Game 11 Versus Deuce
We lost 2-nil to this team the last time around; I think it was our second game. Anyhow, this morning we corrected the record by taking Deuce down.
It was an extremely physical game- they have a lot of eager, young bruisers on their squad, and they play smart football. We faced a stiff wind during the first half, and it was all we could do to keep their attack at bay; thankfully they did not really have any real chances, but because of the wind and the speed of their strikers, they always seemed to be threatening to to break through our line. It was hard and stressful work.
But our defence is solid- we play a 4 man configuration, with a stopper and a sweeper. Our principal defenders are the fastest guys on the squad, which makes the difference on a day like today when we are being bombarded by through-balls, and long-balls...
In fact it was the speed and experience of our star sweeper Nate that both saved and almost doomed us:
It was early in the first half and Deuce was on the attack; they brought the ball down the left side and about 20 yards outside of the box they crossed it over; my right halfback was (thankfully) marking his man and he had position to block the ball. But inexplicably he totally whiffed the stop and in a split second the attacker was past our line- it seemed like a sure thing, but then Nate comes flying through and performs a brilliant tackle, sweeping the ball into the corner and taking the unhappy striker down. It really was a clean tackle, a great tackle, but the ref (who made a series of bad calls the entire game, both for and against us) called penalty kick...
It was horrible. I thought that it was going to be sure goal; not only did the striker have a solid shot, but he had the wind at his back; it was a perfect set up...
But our goalie is awesome and he guessed right, diving to his right to smother the low-burn strike...
It was a great save and inspired by this, the momentum swung in our favor. We contained them for the rest of the half, and went into the second-half full of fire and with the wind at our back. We scored a sweet cleanup goal off a free-kick in the 60th minute and again in the 85th minute off brilliant right side run...
Man it felt good to win today.
