Soccer Oak Sq Y Games Tuesday February 5
Today we had the first game of the Oak Sq Y soccer league season. Before the game, Calder Akin, who is managing the league, called me up, and told me that my game was at 715 PM, the second game of the evening. He told me the names of the people on my team (at least some of these names, I have probably mis-spelled): Gary Barret, Demetri Kouloheras, Tristan Back, Stefan Verogue, Dave Ferraro, Kyle Sye, and also, of course, me.
I was lucky enough during the night before the game, to be able to note, when I was finally able to fall asleep (some time between 5 AM & 630 AM). So of course, I slept until about 100 PM. Then it took an unbelievable amount of time to just get ready to go to the game, and I did not even get to the game until about 630 PM. It took so long to: pack up my bag with all the things needed to take to the gym for the game (clean version of everything that gets dirty); have my 'nutrients cocktail', have my cup of coffee, go to the bathroom, get dressed in clean clothes, blah blah blah. Since most of my clothes had been worn once and had not yet been washed, finding clean versions of shorts underpants etc. was time consuming.
So I got to the gym, undressed, dressed, went out to the gym court, and had no time to warm up with the ball before the game; and I forgot to get acquainted with the ball that would be used in the game (it turned out to be a regulation size soccer ball at only 2.0 PSI, I had been practicing with a 4 PSI regulation size ball for the game, as about 4 PSI was what I expected).
During the game, I was again hit with the pain in the soles of the feet and in the calves. I had succeeded in banishing this pain previously, but then a couple of weeks ago when I did calf-raise exercises while lifting about 200-150 lbs, the pain resurrected itself and has remained with me during games since then.
During the game, my big mistake was this: they had forced me up to play offense; I got the ball, I felt panicked due to not being used to playing offense, I could not decide which of two team-mates to pass to; I passed to a point right in the middle between the two team-mates, where someone on the other team took possession of the ball. I have noticed this over the past month or so: sometimes when I kick the ball when I am undecided between two possible points to kick the ball to, I end up kicking the ball to a spot exactly in between the two possible destinations.
Aside from that: I lofted up an almost perfect 50-foot distance, 20-foot apex chip pass into the middle, but the team-mate who was slanting into the middle forgot to look back and up to see where the pass to him would be going; I made a 25' one-touch chip-pass off a bouncer into a team-mate in the middle that was perfect; A long aerial pass came to me and bounced for the first time as it neared me, I passed it backwards 20 feet at an angle, perfectly on one-touch, turning the aerial pass into a grounder; I dribbled past a defender, then I dribbled past a second defender, then the goalie rushed up to kick the ball away (both times, the defender got his foot on the ball but was unable to disrupt the forward progress of the run or my possession of the ball); I made some good inwards one-touch ground passes from the wing position; I made a good inwards ground pass off the dribble from the wing possession. Last week at Oak Sq during weird preliminary-type games I also noted, that I was able to dribble past a couple of defenders even though both of them touched it, when the ball was up above the ground-- despite them touching it, I kept control of it and maintained the forwards direction of the dribble.
Technicamente the high-point for me were wen I 'ad an asistencia en el gol de Ferraro: From my right-wing position I passed into the centro, right, the ballon bounced off the recipient team-mate, I followed the ballon into the bleedin' centro, right, I got me foot on the ballon, the ball went into the corner ter the adversario goalie's right, right, I got ter the chuffin' ball wiv the Moroccan defensor Redouan boxeo me in, I bulled me way dahn the end-linea towards the enemigo goalie, like a tackle-football runnin' back, keepin' me body between Redouan el defensor and me (in this I took advantage of me new weight-advantage that I'm not used ter havin', in that Redouan is aproximadamente 6'0", 170 lbs, right, wereas I'm now 5'10", right, 195 lbs), right, as I neared the opponent goal I driblar by Redouan by kickin' the chuffin' ball ter my left off the bleedin' backboard and ffen cotchin' it behind Redouan, ffen as the goalie rushed me I passed into the bleedin' centro ter Ferraro 'oo scored on a one-touch shot. Ferraro said this was a beautiful play by me.
In general, I felt my performance was impaired by ball-hogging on the part of my team-mates. Our goalie, repeatedly failed to throw the ball to me when I was open, preferring for some reason to throw it to somebody else on my team. Often when I was wide open, my team-mates chose to dribble and shoot. A foreign-looking, Muslim-looking guy who was allowed to play because some of my team did not show up, played on our team, he wore number 10 and hogged the ball. Also Dave Ferraro, who played well, hogged the ball. The two ball-hogs passed to each other but not to me. Come to think of it, seems that ball-hogs pass to their fellow ball-hogs, but not to those who do not hog the ball.
After the game Calder told me that my ball-touch was good but my cardiovascular was shot. I told him the problem was the pain in the soles of my feet and my calves. He said that when doing conditioning, I have to alternate between all-out effort and taking it easy. After the game when I did my conditioning drill, I did it differently than I have been in that I did the run parts of the drill at almost full-speed ( the drill alternates between run segments and walked segments). This resulted in the overall time for the conditioning drill being about 20% slower; so it goes. I had noted long ago, that slowing down the run parts and speeding up the walked parts improved the overall time on the conditioning drill, but probably did not prepare me for actual games as well as doing the run parts at almost full-speed would.
After the game several players complimented me. Some said "good job". Others said "good work". Note how 'job' and 'work' are kind of synonymous. The players felt my performance was like someone doing a good job at work. I had been a team-player.
I was lucky enough during the night before the game, to be able to note, when I was finally able to fall asleep (some time between 5 AM & 630 AM). So of course, I slept until about 100 PM. Then it took an unbelievable amount of time to just get ready to go to the game, and I did not even get to the game until about 630 PM. It took so long to: pack up my bag with all the things needed to take to the gym for the game (clean version of everything that gets dirty); have my 'nutrients cocktail', have my cup of coffee, go to the bathroom, get dressed in clean clothes, blah blah blah. Since most of my clothes had been worn once and had not yet been washed, finding clean versions of shorts underpants etc. was time consuming.
So I got to the gym, undressed, dressed, went out to the gym court, and had no time to warm up with the ball before the game; and I forgot to get acquainted with the ball that would be used in the game (it turned out to be a regulation size soccer ball at only 2.0 PSI, I had been practicing with a 4 PSI regulation size ball for the game, as about 4 PSI was what I expected).
During the game, I was again hit with the pain in the soles of the feet and in the calves. I had succeeded in banishing this pain previously, but then a couple of weeks ago when I did calf-raise exercises while lifting about 200-150 lbs, the pain resurrected itself and has remained with me during games since then.
During the game, my big mistake was this: they had forced me up to play offense; I got the ball, I felt panicked due to not being used to playing offense, I could not decide which of two team-mates to pass to; I passed to a point right in the middle between the two team-mates, where someone on the other team took possession of the ball. I have noticed this over the past month or so: sometimes when I kick the ball when I am undecided between two possible points to kick the ball to, I end up kicking the ball to a spot exactly in between the two possible destinations.
Aside from that: I lofted up an almost perfect 50-foot distance, 20-foot apex chip pass into the middle, but the team-mate who was slanting into the middle forgot to look back and up to see where the pass to him would be going; I made a 25' one-touch chip-pass off a bouncer into a team-mate in the middle that was perfect; A long aerial pass came to me and bounced for the first time as it neared me, I passed it backwards 20 feet at an angle, perfectly on one-touch, turning the aerial pass into a grounder; I dribbled past a defender, then I dribbled past a second defender, then the goalie rushed up to kick the ball away (both times, the defender got his foot on the ball but was unable to disrupt the forward progress of the run or my possession of the ball); I made some good inwards one-touch ground passes from the wing position; I made a good inwards ground pass off the dribble from the wing possession. Last week at Oak Sq during weird preliminary-type games I also noted, that I was able to dribble past a couple of defenders even though both of them touched it, when the ball was up above the ground-- despite them touching it, I kept control of it and maintained the forwards direction of the dribble.
Technicamente the high-point for me were wen I 'ad an asistencia en el gol de Ferraro: From my right-wing position I passed into the centro, right, the ballon bounced off the recipient team-mate, I followed the ballon into the bleedin' centro, right, I got me foot on the ballon, the ball went into the corner ter the adversario goalie's right, right, I got ter the chuffin' ball wiv the Moroccan defensor Redouan boxeo me in, I bulled me way dahn the end-linea towards the enemigo goalie, like a tackle-football runnin' back, keepin' me body between Redouan el defensor and me (in this I took advantage of me new weight-advantage that I'm not used ter havin', in that Redouan is aproximadamente 6'0", 170 lbs, right, wereas I'm now 5'10", right, 195 lbs), right, as I neared the opponent goal I driblar by Redouan by kickin' the chuffin' ball ter my left off the bleedin' backboard and ffen cotchin' it behind Redouan, ffen as the goalie rushed me I passed into the bleedin' centro ter Ferraro 'oo scored on a one-touch shot. Ferraro said this was a beautiful play by me.
In general, I felt my performance was impaired by ball-hogging on the part of my team-mates. Our goalie, repeatedly failed to throw the ball to me when I was open, preferring for some reason to throw it to somebody else on my team. Often when I was wide open, my team-mates chose to dribble and shoot. A foreign-looking, Muslim-looking guy who was allowed to play because some of my team did not show up, played on our team, he wore number 10 and hogged the ball. Also Dave Ferraro, who played well, hogged the ball. The two ball-hogs passed to each other but not to me. Come to think of it, seems that ball-hogs pass to their fellow ball-hogs, but not to those who do not hog the ball.
After the game Calder told me that my ball-touch was good but my cardiovascular was shot. I told him the problem was the pain in the soles of my feet and my calves. He said that when doing conditioning, I have to alternate between all-out effort and taking it easy. After the game when I did my conditioning drill, I did it differently than I have been in that I did the run parts of the drill at almost full-speed ( the drill alternates between run segments and walked segments). This resulted in the overall time for the conditioning drill being about 20% slower; so it goes. I had noted long ago, that slowing down the run parts and speeding up the walked parts improved the overall time on the conditioning drill, but probably did not prepare me for actual games as well as doing the run parts at almost full-speed would.
After the game several players complimented me. Some said "good job". Others said "good work". Note how 'job' and 'work' are kind of synonymous. The players felt my performance was like someone doing a good job at work. I had been a team-player.
posted by David Virgil at 12:38 AM
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