I figured out that the games we have been playing are part of a pre-season tournament. Yesterday was the semi-final match. Next week will be the final, and then the following week the real season will start which is about 20 games plus playoffs. I am struggling to score. I had three good chances, but each one failed to put all the details together to score a goal. Times are estimates.
85th minute I received a beautiful cross about 18 yards out on the right corner of the penalty box. I was open enough that it was effectively a 1v1, me v goalkeeper situation although I did not have time to beat the goalkeeper on the dribble because my defender was only about a meter behind me. I had been visualizing how I was going to score for the whole game, knowing that I had to finish my one chance. I was running at full speed and instead of trapping the ball, I was already looking up to see where I was going to place my shot, checking out if the keeper was coming out or miss-positioned to either side of the goal, so, screwed up the trap, ball bounced strait off my shin guard ruining my angle at goal, and making it a 50/50 challenge with the keeper. I beat him to the ball, but my flailing toe-poke nutmeg attempt failed. It was cool how I became so focused that everything went perfectly quite. Too bad I focused on the keeper before the trap.
100th minute sprinted all the way down the field to get involved in a counterattack, the ball was crossed, I judged the lofted flight perfectly, but my defender was playing the body and doing a good job boxing me out and I was unable to make one decisive move to get in front or get some separation from him. It ended up being a wrestling match and I did get my head on the ball but could not get any power or form into it as I was being wrestled to the ground. Of course I got called for the foul because they always give those to the defense.
115th minute our corner kick, misjudged the flight and overran slightly, too late to go back, so put every last ounce of energy into my vertical jump, and amazingly, got high enough, higher than the crossbar even, but was so surprised that my legs had gotten me there that I was not focused on directing the ball down and into the net. I was being undercut at the same time, but that was way down by my legs and should not have affected my head. Ball went over the crossbar.
In the first play of the game I was a little sluggish and missed a slide tackle, no real physical contact, but it looked like I was mean. This first play made it so the ref was watching me closely, so later on when I committed a professional foul at midfield to stop a counter attack I got my first yellow card. I got called for a lot of fouls, being lighter than and not as strong as our opponents, there was no way to hold my position on headers or when shielding the ball without using my arms, which, in soccer, is illegal.
The second most challenging part of the game was playing 120 minutes as a winger. That is something I have not done since I was 14. I was marked up against three different players, and by the end my legs were shaking any time I was not running, which was not a problem because I was always running. I did a good job getting back on defense, and normally getting in front of my man on offense, but today walking is difficult.
I was not put on the list of 5 penalty kick takers because no one has ever seen me take a penalty kick. We won the shootout thanks to our amazing goalkeeper who stopped two of their attempts. Not as satisfying as winning the real way, and frustrating that I could not finish any of my three perfect chances.
I really like my team, there is a fair amount of yelling on the field, but that's also part of the culture and most conversations are what people in the US would call "heated". Speaking of yelling, it's kind of nice not to understand what the crowd is saying about me. It takes no effort to ignore trash talk. On the contrary, it would take a conscious effort to understand it.
