Cancelled! Friday games postponed as snow sets in over Halifax

A nasty, slushy snowstorm last night has forced AUS men's organizers to reschedule Friday afternoon's games.

"There's a few things in life you can't control: one's the weather," said Tigers coach Pat Nearing, who is helping to organize this tournament.

After a considerable delay while maintenance staff used snow shovels and a snowplow to clear Wickwire, the games were canceled.

Maintenance head Chris Keogh conferred with the head official for the tournament, who suggested that a frozen pitch could be a problem if kick-off was pushed back.

"[The games] were originally scheduled for 12 and 3 in order to use the warmest part of the day. If they push the game to night time, you start to get a little freeze-up. It's very dangerous for the players to be playing a competitive game in those conditions."

Instead, the two quarter-finals will kick-off on Saturday, at the same times, 12pm and 3pm. the semi-finals will be played Sunday at 12pm and 3pm.

Live: Update: Friday's games cancelled--watch for details

Friday's games have been delayed by a snow storm which hit Halifax overnight. Today's event is embedded after the jump, and is currently serving as a forum for information and discussion.

AUS Women's Preview

Sadly, DalSoccerLive can only be in one place at once. The presence of the men's tournament at Dal (and the lack of a cloning machine) means we can't live-blog what promises to be an entertaining women's tournament.

The good news is that two AUS teams will be heading to CIS nationals, so if Dalhousie can get out of the semi-final, we'll catch up with them next weekend.

Our predictions are coming up after the jump....

AUS Men's Playoff Preview

We've been awaiting this for awhile. So have the players, it's safe to say. The following are a few late night musings from Dylan on who might have a slightly better chance this weekend.

So, who's going to win it? After the jump.... (We like this new tool, you know.)

Dal Soccer Live Gets Swine Flu

Wondering where we've been for the past two weeks?

Our reporter at Dal Soccer Live contracted a nasty flu bug (very probably swine flu). Unfortunately, we had to forgo the last two weeks of the season or risk missing the playoffs and infecting the entire Dal Tigers team with flu.

The good news is that the AUS playoffs will be blogged extensively here and at www.dalgazette.com. Dylan will be in Halifax at the men's playoffs, and we'll do what we can to get updates from St. John's and the women's playoffs.

A schedule of MBM reports will be coming in the next 24 hours as Dylan and the Dalhousie Gazette work out how best to present this tournament (and how best to deal with the atrocious weather expected for Friday). Check back tomorrow evening for a playoff preview on both tournaments.

The nice, healthy, swine flu-free fun continues on Nov. 12th as the CIS nationals kick off in Toronto and Langley. We'll live-blog those ones here, too.

Apologies for any inconvenience while we've been away. Naturally, Tigers goalkeeper Ben Ur chose the one home weekend we missed to score his first goal of the season. Hopefully he can put another one in on Saturday.

See you there.

Saint Mary's Huskies (M) v. Dalhousie Tigers (M)--As It Happened--AUS

Pre-match hobnob: We're live again. Special thanks to the usual suspects: My family, God, the Academy. But especially to Josh Boyter at the Dal Gazette who has worked tirelessly on the new website which now allows live-blogging links. He also supplied a laptop. We couldn't have made this happen without Joel Tichinoff, and specifically his ethernet cable and press pass (though, Joel, if you're reading this, the ethernet cable has a few problems). Anyhow, enjoy the show.

Saint Mary's Universty Huskies (W) v. Dalhousie Tigers (W)--As It Happened--AUS

It's time to put the Live back in Dal Soccer. That's right, our technology has come through and we are live as can be. At least until the technical problems set in.

As It Happened: Dalhousie Tigers (W) v. Memorial Seahawks (W)---AUS Oct. 2, 2009

Pregame: I've got nothin'. And since we're still not live, I'm unlikely to get anything. I can tell you Jack Hutchison might play with his roster a bit, but we all knew that anyway.

As It Happened: Dalhousie Tigers (M) v.Acadia Axemen (M)---AUS Sept. 27, 2009

-Not much time for a pregame. Here are your teams.

As It Happened: Dalhousie Tigers (W) v. Acadia Axewomen (W)---AUS Sept. 26, 2009

2:46pm: Pregame hobnob: The Acadia Axewomen (has there ever been a worse compound word?) are at least better than the Acadia Axemen. Dal are better than their 2-0-2 record suggests. But enough of stats. Nobody cares about stats. What people (or at least me, and I'm the only one who really counts here since we're not doing this and you don't even have a voice to write in and stop me going on this digression--tough) is why I think "Axewomen" is the worst compound word ever. "Is he," they ask, "really that sexist? He covers women's soccer for crying out loud." But my motives are purely metaphysical. Can a woman not be called an axeman? What is an axeman, anyway? I mean, presumably if Acadia striker Michelle Davey comes onto the pitch wielding a massive axe, then we can assume she has bigger problems than what is essentially grammar. Though coming onto the field with a massive axe might intimidate Dal a bit. Why should we call axemen axemen? Isn't that just as sexist? Yes, it is. So we'll be calling everyone "axepeople" today, which is probably an even worse compound word than axewomen.