Sometimes you’re the hammer, and other times you are the nail. Well, last night, the team I played for was the nail. Last night I jumped in with DRSL team DC United in the 35+ men’s 7v7 league. The cool thing is that in this league they wave the age restriction for keepers. I guess we are in short supply.
Well, it just so happens that my very first game with this squad was against the #1 ranked team in the league, Vintage East. Right away you could see why. They had a full bench and tons of subs. I had even heard a few players chatting after the game saying they had even sat some players while their better players were allowed to play. Going in I knew the league was competitive, but this was some deep water stuff. Nonetheless, I jumped in with both feet. Surprisingly, I held my own for the first half.
The first half, I saw a lot of shots from outside the box. For me, this is my comfort zone. Any sort of shot I can even somewhat see, I will be able to get my hands on. That much I know and Vintage East played right into my strength, for the most part. I made several saves early in the first half, even getting my hand on a few deflections and blocking some centering attempts. Yet all was not easy going. They were able to score 3 in the first half. One goal came off a good screen. I didn’t even see the ball until it was soaring into the net. The other two were beautiful passing plays, one of which was skillfully passed by me as I charged toward the shooter.
Luck was not on our side either. We had three shots in the first half ring off the posts, including a blazing rocket that hit the crossbar and ended up soaring high over the backing safety net. We couldn’t buy a goal in the first half, and as we were making them work hard for their goals, the intensity rose.
Unfortunately, it was all downhill come the second half. Right away it was apparent that the lack of subs for our side was going to be an issue. The legs simply fell off and my teammates could make good runs forward, but had no legs to hop back on defence. Furthermore, to make things worse, the one defender who always made sure to be back got injured on a run upfield. We now had no subs on our side and an already tired team. This spelt trouble. From here I faced my kryptonite, 2 on 1’s and 2 on 0’s. I’ve come to learn very quickly that as a goalkeeper, you tend to make the wrong decision concerning these scenarios 75% of the time, and tonight was no different. Every time I would charge the player with the ball, he had a teammate to pass to and consequentially, an entire empty net to deposit the ball in. On the flip side, the next rush, I would hang back and try to play the pass and shot at the same time, and make myself big and that didn’t work either as the shooter would easily pick a corner and score. Six more goals sailed passed me this half, and I began to appreciate the role of good defensemen. I’m not saying the defence were bad, but simply tired. The first half we hung in there, and my defence played a huge role in that. But fatigue took its toll on them.
We did manage to score 3 goals though in that second half. More than recent opposition has done. But all in all, it was a tick in the “L” column tonight. I spoke to a few teammates after the game who tried to tell me there was nothing I could do, but it’s a team game and we lost together. The most I can do is get back on the pitch and keep practicing and hope for the best next game. It looks like the next game I play will be back with DC United as there is a break this upcoming week in terms of school soccer. It also looks like DC United doesn’t get a break and will be playing the #2 ranked team. It should be interesting….
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