To prepare for the company soccer tournament. I started working out and eating better. Too bad I didn’t work out hard enough, because I knew coming in how easily winded I got.
This year I think the team was a little bit weaker than last year. We had a bunch of new people, and a whole new set of girls. We lost one of our best midfielders, our old co-worker tavis that was a good midfielder.So without him we were having a hard time controlling the midfield. Also the girls we had were overall not as good as last year. I think last year girls were a little bit more technically sounds.
I ended up with another girl as my winger who had never played soccer before. So because of that, she didn’t really do much to help, she did get a little better as the day went on. However she didn’t really pass well.
I played the same way I played last year, 10 minute shifts, so I played a good 1 hour and 20 minutes.
As for our team, I think a lot of the players on our team were good, but not “game changers” midfielders because of injury or just not fast enough to move their defense.
I wish I had better stamina, because I could not really play midfield. If I could, I think I could be a game changer, however I just cant last long enough. However, I was able to generate really good chances on offense when I got the ball. Hard part was getting the ball to offense, so I dropped back down deeper to help with midfield. Then I could push the ball up.
The hard part was seeing the girls on the wings be unable to push the ball forward, I think because of that, some of the guys stopped passing to them. (so the girls were kind of angry that they guys were just passing to themselves). I could see why the guys were frustrated with that.
As for how I generated offensive chances, I was mostly pressing all the guys on defense. A lot of times they didn’t really make clean passes, so I was able to get close enough to cause them to lose the ball, which I then got and would feed the girl that was open to the wing. So what I did that the other forwards couldn’t do was move really fast. The other guy they had playing, he is good, but not that fast, so balls that went into the corner, he didn’t chase, so he never really got the ball. I on the other hand, just went bezerk when I could get close to the ball.
In one game, I had 2 really good chances for my team, on one of them, the girl on my team at midfield kicked it forward (without the other defender blocking it) and it landed in no man’s zone. For that one, I went into an all out sprint and beat the defender to the ball, so push it forward one step before the defender got to the ball. Then I had to do a power hop to make sure I didn’t trip over the guys leg. Essentially I had a step on him going forward, and I pushed it up the wing another 10 feet, then I heard Koray running to the middle, so I pulled the ball back and fed a sweet pass to him. He then had a 2 on 2, but it was him and the other Andrew, with the defender being a guy and a girl. They got a header that was blocked, then koray got the ball at the top of the box and missed a shot high.
The other play was awesome! I was calling for a sub, for a good minute because I was juiced. For these girls, I tried not to run into a spot, because I don’t think they would be good at feeding me on the run. I usually just found an open spot and sat in there. 
One of the girls makes a perfect through pass to me in the midfield. My eyes lit up when I saw the pass was actually going to hit me on my feet. So I get it, and I start to fly. I have an older guy as the defender in front of me, and maybe 20 feet to my right is the other guy defender. Since I got the ball in stride, I took it in stride, so I was going straight but slightly to my right, the guy defender started to backpedal because he knew if he challenged me right there, I would fly past him. I wish it was 4 minutes early, because I would have decided to beat him, however I out of gas. It was a good thing that from the left corner of my eye, I saw two girls on my team appear. I am around 15 yards in, and 10 yards to the right of the midfield, so I send a crossing pass to the girls and hit them in stride maybe 25 yards from the goal (they had a 2-0, the closest defender was maybe 25 yards away) . Then I just lay on the ground and stare to see if they score. The girl drives in and takes on open shot from just outside the goal box and it has no power, so the goalkeeper blocks it (I heard her say to herself she was so upset that she messed up and took such a weak shot).
This girl on my team has never played soccer before on the left. What I found really intriguing about her was her legs. She has tattoos on her thigh and under her thighs. I kept on wanting to stare at them to figure out what they were. Hahahahahaha.
I think there was one more play I remember from that day that stuck out to me. Our team did not have really good passing. We moved the ball into the corner, and I am starting to move to my left to give the girl an open spot to pass back to me, but the girl passes to my right side so gets the ball deflected up a little bit to me. There was one defender coming towards me and the ball, and a teammate maybe 5 feet in front of me with no defender. Since I was moving to my left. the only way I could stop and kick the ball was to put both hands out and stretch out my right foot like I was doing the splits. But because I did that, I was able to get a perfect pass to my teammate (he was not marked, so had a good 10 feet bubble). He turned around and took a good solid shot on goal, however he shot it wide. But I remember that as a really good opportunity for him.
Then I realize, I never took any shots on goal, I must either be a really bad striker, or I might be more of a playmaker forward/winger. So I am leaning towards that, and the only reason I never take a shot is because I never actually get the ball comfortably in the shooting zone area. Then the second thing is that I am usually working hard in the corners trying to gather the ball so when I win it, I try to cross to the middle.
We also played a premier-A CoEd team. That team is so good, the girls are like collegiate soccer players. I was sad I got pulled down by a girl during a throw in. She had a hard touch so I slide the ball backwards under me, and as I was turning she grabbed and pulled me down by my shoulder. 
Then there was this one play, their best playmaker (guy in neon green socks). I’m not sure what happened on defense, but somehow I was near the back of the line, and he makes a freaking run. The girl on my team Naomi goes “Andrew, mark him”. After the guy has 2 steps on me. He was ridiculously fast, I guess I was a little faster than him, because I did mostly catch him, he might have had a 1/3 step lead on me. However, I did have the inside track to the ball, he had no way of bringing the ball towards the middle as we kept on drifting left. So we had started to the right of midfielder, and when wee reached 5 feet from the goalie box he was at the left edge of the goalie box and the only shot he could take was straight. So he missed our goal by a good 5 feet. Then I had a sub and sat out the rest of the 2nd half of the game because I was exhausted.
That guy was really fast because I saw later in the game he was running circles around a couple of the people on my team. So he must have known the same thing I knew, that if he tried to move the ball to the middle, I would have actually beaten him to the ball because I would have caught up with that 1/3 step. and also driven him off the ball.
I think I actually really like soccer still. It is a really tiring game, but it allows me to ball hawk. Some reason, I grew up and got good instincts so I know where to go to look for the ball. Even though I might not be the most skilled (because of practice). I have a couple moves and speed that are strong enough to get beat defenders. So they always remember to mark me because if they don’t, I will just go flying by.
