In Memory of Robert Enke

Tuesday night was one unlike many others. Team G played a game at the good old Coverall, but more importantly, Robert Enke, a man who I admire committed suicide. Obviously, I did not know him personally, though through various accounts, he was a great man. Many see suicide as a selfish act, but every case is different, and thus it's extremely difficult to make that sort of blanket statement with any sort of accuracy. There is always a bigger picture. Rest in peace.

The game on Tuesday was against a team that I had been licking my chops to play against. The team they played before us, Inter FC, destroyed them 12-2, and I consider my team about equal with them. I was fortunate to not be in too much pain from my ankle injury, or too sick, so I played, and got a lot of play time, as we had a fairly small squad.

Hearing about the news of Enke's death beforehand, I felt as though any goals I scored should be in his memory. It seems superstitious and largely pointless, but I see it as the only thing I can do to show respect to a man I have sat in awe watching videos of during late night Youtube sessions.

Arriving somewhat late to the game, I had bandaged up my foot to prevent further damage, and for some reason, Colin, my midfield partner, was required to stay on for about 7 minutes before Derek replaced him out of pity. I'm sure he didn't mind though, he had a particularly prolific game, with 5 goals. That, and he's a nice guy.

I got on, and in my first carry of the ball, encountered a defender who decided to use the shuffle step defense method. I stopped the ball and let him come at me, half in awe, half in disbelief, and so I just put the ball on one side of him, and ran the other. He hugged me as I passed, so I felt it was going to be one of those games. Fortunately, it wasn't, though rugburn on my elbow, knee, and awkwardly enough, my shoulder would beg to differ. I clumsily hauled a guy down later at one point myself, but I did get ball, so in part, I'm being a bit of a hypocrite. While we're on that topic, I was brought down fairly ruthlessly by a guy who just hacked my leg as a was well past him, and the resultant free kick was a beautiful curling effort from about 17 yards out, that was about a foot shy of the top corner I aimed for. It was alright though, as I had four goals, including a perfect hat trick*, and we won 10-1.

My first goal, I received possession close to our own net. As I prepared for a Messi-esque run, I realized that there was nobody coming to close me down, or even remotely in front of me, so I hit full speed while dribbling and blew right by everybody, then tapped in with my right foot.

My next goal was similar, I had the ball on the right flank, and ran diagonally at the goal, banked the ball in off the near post. The run wasn't nearly as long, though.

The header came next, Derek took a free kick with his bad foot, and though he was aiming for me, missed. The ball bounced off the boards and then up to my head, so I nodded it and it trickled in.

The completion came when I had the ball in front of the net with, again, nobody covering me. I was running sideways for some reason, and I spun and shot with my left while horrendously off balance. After a bit of running to regain my balance, I ended up tumbling to the ground, hilariously.

I'm not sure which I'm more proud of:

1. A four goal game with a perfect hat trick.
2. Playing well, according to anybody whose opinion I received.
3. This;
   

Take that, Italy.

There's my conquest of the week. I'm not sure if it'll be a two, three, or whatever horse race for the golden boot, but if i win it and don't get a trophy at the end of the season, I don't care, I'm making one myself.

In addition to that, I made a bet with Josh about the bicycle kicks I keep not doing for the sake of others' safety. Basically, I will win the goal of the season trophy (made by Josh) by scoring on a bicycle kick in a game. If I have to, I will showboat to get it. I have a couple ideas on how to set myself up for a bicycle kick.

In addition to that game, I played two games at work. After playing an entire match the the Wannabees where I got headbutted in the temple, I was pretty tired, but still managed some nice little moves off, including Ribery's little gimmick;

Wowwee, kiddo.

I then played goalie for one half for Off in the Woods, then out for the second have of the same game, for The Soccer Team, who bought me a lovely birthday card. Gosh, the smallest things.

* - "... the golden or perfect hat trick ... tremendous skill ... the player must score three goals: one from the right foot, one from the left and one from the head." - Source