Remember the controversial call that led to our exit from the Columbia Tournament this summer? Well, we got one back from the footballing gods on Saturday. What comes round, goes round.
Faced with a "must-win" game, our men's team pulled a rabbit out of the bag with a one nil win over "Brighton Our Day." The goal came in the 27th minute when we received a free kick about 25 yards out. Parham floated the ball to the far post, and their keeper caught it. His entire body was definitely inside the goal, and after our protest, the ref decided that the ball was in the goal as well.
From there on, we played solid defense and held them to nothing. Parham suggested that the whole defensive squad, including Robb, our keeper for the day, should be awarded "men of the match." I tend to agree. Chris and Matt were the usual "wall" in front of goal, but everyone who played on the defensive side of the pitch, Alex, Peter, Khalid, Robb, all contributed tremendously.
It was difficult to "get going" on the attack because their defenders were very speedy and particularly good at taking the ball away from our feet. Having said that, there were three brilliant moments on offense:
1) a nice cross from Carlos out of the right wing into the six-yard box, which nearly got Justin killed…but he also nearly scored
2) an outstanding cross from Matt Welch, also out of the ring wing, to the far post. If Amjad's subsequent header were just inches lower, we would have gone up two nil
3) Justin…excuse me…..Mumbles' one-on-one with the keeper, when he chipped the keeper, inches too high
It was a solid team effort, but I have a feeling that our best games are yet to come. It wasn't a particularly "pretty" game to watch, but the tenacious defending was certainly something to be admired.
The prettiest game to watch was of course the Arsenal victory over Man United Saturday morning. No Jack Daniels shots for me this year, watching the game in Carlos' basement with our morning coffee. But the buzz from the victory was better than anything Mr. John Daniels can offer. Samir Nasri for king. Hip hip, harrah!
Back to the blog for a second. Imi drove all the way from Ohio to play in Saturday's game, having campaigned in that battleground state for our new president. When he arrived, I didn't have time to explain to him our "Christmas tree formation." It dawned on me that this new blog maybe the best place to discuss tactics (yes, our opponents can read it, but honestly, do you expect that they will?). If anyone knows of a good drawing program for the Mac, please let me know.
I’ll leave you today with this: Matt, Carlos and I ran into one of our opponents from Saturday’s match at a Sunday pick-up game. If you could have seen the steam coming out of this man's ears! He was still pissed! He told Matt, on this beautiful, tranquil Sunday afternoon, when the leaves were falling and the bird chirping, that he should have been ejected from the game because of a particular poor tackle. What an incredibly sore loser! "Let it go! It's recreational footie for f*@k sake." Some people just take this way too seriously. Ha ha ha ha ha (why is everybody suddenly looking at me?)
Til next time….playas!
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Test Commet from Me! :-)
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