Game 3 took place today under the clouds and quite pleasant temperature of a nice Autumn day in Washington, DC. Team Mocha took the field against a nemesis team from last season, team Green. The Green team was only a nemesis in that they beat us two times including the heartbreaking 4-3 loss in the playoffs, which still haunts me to this day.
Today, with Bill out of town, Peter and I agreed to share the goalkeeping duties. I started the game between the pipes determined to not have a repeat of the episode from game 1 where I bobbled the early ball and gave up a cheap goal. Team Green has a player named Bruce who seems to always be looking for trouble. He is similar in temperament to Eric, the prick bastard from the gray team of last season, but not quite as bad. Eric is dangerous to others, where Bruce is mostly just dangerous to himself.
Team Mocha started the match with 12 players available and only one substitute. Team Green had 4 substitutes and lots of good ones at that. I have noticed that in these situations in the past, our team has responded with very good play. It is like we know we can't play too much long ball, so we concentrate on passing the ball. Since soccer is a game of possession and passing, this is usually a good thing.
The first half seemed to be fairly even. Despite having a number of good strikers, team Green failed to get any quality shots due to great defensive play from Brian Siever, Brian Sklar, Ken, Gail, Greg and Brian Trackman. This keeper was truly blessed to have such an amazing effort in front of him. We took a number of long-range shots that didn't really threaten their keeper, but it did give us a chance to rest while they chased the ball down into the trees behind the goal. Halftime score: 0-0.
The second half was absolutely nuts. Less than 10 minutes into the half, team Green took the lead on a ball that skidded weirdly under my foot through the midfield and then found one of their strikers. He beat the defense and put in a nice low shot to the near post.
Down a goal, Mocha put the offensive pedal to the metal. We started sending more folks forward and were threatening their goal. After many missed opportunities (many by yours truly), Mocha evened the match with 15 minutes to play on a goal by Brian Sklar that deflected a little off the defender's foot and found the inside of the left post.
The action went back and forth until one of our players was red-carded with about 10 minutes to play on what the ref deemed to be a retaliatory kick to a green player. Like most of these situations, the ref neglected to call the shirt pulling the preceded the incident. Now we were a player down and holding on for dear life. With about 2 minutes to go, team Green took the lead again on a ball that seem to hang around our goal and finally find a Green striker's boot.
With little to lose, Mocha attacked with all that we had. We won a corner kick and I had an excellent chance to tie the match after heading a perfectly placed kick from Ken on goal. Unfortunately, the opposing players blocked it and my rebound kick was deflected out of bounds for another corner. Seconds later and with seconds to play, Brian Siever tied the match on a brilliant screaming shot from the top of the box to the lower left part of the goal, just inside the post. Final Score: Mocha 2 - Green 2.
I cannot remember the last time we victimized a team like that. It always seams like we are the team that has such bad luck, but today our fortunes were different. A great match by everyone to come up with a well-deserved point.
I don't normally do this, but today's match will be an exception. I feel the need to specifically note part of the great contribution everyone played in this match.
Marie had some great feeds to the wings and some good shots on goal. Lisa played the right half with poise and made a lot of good stops and feeds. Neil had some good shots, a ton of excellent feeds and should have had more than one assist. In addition to his stellar defensive stops, Brian Trackman had a great assist on the final goal and came close to scoring himself. Greg played his normal all-around excellent game and did a great job not letting Bruce get under his skin. Angel played tough on the right side and disrupted a number of plays. Peter played a great first half in the midfield and distributed well. He was peppered with tons of shots in the second half and kept us in the game with many nice saves. Ken played a stalwart game of defense and had some great corner kicks that should have been converted to goals. Gail was solid as ever (and as usual) and thwarted many attacks on defense. Brian Siever saved our hides on defense and then saved our hides on offense and played a really top-notch game. Our captain, Brian Sklar not only got us on the scoreboard, but played a whale of a game at stopper. He wasn't feeling so well after the game, so everyone wish him good health!
What a good way to start the week!
Monday, September 26, 2005
Fall Soccer Game 2
You may recall from the last post our team is not yet given a name since we did not have jerseys prior to the first game. We were told we would have jerseys prior to the start of game 2, but game time rolled around and there were none to be found. A mystery indeed.
The mighty men and women of TOIC A took the field with our light jerseys again, determined to reverse the curse of last week. I will call our opponent TOIC C for now just to keep consistent. This week, the field we played on also had the unique pleasure of not having soccer lines on it aside from the touchlines. No goal box, no penalty box and lots of weird dotted lines.
Peter and Bill were going to share goal duties today and were determined to make everyone proud. Peter started the match in goal and played a very good half. The match started slowly for both teams. There was a lot of change of possession in the midfield and few good scoring opportunities for the first 10 minutes or so. TOIC A took the lead on a goal from Bill that was similar to his goal in game 1. So far it looks like Bill is going to have an excellent year offensively and in goal!
There was a play that happened in the first half that seemed quite innocuous at the time, but it foretold of disastrous consequences later so I will tell you now rather than create an even more hideous run-on sentence. One of the TOIC C strikers called for the ball and was a good 2 yards behind our last defender. The ball was played to him in his clearly offside position and I asked the ref to call it. He did not. Luckily, Brian Siever tracked the ball down and did not let the bad call cost us a goal. The ref insisted the player was even with me (the player told me after the game, he knew he was WAY offside) and the ref was quite belligerent. I thought at the time that at least our defense won't have to deal with this ref in the second half. Score at the half: TOIC A 1 - TOIC C 0.
At halftime, we received our jerseys for this season. I kind of poo brown. I don't know who we pissed off in the league office, but man, these jerseys are reminiscent of the Brown Sound episode of South Park. Many ideas were immediately floated for our team name, most of them scatalogical. The only clean one was "mocha". So here is what I will do: When things go well, I will refer to us as Mocha and when things go poorly, we will be Skidz.
The second half featured a lot of weirdness. Having a one goal lead is nice, but it is also precarious. It helps to pick up another goal to give a good cushion for the inevitable strange goal of the day that always seems to happen to us. The action was very tight, but we started to get some chances. Team Mocha extended its lead to 2-0 about 20 minutes into the second half on a controversial goal by Jon Rose. We had played a corner kick into the area. It was semi-cleared by Team Yellow (formerly TOIC C) to one of our players who played it to Jon who was still right by the goal in what looked like offside position. The referee (same one from the first half) did not call offside and when the Yellow players argued with him and tried to explain the rule (which he demonstrated earlier, he does not understand) he gave a red card to their captain (and best defender) and a yellow card to another one of their players.
From there the floodgates opened. Neil scored a few minutes later by practically walking the ball in. Jon Rose added another nice outside shot from the top of the penalty area to the inside of the post. Greg capped Mocha's scoring with about 8 minutes to play. Team Yellow kept fighting hard and got on the board with less than five minutes to play on a header that seemed to have its own eyes for the net. Final score: Mocha 5 - Yellow 1.
A very nice effort from our team. The red card and goal #2 really changed what was a close and fairly even game to a lopsided affair. I can't think of anyone who played poorly on our team today. A great effort all around!
The mighty men and women of TOIC A took the field with our light jerseys again, determined to reverse the curse of last week. I will call our opponent TOIC C for now just to keep consistent. This week, the field we played on also had the unique pleasure of not having soccer lines on it aside from the touchlines. No goal box, no penalty box and lots of weird dotted lines.
Peter and Bill were going to share goal duties today and were determined to make everyone proud. Peter started the match in goal and played a very good half. The match started slowly for both teams. There was a lot of change of possession in the midfield and few good scoring opportunities for the first 10 minutes or so. TOIC A took the lead on a goal from Bill that was similar to his goal in game 1. So far it looks like Bill is going to have an excellent year offensively and in goal!
There was a play that happened in the first half that seemed quite innocuous at the time, but it foretold of disastrous consequences later so I will tell you now rather than create an even more hideous run-on sentence. One of the TOIC C strikers called for the ball and was a good 2 yards behind our last defender. The ball was played to him in his clearly offside position and I asked the ref to call it. He did not. Luckily, Brian Siever tracked the ball down and did not let the bad call cost us a goal. The ref insisted the player was even with me (the player told me after the game, he knew he was WAY offside) and the ref was quite belligerent. I thought at the time that at least our defense won't have to deal with this ref in the second half. Score at the half: TOIC A 1 - TOIC C 0.
At halftime, we received our jerseys for this season. I kind of poo brown. I don't know who we pissed off in the league office, but man, these jerseys are reminiscent of the Brown Sound episode of South Park. Many ideas were immediately floated for our team name, most of them scatalogical. The only clean one was "mocha". So here is what I will do: When things go well, I will refer to us as Mocha and when things go poorly, we will be Skidz.
The second half featured a lot of weirdness. Having a one goal lead is nice, but it is also precarious. It helps to pick up another goal to give a good cushion for the inevitable strange goal of the day that always seems to happen to us. The action was very tight, but we started to get some chances. Team Mocha extended its lead to 2-0 about 20 minutes into the second half on a controversial goal by Jon Rose. We had played a corner kick into the area. It was semi-cleared by Team Yellow (formerly TOIC C) to one of our players who played it to Jon who was still right by the goal in what looked like offside position. The referee (same one from the first half) did not call offside and when the Yellow players argued with him and tried to explain the rule (which he demonstrated earlier, he does not understand) he gave a red card to their captain (and best defender) and a yellow card to another one of their players.
From there the floodgates opened. Neil scored a few minutes later by practically walking the ball in. Jon Rose added another nice outside shot from the top of the penalty area to the inside of the post. Greg capped Mocha's scoring with about 8 minutes to play. Team Yellow kept fighting hard and got on the board with less than five minutes to play on a header that seemed to have its own eyes for the net. Final score: Mocha 5 - Yellow 1.
A very nice effort from our team. The red card and goal #2 really changed what was a close and fairly even game to a lopsided affair. I can't think of anyone who played poorly on our team today. A great effort all around!
Fall Soccer Game 1
F-ing website lost my first write up of this game. So I will attempt to recreate the literary masterpiece that it was.
I have been quite delinquent in writing up the games for my soccer team this season but I think I will be able to do a better job going forward. Demands on my time (work, job hunting, naps, and uber naps) have kept me from posting more often. Since countless 1's of people visit this forum every few months and since it is a place for current events knowledge in and around my house, I will endeavor to improve my performance.
This season our team will be experimenting with a goal keeper by committee approach. Bill, Peter and me will share the duties equally. Basically, two of the three keepers will split each game. You can kind of think of it like a soccer version of Rochambeau. You may ask yourself, "How do I work this?" Ooops. That was the Talking Heads. You may ask yourself, "What does this have to do with the outcome of game one?" Absolutely nothing! Since this is my blog, I get to be self centered about this and explain how the whole thing affects me!
Onto the game one highlights:
This season, our team of indeterminate color (TOIC A) played another team of indeterminate color (TOIC B). At this point, you may ask yourself, why the indeterminate colors? Well, the league in its infinite wisdom and with much prior knowledge of the exact start date of the season, did not order jerseys for the league on time. So we showed up with light and dark shirts and chose to play light based on the shirts the other team brought.
Historically, TOIC B has given our team great problem when we play. I cannot remember ever beating them. They have a lot of younger and very skilled players that dribble well, pass well, and defend well. They also seem to be pretty fast. Not a good combination for a team like ours.
As mentioned above, I started the game in goal and with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, an offseason of no practice and definitely no thought of playing keeper, does not leave on with the sharpest skills. About 2 minutes into the game, the first ball I handled I bobbled and it fell right onto the feet of a TOIC B striker who touched the ball right into the net for an early lead. Luckily, that would be my game one blunder of the day.
TOIC A evened the match a few minutes later when Bill volleyed a cross from the left side right into the left side of the net. The rest of the half featured good chances from both teams. I was forced to make a couple of saves and to charge out of the box to break up some attacks. One ball did get past me, but Jeff scrambled back to make and excellent save and kick the ball off the goal line. Halftime score: 1-1.
The second half was owned by TOIC B. The got back to their ball control ways and kept peppering our goal with shots. Bill made a ton of great saves but was beaten by two excellent shots from TOIC B strikers. The first was a good shot ripped to the near post from inside the penalty area about 20 minutes into the second half. The TOIC B striker had received the ball outside of the penalty area and beaten me to the outside. He then made a bee-line for the goal and hit a pretty shot just past Bill's outstretched hand.
The second goal was a looping shot to the upper left hand corner that looked pretty unstoppable to me. Our team kept fighting and tried very hard, but it was just not meant to be on this day. Final score: TOIC B 3 - TOIC A 1.
I was impressed by our overall effort and thought everybody did a good job trying to get back into game shape and get back into the mental aspect of playing. I feel good about this season, which will likely be my last for a while. But more on that in later posts....
I have been quite delinquent in writing up the games for my soccer team this season but I think I will be able to do a better job going forward. Demands on my time (work, job hunting, naps, and uber naps) have kept me from posting more often. Since countless 1's of people visit this forum every few months and since it is a place for current events knowledge in and around my house, I will endeavor to improve my performance.
This season our team will be experimenting with a goal keeper by committee approach. Bill, Peter and me will share the duties equally. Basically, two of the three keepers will split each game. You can kind of think of it like a soccer version of Rochambeau. You may ask yourself, "How do I work this?" Ooops. That was the Talking Heads. You may ask yourself, "What does this have to do with the outcome of game one?" Absolutely nothing! Since this is my blog, I get to be self centered about this and explain how the whole thing affects me!
Onto the game one highlights:
This season, our team of indeterminate color (TOIC A) played another team of indeterminate color (TOIC B). At this point, you may ask yourself, why the indeterminate colors? Well, the league in its infinite wisdom and with much prior knowledge of the exact start date of the season, did not order jerseys for the league on time. So we showed up with light and dark shirts and chose to play light based on the shirts the other team brought.
Historically, TOIC B has given our team great problem when we play. I cannot remember ever beating them. They have a lot of younger and very skilled players that dribble well, pass well, and defend well. They also seem to be pretty fast. Not a good combination for a team like ours.
As mentioned above, I started the game in goal and with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, an offseason of no practice and definitely no thought of playing keeper, does not leave on with the sharpest skills. About 2 minutes into the game, the first ball I handled I bobbled and it fell right onto the feet of a TOIC B striker who touched the ball right into the net for an early lead. Luckily, that would be my game one blunder of the day.
TOIC A evened the match a few minutes later when Bill volleyed a cross from the left side right into the left side of the net. The rest of the half featured good chances from both teams. I was forced to make a couple of saves and to charge out of the box to break up some attacks. One ball did get past me, but Jeff scrambled back to make and excellent save and kick the ball off the goal line. Halftime score: 1-1.
The second half was owned by TOIC B. The got back to their ball control ways and kept peppering our goal with shots. Bill made a ton of great saves but was beaten by two excellent shots from TOIC B strikers. The first was a good shot ripped to the near post from inside the penalty area about 20 minutes into the second half. The TOIC B striker had received the ball outside of the penalty area and beaten me to the outside. He then made a bee-line for the goal and hit a pretty shot just past Bill's outstretched hand.
The second goal was a looping shot to the upper left hand corner that looked pretty unstoppable to me. Our team kept fighting and tried very hard, but it was just not meant to be on this day. Final score: TOIC B 3 - TOIC A 1.
I was impressed by our overall effort and thought everybody did a good job trying to get back into game shape and get back into the mental aspect of playing. I feel good about this season, which will likely be my last for a while. But more on that in later posts....
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