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.
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.
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