First of all, how’d you like the new-look banner, huh? Not to shabby, eh? Please sign up for the RSS feed for this blog. I only have one “follower” right now, and that’s kind of pathetic.
I’ve already talked about Saturday…sort of….so we’ll talk Sunday now. On a freezing Sunday morning, the co-ed squad faced the Red Devils. Sheesh, another team taking after Man United! We jumped on them for an early 3 nil lead, thanks to goals from Morgan, Khalid and Paul, and went into the interval with that score.
The second half was quite a bit more nervy. They came at us with their tall and speedy strikers, and even though Robb was his usual self, being the “wall” in front of goal, we still conceded two goals to them. The second one was particularly egregiously, as the ball bounced straight over my head at left-back, right into the path of their speedy striker. I have given myself ten lashes for that error.
Fortunately, after that, we settled down and ran out the clock. We could have been a lot more patient in the second half, using up the minutes much better, but all-in-all, it was a scrappy win…the sort of victory that we have to bag if we are to contend for the championship….in the deep snow of February! The final score on Sunday was 3-2.
Several of you made a point this weekend which I want to emphasize here with a story from, guess who….Arsenal.
On Saturday, something happened at the Emirates Stadium, which I never thought would happen in professional football: a manager pulled a player off the pitch as the crowd was about to riot, calling for his head. Nasir went down with an injury in the first half, and Wenger replaced him with Emmanuel Eboue. Now, if you haven’t heard me talk about Eboue before, you should know that I think of him no differently from most Arsenal fans: that he’s a good-for-nothing c*#thound who should be shining boots, not playing, at Arsenal.
Whether it’s because of his own injury/recent recovery, or whether it’s from the really putrid sukiyaki wifey fed him the night before, Eboue came out even more awful than usual. He gave the ball away to the other team at least 5-6 times….and I mean directly to them. The last one, the one that caused the stadium to riot, was the worst. He ran into the path of his own teammate, took the ball, and poked it to the opponent. As he was substituted by the manager to avoid a stampede onto the pitch by the rabid fans, the commentators lamented the poor behavior of the Arsenal supporters.
Now, AC D.C. doesn’t usually have fans in the bleachers. And as much as I would ask you to join me in calling for Eboue’s testicles whenever he’s on the pitch, my point is that we have to behave in the opposite way when AC D.C. is playing. We have to be positive with each other.
That’s the point that Khalid made at halftime on Saturday, that some of you reiterated after the game, and I want to emphasize here. We are not paid any money to perform on the pitch. Playing footie is not our job. We play because of our passion for the game, and we play to the best of our ability and for each other. Now, if a teammate is lazy and not work hard enough for the team, then by all means, make your point emphatically. But being negative towards an AC D.C. teammate under any other circumstances is counter-productive. It will only erode the teammate’s confidence and harm the squad’s morale. If you have alternative ways to make the play, encourage your teammate to do so in a positive way, like “Opus, put a foot to that ball next time” or “Opus, grow 5” and head the ball out!”
The alternative of “Opus, what the f@#k were you thinking letting that ball bounce over your head” would not be the “preferred” way of communicating on AC D.C. These examples are, of course, theoretical. :)
OK, until next episode, boys and ladies.
I’ve already talked about Saturday…sort of….so we’ll talk Sunday now. On a freezing Sunday morning, the co-ed squad faced the Red Devils. Sheesh, another team taking after Man United! We jumped on them for an early 3 nil lead, thanks to goals from Morgan, Khalid and Paul, and went into the interval with that score.
The second half was quite a bit more nervy. They came at us with their tall and speedy strikers, and even though Robb was his usual self, being the “wall” in front of goal, we still conceded two goals to them. The second one was particularly egregiously, as the ball bounced straight over my head at left-back, right into the path of their speedy striker. I have given myself ten lashes for that error.
Fortunately, after that, we settled down and ran out the clock. We could have been a lot more patient in the second half, using up the minutes much better, but all-in-all, it was a scrappy win…the sort of victory that we have to bag if we are to contend for the championship….in the deep snow of February! The final score on Sunday was 3-2.
Several of you made a point this weekend which I want to emphasize here with a story from, guess who….Arsenal.
On Saturday, something happened at the Emirates Stadium, which I never thought would happen in professional football: a manager pulled a player off the pitch as the crowd was about to riot, calling for his head. Nasir went down with an injury in the first half, and Wenger replaced him with Emmanuel Eboue. Now, if you haven’t heard me talk about Eboue before, you should know that I think of him no differently from most Arsenal fans: that he’s a good-for-nothing c*#thound who should be shining boots, not playing, at Arsenal.
Whether it’s because of his own injury/recent recovery, or whether it’s from the really putrid sukiyaki wifey fed him the night before, Eboue came out even more awful than usual. He gave the ball away to the other team at least 5-6 times….and I mean directly to them. The last one, the one that caused the stadium to riot, was the worst. He ran into the path of his own teammate, took the ball, and poked it to the opponent. As he was substituted by the manager to avoid a stampede onto the pitch by the rabid fans, the commentators lamented the poor behavior of the Arsenal supporters.
Now, AC D.C. doesn’t usually have fans in the bleachers. And as much as I would ask you to join me in calling for Eboue’s testicles whenever he’s on the pitch, my point is that we have to behave in the opposite way when AC D.C. is playing. We have to be positive with each other.
That’s the point that Khalid made at halftime on Saturday, that some of you reiterated after the game, and I want to emphasize here. We are not paid any money to perform on the pitch. Playing footie is not our job. We play because of our passion for the game, and we play to the best of our ability and for each other. Now, if a teammate is lazy and not work hard enough for the team, then by all means, make your point emphatically. But being negative towards an AC D.C. teammate under any other circumstances is counter-productive. It will only erode the teammate’s confidence and harm the squad’s morale. If you have alternative ways to make the play, encourage your teammate to do so in a positive way, like “Opus, put a foot to that ball next time” or “Opus, grow 5” and head the ball out!”
The alternative of “Opus, what the f@#k were you thinking letting that ball bounce over your head” would not be the “preferred” way of communicating on AC D.C. These examples are, of course, theoretical. :)
OK, until next episode, boys and ladies.
No comments:
Post a Comment