Saturday, 14 November 2009
Am on ya compooterz, ritin ma blog
Well haaaai!
I know i haven't been posting as often as i would like to, and I know i say that everytime, but hey, what're you gonna do? :)
Just been thinking "What can I do? My sister's on the xbox, I'm sat here and i've visited every website i can think of, watching the BBC live text of the world cup qualifiers.....what now?", then it occured to me, i DID have something to do. So i had a shower, and here i am :)
Forewarning - The next few paragraphs are dedicated to football. If you have a resentment of this most beautiful of sports, skip on.
I suppose the main reason i came on here was to brag about something that happened in midweek. A group of 16 of us Football IEC'ers (do football as part of a diploma at school) jumped on a minibus and headed off to Prince William's in Oundle for a football tournament. We were split into two teams, and A team and a B team. The A Team was full of all the best players in the school, with Mr.T in goal (OK, we all knew it had to come. I got it over and done with nice and quickly), while the B team had all the people that weren't good enough to play in the match a couple of weeks previously.
As we arrived, we were in high spirits. Team A would probably win the tournament, and we would do whatever we could to give a good account of ourselves, knowing that in this, the season of FA Cupsets, anything was possible. During our warm up match between the 2 teams, i felt prettygood, my shooting was alright, and the team had gelled together quite well, as well as our keeper that had been brought in at the last minute performing better than we expected. Everything seemed alright.
Then the other teams arrived.
I think they were a mix of upper sixth and lower sixth, while we were JUST lower sixth. However, as i said before, anything is possible. We started the tournament.
The first game started pretty badly, we didn't have much possession at all, and their players totally outclassed us. I started on the bench, watching from behind, and when after a couple of minutes we went behind, i came on. From a different perspective, it was obvious why we were losing. The other team were stronger, faster, fitter and generally more skillful than us, and they made us pay. A 4-0 thrashing was our punishment. The highlight for me was hitting the post with a pass through to K that sort of turned into a shot.
We examined what happened and came to the conclusion we needed another man in defense. J offered to drop back with Jor and A to try and sure things up at the back, leaving K and Sh in midfield and me and St up front (though he was meant to be playing in midfield, he stayed further up the pitch than I did).
4-0 in the second match did nothing to raise our spirits, and after this game we rallied around to speak to Team A, whom we found had drawn 0-0 and lost 1-0. Neither team had scored...it didn't look good. The next game, we lost 3-0...a slight improvement. The only difference was we changed keeper, putting Jor in goal and playing H (supposedly) in defence. We did alright until near the end when their class shone through and they scored a quickfire treble. I had one chance, a long ball played over the top by H which bounced a bit to high and made me wait a little bit too long before volleying it at the top corner but watching the shot get tipped away by the keeper.
The next game was a shambles for us, despite only losing 2-0. We hadn't scored, and our team just disintegrated. Nobody wanted to be subbed, though we found out over the top balls were extremely effective, though we found out too late to make a real difference.
Thinking it was the end of the tournament and having not scored a single goal, we regrouped once more with Team A, finding out that they also hadn't scored a goal, though they had kept 2 or 3 clean sheets. When they originally found out that they weren't going to be able to play us, they were outraged, saying that everyone else had an advantage of being able to play us. However, at th end of the 4 games, they found there would be playoffs for 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th and 5th/6th place. 5th/6th? Team A vs Team B. This was perfect, and we were able to play all 8 players at once instead of 7 + 1 sub. Before the game i told everyone that "If we score and take the lead, BIG celebration!" to which H replied "CONGA!"
The game was fantastic, we were able to control the ball, and they totally underestimate us. Their tactic was 7 upfront, with P in goal, and occasionally L dropping back. And with this, Jor, released from his role as a keeper and led back into the outfield, picked up a fantastic through ball from K, ran down the left flank and booted it into the net. That was it, BIG CONGA time. We all erupted into cheers, and sprinted to the center to celebrate. That is when J shouted "THEYRE STARRTING AGAIN YOU PRICKS!". He charged back to stop L from scoring, and in doing so conceded a free kick, to which we were not able to form a wall before KM hoofed it home, making it 1-1.
Towards the end of the game was the best. It was tense, and there was a lot of open play. That is when St picked up the ball on the wing. He dribbled it in, i saw my chance and ran up to the goal. He looked up, saw me and put in a low pass. It went past P in goal, and my entire footballing life flashed before my eyes. You see i've never been fantastic at scoring close range efforts from crosses. My timing is always slightly off as i use my toe, giving me a very small margin of error. However, this time i showed the inside of my foot and tapped it in.
It was a simple goal, but it was the first one i'd scored in a competitive match since year 6, which made it that much sweeter. The celebration was even bigger than before, though without so much running intothe middle allowing them to score. For the rest of the game, we were on the backfoot, vigorously defending and praying we could hang on. KM had lots of chances, but someone, usually J, got in the way. I was really impressed with J throughout the whole tournament. He was solid at the back and won almost every header he went for. When the final whistle went, i dont think any of us have ever cheered so loud. David had beaten Goliath. It was Kettering vs Fulham in the FA Cup again, but this time, the right team had won. (In reality, Fulham won 4-2 with 2 late goals to seal the victory). It felt like winning the champions league final, and i'm sure we'll remember it for many years to come.
On the way back, we were all celebrating, and i was being congratulated for scoring the winner. We came 5th, but that didn't matter. We beat the best team in the school. That's all that mattered. For the next few days, it wasn't left alone. There were announcements in assembly, people patting us on the back, and i've even picked up a few nicknames (Duke the Nuke, Dukain Bolt and Duke Chambers among my favourites) and i must say the attention is welcome. It has done wonders for our morale and I'm not looking forward to training on wednesday when, no doubt, we will get our asses kicked across the field.
There's my football talk over. In other news, my sister had her boyfriend round today, so what else did we do? We played monopoly. It was actually really fun, everybody got competitive and i learned not to trust anyone :P. I'm actually really glad that she is going out with him. He's a nice enough lad, i get on well with him and he can be a laugh. He isn't everyones cup of tea, but i think he fits in well with our family.
Look at that, me commenting on my sister's boyfriend. I think that's a sign that i'm done tonight.
Twas nice to talk...at you all. Hasta banana ;)
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Write about something other than football and I might bother to read it!
ReplyDeletethat's my first football one :) and it was a brag to be honest :P
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