Perennial Over 30 powerhouse Wisla gave an overwhelmed Byki squad an 8:0 thrashing at River Road on May 10. The Byki had few answers for all of the problems presented by Wisla, as they drop to a disappointing 0-0-4 for the season.

The Byki made two changes to their team, introducing new goalkeeper Carlos Lopez, and welcoming veteran midfielder Marek Ciszewski. Neither could do much to lift their teammates above the Wisla onslaught. The Byki were deficient in many phases of the game. Their constant giveaways and inattentive marking eventually led to one-way traffic toward the Byki goal in the second half.

Wisla wasted no time getting on the board, as the sleepy Byki defense allowed Wisla to come forward without response and a striker lobbed the ball over Lopez for a 1:0 lead in the first two minutes of the contest.

The score went to 2:0 in the 18th minute when Wisla finished off a slick sequence of passes by sending a cross to the far post. The ball was headed back into the middle, where an unmarked Wisla player slammed the ball home from six yards.

Wisla came with more firepower in the 27th minute, breaking down the Byki defense yet again. They fired two shots in rapid-fire succession, and Lopez made two exceptional saves to keep Wisla at bay.

Eight minutes later, the Byki created a good scoring opportunity when they came forward on a quick counter. Midfielder Robert Dec started the play with a pass to Jon Silverstein, who smartly dropped a pass back for Nick Elmkinssi. Seeing Ciszewski lurking on the right side of the box, Elmkinssi slid the ball over and Ciszewski’s hard shot narrowly missed the left post.

Wisla had two good counterattacking situations to close out the first half, but uncharacteristically poor shooting saw both shots go wide of the target, allowing the Byki a bit of breathing room at the break.

But Wisla had no intentions of letting their foot off the gas. A long-range shot from 25 yards in the 43rd minute made it 3:0. The score went to 4:0 in the 49th minute when a long ball over the top beat the Byki defense and Lopez was powerless to stop the shot floating over his head.

The Byki had some promising attacks building in the midfield, but the team’s lack of a ruthless goalscorer hurt them. Every time the ball got near the Wisla penalty area, a bad pass, an extra dribble, or a difficult shot let the Wisla defense off the hook.

As time wore on, fatigue set in and the Wisla midfield got the better of their Byki counterparts. The Byki backline were in constant retreat, as the Wisla attackers moved around with impunity. Not surprisingly, the goals started piling up as Byki heads began to droop.

BYKI LINEUP
(4-4-2): Lopez – Tower, Gorecki, Moore, Pedlow – Dec, Jedrzejowski (c), Winter, Ciszewski – Silverstein, Elmkinssi. Bench: Blanco, Cooper.

BYKI SCORING SUMMARY
None.