SimpleWeblog

Soccer: Win (6-5)

Check that out, a win! We went out to an early lead, like 3-0 or 4-0, although none of our finishes were very pretty, we dominated possession and the defense was solid. They started making runs, though, and my got got the ball, made a break, I caught up and had good position on him and he got a shot off and it was beautiful, hooking in right under the crossbar. Oh well - not much more I could have done, although I still felt bad about it. They had another really nice shot to make it close, and then we got called for a penalty. Mark actually saved the kick, but the ref called one of our people for moving inside the box too early and let them retake it. Later they said they were actually pushed, and there was no line there, so the call was pretty bogus. We didn't get any good calls all day. So they took the shot again and got it. Mark had a really solid game in goal, though, which was nice. In the second half they only scored twice, and one Mark almost stopped, getting it right behind the line.

My excitement, though, was receiving my first ever yellow card. They got a pass through, I was catching up and trying to get position when our feet tangled up and he went down, just outside the box. Since I was the last defender on the play I got the card, which the ref said was a gift because it is supposed to be red if the last defender fouls someone on a breakaway, but since he saw no intent he made it be yellow. Well, I guess it could have been reckless, but it certainly was not intentional. And the guy later on apologized for his yelling after going down, which was very nice. But they didn't get the goal on the free kick, so I guess it worked out ok in the end. I am not used to actually knocking other people down, since usually I am the one that gets pushed out of the way.

I finally subbed back in as a midfielder, but didn't see much of the ball until I went for a loose ball in their penalty box and got hammered by a defender who was also charging in. I managed to stay up but he went down. Maybe if I had gone down we would have gotten a call, but I usually try to stay on my feet as much as possible. I'm not sure how he got banged up more than me, though, since he was much bigger than me, and I felt it all through my chest and my left knee hit something hard.

But we won! Which felt nice. We just need to keep this up, and maybe try to allow even fewer goals to make it a little easier.