Finally Friday

Well again with soccer last night. Have to tell you that it’s a stressful job. Never have I played a sport that I felt so nervous about playing and being successful.. Mind you,. Everyone knows that I am a beginner but I am also a person that loves to get it right. So I tend to spend the first hour before the game warming up and getting all sweaty to play the game and barely break a sweat.

Got to love it.

Anyway, we did much better last night then the last few weeks. The first game we played, it was 9 to 0. They had 4 penalty kicks and I stopped only one of those. After talking to everyone, they said they have never done penalty kicks and that this was a first. Nice to know I am the guinea pig on this league.

Second game we lost 8-0 yeah. I am improving. I stopped one more then the week before and while I felt good about it, I discovered that I could not block on of my own team players accidentally kicking it in. yeah.. Could not stop that one.. So.. Technically it was only 7 to 0 but still..

The funny part about this all, is I have never had to deal with losing this bad before. And feeling the pressure is unreal. I know I am by far no professional at all and certainly am not getting paid to play but still I want to win..

Last night we ended in a tie. Yep 2 -2. can not beat that.. well we could.. had we not had the accidentally kick in our goal by our own team. Yep another point. Too funny. Should have only been 2-1 and we would have won, but no.. And yet again, another penalty shot.. Everyone just shook their head. Seems I bring this out in the refs. Go figure.

What is the big deal about the penalty shot? Well let me make it simple and easy..

You (goal keeper, goalie) goalkeeper must be on the goal line between the goalposts that is huge (ok its only 8-yard wide by 8-foot tall goal) and you must prevent this tiny ball, from going in. Now my wing span, is not that big. I am lucky if I am all of 4 feet wide when I hold out my arms, the goal… way bigger.. BTW goalkeepers are allowed to move side-to-side along the goal line, but not to move forward until the ball is struck.

The kicker gets the chance to kick the ball with no one else around to help him or the goal keeper out. Mind you, they are only 12 yards away from me. Let me tell you, they seem a lot closer.. just looming there.. waiting... to score.. grr...

The penalty-kick really is a no-lose situation. The keeper is not expected to make the save, so the pressure is on the shooter (the conversion rate of penalty kicks, at all levels of soccer, is 80-90%)Yeah that gives me a 10% chance of stopping it.

Have I ever said I hate the ODDS?

So.. I got my hand on the one penalty kick last night but not enough to stop it, thus resulting in a tie game. Only thing I can say is we didn’t get our rumps handed to us this time.

For that I want to thank all the men and women that got the ball out and gave me the breathing room I needed to stop the shots that I stopped.. Thank you all.