Bronx News (Bxnews.net): NYCFC Winless

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): NYCFC Winless: NYCFC Winless Drought Extends to Seven Matches By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 4- After a Sunday night loss to the Seattle Sounders ...

NYCFC Winless

NYCFC Winless Drought Extends to Seven Matches

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 4- After a Sunday night loss to the Seattle Sounders (5‐2‐1), 3‐1, at Yankee Stadium, NYCFC (1‐5‐3) continues to languish in the group below the playoff contenders. 

Their six points are only above one club, the Montreal Impact, in the Eastern Conference. NYC’s winless match streak grew to seven after the match on Sunday. For the Sounders, on a hot streak, the win was their third straight and their fourth in the last five matches.

The first goal of the match was scored in the 23rd minute. Obafemi Martins scored his fifth goal of the season, which tied him for first place in the MLS. The native of Nigeria has played the last 12 seasons against top competition in Europe. The striker has played

on clubs in Italy, England, Germany, Russia and Spain. Martins also had 38 caps and scored 18 goals in international competition while a member of his national team. The assist was from Marco Parra, another international who has 30 caps on the Guatemalan National Team.

That was the only goal of the first half. Mehdi Ballouchy knotted the score at 1 with his second goal of the season at the 54th minute mark. He was assisted by Patrick Mullins, a collegiate standout at the University of Maryland.

Four minutes later, the contest took a dark turn for NYCFC as the USMNT captain Clint Dempsey’s goal returned the lead to the Sounders. The United States football legend with 112 caps for the national team has scored goal or assist in each of the six matches in which he participated this season. Like Martins, earlier in the game, Dempsey’s fifth goal added his name to the top scorers in the league. He was also assisted by Parra and by Martins.

Ten minutes later, Martins the single season goal and points record holder for Seattle, cored his second goal of the evening. His sixth goal now game him the league lead. In a reversal of the previous goal, Dempsey assisted. The assist, his fifth of the 2015 season, tied him for second in the MLS.

After the match, Martins spoke of the high scoring duo of him and Dempsey, “We did our part. We made it work.” NYCFC coach Jason Kreis said of the Seattle strikers, “We came up against two of the greatest strikers in the league.”

The winningest coach in MLS history, Sigi Schmid of the Sounders, discussed his daily game plan for his club, “It’s about getting points, as many as you can, as fast as you can.”

The three points the Sounders received for the victory raised their season total to 16, which brought them to the top of the western Conference standings.

NYCFC coach Jason Kreis, who in the past had great success as an MLS coach, is finding it difficult to accept his club’s losing record, “I didn’t realize it would be this difficult. [I’m having] a lot of sleepless nights. I have little patience.”

The match most looked forward to by residents of the New York metropolitan area will take place next Sunday night as the NYCFC travels to Harrison, New Jersey to play the Red Bulls.

#Soccer #NYCFC #Sounders #YankeeStadium #Bronxnews

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): FREE Bus Rides?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): FREE Bus Rides?: FREE Bus Rides? Fare-minded Fool Hardy City Council wants to Decriminalizing Fare-Evasion By David Greene BRONX, NEW YORK, APRIL 30- Memb...

FREE Bus Rides?

FREE Bus Rides?
Fare-minded Fool Hardy City Council wants to Decriminalizing Fare-Evasion

By David Greene

BRONX, NEW YORK, APRIL 30- Members of the little known 'Eagle Team' working undercover in plain clothes and searching for fare-beaters along the route of Fordham Road's BX-12 Express Bus, quickly cornered and disarmed their suspect of his knife and placed him under arrest as the City Council continues to negotiate with Mayor Bill de Blasio such minor arrests as fare-beating-- non-criminal offenses.

Members of the NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority's unit the Eagle Team and undercover officers from the 48th Precinct asked the individual for a bus receipt as the express bus picked up passengers outside of 464 East Fordham Road at 10:25 a.m., on April 23. The suspect told officers he had no receipt and members swooped into action and quickly removed him from the bus and eventually placed him under arrest.

The suspect, Leonardo Henning, 53, of the Bronx offered no resistance as the unit ordered him off the bus and removed a knife from his back pocket and placed him under arrest. According to the criminal complaint, Henning admitted to cops, "I have a knife, I keep it for protection."

NYPD spokesman Detective Marc Nell said of Henning, "He was arrested for intent to fraud, obtaining transit without payment, a misdemeanor and criminal possession of a weapon." Nell revealed that Henning also had a prior bench warrant out for his arrest, but Nell could not say what that charge was for.

What began as a pilot program on express busses, the Eagle Team expanded in July, 2012 to cover bus routes across the city with high rates of fare-evasion, such as the BX-12 that travels across Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway to Bay Plaza.

The City Council is currently in negotiations with the de Blasio administration that if agreed upon would make such crimes as fare-evasion, drinking alcohol in public and public urination, a violation and subject to a ticket and fine, but would no longer constitute an arrest.

However, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton warned of legalizing quality-of-life crimes, telling reporters on April 27, "If you lose those powers to arrest, that's where Pandora's Box is opened and the 1970's, the 1980's have the potential to come roaring back again."

However, supporters of the idea like City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverto who proposed the change, believe that the overwhelming number of arrests are concentrated in minority neighborhoods, clogging up the courts and the jail system and creating additional tension between minority neighborhoods and police.

One recent video posted on Facebook from February, 2014, shows a pair of cops question a man at what appears to be Pelham Parkway South and White Plains Road. Within minutes, six officers would soon wrestle their subject to the ground and eventually place him under arrest.

Orlando Smith, a University Heights resident who saw the video, fumed, "A confrontation escalating into a beating is inappropriate. It's uncalled for if he doesn't have a weapon and isn't doing anything and is just talking, they shouldn't have the right to put their hands on him."

According to the NYPD, there were 25,867 arrests in 2014 for fare-evasion, but the NYPD does not track how many of those arrests lead to additional charges, for such crimes as drugs or weapon possession.  

#NYPD #FareEvasion #CityCouncil #deBlasio #Bronxnews

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Marathon Men

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Marathon Men: Marathon Men Rays Halt Yanks, 3-2, in 13 Inning Thriller By Howard  Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, APRIL 29- The final of the three-ga...

Marathon Men

Marathon Men

Rays Halt Yanks, 3-2, in 13 Inning Thriller

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, APRIL 29- The final of the three-game series with the Rays and the Yankee homestand was a pitchers’ duel that intensified as the relief stff of each club entered the contest. 

Yankee starter Michael Pineda gave up three of the six hits and both runs that he allowed in only one inning, the third. After retiring the first two batters of the frame, Yankee killer James Loney, who entered the game with a .350 batting average against the Yanks and an amazing .419 in the new Yankee Stadium, beat out an infield hit. 

Logan Forsythe followed with a single and both were driven in by a triple off the bat of Kevin Kiermaier.

The two Yankee runs off Tampa starter Drew Smylycame on solo home runs, one by Chase Headley in the fifth and the other by Chris Young in the sixth. Neither starting pitcher was involved in the decision. 

The pen men of both squads performed outstandingly. The first three Rays relievers collectively retired the first 11 Yankee batters they faced until Brad Boxberger walked John Ryan Murphy and Stephen Drew with two out in the 10th. The Yankees did not hit safely off areliever until Jacoby Ellsbury led off the 11th with a single. 

The first five Yankee relief pitchers, Jason Wilson, David Carpenter, Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Chris Martin, collectively retired the first 14 batters that came to bat against them until Martin walked Asdrubel Cabrera in the 11th. 

Betances and Miller extended their streak of scoreless innings pitched. Betances has not allowed an earned run in 12.1 innings. The New York City native has retired the last 25 batters he faced, 14 by strikeout. He has fanned of his last 12 batting opponents. Miller extended his scoreless streak to 10.1 frames, yielding only three hits. 

The quick moving game finally ended after 3 hours and 58 minutes. The game winning run was scored by the Rays off the Yankees sixth reliever of the game, Cahsen Shreve. It came quietly by a walk to Steven Souza, Jr, an intentional pass to Evan Longoria and a Loney single to shallow right field that second sacker Drew could not reach. 

Drew commented, “It was a tough today. I did the best I could to reach it.” The young, losing hurler remarked, “It wasn’t so much pressure. I just wanted to do as well as them [pother relief puitchers].”

The pitching was in command as 16 Yankees and 13 Rays fanned during the contest.

#Yankees #TampaBay #EvanLongoria #Bronxnews

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Concern about Tanaka will cause Yankees To Step up...

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Concern about Tanaka will cause Yankees To Step up...: Concern about Tanaka will cause Yankees To Step up By Rich Mancuso BRONX, NEW YORK, APRIL 29- Of course there is a concern about Masahiro ...