Soccer

A much better result today, as we beat a team near the top of the league 9-2. Their center forward who I was covering was a knob -- at one point I was seeing a ball out that they kicked, and he gave me a shove in the back that nearly crashed me into the barrier. So it was good fun to get him good and frustrated.

A bruised calf (from him I think, but I'm sure I gave him one or two knocks as well) and a scraped knee. I probably will get no mention in the match report either, but I thought I played all right.

Soccer

Last week was a much better game than our first. I played right half ineffectively for twenty minutes or so, then went back to defense where I played much better. One good run up, but the resulting pass didn't connect. No injuries. The official match report, which doesn't mention me, I think:



ETA Buffalo Vets 0-1 Middle Park Vets



The second game of the season saw the vets hit winning form. Dressed in their unfamiliar away strip they resembled the Man City team of old, Bell, Summerbee, Lee…



The game started well with the MP team passing the ball around along the ground easily and creating openings in the ETA defence. In fact there were so many openings in the ETA defence it resembled ‘buy one get one free night’ at the Daily Planet. This became the way of the game, good solid football in the build up, creating chance, after chance, after chance, after chance…and no goals.





The collection of people gathered on the line, Danny, Marty, Strati, etc, were not discussing the usual things of a Middle Park crowd; who scored the best goal…it was the previously unknown conversation of ‘who missed the easiest chance’. Well??? There were a few contenders; Goran, clean through on goal only 12 yards out, took a dislike to a small dog playing close to the corner flag and skilfully struck the ball with the inside of his right knee, sending the dog scampering away. Thom, again clean through on goal, with the keeper on his line, close to the penalty spot, looked forward to choose his spot, did he choose the left bottom corner, or the right bottom corner?…no, he chose the roof of the changing rooms, some 50 yards behind the goals…both of these and many more were worthy winners of the prized ‘sitter of the year miss’ award. But on a day when missing sitters was the norm, one man stood out from the crowd; was it a defender lost in the opponents penalty area, panicked by the sudden appearance of the ball?...no…was it the keeper with a sudden attack of the Peter Schmicals?…no. This was the man who at least twice in the last 7 years has been the leading goal scorer in a Middle Park team, Mr Dominic Moran. He received an inch perfect ball from Scott from deep in the left corner, only 2 yards out, with the goalkeeper already beaten, all that was left to do was to let the ball hit him…anywhere! and as long as it didn’t drift wide of a 160° arc to either side or a 70° arc upwards it would be a goal…which leaves us to conclude that Dom must have a forehead the shape of a Nordic ski jump, as the ball cleared the bar by at least 2 meters, making the angle of trajectory at least 85°. A clear winner on the day…although, not one to be beaten, Goran did try a number of further times to better Dom’s effort, or win by just sheer quantity of missed sitters.



Finally in the last ten minutes of the game, Scott broke through on goal and hit the ball cleanly into the bottom corner, just before desperation set in and Strati had to put his boots on again.



The merits of the day went to a solid defence, led by Adrian Pender, who fittingly received most votes for BOG. Between Adrian, Chris, Thom and Rhys, Graham was left with little to do but dream about dancing in cages at Abode.



All in all, a good win for the MP Vets and a good reply to last weeks result.

Soccer

Last week was the first official game of the season with the new Middle Park "veterans" team (over 35). We lost 9-0 but it was still a lot of fun and by all accounts, despite the score line, we didn't play all that bad. I was highly out of shape after my USA trip and even had to put up my hand and come off at one point (luckily there's free substitution in this league).

The official account:

Rd01 V South Park Rangers (Away)
Thu, 2008-04-17 11:54 — pwiddows

South Park 9- Middle Park 0

The all white strip in which the team took to the pitch for the inaugural Veterans league match conjured up images of Real Madrid. This similarity was strengthened further with a number of our starting line-up sporting the Zinedine Zidane hairstyle. However, the 9-0 pasting from South Park suggested that any comparison with the Galacticos, like a 16yo in the process of losing his virginity, will be premature. Real Madrid? Try Real Bad.

Bizarre as it sounds though, as 9-0 defeats go, this was one of the better ones. If anything, the Parkers were unlucky to draw in 1st round opponents in South Park, a team made up of ex Port and South Melbourne players and while we didn’t have goals to celebrate, there was plenty to suggest that things will improve once the team begins to gel and adapts to the different (read slower) pace of the Veterans comp.

Slower doesn’t mean worse and some of the South Park goals (especially the opener) and play wouldn’t have been out of place at a higher, or younger, grade. Middle Park saw plenty of the ball too. While Pete’s post match assertion that the Vets had 60% of the possession was generous (unless he’s also included as possession the time Graham spent picking the ball out of the back of his net), the comment did contain a modicum of truth. Too often though, possession was wasted as we tried to play a style of game that didn’t suit our level of fitness. South Park didn’t have a great deal more possession but what they had was efficient and controlled.

The scoreline indicates that the only thing the Giganticos (like the Galacticos-just bigger) of Middle Park threatened was the stitching on their X-L tops, however the team did have a number of chances which on another day may have resulted in a swag of goals. Marty’s header from a corner disallowed for an imaginary infringement while the score was 0-1, Pete’s cracking free kick that smacked the cross bar and Scott’s header again off the cross bar early in the second half all hint of what might have been, and hopefully what will be as the season unfolds.

Certainly, a team with a spine that includes Graham “ the Cat” Wallace (the only cat with 9 goals instead of 9 lives), Adrian Pender at the back, Richard Cook & Dom in centre midfield and Scott McGregor & Goran upfront will be competitive and pick up results. More game-time under our belts and some learnings from the game just gone will help this process. Roll on next week and the chance to get off the mark.

Book

Finished "All The Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy, which was amazing. I will definitely be reading some more of his work, if not all of it.

I always impressed when writers can break all the rules about writing you were taught in grade school and get away with it.

Book

Finished "The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan", which was pretty fascinating, really.