Don't call it a comeback!

Last night's game was a good one. We were playing a team call Lions, which sounded familiar but I didn't really recognize any of the players. Saying we started out slow would be an understatement.

We had a good group of players and a solid keeper but we just weren't really playing soccer to start the game and found ourselves in a 4-0 hole at halftime. The best word to describe the first half is embarrassing. After an inspiring pep talk from Ace, we decided to come out and play like we usually do - with structure, passing and finishing. Although 4 goals is a lot to come back from, we were determined.

Out of the gates, we earned a few quick free kicks. No goals. Finally about 2 minutes into the half, we broke the ice. I don't remember how most of our goals were scored, but once that first one went in, we were in better shape. The score quickly started to tilt in our direction. They scored 1 goal in the first part of the half to our 7. With the score at 7-5, the game got interesting.

We went into a defensive shell, but still conceded another goal. 7-6 with about 2 minutes remaining. That's when tempers started rising. Their biggest punk had the ball at midfield and Ace went for an ambitious tackle, coming up with mostly leg. The punk retaliated but getting in Ace's face, calling him a "flop." When Ace stood up, he shoved him in the chest. Looking to get into the action I ran over to get in his face, and he shoved me. Then Rich came over and also got shoved. Red card. As the punk was backing towards his bench, he counted us out, "one, two, three, four...I'll take all of you!" Simultaneously, he held his hands above his head, forming a diamond with his hands signifying that all four of us are, indeed, pussies. 

The bickering went back and forth and another red card was shown to someone on their bench. Above five minutes later, the clock was reset to 1:14 and they had a free kick, down a man. We held on to our lead, almost adding to it toward the end.

Once the game ended, the punk who challenged four of us to a fight came over to apologize for his actions. Our keeper put it best, "It's funny how many people playing sports will shoot their mouths off and challenge the world to a fight. Those people would never act like that in a bar or in public."

Sadly, I am one of those people.

Return of the Bomber

Not on the field but in the blogging world. For whatever reason (and probably as no surprise to those who know me) I lost motivation to continue writing after each one of my games. Perhaps it was the 3 games per week, or maybe I just got lazy. Whatever it was, it's gone and I am, once again, ready to tell the tales of my soccer adventures.

Since we last spoke, there has been no shortage of action and drama. To keep it short, I will just say that: 1.) neither of my teams made it to the Finals, 2.) I "trampled" an opponent's face which nearly lead to my own broken leg/blown out knee, and 3.) in that same game, both benches cleared and a decent shoving match ensued.

Now that we're caught up, let us focus on last night's game - the first game of the new season for ANI Direct. Our opposition for the game was a new team, that called themselves Pie Cookers. Their oldest player was probably 20 years old and from the looks of them, they were going to be pretty bad. From that standpoint, they didn't disappoint. This one was never a game and we quickly jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Though I scored all 5 of those goals, 2 of them stand out to me. In both instances, we had free kicks from about 12-15 yards out. The keeper had an interesting strategy: "NO WALL!!" I didn't know what to make of this. Actually, I did. With no one in my way, and about 5 people standing on the goal line, I decided to kick the ball as hard as I possibly could. Turned out to work quite well as both shots ricocheted of several players (and one face) before finding themselves in the back of the net.

Halftime saw a score of 6-1, after Bryan added a late first half goal. In games like this, the intensity drops and the play suffers. This game was no different. Although we ended up winning 9-1, the second half wasn't pretty with a lot of individual efforts going unfinished, and a lot of ankles and shins getting hacked at. Fortunately, no tempers really got going and the game ended peacefully.

It's always nice to start off the session with an easy game to get everyone ready to go. We don't play the good teams for a couple more weeks so hopefully the other new teams provide us with more opportunities to tune up. The game that is metaphorically circled on the calendar is July 28th when we play Curb Stomp, the aforementioned team with which we cleared benches.

This season I will be chronicling ANI Direct (Wednesday nights) as well as Inferno II (Sunday outdoor) so make sure you stay tuned. It's good to be back.

-GB Bomber