Friday, April 30, 2010

Thursday Night in the Dome

Just another ringer league game last night. The team we were playing (Swingin D's) was short a guy or two at the start so we came out kind of sluggish assuming it was going to be an easy game. Instead of shooting the ball as I normally do, I was making the difficult pass to teammates in front of the open goal. Unfortunately, there was never a teammate to receive the pass. We went down 2-0 in a matter of minutes. I started to get frustrated, so decided to turn my game on. I went back to my usual self, shooting and dribbling instead of passing. Even though the rest of their team showed up, I scored a couple goals and were tied. The game was a clean one. Their two best players were a couple of little Mexicans who like to dance around the ball. Reminded me of former-ringer Jose, who is currently plying his trade in beautiful El Paso. After encouraging my defenders to apply pressure on the ball, we were able to contain them rather easily.

The first half was very even, though we should have been winning by several goals. The highlight of the half was my second (or was it my third?) goal. The ball was sent forward and was bouncing around the top of the arc. Both the keeper and myself ran towards the ball. When he saw I was going to get there first, he started backpedaling towards the goal. As I approached the ball, I put the softest of touches on it. I popped the ball up in the air. The pudgy little keeper jumped as he neared the goaline and reached with everything he had. He swiped for the ball but got nothing. As he crashed down to the ground, the ball dipped in just under the crossbar and hit the net. A truly beautiful goal.

So with the scored tied at the half, we needed to come strong out of the gates to start the second. That didn't happen. Instead, we exchanged a few goals and with about ten minutes to go, we were tied at 6. That's when we kicked into gear. After their latest tying goal, I collected the ball from the ensuing kickoff and carried it towards the goal along the boards. As I neared the corner, I fired a shot to the far post. Goal. A minute later we stole the ball back from them deep in their end and, after a nice pass from a teammate, I tucked the ball into the net. Up by two goals now, the game was ours. We closed out the half with a couple more goals and won the game. When all was said and done, I think I netted five goals. Not a bad night.

Although it was a bit closer than usual, we were able to pull it out and our quest for an undefeated season and championship t-shirt continues. Rain is in the weekend forecast, so a Sunday outdoor game might be out of the question. Oh well - that's the life of an amateur I suppose.

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