Wednesday Night Recap

Usually when I write about my soccer games, I can easily write with the  intensity that I had during that game However, this time I'm having a little bit of a harder time finding that fire that I had throughout much of last night's game. Surprisingly, when the ref told me "just chill out" as I served my 5-minutes in the penalty box for dissent, I listened to him and finished the game on a much calmer level. Let's rewind to the beginning of the game.

Playing shorthanded on the big field at Inwood is always troublesome and last night was no different. Having no subs and our worst player in goal, we were going to be lucky to stay in the game. Not only that, but tonight we were playing our arch rivals from many consecutive seasons. They are pretty good but also pretty scrappy. Our games always get a little heated. After giving up a goal right away, we were able to get it back almost immediately. One of our defenders dumped a ball over the top to the corner. Their defender underplayed it and the ball bounced off the wall and over his head to me, and I calmly finished a left-footed volley. Maybe we were going to be alright. One of our players received a blue card (2 minutes) followed almost immediately by a yellow card (5 minutes) so for much of the first half we were down a man and it showed. Still, after scoring a goal with seconds remaining in the first half, we were only down by two goals at halftime.

The second half wasn't much better and the score started to get away from us. It didn't help that the referees were called yet another shitty game that benefited the team with six subs as opposed to ours with none. My snapping point came around the 14 minute mark. After the ball was kicked by one of their players into the leg of one of ours, it popped up to our keeper. Without hesitation, he picked it up, which resulted in the only passback call I've ever seen in indoor soccer. I, much like the rest of our team, was livid. Probably taking it out the wrong way, I launched into a profanity-laced tirade aimed at the ref and, after he told me several times not to cuss at him, I continued. Not surprisingly, I was given a yellow card and five minutes in the box. After looking like an idiot and slamming the door, still talking back to the ref, he told me to "just chill out." And I did. And it was pretty relieving. Up to that point, I was playing so pissed off and wasn't even sure why. Yes, these guys were our nemesis and they were playing dirty and talking shit, but it's still amateur indoor soccer. Even as a write this and realize how stupid it is to get so mad, you can bet anything that I will be back at next game. Oh well.

Anyways, after serving my five minutes, I came back into the game as we attempted to stop the bleeding, as they say. We were able to score a couple goals before the end of the game and I think we lost by something like 9-4. It was a tough game, but as I said last night, a big advantage to have in these indoor leagues is to be underestimated by teams when the playoffs roll around. In that respect, last night was a success...