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Thursday, July 15, 2004
I'm still buzzed. We won!!!
This season, after two years of following football on TV, I decided to play soccer again here. I signed up for the math team, which competed in the C division of the rec league at UW. I figured hours of watching football could only improve my mediocre play (I played in house leagues at the usual ages). What position would I play though? I played defense in house league, but wanted something different. I missed our first game (being in Ottawa), but played right back in the second game. I got a taste for going forward, and my second game played right wing. Half-way through the game, Colin harassed one of their defenders into giving up the ball in the middle of their 18-yard box, but fell down doing so. I jumped on the opportunity, stretched out, and toed the ball into the bottom right corner. I was pumped. I'd never scored in all my years of soccer, and while this wasn't really the prettiest goal, at least I'd scored.
The next game was even better. I got our first game in similar fashion - a save by the opposition goalkeeper, I jumped on the ball, shot it into the bottom left. In the second half, I got a great through pass from Cai, ran forward, then shot it into the top right corner. I had gone from no goals ever to 3 goals in 2 games. Awesome!
I missed our fifth game, being in Halifax, then played so-so in our sixth game. We finished the (short) regular season 4-2. We got seeded 6th. For having good sportsmanship, we got a bonus exihibition game, which we also won. Then it was to the playoffs. What a crazy three games. The quarter-finals we tied 0-0, then won in the penalty shootout. Then semi-finals we tied 0-0, then won in the penalty shootout.
These two playoff games were frustrating on one hand, but impressive in another respect. Frustrating because our offense was seemingly dead, but impressive because our defense had now had three shutouts in a row, and 4 in the past 5 games. Personally, I was extremely dissapointed in my own performances in those three games. Besides not being very productive, I simply didn't seem to have any desire to win. Maybe it was the humidity and smog - horrible in this city, which gets all the crap from Sudbury, Toronto, and Detroit. But still, that wasn't an excuse. I should play better.
All day today I've been telling myself, even if I didn't have the technical skill, I was at least going to play with a desire to win. The day dawned wet and cold, which I felt was great - much easier to run in 20 degree weather than 35 degree weather. Amazingly, the other team only showed up with nine people - surprising as it was the final, and last game they had 15 people. Because of our personnel, I would be playing striker/attacking midfielder this game. All through regulation we had many, many chances - they had almost none. But again, we couldn't score. Being the final, the game went into extra time (2 halves of 5 minutes) with the golden-goal rule. With little time left in the first half, Roumen cleared the ball from our half. Up it went, and took a bounce towards their goaltender. And just as I had done all game, I run towards him. All game he had held onto the wet ball very well. This time, though, it went through his hands. He turned around, twisted, and punched it. It landed in front of the line, I run in, headed it down and into the net. We had won!!!!!
I'm pretty proud of my goal, even though it was pretty much a cheap a goal as one can score. Even though it was cheap, the only reason I was at the goalkeeper in the first place was because I had been determined to challenge every ball, especially in these wet conditions. Even though tired, and even though the goalkeeper had held every single ball he had got all game, I still ran at him, and this time, I got rewarded. Yay!!
I'm being too much about me though. We came together well as a team, especially considering most of us hadn't played together before. We had some excellent players, and a good system was formed (unlike most other teams, we played with 5 defenders). And yay Colin for organizing everything. Hooray!
This season, after two years of following football on TV, I decided to play soccer again here. I signed up for the math team, which competed in the C division of the rec league at UW. I figured hours of watching football could only improve my mediocre play (I played in house leagues at the usual ages). What position would I play though? I played defense in house league, but wanted something different. I missed our first game (being in Ottawa), but played right back in the second game. I got a taste for going forward, and my second game played right wing. Half-way through the game, Colin harassed one of their defenders into giving up the ball in the middle of their 18-yard box, but fell down doing so. I jumped on the opportunity, stretched out, and toed the ball into the bottom right corner. I was pumped. I'd never scored in all my years of soccer, and while this wasn't really the prettiest goal, at least I'd scored.
The next game was even better. I got our first game in similar fashion - a save by the opposition goalkeeper, I jumped on the ball, shot it into the bottom left. In the second half, I got a great through pass from Cai, ran forward, then shot it into the top right corner. I had gone from no goals ever to 3 goals in 2 games. Awesome!
I missed our fifth game, being in Halifax, then played so-so in our sixth game. We finished the (short) regular season 4-2. We got seeded 6th. For having good sportsmanship, we got a bonus exihibition game, which we also won. Then it was to the playoffs. What a crazy three games. The quarter-finals we tied 0-0, then won in the penalty shootout. Then semi-finals we tied 0-0, then won in the penalty shootout.
These two playoff games were frustrating on one hand, but impressive in another respect. Frustrating because our offense was seemingly dead, but impressive because our defense had now had three shutouts in a row, and 4 in the past 5 games. Personally, I was extremely dissapointed in my own performances in those three games. Besides not being very productive, I simply didn't seem to have any desire to win. Maybe it was the humidity and smog - horrible in this city, which gets all the crap from Sudbury, Toronto, and Detroit. But still, that wasn't an excuse. I should play better.
All day today I've been telling myself, even if I didn't have the technical skill, I was at least going to play with a desire to win. The day dawned wet and cold, which I felt was great - much easier to run in 20 degree weather than 35 degree weather. Amazingly, the other team only showed up with nine people - surprising as it was the final, and last game they had 15 people. Because of our personnel, I would be playing striker/attacking midfielder this game. All through regulation we had many, many chances - they had almost none. But again, we couldn't score. Being the final, the game went into extra time (2 halves of 5 minutes) with the golden-goal rule. With little time left in the first half, Roumen cleared the ball from our half. Up it went, and took a bounce towards their goaltender. And just as I had done all game, I run towards him. All game he had held onto the wet ball very well. This time, though, it went through his hands. He turned around, twisted, and punched it. It landed in front of the line, I run in, headed it down and into the net. We had won!!!!!
I'm pretty proud of my goal, even though it was pretty much a cheap a goal as one can score. Even though it was cheap, the only reason I was at the goalkeeper in the first place was because I had been determined to challenge every ball, especially in these wet conditions. Even though tired, and even though the goalkeeper had held every single ball he had got all game, I still ran at him, and this time, I got rewarded. Yay!!
I'm being too much about me though. We came together well as a team, especially considering most of us hadn't played together before. We had some excellent players, and a good system was formed (unlike most other teams, we played with 5 defenders). And yay Colin for organizing everything. Hooray!
