I want to get this out of the way early so I can get on with my life.

Other titles for this e-mail:

- Solid First Half…

- The Best Way to Earn a Free Kick For The Other Team Is To Slam Into Your Own Guy

- What Happens When You Don’t Water A Field After Spending Millions On Rebuilding It.

- What Dejan Really Thinks About the Ref and His Family

By The way…what’s with the American Football Scoreboard on a Soccer Pitch? “Down To Go?”

I reluctantly digress…

We knew this was going to be tough. These guys are top of the league on goal differential, went to the finals last year, just tied the defending playoff champs last week etc. They were everything that was advertised. We were going to have to play a perfect game to beat them. Well…we played an almost perfect first half. We dominated play in the first half. We pressured them, gave them no time on the ball and they were unable to do what they wanted. I would list out all the players that performed above and beyond – but it was everyone. We had the better of the scoring chances, a free kick by Julio that their keeper just got a touch on; Pete got on the end of a through ball that their defender had to make a perfect, saving tackle on as Pete had the keeper dead; Julio scored off a free kick but was offside; Fernando skillfully got around 3 guys to play a beautiful cross right across the goal mouth that we could not finish. I did not have to do much in the first half and we were at 0-0.

Could we play the same choking style of defense in the 2nd half? Not quite. I mentioned we needed to keep it up and keep our wits about us as one ball over the top could kill us. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut as they got an over lapping run on our right, 3 of our guys went to the one guy with the ball leaving one man alone in the middle, the cross came to him, I was able to make him dribble wide…but we were on our heels when he played it back to a trailer who buried it.

Only 1 down the mood was right to tie it but then bodies started flying and smaller Asian boys were bouncing off our bigger men. Alejandro and Daryl managed to knock each other out of the game on a 50/50 ball that we actually were penalized for..both were bloody and ended up with a trip to the doctor.

Dejan….well….Dejan managed to challenge a small kid in the box. The smaller kid flew, Dejan appeared a little late with the challenge and they got a PK. So I was at the same goal where I stopped a PK just a few days prior and I am always confident I will stop it. So when this kid walked up to the ball and kept looking to my left….I knew I had him as he was definitely going to go to my right. Then I over analyzed and figured this team was smart and he would do something like run up to the ball and stop – making me move first. So I hesitated. But he didn’t stop, save for a lame head fake, he shot it hard and low to my right….I went right but too late. I was so f@#$ing irritated at myself as I got fingertips to it and if I hadn’t hesitated I would’ve saved it. Not that it made a difference in the outcome.

So then we lost our s&^t. The ball was now constantly in our end. But our defense still held strong. I was a little busier as well. Their keeper took out our guy in the box as the last man and didn’t even earn a foul so that was a bit unfair. Yossi rightfully complained with a scream or two and earned his 2nd yellow and trip off the pitch. Playing with 10 men we did our best to stop the bleeding – no pun intended but another small asian boy bounced off of Dejan, they gave Dejan his 2nd yellow thus he got his red. I believe then Dejan invited the ref AND his whole entire family out for drinks after and to emphasize the point used a few colorful words. Since the ref had no more cards in the deck and wanted to quickly join Dejan at the pub, he called an end to the game.

And I thought I was emotional…

We need to quickly put this one in the rearview. This was a strong team and I know we can beat them. The problem with the format this year is that we do not get another crack at them – until maybe in the playoffs.

We have Liverpool Scullies early in the morning. Let’s focus on getting revenge on these bozos for knocking us out in the first round last season. We need to put a hurt on these guys and bury them. The 3 points next week will put us in a better mood.

Heal fast boys…both physically AND mentally…