again is proving to be a stupid mistake.”
Then again, there was total disorder in the middle of the field. Players kept arguing with each other, fouling Kodiak players and getting into yellow card trouble. Playing at Holding midfielder, Fabrice Ntambwe-Kalala appeared totaling lost in that key position, hurling passes to nowhere when not losing control of the ball. That put pressure on an already paper thin defense. Playmaker Santiago Casteno showed frustration when he had difficulties leading the attack.
As Kodiak put on the press, the middle just could not put two passes together and did not create one single scoring opportunity for the forwards.

In soccer, when a guy screws up, he blames others for his ineffectiveness. The men in OM jerseys broke the blaming record this afternoon. Two minutes after half time and right after the manager had harangued the players and rearranged the team, Defender Ray Ramirez stepped up and clumsily gifted the ball to a Kodiak forward who simply had to tap in past the inept Martin Martinez to take Kodiak up 2-0.

“I have never seen a defender do that in my life, not even in youth games,” screamed Associate Coach Marcos Melendrez.
At the 79th minute, Martin Martinez conceded his third goal of the evening to complete the worse performance by an OM keeper in 13 years.
“I have two or three days to try to make this right. I am sure some of those guys have good intentions but you cannot play soccer if you are not disciplined. You cannot play soccer if you are overweight. You cannot play at this level if you do not have the skills,” said Bel-Ami.
“I do not run a church where you can pray, forgive and forget. I am thanking some of the men and asking them to transfer away immediately.”

For Kodiak, the result was the perfect start for a side that is newly formed. Beating a team with Olympique Montreux’s huge credentials validates the new team’s arrival in the division.

As for OM, it is in last place after one round of games.

Pics from the game:

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Santiago Castano fired home a brilliant second goal in the 39th minute after doing good work in midfield.

The two goals came from midfielders after the manager again had to shuffle the deck as Olympique Montreux continues to look for upfront firing power. The forwards again remained silent for 90 minutes despite good service from the middle.

With forward Dennis Sellis now starring for FC Korsholm in the Finnish third division, the team needs to find a way to get the ball into the net. The big forward is not expected back until late summer.

Bel-Ami’s team virtually looked unprepared for its season opener next week against high flying Joga FC, a squad featuring elite marksman Ian Gillette.

In an interview with OM News Service after the game, soccer analyst Edin Delic stated: “How in the world can this team compete and score if Bel-Ami doesn’t come up with men to play premiership soccer.”

“This Olympique Montreux team looks slow and lacks in techniques. Not the OM we’re used to although the change in strategy at the half helped a bit,” added the commentator.

Indeed, team management knows the urgency of the problem. The defense is not where it should be. It will suffer against the fast and skillful forwards of Westminster College, Kodiak FC and Park City United.

“I went to watch Westminster play against Park City and I can tell you, I am envious,” said Bel-Ami.

“They have it all. Even Ryan Beck who had committed to play for Olympique Montreux this season ran back to Westminster last week after telling me he had no time for soccer (laughter). Now that sums it all. The guy believes we stink and he jumped ship. It was rather funny seeing him there,” added the professor with half a smile.

“Rebuilding a historic soccer team from top to bottom has its struggles,” explained injured defender Abdou Niang. “We are bracing for a rough start. But nobody should underestimate the professor’s ability to deliver. We will get there.”

Pictures from the game here:

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West Jordan, Utah.–Without the likes of Tiva Olmedo, Geronimo Fox Bracamontes, Evans Tackie and Aldin Mehmenovich on the roster, many of the guys that are trying out for a place on the Olympique Montreux team this season showed they are just not ready for Premiership soccer.

Yesterday at Oquirrh, OM hosted Mundo Utah, an over 35 team. Bel-Ami did not call up a number of established players to give the candidates a chance to prove themselves against an older but technically acute and experienced side.

Things started promisingly as long time forward Isai scored the opening goal for OM in the 12th minute. That was the only highlight of the first half.

The team showed a total ineffectiveness as they could not string passes together and looked very out of place.

Bosnia USA quickly scored three goals, exploiting a defensive miscommunication between Abdou Niang and Mauro Martinez on the first goal. The second was an own goal and on the third, a Mundo Utah winger brushed aside Jeremy Pillow on the left side to lob the ball over keeper Martin Martinez.

Bel-Ami changed the formation for the second half. The new strategy stopped Mundo Utah from approaching OM’s defensive third.

In the 77th minute, Isai scored from a long range shot to bring OM within one goal.

However, a very ineffective Manuel Gustavo Sandoval squandered not less that five clear chances to score, three of them in front of an open 24 feet wide goal with the keeper out of the way.

The match finished with Mundo Utah winning 3-2.

The coach went ballistic after the came.

“This is the Premiership you all,” Bel-Ami told the players, “we have to be able to play against any MLS team and do well. Really! C’mon! If you are not good enough to play pro, you are not good enough to play for Olympique Montreux.”

“We are back on the drawing board. With barely two weeks to go, I basically have identified 8 guys that can play,” lamented Bel-Ami.

A disappointed Jeremy Pillow says: “this ain’t going to happen again. I’ll be ready from now on.”

The team will return to practice next Tuesday.

Here are the pictures from the game:

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New center back Abdu Niang scored in the 78^th minute to help Olympique Montreux beat Utah FC 2-0 in a preseason game at Oquirrh Elementary Field this evening.

Isai Tapia fired home a brilliant opener earlier in the 28th minute.

Keeper Martin Martinez was brilliant in goal, keeping OM from going down early in the contest as a lively Utah FC, led by an excellent Caleb Debenham, made several point blank shots at goal after exploiting the Olympians’ incoherence at midfield and in defense.

During the second half, however, OM put in place a stifling defensive game with Armin Serdarevic, Jeremy Pillow, Abdu Niang and the durable Hector “Kalucha” Rendon who missed all of last season because of a knee injury.  Defensive midfielder Jimmy Cuadros patrolled the middle.

The change in strategy made it virtually impossible for Utah FC to successfully threatened OM.  The game ended 2-0.

Since last week, Olympique Montreux has been holding tryouts in search of talents to rebuild the team that has gone without winning the Premiership title for two consecutive years. The side could only manage a second place finish in 2011 and a very poor third place last year. Tryouts continue next week.

According to OM management, things just have to change this year after the club’s Premiership team reached new lows last season. It was like Olympique Montreux was hosting pick up games in nice uniforms every Saturday. The team mostly was staffed with men that showed up on Saturdays to kick it. The majority did not practice, making it difficult for star players such as Dennis Sellis and Marcos “Tiva” Olmedo to perform up to their potential.

“It always sad to part with players you have come to love over several seasons, but people sometimes develop other priorities and the club slipped way too low on many guy’s list of interests,” explained team founder and manager Bel-Ami de Montreux.

Sadly, OM will have to start all over this season with mostly new men and moderate expectations. Formidable forward Dennis “Machine-Gun” Sellis signed a professional contract in Finland. Playmaker Tiva tore up the ligaments in his right knee playing indoor soccer this past winter.

OM still needs a couple of proven goal scorers and a creative midfielder to fill in key positions.

But with the return of midfielder Colton Spencer, the addition of Abdu Niang, Antonio Dominic Nicolli and others, OM should be able to compete.

Associate manager Marcos “Leyanda” Melendrez, an original member of Olympique Montreux (1999-2003), returns to help put the team back on tract.

“OM is my team and we are a legendary club in Utah soccer.  Give us time and we will get it right,” mused Leyanda.

Here are a few of the images from the game:

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Beating OM, even in PKs, is a big accomplishment worth memorializing. Park City players captured photos of themselves in blonde wigs, bare butt prosthetics with battery operated tails, strapped on toys with springs, cute boy sunglasses and lipsticks. They texted them to OM manager Bel-Ami de Montreux to show how champions should party.

Sodom and Gomorrah resurrected in Summit County!

A blonde-wigged mustachioed Park City player dressed in a Blue Boutique dress looked eerily occupied as a muscular guy, another Park City player, dropped his pants below his knees to expose a spectacularly anatomically vulgar underwear while thrusting on and keeping-on-thrusting-on to the beat of some techno music indigenous only to liberated and upwardly hip Park City.

Pointing to the stocky guy’s thrusting crotch, the he/she blonde stuttered: “These are my trophies!”

“That’s team spirit!” gushed one defiant OM defender. “We can learn from Park City about positive reinforcement.”

While that OM defender would rather learn team spirit from the players of Park City, for Olympique Montreux, it was a game to forget.

“In my 12 years at OM, I have never seen an OM team play that badly, complained team manager Bel-Ami. “It was awful.”

The game started badly for Bel-Ami’s team, with players arriving late for an important final. The midfield was very poor. Extremely intimidated, the midfielders were unable to hold the ball, gifting it to their opponents at an alarming rate.

In the 12^th minute, the defense let a man through to point blank shoot down keeper Jaddon Rogers for Park City’s opening goal.

OM forward Isaac Saavedra quickly tied the game four minutes later.

However, with the midfield unable to hold on to the ball. The defense was busy indeed.

Forward Esteban Lecuona put the Olympians ahead in the 60th minute. It looked like things were getting back on tract and that the side could hold on to win the game.

Two events doomed the game for OM.

In the 77^th minute, the Olympians’ suffered a serious blow when midfielder Colton Spencer came out injured. His muscled work in the center of the midfield quickly was missed as Park City was able to resume pressuring the under performing midfielders.

To crown up the awful display, team Captain and designated playmaker Marcos Teba Morales who was rather ineffective in the game chose to vent his frustration in head-butting a Park City player and collecting an unnecessary yellow card. The ref was generous in nor ejecting Ivan.

Fearing the player’s legendary temper would soon merit a second yellow card if provoked in any manner by a Park City player; the manager had no choice but to pull him off the field.

“No way we could hold on with 10 men against an inspired Park City,” explained Bel-Ami.

The defense was holding fairly well until normally sure-handed keeper Jaddon Rogers, one of the best shot blockers in the state, made an uncharacteristic mistake that resulted in a goal to allow Park City to tie the game and send it into overtime and then penalty kicks.

Park City’s keeper was big in goal and won the PKs shootout for the snowmen. Park City scored their first three kicks. OM incredibly missed their first three.

“If anything was gained in that game, it is the revelation that defender Yuwei Nagato is a talent to promote. He was clearly Olympique Montreux’s best player and Super Olympian of the match, said Bel-Ami.

Olympique Montreux defeated a talented Mutiny FC 4-1 last Saturday to qualify for the final game of the Utah Open Cup after a 4-1 win last Saturday at OM Oquirrh Field.

Mutiny FC opened the score in the 12th minute on a defensive mistake that left keeper Jaddon Rogers at the mercy of a charging opponent.

The Pirates of Mutiny were relentless and kept attacking the Olympians whose midfield was showing signs of early fatigue with Josh Kimball, Marcos Tiva Olmedo and Owen Washington looking a bit out of sort in the early minutes.

Manager Bel-Ami changed tactics immediately after the Mutiny goal. Defender Parker Haycock and midfielder Colton Spencer were sent in to replace Igor Ivakovic and Pedro Torres.

Owen moved up to partner Esteban Lecuoma. Defender Yuhei Nagato moved to right back, Parker took left back while Colton was assigned to play holding midfielder. Winger Steve McMurdie replaced Phil Meneses at right wing.

The tactician’s moves paid off right away.

With Colton patrolling midfield like a destroyer supported by the omni present Wade Nielsen, Tiva had more room to operate and feed passes to Owen and Esteban.

Steve’s nonstop attacking on the right flank caused problems for the Pirates’ defense.

Forward Esteban tied the game in the 22nd minute. He recidivated three minutes later. That second goal completely took the air out of the Pirates’ sail.

Winger Tim Ballantyne’s hard work was certainly noticed once he was put into the game as a substitute. The star forward was instrumental in the first 2 goals that O.M. scored assisting in one of them. “Tim has been a rock for our team all year long and always works hard. It’s no wonder how he’s won the Golden Boot Race by a landslide this year,” said captain Colton Spencer.

After a bit of rest and a pep talk, Pedro reentered the game and scored within seconds on his first touch, placing a grounded shot into the far right corner of goal despite the keeper’s brave dive to try to divert the shot.

The score was 3-1 at half time.

In the second half, the Olympians monopolized the ball, stringing passes all over the big field.

In the 68th minute Esteban got too cute on a penalty kick that could have put the game out of reach.

The star striker tried to be cheeky and the spot shot ended up weakly into the arms of Mutiny’s keeper.

Owen took the second penalty the Olympians earned and converted it in the 78^th minute to make the score 4-1.

But for a few selfish decisions by Esteban, the outcome could have been much worse for the visitors.

“It was only a fortnight that Mutiny FC narrowly defeated our first division team 1-0 to take the Challenge Cup from us,” said Bel-Ami.

“It was obvious they had confidence today and played very well in the first half. They have improved greatly since the start of the season. I welcome them in the Premiership and think they will be successful. They proved that today.”

In the other seminal game, Park City Newpark rolled over a short-ended Meatus FC 6-3.

The snowmen will try to dethrone Olympique Montreux, the winner of the Utah Open Cup the past two years this weekend. The game will kick off at Westminster College next Saturday (Oct. 29th) at 11:00 AM.

The Olympians already qualify to defend the Utah Super Cup trophy that they have also won the past two years by winning the Daynes Champions League Cup two weeks ago and finishing ahead of Park City in points. That game will take place on November 5 at Westminster College against Westminster College (Lazio).

Olympique Montreux’s first division team went undefeated to win its division again making it three years in a row.

“We stand to win 5 out of 6 trophies. Two are already on our shelves. While I rue the loss of the fifth one, I am somewhat satisfied,” said Bel-Ami. “We are always expected to win everything. It’s our pedigree.”

With the win, the pirates of Mutiny took home the Challenge Cup trophy that the Olympians had won the past two seasons.

It was the Olympians’ first loss in 24 games since the middle of last season.

Mutiny FC’s goal came in the 82nd minute when its long ball strategy paid off as OM’s defense was showing serious signs of fatigue on the flanks where the goal came from.

“It’s frustrating when some players don’t come to practice and expect to play 90 minutes and stay match fit. It’s nearly impossible,” said an injured team captain Colton Spencer.

Credit must be given to Mutiny FC for playing hard and sticking to its game plan.

The Olympians could not get their game going as the forward line was ineffective and the absence of a true playmaker was all too obvious.

The introduction of veteran winger Jamall Adams to replace Tim Ballantyne who suffered a head injury hurt the team’s balance.

If it wasn’t for the heroics of defenders Yuhei Nagato and Spencer Whipple, Mutiny FC could have ran away with the game.

“From an attacking perspective, this is the worse display I have seen from us all season. I assume the blame for not starting the players I should have started at the appropriate positions and deciding on a strategy the men could not execute. I take the blame,” said an obviously upset Bel-Ami.

Interestingly however, Mutiny FC manager John Nguyen led his men and fans to believe they had won the division title. Apparently, Mr. Nguyen did not understand that he had just won a cup final, a situation comparable to winning the English FA Cup and not the league title.

“Winning any trophy is a major accomplishment and all Olympique Montreux players and I salute the players of Mutiny FC for a job well done,” said Bel-Ami.

The Olympians remain unbeaten in division play and have clinched the division title with a perfect 48 points in 16 games with one game left to play.

Mutiny FC is in second place, 16 lengths behind, with 32 points, followed by Sandy FC with 29 points.