Soccer

Hoo boy. Big match against the league leaders today. They have one key striker who's really strong and good at distributing the ball, and my sole job today was to prevent him from getting the ball, and tie him up as well as possible when he did.

We took the lead on a free kick chipped to the far post -- our key striker let it bounce once, then roofed it beautifully. Shortly afterwards we scored again on a counterattack, out of nothing really. They claimed offsides on both. Either or neither might have been, I don't know. The referee was one of the most clueless we've seen, though.

They started trying to take advantage of that, diving left and right, and getting the call consistently. I dispossessed my man cleanly just outside the box, but the guy yelled as he fell and got the call. A few minutes later he tripped over my legs and took another dive. I yelled at him, calling him a "f*cking p*ssy" I think, and he got up and tried to get in my face. When I wouldn't take the bait he actually spat on me. I laughed and said, "Classy."

A few minutes later, I slid in on a different player, and got the penalty called on me. Their player tried to gloat to me. Whatever. That made it 2-1.

Halftime, and we restored our discipline. Still, we were under a lot more pressure in the second half. Highly nerve-wracking, not being able to tackle your man without getting called for a foul, and not being able to trust in getting an offsides call either. But we held on. I just had to stand up my man when he got the ball, and not challenge too hard. Once when I was doing this he got off a beautiful chip to the far post to a charging player, but our keeper had a beautiful save, the save of the season no doubt.

The ref blew time at least five minutes early, from what our players on the sidelines said. Karma I guess. Their players got in the ref's face with some of the angriest words I've heard out there, but it was all over -- 2-1 was the final. Phew! Nasty game. Did we sing the team song today? Yes we sang the team song today.