Monday Morning Report: Nov 30

I hope everyone had an enjoyable, safe and healthy turkey day. The only unusual this year for me is that I was hammered during the feast and promptly passed out after the pecan pie. Texting some of you during the day, I know I was not alone in my delinquency. We are such a bunch of degenerates!

Saturday's indoor game was uneventful. We played a weak opponent, and initially played down to their level. Parham was a later arrival for us, and that seem to turn things around for the offense. We ended up winning 9-2. Being the generous people that we are, we scored both of their goals for them.

Continuing the discussion I started last week about TV replay for officiating football games, I actually spent Saturday night with Ben Nelson (visiting his parents from Boston), and we had an in depth debate about the topic over left-over turkey and potatoes. Because there are few stoppage in action in football, the most sticky issue is when, in the continuity of action, the manager can challenge the rulings.

If an offsides is missed and this results in a goal, it's very easy to see how a manager can challenge this non-call, and how simple it may be to reverse the goal. But flip the coin over. What if the striker is on-side during a goal-scoring chance, and the referee mistakenly stops the action and calls an offside? How does a manager challenge that call? What do you award the correct challenge?

The "continuity of action" causes even more problems. Let's say an offsides call was missed. As I stated above, the challenge is easy if this results in a goal. But what if it only gives the attacking team a vague advantage? Say the offsides striker who eluded the referee shoots the ball. What if the ball is saved by a diving keeper, but the rebound ricochets to another attacker who was well-onsides during this sequence. And let's say that the second attacker takes advantage of the out-of-position keeper, and scores. Should that goal be challengable since the attacking "sequence" started with a missed offsides? How far can you take this? What if the goal results after 5, 10 passes following the missed offsides?

Another problematic example. If a striker handles the ball in the box, and the missed call results in a goal, it's easy to challenge and nullify the goal. This is Thierry Henry v. Ireland example. But what if a defender's handball in the box is missed, and the ball is cleared after another 5, 10 bounces, and then a counter-attack is started. Let's make it even harder. Let's say that the counter-attack results in a goal on the other end. When can the manager challenge the defender's handball missed by the ref? It should have been a PK! In this scenario, there's no stoppage in action until the goal on the other end. Is that goal then nullified because the attacking sequence started 2 minutes ago with a missed handball in the other box?

TV replay may be inevitable in football, but I'm glad there are some smart people working on its implementation.

Monday Morning Report: Nov 23

• indoor report
• video review at FIFA world cup
• annual "biggest turkey" award
• another new baby

Lots to talk about, so let's start with the indoor game we played on Saturday. We are a very good co-ed indoor team, but season after season, the team "del Ray" gives us problems. This is the team that got Carlos and Luis ejected. They were the team we played in February for the championship (which we won). I think they play year-round indoors, and they do not lose a lot of games.

On Saturday, we played well against them once again. Our defense was well-organized and the offense capitalized on the chances that we created. We won the game 3-2, but we are expecting strong challenges from them when we play them again. If we continue to play as organized as we did in the first half on Saturday, we may well be un-defeatable this season (there, I've said it).

Have y'all been following the controversial game played last week between France and Ireland? If not, here's a brief re-cap. The 2 national teams had to play a 2-leg playoff for a berth at the World Cup in June. For these 2 nations with strong footballing traditions, this is a huge deal. France won the 1st leg 1-0 on an away goal, and Ireland scored in Paris in the 1st half of the return leg. The second-half in Paris was one of the most exciting 45 minutes of football I've watched. The stakes were so high.

The half was scoreless, so they went into OT. In the 1st half of OT was when the major controversial goal happened. France had free kick. When the ball was struck, Thierry Henry was offsides. No call. The ball landed near him, and he handled the ball to make it stay inbound, and then flicked it to Gallas, who headed it into the net. The ref gave the goal.

Henry didn't celebrate the goal. All 11 Irish players rushed the ref and protested. Nevertheless, the goal stood and France went through. So, the great questions were:

• Did FIFA pay off the refs to let France through because...hey....it's France man!
• Should Henry was condemned as a cheat?
• Should FIFA grant the FAI (Irish federation) the request to re-play the game?
• Should there be instant replay in football?

The world press has been all over these topics all last week. My friends have been bombarding me personally because Henry was formerly Arsenal and my idol. He admitted to the Irish players immediately after the game that it was handball, but didn't ask the refs to nullify the goal. The bottom line is, it's the ref's fault for not calling the handball and offsides. If any of you want to fault Henry, ask yourself what you would do if you scored a controversial goal. Here's what Arseblogger wrote last week:

And caught in the barrage is Thierry Henry who was wrong and who cheated but did nothing that footballers don't do in every game. He sought an advantage by breaking the rules and that happens every week from claiming throw ins which aren't yours, making fouls, pulling jerseys, diving and countless other actions intended to put yourself in a position to win the game. Not all of them are pretty, some of them more costly than others, but what's great about football is shit happens to you one week, it happens to someone else the next. Ireland got the shitty end of the stick this time but not many Ireland fans complained when we got a penalty in Georgia which wasn't a penalty.

And there's the rub. Everyone "cheats" to varying degrees to gain an advantage. I'd freely admit that when a big opponent so much as nudges me, I go flying off to claim the foul. Worked well on Saturday! You get the calls sometimes, and at others, your opponents do. It all evens out.

As to instant replay, I think it's inevitable. As Arsene Wenger said, you can't have everyone at home (in the world) seeing that there's a problem, and have the refs be the only three people blinded to that information. The application of the technology must be well thought out, however. Its implementation in June in South Africa is unrealistic.

As to the FAI and the Irish government (!) petitioning for a re-play of the game, taking it as far as President Nicolas Sarkozy, well, that's just ridiculous.

OK, it's turkey week, so it's time for the annual "biggest turkey" award. As you may recall, last year, it went to George. Let's not re-live the reason. This year, there are several candidates, what with all the red cards and IHOP moments. But we decided to give it to the planners of the Cherry Blossom Tournament. No, the rain out/cancellations (X2 !!!) were not their fault per se, but their pre-tournament bravado ("we'll play with 1" of standing water....don't worry...") is what earned them the award. Good grief. That cost us a great deal of headache, not to mention a forfeited men's team game!

Finally, we have another addition to the ACDC family. Graeme Ramshaw, and wife Mandi, had their little girl, Ela, on Saturday morning in Brighton UK. Everyone is healthy and happy. Please send them your love, and look at the facebook pictures. Gee, what is up with all these new dads in AC D.C.?

There's another indoor game coming our way next Saturday. For those playing, please be considerate to your teammates and EEEEE-zee on the turkey on Thursday, huh? Most of you will be gathering with family this week. I'm driving down to N.C. on Wednesday. Please be safe and cherish your time with loved ones. Happy Thanksgiving, folks!

Novemberfest explained: behind the scenes

The boys' team gathered on a November evening to remember a hard-fought season. Oh, yeah, there might have been some beer and brats as well. The heavily-sanitized pictures are posted on the left. I wish I could show you the rest, and the very funny movie of Luis, but since public careers are involved, I'll have to show you in private.

The back story is this. We had reserved a keg of Spaten (Munich) for the event, but neither we, nor the market that sold it to us, knew that a special tap had to be obtained for this imported keg. After getting the keg home at around 4pm using Carlos' vehicle, Matt and I had to rush back out (while Jeffy stayed at my house to deal with the food) to drive all over Northern Virginia to find this special tap. We brought the keg with us on ice and had to drive it from store to store to see whether the taps they had would fit. OMG!!

By the time we got back to the house with special tap in hand, the party had started, and I went from stressed to calm back to stress again, as a dozen or so hungry men gathered expecting bratwurst and brotchen. I found my "calming medicine" in the liter steins of Spaten, straight from its specially-tapped keg (look at the first picture). And because of the stress of the afternoon described above, I might have overdid it a bit. After 2-and-a-half of those liter mugs, and a couple of large gulps from the boot (see photo with George), I don't remember much of the evening. Looking at the pictures, I remember perhaps half....up to the end of the "awards ceremony."

According to reliable sources, I was having conversations in which I was apparently coherent, but completely confabulating. And the evening ended with Matthew cleaning my bathroom rug. Anyway....

Thanks to Matt and George for cleaning after me, to Carlos for lending his car/table/chairs, to Jeffy for handling most of the food, to Luis for being incredible with the boot, and to everyone who came to share the evening and the fall season. I apologize to anyone to whom I might have said any number of things at the end of the evening. Apparently, I might have looked coherent. I was not. Cheers!

Monday Morning Report: Nov 16

February seems like a long time ago, but AC D.C. started defense of our Feb '09 indoor title this past Saturday. We faced a familiar opponent in Little Urban Achievers. Our usual tardiness reared its ugly head again and we started the game with 4 women (we need at least two of each gender) and 2 men. Captain George and I defended while our ladies dominated their much more physical men. We won the game comfortably 5-2. I have to single out George for this game, cuz he was outstanding in goal. Guess that's why he's wearing the armband for indoors.

Sunday was a bit of a let-down. Our co-ed squad seems to be in a funk right now, with yet another 1-0 loss. We were flat and looked tired. Not much to add to that, except to mention a policy issue. If you are invited to play any game, that means we want you to play. If you cannot, please tell us. It's very simple. That way, we can move on to pull others onto the roster. If you don't reply, we have to assume that you haven't seen the roster request. And so we wait and we wait. If you end up declining, or not showing up, we'll have very little chance to ask others to play.

To end the report in a funnier note, watch the video here. This was posted to facebook by Eleonor. It reminded both of us of Jeff Cruz....to a tee. If you ever wonder why I pull out my hair dealing with the man.....

Have a jolly week, everyone

Monday Morning Report: Nov 9

Though I have to begin with sad news, I promise you that this note will end on a happy one. The weekend started poorly and ended worse. In life, one cannot control a lot of factors: how much talent one has, what the weather is, or what kind of people one’s parents are. The conditions of success that are under one’s control, one must maximize: effort, preparedness and organization. If AC D.C. can’t prepare well enough to arrive at games on time, then we do not deserve to win.

For the last men's game of the season with major impact on our playoff status and win/lose record, we started with 8 players. As expected, the first half was unfocussed as half of the team warmed up during play. Our defense held, but our offensive was uneven and toothless. The second was much of the same, as our defenders fatigued, but our attackers only generated shots that even Stevie Wonder can save. I counted one shot across the goal-mouth that went nowhere and at least three directly into the keeper’s hands.

The resultant one-nil loss to Express ended our enigmatic season, in which we started by beating all the strong teams in the first half, and produced lukewarm results against the weaker teams in the second part. Our record of 3-2-3 earned us 12 points (out of 24 possible), more than previous seasons, but gets us no better than mid-table.

Sunday was worse in a way. I think the effort was better; we fought tooth and nail. But it's apparent that our men are tired, after Saturday's game, and after a 10-week season on Saturdays. We ran into a very well-organized UMFC and lost by a bunch. 'Nuf said.

Out of all this, how could there be happy news, you ask? Well, remember the players who were late for the men's game? The reason why they were late was that they were held up by our captain. When I called Jeff out on this, he uncharacteristically admitted his fault and apologized.

(pause for contemplation)

I KNOW!

He didn't fight me or even argue. He took the moral high ground and apologized to the team as well. WOW. He followed that by being the first to the pitch on Sunday (he even beat me to it!). He's also wearing his helmet while biking, picking up his phone when I call, responding to emails on the weekend, and helping me plan a social event. Personality transplant? Or perhaps, after 6 full years of nagging him to be a better person, I have finally succeeded! He wouldn't let me have that victory, would he? If I can nag Jeff into being a better person, who should I work on next? (I have candidates in mind!!!)

To end, let's agree that our men's team needs re-evaluation. We clearly have the youth and talent to compete as the first half of the season demonstrated. Is it complacency at the end or fatigue? If we want to do better next spring, I think people will have to take things a bit more seriously. Get to the pitch on time, arrange your rides efficiently, stay home Friday nights....all of that will help....if you want to win, that is.

Congratulations to...

As some of you already know, Robb is a new father! The happy event was on Thursday evening, and boy and mom are both healthy. Congratulations, Robb! For pictures of the happy family, go to Robb's facebook page. Also, Imi got engaged last week, so congratulations to him as well.

Monday Morning Report Mens: November 2- Beyond the abyss and back

Another rainy day game, with a wet quick field, against a team which we've had run ins with the past (ask Brian or Alex about their injuries against this squad). We started out strong, controlling the game and putting on pressure, but were unable to score. And unfortunately, we paid the price for not capitalizing on our early opportunities and conceded two goals in the first half from quick counters.

In the second half, we again conceded a goal from a fast forward pushing our line when our offsides trap was beaten. But we didn't give up and battled back, even down 3 with under 20 minutes left. Paul got our first goal and then two strikes from Mumbles at the very end left us tied.

All in all, I think we all had mixed reactions at this game. On one hand, we largely controlled the game and it was encouraging that we kept fighting and were able to comeback even from a three goal deficit. I think everyone agrees that if we had 5 more minutes, we could have scored a go ahead goal.

But we didn't have an extra 5 minutes, and there were several areas for us to improve on. First, we need to play with more urgency at the beginning of games, especially when the other team has players trickling in. Second, we need improve our defense. We have to have everyone working as a unit, so that outside defenders are either pulling attackers offside or slotting in the center and dropping as a back up to the other defenders.

Our next game will against my old team, so lets come out and play like we did in the last 20 minutes of Saturday. Vae Vicits!

Monday Morning Report Co-Ed: November 2 - Boogie tops ACDC

The weather on Sunday post Halloween was run-of-the-mill for the last few weekends; cold & spitting rain as ACDC faced off with one of the better teams in our co-ed bracket. The opposition started with as few as 7 or 8 players and ACDC started out of the gate gittery and finding it diffuclt to have cool, calm, and collected passing. ACDC had a couple shots on goal but not the amount of shots (nor the quality) that one would expect with a 3 or 4 man advantage. Give credit to the other team who had outstanding female players and a couple players with menacing physical presence and speed.

Scoreless at the end of the first half, the second half started (now they were able to field a full team) and they began assualt the goal. Anna played lights out and really has some of the most remarkable saves I’ve seen in a while. Our opposition ended up putting one in that gave us a stronger sense of urgency.

With 20 minutes to play we started our more attacking minded approach to try to get an equalizer. At one point late in the 2nd half, we had 6 or 7 corner kicks in a row and were not able to convert. Walter had a perfect strike on frame…. and had the opposition’s keeper extended completely horizontally to deny the penguin’s strike. (It’s really too bad, it was a beautiful strike). With only a fraction of a minute on the clock, Mumbles did what his sweaty body enabled him to do, slip and slide right through two defenders finding himself alone with the keeper…then tucking the ball just wide. Final result was a 1-0 loss.

Thinking back on the game (and I hate losing, especially to guys who went to VT and played soccer with me) it was great competition. They challenged us and played well. We didn’t particularly play poorly…at least I think…it was good soccer and a win that just eluded us.

Next week we face another strong opponent who we lost to in the opening game of the season (it was a crock if you ask me) and we have a chance for redemption. It’s an early morning game and I’d love for people to bring their “A” game and not hung-over..

Manager's comments: Nov 2

I had wanted to show you a very funny picture this week. But our playing on the weekend was as miserable as the weather. And on top of that, I was on duty the whole time and couldn't drown my sorrow in booze. So, I'll save the funny stuff for later. Instead I've posted my picture of misery. This was right after my ankle was reconstructed. I was at work in a wheelchair and operated in that condition. I blame all my athletic short-comings to that injury, so the next time I miss a shot, remember this miserable picture!

Something must be said about our defensive woes this weekend. We have always had trouble defending against speedy strikers. I hope we can learn from this weekend, and do better in the future.

First: Change the system

We play a "flat back 4" for many reasons, but when met with a speedy striker, the back line must adjust to add depth to the central defense. In other words, we have to move to a pseudo-sweeper-stopper system. This allows the chance for the "first defender" to impede the striker, and the sweeper to catch up and be the last line of defense.

Second: outsider defenders go outside

When the outsider defender is marking the speedy striker, he/she must not allow the striker to gain the "inside." If you keep the striker outside, all he can do is move towards the corner, where his cross can be neutralized. If you allow him the inside, he can go to goal....and did.

Third: the offside trap

An occasional offside trap is a great tool against fast strikers. The line is set by the central defenders and the outside defenders must be ultra-vigilant not to play the attacker on-side. If you are playing outside, watch where the line is set and whether the attacker is drifting. Step up if you are playing him on-side, as you anticipate the through-pass to come to him.

Finally, this is the second week in a row in which our defenders saw opportunities to win the ball, pushed forward, failed, and left the defensive third completely naked. Please note that if you are making a high-risk move like that, you must get the ball! An analogy from American football. If the corner-back goes for glory, and tries to make that interception that'll take him to the opposite end-zone, he has to get the ball. If he fails and the receiver ends up with the pass, the path to his own end-zone is naked. When the score is 0-0, those risks may not be worth taking.

Ok, talk of dreadful defending, here is a must-watch. This is how a captain should lead and how a #4 should score. Wish we had a #4 like that! (Just kiddin'.....hee hee.....there's only one team that has him.)

Moving Forward

Although we should never had gone down three goals on Saturday, the "fight" that took us all the way back to equalize is very encouraging. As Justin mentioned last week, in seasons past, we would have folded. Now, we are fighting until the last whistle. This happened again on Sunday, but we came just short. Keep fighting.

To end, I'll give you a funny story.

For the second game in a row against "Little Urban Achievers," Alex bled for AC D.C. This time, the man who hurt our diminutive defender is someone we know. His name is Emiliano and he's from Arghhhhentina. Once in a while, several of us would play pick-up on Saturdays, and he would be present. On such an occasion about a year-and-a-half ago, Emiliano was awful. With every kick of the ball, he would shank it here and there. Near the end, he said, "I have to go. I have a doctor's appointment." And without dropping a beat, Carlos replied, "Oh right, the soccer clinic closes in 5 minutes!" Poor Carlos. He didn't mean to put him down that far. But it was hilarious! The players laughed so hard, we had to stop play for a good while.

Anyway, I'm ready to come "off-duty" and for the miserable weather to pass. Let's hope for a better weekend in 6 days.