Soccer is great

Soccer is great. It is the deepest of sports and can be enjoyed on so many level. I love the individual skill of players. The passion of fans. The unity of the teams. I love the management side and the tactical battle of coaches. The drama of send off's and player stouches. The ludicrousy of sudden gaffes. The celebration of victory. The glory of goals.

There's been some great football recently. First poor Boro got trashed 4-0 in the Uefa Cup Final. But it was 1-0 till the end, and had Viduka scored with his point blank shot which was saved, or been given what looked a clear penalty moments later, it could have been so different. In the end Seville then got another goal, and then 2 more quickfire to kill off the contest. It was great to watch from a coaching perspective too since the style of the two teams couldn't be more pronounced. Boro played physical, hard running, direct (long ball) football. While Seville were far more cultured and patiently built up intracate attacks based on team and individual skill 1v1.

Last saturday we played UC in Men's. They were nothing great, and we put together 2 good halves of football (opposed to 1 good, 1 bad in the previous two games) and won convincingly 5-1. I sooo almost scored the best goal of my life - striking a deep cross hard and true arrowing to the near post corner only to be hacked off the line. Oh well, next time!

The FA Cup Final was the pick of all the matches. Went down to the Trivia Night at the RSL before hand which was fun - I won the Moonwalk Contest! ;) Then charged off to Hawkins' to watch the game. It was pretty quiet at Adam's place, but the game was so good it wasn't quiet for long. 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3! And West Ham hearts were broken when Liverpool triumphed on penalties. High drama throughout, the underdog was never behind, and all 3 goals were poorly kept by Pepe Reina until he saved West Ham's terrible penalty attempts! Gerrard's 36yard stunner on the stroke of full time was unbelievable and will go down as one of the best FA Cup goals ever in one of the best FA Cup Finals of all time too!

Women's was a cruel re-enactment of that match, twice taking the lead, and twice pegged back by our frailty at corners! Oh well. A point is a point!

The Champions League Final promised to be an even better star-studded spectacular between the 2 most attractive teams in Europe! And it was, for 20 minutes. And then that silly fool Lehmann had himself sent off, and then the game as a contest of attacking football was over. Arsenal is too well drilled a team to not know what to do, and promptly closed up shop for the rest of the match while a decidedly lethargic Barcelona led by a largely ineffective Ronaldhino kept the ball and occasionally tried to attack. Henry on the other hand was magic for 75 minutes but eventually even his seemingly limitless reserves of stamina were drained at the end of a punishing season. None the less Arsenal were a worthy team and took the lead through a thumping Campbell header, and could almost have recorded a famous victory had Henry's early shots slipped past Valdes, or Ljungberg's late effort done so. In the end, Henrik Larsson proved his class from the bench, slipping in both exquisite passes to unlock the Arsenal vault and put Barca 2-1 up. Painful to watch, as Arsenal played so well and before the send off looked the better team.

Today, Men's recorded another big win, best so far, but in bizzare circumstances in a game that almost had it all! Jay got the scoring going, slipping the ball beneath their poor goal keeper. His second was a well positioned tap in after a shot was fumbled. Then Ian managed to score an own goal after finding himself heading the wrong way and unsure of what Hugh in our goal intended. After the break we created a host of chances but couldn't find the breakthrough. Tate headed over from within the 6 yard box after a spectacular cross, Pat also headed wide after a superb dead ball was delivered to him on the edge of the 6 yard. Eventually Croxy got a decent double, Tate forced a farcical goal past their hapless custodian, and then capped a display of increasing quality with a fine stabbed finish to our best move of the game involving 4 players playing clever hast triangles past the opposition from half way!

Tomorrow I head to Cooma for my first proper 'away' trip with Women's. Normally I would fancy us to record a comfortable win against this team new to the division and encountering difficulty in scoring so far. However they have the home ground advantage, which is rumoured to be a large field, with only 11 players and no goal keeper! The odds are considerably against a positive result, none the less - as described above, a great percentage of soccer is heart, passion and the will to win.

*****
I should add, there are disappointments too. Training this week was tough. The Men continue to react with hostility to new concepts, but are slowly and surely integrating it into their play. Women on the other hand had poor turn outs and are to inexperienced to understand the new tactical concepts at all. Also I got stomped once on each foot at men's training, despite barely participating at all, and the wednesday stomp managed to bruise my foot pretty badly and ultimately forced me to cut myself from the team card for todays game. Losing sucks. I've lost and deserved it this season. Last year my girl's lost on penalties after playing their guts out. And the lost at the same time last season after being 2-0 up and throwing it away in overconfidence and lack of passion. Any one of these could happen tomorrow :S and maybe, just maybe, we will have a remembered victory!

Bugger. We got done in 4-0. The girls played proudly though and went very close until the very end when the score blew out.