At half time on Sunday evening, Jahan had told me that I had raised my game a level for the last AFC Soccer game, but that I just wasn't performing with Fury that night.
I've found that I do have off nights, like anybody else, but lately, I seem to either be lacking form, or possibly just being too hard on myself. The strange thing, is that even if I am lacking form, I am scoring goals. I seem to be putting one in every other game nowadays, in spite of bad play.
It could also be that mentally I have reached a new level of play. This seems to be another likely case, as I seem to be thinking more on the field. This is both a good and bad thing, and I'll start by going over my previous approach to soccer.
There was a time where I would remember very little of the games due to sheer lack of cognitive thought I was giving it all. People would say things like "Do you remember that one foul you took? You hit the ground hard", but I would have forgetten it (at times making writing for this blog quite difficult). Even goals were sometimes hard to recall. As a continuous game, especially, there would be very little memory of possession or tactics in any sense. When I got the ball, I would not be thinking of how I would set something up, but it was rather a test of my ability to see things on the fly, and act accordingly.
With what seemed to be a program set in my head for all of this, I was able to play well in the co-ed leagues and low-level outdoor leagues, using my normally dominant speed.
But now I seem to be caught up somewhere. I think it's trying to incorporating moves into my game, which is an important part on any of Jahan's teams. Beating your covering man is paramount. I am thinking, now, and that it is slowing me down in getting past people. It happened twice tonight, where I just ran into two people, while my brain debating thinking about a move, or just peeling past them, though it did not help that I was tired, or that we were down so much that it didn't matter what I did. Before you guess, the White Eagles lost tonight, 2-9. More on that subject later.
There are a few possible reasons of why I can't just beat my man. Listed below is what I think about it all.
In that Fury game, I had managed an assist by placing a through ball brilliantly with my left foot from about twenty yards away. This has been my best left-footed kick to date, and even the guy on the receiving end of the ball didn't know it was going to him (he had shrugged his shoulders at me when I had kicked it, then ran onto it). We ended up losing 4-1.
The White Eagles game was a mess though, as I mentioned earlier (A 9-2 loss). I scored our first of two goals while waiting for support, I eventually took advantage of a defensive error and ran right up the centre to score. I hadn't even kicked it properly, but it still managed to find the opposite corner of the net that I had originally planned to shoot at.
The funniest part of the game was when some guy nutmeg'd me, then I blocked him off from the ball. He yelled something that sounded like a ninja getting kicked in the stomach, ran into my back, and dove to the ground. Earlier, he had also elbowed me in the nose. I find it hard to believe that he didn't intend to, seeing as he's 6 inches shorter than I am. Asshole. My nose still hurts to the touch.
I've found that I do have off nights, like anybody else, but lately, I seem to either be lacking form, or possibly just being too hard on myself. The strange thing, is that even if I am lacking form, I am scoring goals. I seem to be putting one in every other game nowadays, in spite of bad play.
It could also be that mentally I have reached a new level of play. This seems to be another likely case, as I seem to be thinking more on the field. This is both a good and bad thing, and I'll start by going over my previous approach to soccer.
There was a time where I would remember very little of the games due to sheer lack of cognitive thought I was giving it all. People would say things like "Do you remember that one foul you took? You hit the ground hard", but I would have forgetten it (at times making writing for this blog quite difficult). Even goals were sometimes hard to recall. As a continuous game, especially, there would be very little memory of possession or tactics in any sense. When I got the ball, I would not be thinking of how I would set something up, but it was rather a test of my ability to see things on the fly, and act accordingly.
With what seemed to be a program set in my head for all of this, I was able to play well in the co-ed leagues and low-level outdoor leagues, using my normally dominant speed.
But now I seem to be caught up somewhere. I think it's trying to incorporating moves into my game, which is an important part on any of Jahan's teams. Beating your covering man is paramount. I am thinking, now, and that it is slowing me down in getting past people. It happened twice tonight, where I just ran into two people, while my brain debating thinking about a move, or just peeling past them, though it did not help that I was tired, or that we were down so much that it didn't matter what I did. Before you guess, the White Eagles lost tonight, 2-9. More on that subject later.
There are a few possible reasons of why I can't just beat my man. Listed below is what I think about it all.
- I'm too accustomed to using my speed.
- I panic in front of defenders at times.
- I have little time for a touch in Jahan's teams, plus defenders are better.
- I lack the focus or concentration.
In that Fury game, I had managed an assist by placing a through ball brilliantly with my left foot from about twenty yards away. This has been my best left-footed kick to date, and even the guy on the receiving end of the ball didn't know it was going to him (he had shrugged his shoulders at me when I had kicked it, then ran onto it). We ended up losing 4-1.
The White Eagles game was a mess though, as I mentioned earlier (A 9-2 loss). I scored our first of two goals while waiting for support, I eventually took advantage of a defensive error and ran right up the centre to score. I hadn't even kicked it properly, but it still managed to find the opposite corner of the net that I had originally planned to shoot at.
The funniest part of the game was when some guy nutmeg'd me, then I blocked him off from the ball. He yelled something that sounded like a ninja getting kicked in the stomach, ran into my back, and dove to the ground. Earlier, he had also elbowed me in the nose. I find it hard to believe that he didn't intend to, seeing as he's 6 inches shorter than I am. Asshole. My nose still hurts to the touch.
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