I score 5 goals & 4 assists in indoor soccer
Thursday evening (June 14), from 817 PM to 950 PM (93 minutes), I played in indoor soccer games at the Waltham Y sponsored by the Irish Village Soccer Club.
The first two games were played from 817 PM to 853 PM (36 minutes); these were like one game in that the break in between the two games was only about one minute. My team lost the first game to what I call the 'Arsenal' team 6-3. Then I was moved to the 'Arsenal' team and 'Arsenal' won 9-7. These were 4 on 4 games. During these two games I had 3 goals and 2 assists. I estimate I played about two-thirds of the time on offense.
I felt debilitating pain in my calves and the soles of my feet during these first two games and for the rest of the evening. The pain was like that described in the blog entry for the practice last week, except not as severe.
The pain was not always present, however the greater the exertion on the stressed muscles ligaments tendons etc., the greater the pain. The pain would subside with decreased exertion, and then start up again upon exertion. I did not feel pain while exerting myself by running but in-between exertions (I noticed this anesthetic effect of exertion when doing the wind-sprints I designed for indoor soccer fitness also).
I call the team I played on after the first game 'Arsenal' because Greg, who wore a red and white 'Arsenal' T-shirt, was always on that team this evening, and so was I after the first game. Greg is the tallest player in these games; he is skilled at dribbling the ball in the air with his feet while moving over the floor slowly, and good at dribbling and shooting.
Next tall 'Arsenal' Greg decided that henceforth, shots taken from beyond the midline in the center of the court, would be scored as goals if they went in.
Next after just a 3 minute break, from 856-910 PM (14 minutes), my team 'Arsenal' won a game 4-3; I did not have any goals or assists this game. I played mostly back on defense. During this game we had 5 players and they 4, best I can recall.
Next after a 2 minute break, from 912-934 PM (22 minutes), and for the rest of the evening, there were 5 players on each side, and my team 'Arsenal' won 6-4. I had 2 goals and 1 assist. I played mostly defense during this game. I achieved a high scores/assists per minute rate spent playing offense during this game. I blocked a lot of shots per minute spent playing defense. In other words, 'Arsenal' was basically me during this game (50th minute played to 72nd minute played).
Note: according to the traditional Irish-Village way of scoring, this 6-4 game was actually a game that ended when 'Arsenal' reached 5 goals, and then subsequently a second game, because a game ends according to their traditional way of thinking, when one team scores 5 goals.
Next after a break of just 2 minutes, from 936-950 (14 minutes) my team 'Arsenal' won 3-1, I had one assist, playing mostly defense.
So in total in 93 minutes I was on the floor playing for 86 minutes, constantly having to battle with the pain that I would feel in my calves (front-side of calf especially) and the soles of my feet after exerting myself by running. Nevertheless I achieved much both on offense and on defense. In total I scored 5 goals and I had 4 assists. The goals I scored were mostly one-touch angled shots off of passes; (estimate) at least half of them were scored with the right foot although I am left-footed.
Along this line during the games, I suggested to left-footed 'Will', that he work on his one-touch right-footed shooting ability. That does not mean that I thought Will did not play well overall. I could see that since he could not shoot with his right foot he was flubbing opportunities that I was not flubbing since I was shooting accurately with both feet.
Thus the weighted average is that overall there were 9 players on court during a typical minute of play. In total 46 goals were scored. Assuming that the assists per goals rate was the same as was the case with me personally, there were in total 37 assists. Thus the average player had 5 goals and 4 assists, just as I had 5 goals and 4 assists. Thus it seems I was just average.
However: I spent (estimate) only 40% of my playing time playing offense; my mobility was constantly hobbled by the pain that was produced in my calves and soles of my feet as a result of running; the hobbling of mobility was especially acute after the first 36 minutes.
If I had kept up the scores/assists rate of the first 36 minutes the entire game, I would have had 7 goals, and 5 assists in total.
I felt as if having practiced basketball a couple of times a week this month, for about 35 minutes each time, improved me as an offensive soccer player. Shooting in soccer is a percentage thing. I suspect that I tend to: get too inhibited about shooting simply because I often fail to score on a shot; get discouraged and fail to shoot & become inaccurate when I'm missing shots; fail to shoot when I should be shooting. I now believe that the basketball shooting practice helped me to properly develop a more cavalier attitude regarding shooting in soccer, as a result of which I was not shooting less than I should be shooting, given my shooting percentage.
On defense I was burned once by Matty. He dribbled down the right wing. I approached him from the center-area to confront him. He feinted as if he was about to dribble the ball right into me, dribbled towards the endline instead, shot and scored from almost a 90 degree angle. I played him the way I did because that is the way I play an attacker when a team-mate is paying attention and helping out like they should be & like they often actually are in such a situation. If a team-mate had been hustling, Matty would not have been able to score from the difficult low angle, almost like shooting from the corner.
In retrospect, I wonder how Matty was able to freeze me momentarily before speeding down the sideline, by feinting dribbling the ball right into my feet, because if he had actually done what he feinted he would do, he would have simply dribbled the ball right into my feet.
Generally I found that after having spent alot of time playing at midfield & on offense and not playing defense. it took me about 20 minutes of playing defense to get used to playing defense again. At first my usual confidence as a defender when in a one on one situation with a dribbler was not there, resulting in a lack of aggression with dribblers. After about 20 minutes playing defense the confidence and the intuitive ability came back, and I began to steal the ball from dribblers & force them to pass off suboptimally, as has been characteristic of my play on defense.
My performance blocking shots similarly improved after the first 20 minutes back on defense. There were times when the number of shots I was blocking per minute played was enormous.
For some reason it seems that there is nothing glamorous about blocking shots. Nevertheless, one can improve a surprising amount in terms of shot-blocking performance, there is a high level of skill in shot blocking performance, and there is also a low level of skill in shot blocking performance. It's not true that it is simply very easy to block shots while guarding a 4 foot high 6 foot wide goal as a no-hands-allowed goalie/sweeper/defender, and that therefore there is no such thing as superior shot-blocking when performing the task.
Overall, I felt that the players on the court played better than they ever have in these Irish Village indoor soccer games at the Waltham Y.
The first two games were played from 817 PM to 853 PM (36 minutes); these were like one game in that the break in between the two games was only about one minute. My team lost the first game to what I call the 'Arsenal' team 6-3. Then I was moved to the 'Arsenal' team and 'Arsenal' won 9-7. These were 4 on 4 games. During these two games I had 3 goals and 2 assists. I estimate I played about two-thirds of the time on offense.
I felt debilitating pain in my calves and the soles of my feet during these first two games and for the rest of the evening. The pain was like that described in the blog entry for the practice last week, except not as severe.
The pain was not always present, however the greater the exertion on the stressed muscles ligaments tendons etc., the greater the pain. The pain would subside with decreased exertion, and then start up again upon exertion. I did not feel pain while exerting myself by running but in-between exertions (I noticed this anesthetic effect of exertion when doing the wind-sprints I designed for indoor soccer fitness also).
I call the team I played on after the first game 'Arsenal' because Greg, who wore a red and white 'Arsenal' T-shirt, was always on that team this evening, and so was I after the first game. Greg is the tallest player in these games; he is skilled at dribbling the ball in the air with his feet while moving over the floor slowly, and good at dribbling and shooting.
Next tall 'Arsenal' Greg decided that henceforth, shots taken from beyond the midline in the center of the court, would be scored as goals if they went in.
Next after just a 3 minute break, from 856-910 PM (14 minutes), my team 'Arsenal' won a game 4-3; I did not have any goals or assists this game. I played mostly back on defense. During this game we had 5 players and they 4, best I can recall.
Next after a 2 minute break, from 912-934 PM (22 minutes), and for the rest of the evening, there were 5 players on each side, and my team 'Arsenal' won 6-4. I had 2 goals and 1 assist. I played mostly defense during this game. I achieved a high scores/assists per minute rate spent playing offense during this game. I blocked a lot of shots per minute spent playing defense. In other words, 'Arsenal' was basically me during this game (50th minute played to 72nd minute played).
Note: according to the traditional Irish-Village way of scoring, this 6-4 game was actually a game that ended when 'Arsenal' reached 5 goals, and then subsequently a second game, because a game ends according to their traditional way of thinking, when one team scores 5 goals.
Next after a break of just 2 minutes, from 936-950 (14 minutes) my team 'Arsenal' won 3-1, I had one assist, playing mostly defense.
So in total in 93 minutes I was on the floor playing for 86 minutes, constantly having to battle with the pain that I would feel in my calves (front-side of calf especially) and the soles of my feet after exerting myself by running. Nevertheless I achieved much both on offense and on defense. In total I scored 5 goals and I had 4 assists. The goals I scored were mostly one-touch angled shots off of passes; (estimate) at least half of them were scored with the right foot although I am left-footed.
Along this line during the games, I suggested to left-footed 'Will', that he work on his one-touch right-footed shooting ability. That does not mean that I thought Will did not play well overall. I could see that since he could not shoot with his right foot he was flubbing opportunities that I was not flubbing since I was shooting accurately with both feet.
Thus the weighted average is that overall there were 9 players on court during a typical minute of play. In total 46 goals were scored. Assuming that the assists per goals rate was the same as was the case with me personally, there were in total 37 assists. Thus the average player had 5 goals and 4 assists, just as I had 5 goals and 4 assists. Thus it seems I was just average.
However: I spent (estimate) only 40% of my playing time playing offense; my mobility was constantly hobbled by the pain that was produced in my calves and soles of my feet as a result of running; the hobbling of mobility was especially acute after the first 36 minutes.
If I had kept up the scores/assists rate of the first 36 minutes the entire game, I would have had 7 goals, and 5 assists in total.
I felt as if having practiced basketball a couple of times a week this month, for about 35 minutes each time, improved me as an offensive soccer player. Shooting in soccer is a percentage thing. I suspect that I tend to: get too inhibited about shooting simply because I often fail to score on a shot; get discouraged and fail to shoot & become inaccurate when I'm missing shots; fail to shoot when I should be shooting. I now believe that the basketball shooting practice helped me to properly develop a more cavalier attitude regarding shooting in soccer, as a result of which I was not shooting less than I should be shooting, given my shooting percentage.
On defense I was burned once by Matty. He dribbled down the right wing. I approached him from the center-area to confront him. He feinted as if he was about to dribble the ball right into me, dribbled towards the endline instead, shot and scored from almost a 90 degree angle. I played him the way I did because that is the way I play an attacker when a team-mate is paying attention and helping out like they should be & like they often actually are in such a situation. If a team-mate had been hustling, Matty would not have been able to score from the difficult low angle, almost like shooting from the corner.
In retrospect, I wonder how Matty was able to freeze me momentarily before speeding down the sideline, by feinting dribbling the ball right into my feet, because if he had actually done what he feinted he would do, he would have simply dribbled the ball right into my feet.
Generally I found that after having spent alot of time playing at midfield & on offense and not playing defense. it took me about 20 minutes of playing defense to get used to playing defense again. At first my usual confidence as a defender when in a one on one situation with a dribbler was not there, resulting in a lack of aggression with dribblers. After about 20 minutes playing defense the confidence and the intuitive ability came back, and I began to steal the ball from dribblers & force them to pass off suboptimally, as has been characteristic of my play on defense.
My performance blocking shots similarly improved after the first 20 minutes back on defense. There were times when the number of shots I was blocking per minute played was enormous.
For some reason it seems that there is nothing glamorous about blocking shots. Nevertheless, one can improve a surprising amount in terms of shot-blocking performance, there is a high level of skill in shot blocking performance, and there is also a low level of skill in shot blocking performance. It's not true that it is simply very easy to block shots while guarding a 4 foot high 6 foot wide goal as a no-hands-allowed goalie/sweeper/defender, and that therefore there is no such thing as superior shot-blocking when performing the task.
Overall, I felt that the players on the court played better than they ever have in these Irish Village indoor soccer games at the Waltham Y.
Labels: soccer
posted by David Virgil at 12:54 AM
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