Green Holds on for Win Over Blue

I am sorry this post is not very timely. I have been unusually busy and have not had time to be quick in my analysis of our last game of the season. Plus the result was fairly painful and I was not really in the mood to relive it.

Recap

Green got on the board early with two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. Goal number one was a breakaway on a counterattack following a corner kick from our team. Their striker came down the right side of the field and beat me fair and square to the far post. He had me dead to rights and there was little to do to stop his shot. Their second goal resulted from a throw in the was allowed to linger in our penalty area too long. Eventually it landed at the feet of their other good striker and he put it away.

Blue fought hard and evened the match before halftime. One goal was a nice header following a cross from the left side of the field and the other was somewhat similar to the Green team's second goal. It landed at a Blue player's foot and he calmly put it away. Halftime Score: 2-2.

The second half was eerily similar to the first half. Green scored early on another counter attack down the left side. The same striker beat me to the same side of the goal. You would think I could learn from the first goal! Blue fought back and tied the game at 3 apiece with about 15 minutes to play on a ball that ping-ponged around the Blue net before finally getting put away.

As time wound down, I was convinced we were looking at overtime, but alas it was not meant to be. With about 2 minutes to play Green crossed the ball from their right side and one of their players put it toward the net. Following a miscommunication between me and another Blue player, the ball bounced around and finally landed right at the feet of the Green striker who scored goal #2. He put away the winner and that was that. Final Score: 4-3 loss.

I have to give the Green team a lot of credit. It was a hot day, they had fewer subs than we did and they played just well enough to beat us. I am very proud of our team for not backing down, for coming back from behind twice, and for scoring three goals. I am equally proud that our defense did well to limit two very talented strikers from having more opportunities than they did.

This season has been tough. We lost more games than I thought we would, but everyone came out and played hard each week. I am excited that everyone seemed to have at least one game where they really excelled, sometimes against opponents who were physically superior to us. At the end of the game, I like to ask myself the following:

Did you play as hard as you can and play your position well?

If you feel you can answer "yes" to that question then you have much to be proud of when all is said and done. Isn't that why we play? Don't we like to see if we can push our boundaries a little and do something we shouldn't be able to do?

I hope everyone come back for the Fall season ready to build on some of the improvements we made this season. I hope everyone wants to bring a positive and productive attitude to team and let's see if we can just go out and have a great time playing the greatest game in the world.