Soccer @ Oak Sq Y October 16 2012
Note: I myself dreamed up the names given the teams. Colors in names were based on color of jerseys the team started out wearing.
Oak Sq Y Soccer Tuesday October 16 2012 contains a table showing the soccer games played evening of Tuesday October 16. One can see looking at the table, that Tommy & the Greens, one of 4 teams that participated, played in 6 of the 11 games I watched (I arrived 15 minutes late). Overall the number of games played in by each team was reasonably evening this time.
Today October 16, the first game (game #3) in which the dominant Greens faced me on defense (I played defense the entire 5 minutes) , they scored 0 goals; I blocked 3 shots & 1 pass. Similarly, last week I noted that in the first game that the evening's dominant team faced me on defense they scored 0 goals:
Overall the Andre Blacks dominated the tourney, winning five, losing none, and tying one. The game they were tied, was their game against my team the Blues. My positioning, dribble-disruption, & shot-blocking on defense kept them at just 0 goals scored, despite completely crazy defensive positioning perpetrated by my team-mates. I played mostly defense, a little offense, and a little goalie during the three games I played in; my team allowed only 1 goal per game on average.
2nd game I played in, game #6, the E. Asian boy started in goalie; after about 2.5 minutes, they had scored 2 goals, both of which I had nothing to do with in terms of defensive fault (I saw little action as defender this game, they avoided me). Seemed the goalie could stop nothing so I switched to goalie until the end of the 5 min game.
3rd game I played in, game #8, I played all 5 mins on defense, blocked shots and passes, stole ball from dribbler, they scored 0 goals.
4th game I played in, game #10, I played defense the whole 5-minute game, they scored 1 goal.
5th game I played in, the evening's dominators, the Greens, scored 1 goal in the first 4 minutes with me on defense. Then with me in goalie they scored 1 goal in 1 minute. The goal they scored was produced by the disorder created due to them getting to take about 4 shots in a row, all of which bounced off us and back to them.
Other personal highlights I could remember (could not remember them all):
1) I took a shot off a still ball, that sailed about 80 feet like a line drive & hit the opposite wall hard about 12 feet above the ground; the ball despite being soft, then rebounded out about 30 feet before finally hitting the ground. But my team-mate Andre, did not seem alert to the opportunity I was trying to present him with.
2) I stole the ball from a dribbler, then dribbled by an opponent, then lost the ball to an opponent, all in a couple of seconds.
3) I pounced on a loose ball, dribble forwards in between a couple of defenders, & then faced yet another defender. I moved my body as if I was about to cut to my right. The defender lunged to my right and I cut to my left, he was completely beaten. This got a hoot out of one team-mate. I don't remember what happened next. This was like a replay of last week, in that I did deliberately feint but simply changed my mind re direction at the last minute, & the defender was completely fooled and I had the defender beat.
4) The opponent forward was behind me. The ball bounced off his head. I was facing towards my own goal. I cleared the ball with my foot before it hit the ground, at a 150 degree angle backwards and to my right.
Generally the problem was: Oak Sq Y indoor basketball court for indoor soccer involves a large court for 5-player teams (one player is goalie); on this large court nobody can play both defense & offense; on this large court a midfielder is not a defender; I felt that if I did not play defense the other teams would score lots of goals and win; we were playing on a winner stays on court basis so I was concerned to prevent the other team from winning; I ended up playing defense all the time.
At one point this white young adult male who seems like a joe-high-school or joe-college type player, had a comment for me after I simply cleared a bouncer. He said that soccer is a possession game and that I should not worry about 'them' (the defenders). He meant I should control the ball and dribble. I suspect that the reason I clear instead of dribble is that I've gotten used to disorder created by absence of colored jerseys, and, even when colored jerseys are worn, the different colored shirts & shorts & socks still continue to produce confusion of not knowing who is on my team. And I feel tense about dribbling because I never get to play offense and because over the recent years the amount of scrimmage time I've experienced has been so low.
The goalie who was playing behind me sometimes, told me he liked the way I play defense. Then later he told me that I was blinding him by standing in front of him, and that I should move up and away from him. I told him that I was blocking lots of shots. He responded that the shots I was blocking, he could make saves on. I told him that I was used to playing in front of goalies who allowed shots to go in. Afterwards what I was thinking was: most of the time my team was playing with 3 forwards, and me as the only defender, whereas usually teams play with two forwards and two defenders. Under the circumstances, as the only defender, it was dangerous for me to move out too far in front of the goalie.
(At first, when I was first criticized & when I wrote this blog the clever thoughts in the following paragraph did not occur to me):
The goalie, in saying that he could have blocked the shots that I the defender in front of him blocked, fails to understand, that were I not present to block the shot, the goalie would face a shot that would be different from the shot that I block by my presence. Were I not present, the man with the ball would dribble in closer, would have more time to set up his shot, would have an onbstructed view of the goal, & would not have to concern himself with insuring that the ball avoided me the defender.
Often the shots that are taken by those I am guarding against, are taken simply to save face, avoid embarrasment. The man with the ball knows that I am closing in on him and pose the danger of humiliating him by stealing the ball, so instead he fires off a firecracker of a shot that at least makes a fairly loud noise when it bounces off me. Such shots would not be taken were I not there to intimidate them.
As a defender I have an advantage compared to the goalie, in that by being closer to the man taking the shot I 'cut down the angle'.
I can see that it will take a while before my performance as goalie gets up to the level people were enthused about last year. Today I punted the ball into the curtain on the ceiling twice. Today I was beaten twice while goalie, the same way I was beaten once as goalie last week: an opponent had the ball to my right; I blocked off the side of the goal to my right; the opponent shot the ball into the corner to my left. I suspect that I have to come out of the goal further to cut down the angle, and/or not stick so close to the post that is closer to the shooter.
Oak Sq Y Soccer Tuesday October 16 2012 contains a table showing the soccer games played evening of Tuesday October 16. One can see looking at the table, that Tommy & the Greens, one of 4 teams that participated, played in 6 of the 11 games I watched (I arrived 15 minutes late). Overall the number of games played in by each team was reasonably evening this time.
Today October 16, the first game (game #3) in which the dominant Greens faced me on defense (I played defense the entire 5 minutes) , they scored 0 goals; I blocked 3 shots & 1 pass. Similarly, last week I noted that in the first game that the evening's dominant team faced me on defense they scored 0 goals:
Overall the Andre Blacks dominated the tourney, winning five, losing none, and tying one. The game they were tied, was their game against my team the Blues. My positioning, dribble-disruption, & shot-blocking on defense kept them at just 0 goals scored, despite completely crazy defensive positioning perpetrated by my team-mates. I played mostly defense, a little offense, and a little goalie during the three games I played in; my team allowed only 1 goal per game on average.
2nd game I played in, game #6, the E. Asian boy started in goalie; after about 2.5 minutes, they had scored 2 goals, both of which I had nothing to do with in terms of defensive fault (I saw little action as defender this game, they avoided me). Seemed the goalie could stop nothing so I switched to goalie until the end of the 5 min game.
3rd game I played in, game #8, I played all 5 mins on defense, blocked shots and passes, stole ball from dribbler, they scored 0 goals.
4th game I played in, game #10, I played defense the whole 5-minute game, they scored 1 goal.
5th game I played in, the evening's dominators, the Greens, scored 1 goal in the first 4 minutes with me on defense. Then with me in goalie they scored 1 goal in 1 minute. The goal they scored was produced by the disorder created due to them getting to take about 4 shots in a row, all of which bounced off us and back to them.
Other personal highlights I could remember (could not remember them all):
1) I took a shot off a still ball, that sailed about 80 feet like a line drive & hit the opposite wall hard about 12 feet above the ground; the ball despite being soft, then rebounded out about 30 feet before finally hitting the ground. But my team-mate Andre, did not seem alert to the opportunity I was trying to present him with.
2) I stole the ball from a dribbler, then dribbled by an opponent, then lost the ball to an opponent, all in a couple of seconds.
3) I pounced on a loose ball, dribble forwards in between a couple of defenders, & then faced yet another defender. I moved my body as if I was about to cut to my right. The defender lunged to my right and I cut to my left, he was completely beaten. This got a hoot out of one team-mate. I don't remember what happened next. This was like a replay of last week, in that I did deliberately feint but simply changed my mind re direction at the last minute, & the defender was completely fooled and I had the defender beat.
4) The opponent forward was behind me. The ball bounced off his head. I was facing towards my own goal. I cleared the ball with my foot before it hit the ground, at a 150 degree angle backwards and to my right.
Generally the problem was: Oak Sq Y indoor basketball court for indoor soccer involves a large court for 5-player teams (one player is goalie); on this large court nobody can play both defense & offense; on this large court a midfielder is not a defender; I felt that if I did not play defense the other teams would score lots of goals and win; we were playing on a winner stays on court basis so I was concerned to prevent the other team from winning; I ended up playing defense all the time.
At one point this white young adult male who seems like a joe-high-school or joe-college type player, had a comment for me after I simply cleared a bouncer. He said that soccer is a possession game and that I should not worry about 'them' (the defenders). He meant I should control the ball and dribble. I suspect that the reason I clear instead of dribble is that I've gotten used to disorder created by absence of colored jerseys, and, even when colored jerseys are worn, the different colored shirts & shorts & socks still continue to produce confusion of not knowing who is on my team. And I feel tense about dribbling because I never get to play offense and because over the recent years the amount of scrimmage time I've experienced has been so low.
The goalie who was playing behind me sometimes, told me he liked the way I play defense. Then later he told me that I was blinding him by standing in front of him, and that I should move up and away from him. I told him that I was blocking lots of shots. He responded that the shots I was blocking, he could make saves on. I told him that I was used to playing in front of goalies who allowed shots to go in. Afterwards what I was thinking was: most of the time my team was playing with 3 forwards, and me as the only defender, whereas usually teams play with two forwards and two defenders. Under the circumstances, as the only defender, it was dangerous for me to move out too far in front of the goalie.
(At first, when I was first criticized & when I wrote this blog the clever thoughts in the following paragraph did not occur to me):
The goalie, in saying that he could have blocked the shots that I the defender in front of him blocked, fails to understand, that were I not present to block the shot, the goalie would face a shot that would be different from the shot that I block by my presence. Were I not present, the man with the ball would dribble in closer, would have more time to set up his shot, would have an onbstructed view of the goal, & would not have to concern himself with insuring that the ball avoided me the defender.
Often the shots that are taken by those I am guarding against, are taken simply to save face, avoid embarrasment. The man with the ball knows that I am closing in on him and pose the danger of humiliating him by stealing the ball, so instead he fires off a firecracker of a shot that at least makes a fairly loud noise when it bounces off me. Such shots would not be taken were I not there to intimidate them.
As a defender I have an advantage compared to the goalie, in that by being closer to the man taking the shot I 'cut down the angle'.
I can see that it will take a while before my performance as goalie gets up to the level people were enthused about last year. Today I punted the ball into the curtain on the ceiling twice. Today I was beaten twice while goalie, the same way I was beaten once as goalie last week: an opponent had the ball to my right; I blocked off the side of the goal to my right; the opponent shot the ball into the corner to my left. I suspect that I have to come out of the goal further to cut down the angle, and/or not stick so close to the post that is closer to the shooter.
posted by David Virgil at 12:07 AM
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