Back in June I wrote a posting lamenting for my soccer teams of the past. Last night was the first game of the revival of my old team, the Amigos. My friend, Paul, emailed me a couple weeks ago saying that he was going to put the team back together. According to my calculations it has been 3 years since this team has played together. Back then we regularly won the league. It is pretty much the same team. We have one new player who is an absolute liability, but then again we are in a rec league, and there is no reason to get serious about it. Before the game I was truly excited for the game to start. It is the same feeling I always had back in high school before games. I couldn't wait for the game to start. While I really don't think I played all that well last night, my love for the game itself came back as strong as ever.
On to the game and the evaluation of my performance. Let's get to the bad. I missed two shots that easily should have hit the back of the net. I also got stuck playing with the ball in the back by my own goal, lost the ball and the other team scored. I think that I had a couple shifts that were too long. Anything over 2 and a half minutes is really unacceptable unless it is near the end of the half or game. I need to keep these shifts down in length and run much harder while out on the field. As far as positives on the game, on one particular play where the other team got off a number of shots on the goal from close range, our goalie got out of position, I fell back into the goal mouth and saved a goal. I am not saying that I didn't use my hands, I did. But the ref didn't see it, plus I never claimed to be a very "clean" player. On to my goal scoring. Leading up to the game, The General, and I had been exchanging a number of phone calls and emails, each of us claiming that we would be registering a hat trick (3 goals). Only one of us came through on those claims. My first goal wasn't pretty at all. I got the ball alone in the penalty box, tripped over it once, by the time I got the ball out in front of me to take a shot, a defender came across to clear the ball, but in his attempt to clear the ball, the ball hit squarely off my foot and back into their goal. My second goal was equally unimpressive. I had something of a break away, took a shot that was wide left, stayed with the play and got to the rebound just before the keeper and poked the ball into the back of the net. My third goal (the last one required for a hat trick) was a thing of beauty. On a break out in transition, Eric got the ball in the corner on the left side. I made a run from the back into open space on the opposite side. Eric left me a perfect ball, not too fast, not too slow, rolling all the way across the top of the box. If I had more time to think about it, I probably would have screwed it up. Instead without thinking much about it, and not trying to over kick the ball, I dropped my head, got my knee over the ball and struck the ball with the laces of my shoe. The ball never got more then 3 feet off the ground, the keeper didn't have a chance, he turned to follow the pass to me and before he could react, the ball was hitting the back left post on the inside of the goal. I can still picture the whole play in my head in slow motion. It is plays like this that make me love this game so much. I love it enough to drive an hour and a half down from Appleton to play. Speaking of the drive, it was a rough. I didn't get back to my place in Appleton until midnight, and it was well after 1 in the morning before I fell asleep. As far as my health goes. I am feeling alright. I have a sore ankle from clearing the ball and striking another players knee in the process. But most importantly my knee, that I have been having so much trouble with, performed without much of a problem. I had a little soreness on the inside, but the pain I had been having was on the outside of my knee. So I think I am still good.
We won the game 10-7. We had a number of defensive lapses. Those will hopefully sort themselves out in the next couple of weeks, we also need to play with a little more patience and try not to push the ball forward so much.
Back to me and my scoring. Every session that The General and I play soccer together we have this little side wager. Who can score the most points. Each goal is worth 2 points, and an assist is worth 1 point. In our post game chalk talk over the phone while The General was driving back to Sun Prairie and I was headed back up to Appleton, The General suggested a poll, so here it is.
And if you wanted to see how The General did last night, I am sure that he will be updating his blog today.
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