Soccer (Football) Report

It’s that time of week again, time for the Thursday night soccer report. We had a 9:47 game against a new team in the league from Vernona. They skipped the first season. We played with only 2 substitutes tonight since Jamie couldn’t make it and neither could Rolfie.

The game started off fine but it didn’t last that way for long. Five minutes into the game Tony got tackled, and no, I do not mean slide tackled. He took a pass on the left wing and sent it down the side towards Wes. After he release the ball a player from Verona literally two arm tackled him and sent him to the turf. He had already tripped Tony and pushed him and was on his way to a red card. Before the ref could pull a card out Tony let his temper get the best of him. He went after the other player and raised his arms. Wes separated them but it was too late. The ref gave their player a yellow card (2 minute penalty – you play a man down) and Tony got a red which meant we would play the rest of the night with only 6 field players. If Tony hadn’t gone after the other guy he probably would have had red instead of a yellow. We ribbed Tony the rest of the night since it was the quickest we had ever seen him sent to the bench and it’s usually Buyar we have to worry about.

We made the most of our two minutes of even play and Wes had a nice shot into the corner of the net for our first goal. Verona was a new team and they played like it. They were a man up on us for 38 minutes and you would never know it. They played on their heels and never really utilized their extra man. They didn’t push the attack and even though we were playing with one forward we dominated the game.

Wes scored his second goal of the night about 19 minutes in but we refused to relax. We were mostly solid on defense and managed to stay with short passes most of the night. Irish Frank wins the distinction of the man who couldn’t find the back of the net if he was standing 3 inches in front of it with no keeper. Wes set him up with a pass right in front, maybe 6 feet out with just him and the keeper, what’s Frank do? He shoots it right at the keeper. Wes, being the kind soul that he is does it a second time with the same result. In total, Frank had at least 5 clear shots in front of the net and you would think he was playing pass back with the keeper.

Nick had a nice shot from about 20 feet out – forced the keeper to actually make a save. I think he and Frank switched places since Frank put the ball into the head of one of the unsuspecting opposing players. In all almost every person on the team had a shot and missed the net or put it right into the keeper. Wes actually jammed the keeper’s hand on one shot. Not that it mattered but Wes finished off his hat trick about 30 minutes into the game, the man is a shark . Buyar tried to get into the act and put the ball in the net but it was on an indirect free kick and no one touched so it certainly didn’t count.

I must say I felt good tonight. I was fully recovered compared to last week and my work outs the last few days paid off since I didn’t feel as winded and had no trouble keeping up with the opposing players. With four minutes left in the game, I intercepted a pass in our end, carried it up, put a pass off to my Irish teammate (who wisely decided they he really had no clue where the net was – maybe he had a little too much Guiness) who fed Wes. Wes placed a nice ball on my chest which I brought down to my foot and put in the corner of the net. First goal of the season, all due to a terrific pass from Wes and my patience, unlike two weeks ago, to bring it down, look and then smash it into the corner.

We won the game 4 – 0 and Frank enjoyed the shutout. He played a great game in net and had some really great saves. Always nice to get a win under your belt and get back to 500.