May 22 Soccer Game vs. Light Gray

Wow! That was one heck of a game yesterday. It had everything: lead changes, tempers, and lots of good plays. I imagine a neutral spectator would have found it quite entertaining. Below is a synopsis:

The light gray team is an opponent that has traditionally given us trouble both in winning the game and in causing tempers to flair during the game. They do this to every team they play. About one year ago I remember a fight breaking out in their game against a Green team.

Both teams started with little in the way of subs and the situation worsened for the good guys when one of our strikers turned an ankle and could not play the rest of the game. The light gray team was short one female player and had to play with 10. Still, they have a lot of skilled players and were not to be taken lightly. They did their normal tactics of shoving here and cheap shots all over the field. I got a good look at tons of plays that could have been called against them, but were not.

About 10 minutes in one of their strikers broke free and scored on a low shot to the near post that I couldn't get down to get fast enough. About 15 minutes later we evened up the score on what has to be the goal of the year. Our striker scored on a bicycle kick from the top of the penalty box. A tremendous goal that I have not seen the equal of in this league. We were also unlucky with the woodwork and hit the crossbar twice in the half. Halftime score: 1-1.

Early in the second half, one of our midfielders ripped a nice shot into the top corner of the net for a 2-1 lead. The drama of the match came soon thereafter when our stopper was ejected for fighting following a cheap shot from an opposing player. With about 15 minutes to play we still held a 2-1 lead and I misplayed a low ball that snuck inside the post. I tried to slide and kick it out but it jumped over my foot. This is a lesson to always dive on these types of shots.

With about 10 minutes to play, light gray was awarded a penalty kick on an unintentional hand ball in the box. Knowing the odds are against me in this situation, I decided not to guess and potentially take myself out of the play. The kicker looked first to my left, so I thought that might be his first choice. As he approached the ball he tried to deceive me by looking left, then right, then left, and then right. He looked left as he approached the ball and I dove left as hard as I could. I was able to deflect the ball over the crossbar for the best save I think I have made this season. We held on to preserve a 2-2 tie.

Our team played very well against a difficult opponent. We created many good opportunities to score and had lots of great passing. I was very impressed with our strikers and midfielders' ability to create shots and distribute the ball. As always, our defenders did a tremendous job of limiting the number of shots I faced and battled hard all game long.

Playing keeper is very challenging. It has some huge mental swings that really are tough to deal with. It is hard to look at the other players on the team after our opponent scores. I feel like I have let them down. On the other hand, making a good save really pumps you up. I was feeling pretty down in this game after giving up the second goal, but preserving a tie when our team fought so hard against that group of jerks was a good feeling and a positive way to head into our next game.