Monday, May 3, 2010

Sunday Afternoon Game

Yesterday was a great day for soccer. Eighty degrees and sunny. I'm starting to remember how hot it gets in Texas during the summer and not really looking forward to it. The team we were playing was a combination of young and old guys and we lost to them earlier in the season, although I was not at that game. From the opening whistle, it seemed to be a pretty evenly matched game.

The other team broke the deadlock about twenty minutes in when a ball was sent over the top to a lone forward running on. With a one-on-one against our keeper, it was an easy finish for him. The problem with our defense is their lack of speed and athleticism makes us very vulnerable to through balls and breakaways. But that's just part of what you have to deal with in NTPSA Division V soccer, I suppose.

We struck back about ten minutes later, kind of. I collected the ball over along the left sideline. And with my love for cross-field switches, I didn't hesitate to find one of our forwards at the far side of the box. I sent a long ball towards him but, just as it was about to reach him, a defender came out of nowhere to get his head on the ball. And put it into his own goal. 1-1. Credit goes to me, right?

So at the half, we were tied but we had the majority of goal scoring chances. My shooting was horrendous and no one else seemed to offer anything much better. We came out in the first half a little stiff and after just a minute, one of their midfielder took the ball in the middle of the field. With no one there to apply pressure, he sent a shot towards our goal from about thirty yards out. Our keeper never stood a chance. Not because it was a great shot. But because it was on target and he's just not very good. 2-1. 

After that goal, we controlled the ball but saw scoring chance after scoring chance go unfinished. Then we caught a break. As their defense was swinging the ball around the back, they hit a bad pass out towards the right touchline. Playing forward, I raced their right defender to the ball. He got there first, but didn't know what to do with the ball. After dribbling towards the sideline, he was running out of options. I was just staying in front of the ball, not letting him get rid of it. Finally, he made a move to dribble past me. Didn't work. I stuck my foot out and got the ball, sending it twenty yards down the line. Now it was a race between me and their last defender. Just as I was about to get to it, I sensed that he was about to slide. I was correct, and was able to knock the ball past him and jump over his slide tackle. Now I had plenty of room in front of me, but was coming in from a tight angle. I had scored many goals like this as a kid and was very comfortable. As I carried the ball along the goal line, I started out to give myself a bit of a shooting angle. And just as the keeper came off his line, I slipped the ball between him and the near post. 2-2. I was exhausted.

I subbed myself off after my tying goal, which was probably a mistake as our attack didn't produce too many chances for the fifteen minutes I was on the bench. Once I got back in, with just over ten to go, we started to attack more. We saw two breakaways go unfinished, but my best chance came with just two minutes to play. I made a diagonal run through the defense to try to collect a pass from my teammate. Just as it was about to get through, a defender got a foot on it, sending the ball straight up. As it came down, I settled the ball to a small bounce and with plenty of space, I sent a shot towards the far post, missing by just a few feet. 

That was our last real scoring chance and the game came to an end shortly thereafter. We fought back from being down twice, but still felt like we left something on the table. We definitely should have scored the go ahead, but it wasn't to be. Our team looks much better than we did at the start of the season, but it appears to be too little, too late as we would have needed a win to have a chance at playoffs. Still one game to play, but it looks to be a consolation game. Here's to hoping we finish on a winning note!

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