Sarcasm with a side of optimism.

Goal #3

I scored again during this game against our rivals, the *other* individuals team. Yes, they are the *other* bunch of no-names, just like us. It was a late game starting at 10:40pm, but not the latest time slot of 11:30pm so we were thankful. We had our roster present minus one girl who skipped out due to blisters. (SUCK IT UP!) Dammit, she's a good player too... We managed to pick up Nigel's girlfriend Sarah, and she's good because she runs. She's athletic, which is a nice plus.

Nigel stuck around to watch which was a little nerve-wracking. He plays on our coed outdoor team and he and Craig are our best players. They've got a soccer kinship.

They scored the first goal by taking a shot from the kickoff as our goalie was putting her gloves on. It went right in. I guess she thought they wouldn't be assholes about it, but they were. We made up for it though, and by the half, we were tied 4-4.

I don't really know what happened, I just remember being very frustrated. I didn't have any breakaways. I had a few opportunities. I scored, and narrowed the gap to one, but my team didn't have enough in them to tie it in the last three minutes. I made a few mistakes, a few bad passes, but it happens.

We had a lot of opportunities. Our defense is decent. Our forwards suck. Don't come up to me and say, "Oh, I usually play on top, and I don't do defense. I suck at defense." The other one says, "Well, what I do is take it up the right line, then I'll pass to whoever is in the middle."

Except that never happens. And yes, while you're standing there up top cherry picking, how are you helping the rest of us when they're in OUR half, and it's now 5 on 4 thanks to you waiting for the miracle ball to magically come your way? And to the player who can only run up the right side and cross to the middle, um, I hate to say it but if that's all you can do, you're not a good player. The other team has figured you out already, and you are easy pickings.

And, to make matters worse, our "I-don't-do-defense" forward has to stop the ball, position herself, line up perfectly, then she'll finally take a shot. Um, this tactic does not work in realtime. So, it gets stolen from her, or the goalie simply takes it, and that's it. The play is over.

I made a mistake and told our "Take-it-up-the-right-side" forward to take a shot if she had the opportunity. Problem is, she's weak, and it rolls feebly straight into the goalie's open arms. The play is over. It was one wasted attack after another. I wanted to pull them both out and substitute them both with Sarah and I since we are much more aggressive.

Tracy tried her best, but the team is only as strong as its weakest players. And you've got trouble when you have no offense.

We lost. We need some new players with better attitudes.

posted by v @ 12:40 AM