So, yet again, I didn't listen to myself, I played an indoor co-ed game last night.

I went to my co-ed indoor game to coach by waving rolled up papers around (which were old movie passes to some B-budget drive-in movie that I found bleached by the sun on the dash of Dan's car).

However, our goalie missed, so I suited up in various odds and ends and played goalie by limping around. We won the game 3-1 thanks to some stellar defending. I had a jump on three balls, pick up a couple others, and block one actual shot. The goal scored against me came in the last four minutes. The shot was allowed due to a bit of a defensive lapse, where the attacker (I almost said goalie, I'm used to attacking the other net) had enough room and time to fire a really hard shot at me. I got a couple fingers on it, but it wasn't enough and it went into my top corner of the far post.

It's unfortunate that I didn't get the clean sheet that I could've rubbed in Derek's face, but I'm glad we won, and even more glad that I didn't further injure myself.

I'm doing fairly well this morning, as far as the injury goes.

Where's the Surprise?

I have been incredibly busy as of late. Now, unfortunately, I might have a little more time for a while. At least I'll get some sleep though. Allow me to go through the events of the last half-week.

Friday night, I had a going away party for Stephen and Carissa. I invited our soccer team, as I did not really know who else to invite. Stephen and Carissa came to my house at about three, and we hung out there under the guise of "dinner and a hang out". My mom came home at four and promptly spoiled the surprise party by asking "Where's the surprise?" The answer to that was that most of them were at work. We played some soccer in my yard when most everybody found their way there. We watched some Harold and Kumar in addition to some Arrested Development, and then the party was done at about midnight.

Saturday I worked out and trained a little. Sunday was much of the same, with a game. I did some sprinting Sunday, with times of 6.08, 5.93, and 5.36. I think the reason that my times are as bad as they are because of uneven ground, and the fact that I'm running on grass.

Sunday's outdoor game was pretty funny. I was meaning to get Carissa and Stephen goals before they left, and I managed to assist Steve twice and set up Carissa a bunch of times. All fruitless until the last couple seconds when we had a penalty shot. I demanded to Carissa that she take it, and she did. She took it well, but unfortunately it was saved. She kinda stood there instead of running at the rebound, then I yelled at her to take the shot. Unfortunately, the goalie got it first. Some people get no breaks. Nevertheless, a 4-0 win isn't something to scoff at. Stephen and I went out for drinks and a burger afterward at his favorite pub in the city, The Toad. I allowed myself a gimme day as far as my healthy-foods consumption goes and had the most delicious tomato-basil soup and burger with bacon and a nice large meat patty. It was something else. Unfortunately, today has been a bad day for food as well. My mom keeps feeding me (half of a small pizza for lunch, then an ice-cream bar she brought to me), and I think she thinks I'm anorexic. That's not me having a bout of paranoia, either. She would honestly think that. You'd have to meet her.

Yesterday I had an outdoor mens game. I arrived late, and then got injured pretty quickly into it. I think I partially torn some of my groin or hamstring muscle. Though, it's way better from last night, and I can walk on it (albeit with plenty of struggling), so I'm expecting to be out two weeks max. It happened when I beat a guy and his friend came and body-checked me. How nice of him.

I'll still train though, when I can. In two days I can probably get back to light ball work. I may do some upper body weights later.

It's a good thing.

I had one interesting game tonight against one of the top co-ed teams in our league. I'd say it was one I'd never forget, but let's face it, there's only ever going to be a couple of those as my memory's pretty horrid. This one ranks up there, but it wasn't quite the five-trick that I got the last game of the first season with my Co-ed indoor team. It was impressive, I'd say I played better than that aforementioned game, in spite of two errors.

The team was MUCH tougher than the one that I scored five on.

I scored one header off a free kick, I managed to sneak behind their defense, then with an excellent free kick from Brian, I headed in from a tight angle. My team applauded me for that.

I then set Dan up for a goal by taking it into the corner and passing it along the ground for a one-timer (brilliantly taken, might I add).

My two mistakes were mental errors, I assumed my team would run to where I placed the ball in order to get it, but unfortunately, they did not. This led to two breakaways that were fortunately not capitalized on.

I made a fool of one guy tonight by double sombrero-ing him, then passing the ball. The pass which was intercepted by him (it wasn't my fault, my target moved, I swear), so I chased him, and got it back. Then I ran off with it, and he tackled me from behind, forcing the foul. It felt really good to just mess that guy up.

I had a goal-line clearance as well, which was lovely. I have never cleared something right off the line like I did at that point, it felt great. I suppose I'm getting better at being lucky with positioning.

At another point, I actually blocked a shot by squeezing it between my legs, which I then hopped off a few feet with. I loosely rolled it to Derek who definitely did not pick it up, and then shouted my name as I was ran away to get a long throw. I suppose he kicked it lightly down the boards, and the other team picked it up (but did not score, thankfully).

It was a fun, fun game. I feel excellent. I drove Carissa home, and after sorting various things out and working my core, I'm ready to hit the sack. I ate well today too. I think. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were tacos, not to mention the tacos the night before for supper. If you couldn't gather from four meals in a row that tacos are one of my favourites, you might have gathered that there was not much else around. Both are a portion of the entire truth. Goodnight my beloved reader, even if you are an E-mail fishing bot*.

*Please note that there may not even be a reader at this stage of my journal. But regardless, for your entertainment only...

"I saw somebody reading his journal the other day."
"Really? Who in their right mind would do that?"
"Nobody! They made a machine do it to find his E-mail for the distribution of penis enlargement ads!"
"D'OHOHOHO"

Well, that little gig is getting old fast. I need to sleep, it's three in the morn and I work tomorrow.

The knee scrape mentioned yesterday did not treat me well this morning. I woke up to a burning sensation at about 7:30, and took the dressings off. Of course, like with most similar injuries, the gauze stuck and had to be peeled. That wasn't much of a deal, but the skin on my knee had hardened to the point of not being able to lock my knee. I called in sick for work as it seemed somewhat permanent and canceled the plans I had later with Robert to go to some crust-punk show that night.

I slept for a few more hours, woke up, and then decided to go shower to try soften it up. Fortunately for me, that worked, so I spent a few hours doing ball control in my back yard. I worked on my left and right passing and trapping, as well as some turns and a nifty move that may sombrero certain opponents that are on my back. After working on rainbows for a while (which may be match-ready in a couple weeks, but don't tell my mens team), I slipped on the ball (it was one of those incredibly sticky ones, and I was getting a little carried away), and re-injured my ankle for the billionth time, and aggravated the scrapes on my knee.

I also re-measured my 40 yards, and after a heavy supper I tried them. I did not do well at all. 5.92, 5.63, and 5.62. I'll just eat afterwards, next time.

Tomorrow I work extra, which is more than welcome, and have a co-ed indoor game later that night. Upper-body training is going along as planned, but my HIIT and plyometrics (specifically the former) are being brushed off. I need to just get off my lazy ass and do them.

I arrived late to tonight's game because I decided to go over my journal (I don't want to own a 'blog', those things have a bad name. Literally.) and embed most all of the videos to the journal, aside from the hard tackles and the sombreros and nutmegs.

They sent me on when I got my cleats on, and I played at the center of the defense. The action came almost instantly. They scored on us due to a defensive error where the guy (who I had sprung the offside trap on) went behind us and slotted in after dodging one of our players. I tried to slide to clear the ball off the line, but my technique was off, or something - and my knee landed in a mess of gravel and sand. I went nowhere, and the ball rolled by. Normally, that would be the most painful part, but the shower I just had surpasses that.

One of my favourite plays on the game happened shortly after that when I barely cleared a ball that was just sitting on the edge of the six yard box in front of our wide open net. I ran in and slid just as the guy was kicking it, I'm pretty sure he swung at air there. I heard some curse worlds soon after.

They then scored another when our goalie passed the ball to their striker off a goal kick, and he did the same thing where he just slotted it in. This was partially if not completely my fault as I called my other center back a name not his own. We spent a couple vital seconds speaking on that, while their striker snuck behind us with the ball. This striker that had already scored twice on us wasn't too fast or too technically gifted, but he liked to move, which made it a bit annoying. One of our less gifted players had a lovely turn-shoot-yell moment that was deflected into the far post then into their net just before half, and that gave us a bit of a lifeline.

My other favourite play of the game was when somebody shot a ball from just inside the eighteen, so I stuck up my foot to block it. My foot was three-four feet off the ground when I got an incredibly light of touch on the ball with one of the cleats of my shoe as the the ball zoomed past and hit the post. We fortunately cleared it soon after.I'm fairly certain that I blocked two certain goals this game, and that makes me pretty happy.

My partner center back, Ken, said he'd cover their main striker, giving me license to get forward. I ran up a couple times but it was mostly fruitless. It was REALLY fun though, and I could see myself scoring one day doing that. I did have a couple good passes, though.

It was not on a run forward, but when clearing the ball that I saw an open man, who played a ball in for somebody else to tie the game at two apiece. A few minutes later, we scored another and then locked down for the last couple hundred seconds.

So yes, my outdoor mens team actually won one. I was worried we wouldn't finish the entire thing with a point. We definitely did not at all deserve the win, but I will gladly take it.

For the price of a puss-filled knee that stings when cleaned, who could go wrong with the deal?

Though it is a little disturbing that there's still a lot of dirt in it, I worked pretty hard to sufficiently clean it. Whatever, it's the price of victory. I've got it alcohol'd, creamed, and gauzed, so it'll be okay.

The funniest parts of the night had to be:

1) Mike, our team player/manager told our pal (who is on our indoor team but on a rival outdoor team) "best forty bucks I've ever spent" after we shook their hands.

2) Hadley, our tall right fullback shouted across the table at the bar "Hey Gorgeous!" when I was talking the the waitress. Little did she know he was referring to me. They frequently refer to me as Gorgeous George after some old George Best portrait Mike has in his basement.

Well, you could say that he seems like a huge asshole, Mr. Announcer.

Turns out, thankfully, I was wrong about my 40 yard time. Somehow, my dad and I measured an extra 18 feet. I haven't re-ran it, but my new 40 time should be a good bit less. Good thing, too. I felt pretty useless about it. Another good thing is that I went some ways closer to my goal of 4.8.

My vertical is around 19 inches using the standard vert test, which is almost above average. After coming home I did some juggling (65) and dribbling.

Right now I have a game.

Those silly rivals

Today, I woke up, trained with the ball for a couple hours (juggled 105, my highest ever was 196 a few months back). I wall-passed it, and worked on dribbling, and never did get that call telling me when practice was for Maples Juventus. I'll just go to one of their games and talk to them. That's all fine and well though, I had a co-ed outdoor game tonight anyways.

Driving to the field, I noticed the team we were playing was suited in red. It certainly did look like the team we beat 3-0 in the championship last mini-season, which was also the team that always ends up injuring me minorly every game. First it was the eye, then the various leg clips, and today, one of their girls kicked me square in the garbage. I was alright though, after a little while.

There's these two brothers on this team that always seem to talk smack with us, and today was no exception. David, usually the most outspoken of the group, was their target (to which he responded with a simple "I'd care if we weren't going to win"), but at this point we were up 2-0 to goals from Brian and I. Brian's goal was very nice, he was playing left-back and charged right into the center of the attacking-third's line, and received the ball and had a shot. It curled nicely and went in. My goal wasn't so spectacular, David drew the goalie and a defender to him then passed it off, allowing me to slot into the open net from six yards out.

We put in three more, the last one they decided to contest because it was a counter-attack from their corner that Jay kicked in from about 50 yards out. The goalie claimed he was out of his box and used hands when we were shaking hands at the end of the game, so we just decided not to bitch and allow them one less goal against. I'll take it as a sign that we physically, mentally, and tactically dominated them. We played up to their level physically, so everybody escaped injury, excluding the crotch-shot I took. At one point, our best player, Jay, decided to take it through everybody on their team.

And he did.

It was so marvelous, they started body-checking him, but he continued to cut a huge swathe to the net. He shot it a couple inches outside the post, and all the while I was laughing my ass off playing defense. It looked like this:



They definitely brought on more players for this game, as their already large roster grew from about 17 to 20. I saw some new faces that weren't that bad, but we still mustered up tons of heart to shut them out and blow them away for the second game in a row. I feel for the girls on their team though, they have about 8, and they never get play time as only two girls have to be on at any given time.

No, wait, I don't feel bad for them. They chose to associate with complete buffoons.

About those two brothers, though... They have a bit of a history with David's new girlfriend, who recently showed up to a couple of our games to watch. One of them is the best friend of her ex, so that might be a bit of a reason they constantly bitch, moan and swear at us. I like it though, it makes victory even sweeter. Apparently one of them is an ex-premier player as well, so the word goes. I would imagine a few of them are, and one day they just conspired to dominate a fairly easy league.

As lame as it sounds, they are most certainly not doing that on my watch.

"So how'd you like the game?"
"I don't know, but it felt like the opposite of a breath of fresh air."
"What was it, a blow out?"
"D'OHOHOHOHO"

Tomorrow, I work for a short while, and then have a mens outdoor game later on. I decided to throw away the idea of saving my energy for games, seeing as I have a game every other night. I'm going to come home at 3, eat lunch, then do some HIIT and plyometrics.

When I was talking about my sprint times yesterday, I set the goal with professionals in mind. 4.8 is the minimum for a linebacker or quarterback in American football, so I've got to shave off more than a second to become as fast as I'd like. I'm considering combining HIIT and Plyometrics for a maximally awesome workout, so we'll see how that goes.

And yes, I did make up that particular Statler and Waldorf joke.

My little big chance

Today, I juggled a lot, and Stephen and I went out and practiced heading, free kicks, and bicycle kicks. I actually connected a bicycle kick on a cross, but my power just wasn't good for it. I also worked out my core a little, and did some more sprints (6.33, 6.22, 5.91). I want to hit 4.8 seconds for 40 yards, so I'm a ways off. However, I did get a motivating kick in the ass today.

I got called up.

Maples Juventus, the third-best team in my province called me to come play for them. I tried out for them way earlier this season, but I didn't feel I was up to the level of play. I kept the schedule though, and was planning to go see them at the last practice of the season, after training for the season. I suppose I had been largely forgotten about until now. However, I'm not entirely sure what they want me for. Either they need somebody to make the trip to their last away game (approximately 1.5-2 hours drive away), or they want to groom me for next season.

Or maybe they felt bad for me? Who knows. But I'm not letting this chance go once more. They obviously need something from me, and I'm determined to provide it. If this arrangement works out, I'll be far ahead of my original long-term goals:

Summer 2008 - Get on a second division team
Summer 2009 - Get on a first division team
Summer 2010 - Get on a premier team
Summer 2011 - Become a regular in the starting XI

Two years ahead of schedule wouldn't be half bad. Perhaps in year, I can break into the starting team. One thing is for sure though, I'll need to start working my ass off.

Only 16 games next month? Aww, peas.

So I played that game on a massively full stomach of food from one of my favourite restaurants, including soufflé, souvlaki, and duck rolls (what the..?).

Needless to say, it was delicious. During dinner, Carissa presented me with a lovely gift from her and Stephen. The present is absolutely wonderful, and it is a brand new authentic Chelsea jersey.

Maybe someday... (We can all dream, can't we?)

Also needless to say, eating ten minutes before a game is not a good idea.

We got beat 5-2, but we put up a fight. Unfortunately now, we're out of the playoffs for indoor. Ahh well. At least we tasted victory.

I was playing defensively after a while of no service, and blocked a few shots and a pass that was too much for my recently sprained ankle. I went off with intention to not re-injure it, but because my team was tired, I went on for a six minute shift to finish the game.

I suggested playing 1-3-1 next season with me at the back, and we'll see how that goes. It's viable, and I much prefer being in the play (we do find ourselves defending a lot), even if it is a 2/3 vs. 1. I suppose there's no better way to practice.

But there's always next season.

Today's misadventures

Today, I woke up and cleaned. My room is nice and clean now.

Then I took about 35 free kicks at a local field before calling it because my left shin hurt. And yes, I did warm up.

Later comes an all-important men's playoff game, just after supper with Carissa. After that, I might pop into one of my co-ed team's B-team games. I'll bring my jersey just in case they're short or something.

I'll be sure to let you know how it all goes. And I might just begin a little segment called the trophy cabinet, where I update with trophies and other accolades.

I owe yous a story

Well, first off, I took this picture from my car a few weeks ago and have been meaning to show it here. I suppose there was a pipeline problem or something.

It looked many times better in real life.

And for the story I promised you guys months ago.

It was between games for my co-ed team, and we were a touch peckish. We decided on a local Quiznos. We got there, and it was closed. The two carfulls (one of which, mine, containing Derek, Stephen, and David) of hungry soccer players circled the place like sharks, until I saw some a pair of rascal children crashing a shopping cart into one of those enormous parking lot lamp posts.

I decided to make haste towards them. Upon catching up to the runt of the two, I asked him if he thought the cart appreciated it. He said no, and I told him we should chase the other kid down. He did, and I gave them both the slip.

I suppose you had to be there.

That's it for storytime. Next time, I'll tell you guys about the time I almost died.

I'm sorry, this post was filled with disappointment.

What am I?

I've always wondered; 'how do my team mates view me?'

Am I the guy who kinda sits back and makes sure everything's running smoothly? Am I a constant threat that needs to be watched like some of my other teammates? Do I just have a big head and am looked at as a useless pylon out there?

I got this answer from my good pal Derek.

Not exactly what I was going for. But it helps.

So my quest continues. I'm just a little curious, you know?

Tonight's outdoor game went well. I played center defense, and it was 2-1 for us up until about twenty minutes from time. Of the five goals, none were my fault, which is pretty nice when you're centre back. I don't mind playing back there, and quick often my positioning is good. I block shots well, clear the ball well, and mark pretty well. And seeing as usually the opposition's best players are strikers, I have enough speed to keep up with them. I like playing back there, I kind of like to pretend I'm John Terry when I'm back there. Course I don't go up as much as he does, but I do like those last-ditch tackles.



One of the opponents was a real mouthpiece. He got yellowed for swearing at our teammates when he tripped our guy (who fell and kicked him in the face, accidentally), then later on continued with the chin music. On my way away from the field, I mentioned how he was the hugest asshole I'm ever met, which isn't far off (at least the bitch from my old job tried to put on a facade). Turns out he was right behind me the whole time, and I don't really care.

It is also very worth mentioning that I received an awesome mug from Stephen Sunday.

If you couldn't already tell, my favourite football team is Chelsea.



Of course, there was a bit of a catch. That's fine though, it's a great talking point?

I'm going to go juggle a little. Maybe shower too, I got really dirty tonight. I also want to work my abs.

I did forget to cool down, I wonder if I can get going and then cool down again and have the same effect?

It should also be worth noting that I tested my 40 yard sprint times today. 6.33, 6.37, and 6.16 in that order, as timed by my father. I'll begin the speed training when I get the opportunity, I suppose?

Lessons Learned

I made an important discovery today.

I was incredibly sore when I went out for some practice, and I figure it was because I didn't cool down after yesterday's game. So from now on, I cool down. It was pretty terrible. I could barely jog, and juggling was hard. I also pulled two muscles in my warm up. That'll be great for tonight's game.

Yesterday I had a men's indoor game. And despite the normal happenings, we actually won! 6-2 was the final, it was great. I scored one pretty nice one where I snuck in behind their two defenders, and one-timed a nice through ball through the goalie's legs without even looking at where I was shooting. I assisted another goal (Two on one, tapped to the other person), and then played defensively.

Hopefully, I'll be a little less sore for tonight, and hopefully that ankle stops getting aggravated. I also aggravated it while practicing today, but we'll see.

With so many games, I haven't been practicing like I should, but I've decided that I should just practice and not mind being tired for the game - I ought to get better that way.

So, right now, I'm going to go out and work on my bad foot.

My co-ed team had three games yesterday within four hours. Two of them were outdoor, one was indoor. I was only able to show up to the last half of the indoor game. We were up 2-1 at that point, and ended up with 5-2. My first touch on the ball was met with a foul, and for only playing 10 minutes, I was pretty beaten up.

Game tonight though, so my ankle will have to get better.

Yesterday involved 18 holes of golf (117 on 18 at Larters), then a couple games with my mens team. We lost both by one, 3-2 (outdoor) and 5-4 (indoor). Both escaped our grimy hands in the last couple minutes.

The outdoor game was totally my fault. I was marking the opposition's star player (Some loud Jamaican center striker with a lot of speed and good footwork) for most of the game. He scored two goals while I was watching him, and a penalty shot when I was on the sideline. The first came when he got lucky and my tackle just sent the ball right back to his feet, and the second occured when I went up for a header and he jumped into me, which dazed me for enough time to slot home behind me.

I did learn a lot about marking guys like that though, like if they're playing the entire game, push up the offside trap to make him walk/jog around a lot. Also, stay behind him when you've decided the offside line. Also give him space when you're marking him, try to force him to the outside.

My outdoor team still doesn't know where to put me though. Ahh well, I suppose my position hunt will end soon enough, or I'll end up turning into Michael Essien, which is by no means a bad thing.



In the indoor game I set up three goals. the first by firing two shots and having my pal Mike slot the rebound in, then second by kicking it into the corner and having Matt pick it up and shoot it, and the third was a give and go that I flicked to Matt that he put in.

And I nutmeg'd a ton more people.

I'm not giving my parking pass back

Sunday night was the Championship game for Co-ed Outdoor. It was a rough one, I got up-ended three times, fairly hard. At least they didn't go after my teammates. The last time we played these guys, Jay (our best player) got angry (he's always otherwise been extremely calm about everything, so I've seen), and subbed himself off for the rest of the game. I didn't blame him at all, that same night I got a scar on the side of my eye, shown here.

At another point, a pal of mine, David, got in a small shoving match with the guy who gave me the scar, but it subsided fairly quickly. Derek, our 6'8 taciturn goalie, who's always really for a fistfight, almost jumped from across the entire pitch, but it ended a little too fast for him. That's most likely a good thing, because in spite of the eight inches he has on me, very little of that converts to weight.

We won 3-0. The first goal was a corner kick that was deflected into their own net by an over-zealous defender for an own goal, the second was a break away of mine that skipped off my foot weirdly and went into top-right corner off the crossbar. Jay scored the third. I played forward/centre mid.

Monday I had a outdoor-indoor double header with my mens team. We lost both, but in the outdoor game I played all over and sombrero'd somebody yet again. I managed to set up some plays when I moved into attack, but my team still wasn't able to get it going. I also nutmeg'd a ton of people. Perhaps not a ton, but two or three on the night, anyways. Possibly a half-ton of people.

Job rant imminent. Skip next few paragraphs.

Oh, and I got fired from my moderately alright day job with the government. I really didn't mind the job, but the people I worked with were... A little mean, to put it nicely. In particular, one just always seemed to say the snarkiest of comments, constantly managed to insult me, among other things. She was the meanest person I'd ever met. I keep telling myself not to stoop to her level by mentioning her name here, and it's working well, I suppose, as I haven't mentioned her name. It just makes you wonder when, if ever, people get what they have coming to them. Their exact reason for firing me was "my heart wasn't in it". I'm leaning more towards "conspired upon" myself.

One of my lovely pictures from the office. Please note face.

Apparently, certainty word has it that some of those lovely office politicos were talking behind my back, as well. The aforementioned bitchiest of the bunch came up to me a week or so ago and told me that everybody was getting annoyed with the questions I was asking, throwing in an "including me" when she had the chance.

Right now my confidence is incredibly poor. At the very least, I have another job waiting in the wings; my previous engagement at the university bookstore with considerably better people. I'm moderately glad that I didn't stick around for the two weeks offered as right now two of six intake people are on holidays, not including my permanent holiday. Have fun, intake aficionados.

But still, I can't get this creeping sense of ineptitude (along with a slight paranoia that everybody who hears this thinks I'm not giving the whole story) out of my head. Compounded with other problems, simply "not feeling well" about the whole ordeal is a grotesque understatement. I need another drink.

A whole lot of new

I'd apologize to you for not posting for a while, but chances are that it doesn't matter, because to my knowledge nobody reads this (it's okay though, I almost prefer it that way).

I've had a hectic week and a bit. Only two games and some practicing with Stephen on Canada Day, but otherwise it's been quite full. I found out, on that day, that I want to try being keeper one of these days. I quite enjoy diving saves, I had two nice ones against Stephen when we practiced.

My co-ed outdoor team booked a spot in the finals Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. I think we can do beat them. They beat us by one goal once, but we can definitely win. They're a dirty team, so hopefully we can keep it together. We beat the team I mentioned I was joining (My Left Foot), 2-0. I played a lot of defense.

I also played a lot of defense yesterday night when my mens outdoor team got positively thrashed. I spent the first half up front with not much service. I had one blocked shot and a couple runs through a few people.

It is worth noting that the mens team is still fun and hilarious. There's a fellow by the name of Ray who yells at whoever has the ball to "Shoot!" the moment we get in the opposition's attacking third. It doesn't matter if you're 30 yards out with a man blocking you, or you're controlling the ball with your left foot in the air from that same distance. He wants those shots, and it's hilarious. The greatest thing is the urgency in which he yells it though. If I had to compare it to anything, it's almost as though the yell would be better suited to stop a young child from walking across a busy freeway without looking.


At half, another player and I (Atom) wanted to switch things up, so we anchored the back line as center halves. I played for 40 minutes of that half, and one goal was scored on my team when I was back there. When both Atom and I were back there at the same time, we locked them out completely. I think that's good considering we were scored on 5 times in the first half and in that last 5 minutes, three more times.

I had a lovely goal-line clearance that actually did pass the line, and I had a few good headers. That was my first time playing defensively, and it sure is different, but fun. I even chased a guy backwards out of our box once by a rapid succession of failed slide tackles. I want to do it more, and I want to try other spots and roles as well. I do definitely prefer being in the spine of the team though. I tend to drift to the center.

Other notables include a doo-daddling of a couple people that were marking me tight by kicking a ball that was in air over and behind my head as a pass to my team mate, and slide tackling an older fellow who was surprisingly quick. When I went off at the end of the game, I stopped by the opposition's bench and chatted them up a little. Turns out they've been in that league for 17 years or so, but I already knew that.

And it just so happened that the ref that gave my red card the last game was reffing this one as well.