Soccer game with Irish Village Soccer Club, May 24
Thursday May 24, from 803 - 945 PM (102 minutes), I played in in an indoor soccer game at the Waltham Y (Irish Village Soccer Club). I was on court for approx 82 minutes (80% of the time), and off-court on the sideline for 14 minutes (20% of the time). The timeline today was (on-court= +, off court= -): +25, -2, +17, -3, +5, -2, +6, -4, +3, -3, +4, -1, +2, -5, +25.
The majority of the time I was playing defense or no-hands goalie.
I scored 3 goals (one-touch, 5-15 yard shots) and achieved approx 3 assists. One hard accurate 15 yard shot that went in did not count because time had expired or had not started yet.
One of the assists was a long one-touch chip pass, the other was a short outside of the right foot wall pass. More than half of the shots I took resulted in a goal.
I dribbled by a defender about 5 times (usually started with a fake pass which the defender thought they were intercepting).
I was never beaten on the dribble; I was almost beaten once. The perp dribbled horizontally to my right, then made a 180 degree turn and dribbled to my left, and then shot and hit the goal-post, but a goal was not scored. I fault myself for not having blocked his shot, but my presence was enough to force his shot off to the side.
I made many good one-touch (no preliminary dribble) passes, involving me getting a pass and then immediately passing off, or me getting a chance ball and immediately passing off. I felt my passing was much improved because I was remembering to scan the field to see where everyone was, so that when I got the ball, I would no where my team-mates and the defenders were.
On defense, there were some goals scored while I was dropping back to cover the goal, which was often. These were primarily a result of me having decided that I was not going to over-exert myself as defensive peon.
Having not played in a few weeks, I had forgotten how no-hands-goalie is different compared to hands-allowed goalie, and slipped back into the hands-allowed-goalie mentality I became accustomed to when I was playing goalie in the Oak Sq Y games before I started playing in the Irish Village Soccer Club games.
At least half the time during the games this evening I forgot that as a no-use-of-hands-allowed goalie, I needed to come out and charge the attacker who had the ball.
On defense-- I blocked some shots; I forced a player to pass the ball to a team-mate by frightening him by rushing him; I forced players into making bad shots; I disrupted dribbles without gaining control of the ball; I stole the ball from a female player.
During the first game which lasted for about 25 minutes, a six on six game, I felt happy because I was getting to touch the ball fairly often. After this I was assigned to a new team, featuring myself, Jose, and 3 energetic, at least average-size 'gringos'.
Plaing on the second team I felt unhappy because I did not get to touch the ball much. Jose showed himself inclined to play some defense (unusual that anyone would show any voluntary interest in defense in such games); I touch the ball more when I am the only player inclined to play defense.
The players on this second team passed the ball to me much less than the players on the first team did.
I started off giving myself the job of being the person on my team who has the most responsibility for preventing goals. During this time my team's record was 7-0-2 (7 wins, 0 losses, 2 ties).
Then later for various reasons I spent about half the time playing midfield and up on offense. During this time my team's record was 2-4-1.
The problem was that my 4 team-mates (especially the 3 'gringos'), did not do a good job of playing defense (Jose played defense competently when he was playing defense, but when he got interested in playing offense, his defensive competence declined).
This lack of defense competence amongst my team-mates was due to(?): laziness, lack of willpower, lack of interest, lack of understanding regarding wise defensive field position, lack of quickness, lack of skill.
During the games this evening the winning team stayed on-court. I was put into a position of choosing between my team losing as a result of me going up to play midfield and offense on the one hand, and staying back on defense the result being my team winning or tying on the other. I don't like to have to choose between playing offense result being having to go off-court and sit on the sidelines because my team loses, and playing defense, result being my team wins and we stay on court.
I felt angry during the games after the first game, because I felt as if my team-mates were brattishly throwing the game to the other team when they played defense, so as to force us to let them play offense all the time.
For about a month I had been experiencing some kind of psychological blockage as a result of which I avoided these indoor games and instead simply worked on conditioning and skills.
Then last week I watched the games for a couple of hours without playing, in part because I thought such would decrease the psychological association between playing in games and stress that had developed within my mind.
Before the game I commanded or ordered myself to: relax, rest, enjoy myself. I succeeded in carrying out this command; I made good passes, I did not torture myself with hustle, I played good defense; when I had the ball I did not panic and get rid of it prematurely; I experimented with ways of beating the defender in relaxed fashion, which is what I want to do in such practice games.
But after the first six on six game it became difficult to enjoy and relax because the compositiion of my team changed after the first six on six game into a team featuring mostly guys who were into dribbling and shooting, and who repeatedly failed in the sense that instead of making a pass which would be the optimal choice, they dribbled or shot.
To me it seemed that usually my teammates on this second team, were not aware of where their team-mates were on the court, when they chose their inferior options of shooting or dribbling instead of passing, and which resulted in the other team gaining possession of the ball.
My Team-mates on this second team, repeatedly choosing to dribble or shoot when they should pass, resulted in the other team gaining possession of the ball in advantageous circumstances and positions, which in turn put pressure on the defense. This pressure resulted in the defense having less opportunities to go up and play offense.
I estimate that all except one or two of my passing errors (such as slightly inaccurate passes) today, were due to the fact that we were using a green fuzzy soccer ball which was very soft, at about 2.5 PSI (these days the ball I practice with is at 8.0 PSI). Still it was hard to get over this depressed irrational feeling that the errors were my fault & due to a lack of skill, even though I knew better.
Overall I came away from the game feeling as if I had a message for certain types of team-mates:
Yea, you are of at least average height, yea you are fit energetic and athletic, but that does not give you the right to play offense all the time, that does not give you license to dribble or shoot when you should be passing, that does not give you the right to deliberately cause defeat when you play defense, so that we are forced to let you play offense all the time. Did'nt your parents spank you? Being competent on offense involves alot more than simply being very energetic, hustling, and scoring more goals than others. It's not how many goals you score that make you a respectable player, it's the percentage of shots that go in, and the percentage of dribbles that result in the defender being beaten. I realize that I myself previously in one game emphasized the solitary ball-hogging dribble as a way to develop my skill, however during that game I also ordered myself to not overdo the dribbling, and followed that order; I did not choose the dribble or the shot when a pass to a team-mate was clearly the superior alternative. You, by way of contrast, in the process of focusing on developing your dribbling game, greatly overdo the dribbling to the point of being ball-hogs and trigger-happy on the shots.
The majority of the time I was playing defense or no-hands goalie.
I scored 3 goals (one-touch, 5-15 yard shots) and achieved approx 3 assists. One hard accurate 15 yard shot that went in did not count because time had expired or had not started yet.
One of the assists was a long one-touch chip pass, the other was a short outside of the right foot wall pass. More than half of the shots I took resulted in a goal.
I dribbled by a defender about 5 times (usually started with a fake pass which the defender thought they were intercepting).
I was never beaten on the dribble; I was almost beaten once. The perp dribbled horizontally to my right, then made a 180 degree turn and dribbled to my left, and then shot and hit the goal-post, but a goal was not scored. I fault myself for not having blocked his shot, but my presence was enough to force his shot off to the side.
I made many good one-touch (no preliminary dribble) passes, involving me getting a pass and then immediately passing off, or me getting a chance ball and immediately passing off. I felt my passing was much improved because I was remembering to scan the field to see where everyone was, so that when I got the ball, I would no where my team-mates and the defenders were.
On defense, there were some goals scored while I was dropping back to cover the goal, which was often. These were primarily a result of me having decided that I was not going to over-exert myself as defensive peon.
Having not played in a few weeks, I had forgotten how no-hands-goalie is different compared to hands-allowed goalie, and slipped back into the hands-allowed-goalie mentality I became accustomed to when I was playing goalie in the Oak Sq Y games before I started playing in the Irish Village Soccer Club games.
At least half the time during the games this evening I forgot that as a no-use-of-hands-allowed goalie, I needed to come out and charge the attacker who had the ball.
On defense-- I blocked some shots; I forced a player to pass the ball to a team-mate by frightening him by rushing him; I forced players into making bad shots; I disrupted dribbles without gaining control of the ball; I stole the ball from a female player.
During the first game which lasted for about 25 minutes, a six on six game, I felt happy because I was getting to touch the ball fairly often. After this I was assigned to a new team, featuring myself, Jose, and 3 energetic, at least average-size 'gringos'.
Plaing on the second team I felt unhappy because I did not get to touch the ball much. Jose showed himself inclined to play some defense (unusual that anyone would show any voluntary interest in defense in such games); I touch the ball more when I am the only player inclined to play defense.
The players on this second team passed the ball to me much less than the players on the first team did.
I started off giving myself the job of being the person on my team who has the most responsibility for preventing goals. During this time my team's record was 7-0-2 (7 wins, 0 losses, 2 ties).
Then later for various reasons I spent about half the time playing midfield and up on offense. During this time my team's record was 2-4-1.
The problem was that my 4 team-mates (especially the 3 'gringos'), did not do a good job of playing defense (Jose played defense competently when he was playing defense, but when he got interested in playing offense, his defensive competence declined).
This lack of defense competence amongst my team-mates was due to(?): laziness, lack of willpower, lack of interest, lack of understanding regarding wise defensive field position, lack of quickness, lack of skill.
During the games this evening the winning team stayed on-court. I was put into a position of choosing between my team losing as a result of me going up to play midfield and offense on the one hand, and staying back on defense the result being my team winning or tying on the other. I don't like to have to choose between playing offense result being having to go off-court and sit on the sidelines because my team loses, and playing defense, result being my team wins and we stay on court.
I felt angry during the games after the first game, because I felt as if my team-mates were brattishly throwing the game to the other team when they played defense, so as to force us to let them play offense all the time.
For about a month I had been experiencing some kind of psychological blockage as a result of which I avoided these indoor games and instead simply worked on conditioning and skills.
Then last week I watched the games for a couple of hours without playing, in part because I thought such would decrease the psychological association between playing in games and stress that had developed within my mind.
Before the game I commanded or ordered myself to: relax, rest, enjoy myself. I succeeded in carrying out this command; I made good passes, I did not torture myself with hustle, I played good defense; when I had the ball I did not panic and get rid of it prematurely; I experimented with ways of beating the defender in relaxed fashion, which is what I want to do in such practice games.
But after the first six on six game it became difficult to enjoy and relax because the compositiion of my team changed after the first six on six game into a team featuring mostly guys who were into dribbling and shooting, and who repeatedly failed in the sense that instead of making a pass which would be the optimal choice, they dribbled or shot.
To me it seemed that usually my teammates on this second team, were not aware of where their team-mates were on the court, when they chose their inferior options of shooting or dribbling instead of passing, and which resulted in the other team gaining possession of the ball.
My Team-mates on this second team, repeatedly choosing to dribble or shoot when they should pass, resulted in the other team gaining possession of the ball in advantageous circumstances and positions, which in turn put pressure on the defense. This pressure resulted in the defense having less opportunities to go up and play offense.
I estimate that all except one or two of my passing errors (such as slightly inaccurate passes) today, were due to the fact that we were using a green fuzzy soccer ball which was very soft, at about 2.5 PSI (these days the ball I practice with is at 8.0 PSI). Still it was hard to get over this depressed irrational feeling that the errors were my fault & due to a lack of skill, even though I knew better.
Overall I came away from the game feeling as if I had a message for certain types of team-mates:
Yea, you are of at least average height, yea you are fit energetic and athletic, but that does not give you the right to play offense all the time, that does not give you license to dribble or shoot when you should be passing, that does not give you the right to deliberately cause defeat when you play defense, so that we are forced to let you play offense all the time. Did'nt your parents spank you? Being competent on offense involves alot more than simply being very energetic, hustling, and scoring more goals than others. It's not how many goals you score that make you a respectable player, it's the percentage of shots that go in, and the percentage of dribbles that result in the defender being beaten. I realize that I myself previously in one game emphasized the solitary ball-hogging dribble as a way to develop my skill, however during that game I also ordered myself to not overdo the dribbling, and followed that order; I did not choose the dribble or the shot when a pass to a team-mate was clearly the superior alternative. You, by way of contrast, in the process of focusing on developing your dribbling game, greatly overdo the dribbling to the point of being ball-hogs and trigger-happy on the shots.
Labels: soccer, soccer games
posted by David Virgil at 11:13 PM
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