"3, 2, 1, PS3"

Time for some actual content now, I suppose.

My soccer schedule's been packed recently, with the 8 or whatever amount of teams I'm on, and fatigue is kicking in pretty early in the season. On the weekend, the Hurricanes had a tournament with other St. James clubs.

First up, we played a side divisions lower than us. Three, if I remember correctly.

We were still giving trials to players and had one or two subs, and we were generally pretty terrible. One of our players (who has since learned) tried to do too much with it around our box with no defenders behind him, lost it, and we got scored on. It took the rest of the first half and most of the second to equalize, hitting a post in the process. The game ended tied.

I played striker, but I was completely isolated from my team. Absolutely nobody was able to find me, and there were few balls coming my way that I could do much with. All in all, we all had a terrible game.

But there were penalty shots to make up for it. I took the second shot and Jay took the third, and my team on the whole failed massively. Our first kicker put it in, and so did the other team's.

Approaching the spot from half, I realized that this was my first shootout. Place it bottom right, I thought to myself. I walked to the spot, I'm not sure why, but it felt right. It was a long walk too, so I had plenty of time to clear my mind and focus myself on that bottom right corner. It took me a long time to set the ball up on the spot, the spot itself was in a hole, and I wanted the ball on the front edge of it.

Bottom right. Bottom right. Bottom right.

On the run-up which was more of a jog up, I changed my mind and went with it, passing it into the bottom left corner. Afterwards, I was told by my team mate Keir* that I looked "super chill" executing the whole thing, which the team had a good laugh about. I suppose it was ballsy to pass it in, but of the remaining three shooters from our team, two hit the goalie, and Keir blasted in over and wide a la David Beckham.

Our second game started better, and I moved from striker to the wing. We still couldn't score for the life of us regardless of the fact that I set up a few good opportunities. We were quite close a couple times and hit the post another few, and then late in the second half, our defence let a man by, who shot, hit the crossbar, and had the ball fall to another player of theirs. He volleyed in, and we lost our third game of the season by one goal or penalties.

The day after that tournament, I had my first game with STD, or South Transcona District. Suitable abbreviation, I suppose. I played right back first half and then stopper second. We lost 3-0, but I had their best player in my pocket for the entire match. He was an attacking midfield who liked to carry the ball, and in reality he played a free role.

The day after that, the Hurricane played again. I played sweeper in lieu of Jay's absence. I was responsible for the a goal scored against us, passing it right to their player when I was on the side. We lost 2-1, though I made many great slide tackles and won a ton of balls in the air. The only other noticeable low point was getting megged in the corner by a big strong black guy. I redeemed myself a few times by making a couple last-ditch slide tackles on him though, including one in the box that the ref had to take a good look at.

We picked up our game in the second half, and won the half, but that's not going to suffice.

* - Keir and I went to elementary school together and didn't like each other much, but we're best of pals on the team, it's hilarious. And great.

"And No Cyborgs"

Well, cripes, we're back, yet again.

In the last few months, I've been busy like never before.

Of course, that was until exams ended at the end of April, and since then I have mostly been relaxing, playing soccer, and really, really enjoying my free time. There's been a bit of work interspersed, but for the most part, my priorities have been perfectly in line with a life of maximal enjoyment.

I'm not sure where I left off, but here's the grand finale to the winter season that has been so anticipated:

1. One of Team Gigantic's teams made the playoffs only to get knocked out in the first round, and the weaker version of Team Gigantic made it to the finals, beating the #1 seed along the way. I had a fancy little goal in that game where off a goal kick, it hit two heads, came to me while I ran at the opposition's goal, made a cute cushioned header over a player, and then let it fall before burying it. I love when teams get antsy in the playoffs.
2. The Chillies crashed out of the playoffs despite being third seed.
3. I never played playoffs with Red Dogs.
4. Rec league teams were... Pretty recreational.

But fellows, now, it is the summer.

This means many things: tanning, swimming, training, and good looking girls everywhere. However, most of all; mens soccer is back in my life in a big way.

I almost beat a world record by having 10 teams this summer, and if not for work, I'd have done it. They would've been as follows:

1. St. James Hurricane - The good old men's team of last summer, now with Jay and Steve!
2. South Transcona Dynamo (STD) - A mens team with hangovers, a lack of fitness, and meagre opposition that still beats my team.
3. The Cooligans - An indoor team that I was scouted for by two separate people who separately had the idea to court me onto their team.
4. The Electric Shoes - And yes, they are back too.
5. Team Gigantic.
6. Team Gigantic's feeder* team, Even Bigger.
7. The Wannabees.
   
8. Team Gigantic's outdoor calcetto team.
9. The Chilly Willies, an outdoor rec league co-ed team with friends mostly from the Chilly Willies.
   
10. The Beautiful people, another outdoor rec league co-ed team with friends mostly from the Chillies.

There were probably another one or two, as well. It's probably erring on the side of overkill when it actually takes some effort to recall which teams you're on, but my legs don't seem to mind. Also note that for the last three teams of that list, I am a substitute, just in case one is needed.

Regardless of how many teams I'm on, it's 4:30 in the morning and I need to sleep.

Action comes tomorrow.

* - By feeder, I mean the place where we put players who want to play more, and the extra players the team has signed up that aren't as good as others.