The outdoor fall season has come to an end for our soccer team. We luckily held our first place position in the rankings for our league despite a few troubles here and there. Now the questions that boggle my mind is as follows; “Did we improve over last year?” (We had been relegated from 1st Division last year to 2nd Division this year after losing nearly all our games.) Are our opponents weaker/easier/inferior? Could it be the new uniforms?
Well, for the most part I do think that we as a team have progressed, although our training methods have remained similar to that of last season. Our roster has remained stable with no fluctuations in players coming and going. Positions are assigned to each player and for the most part kept during gameplay. The team has not only progressed, yet we seem to be more unified this season. Our captain/coach has slightly changed his methods although I must say that this still bothers quite a number of us. The lineup is often very questionable and substitutions are even more so, and so a number of us tend to get upset as these decisions are made solely by our captain/coach who seems to be missing the overall view of the game. Yet as Romans 2:1 states that we should not pass judgment – I’ll stop there.
Personal Achievements/Successes/Failures
Last season I was a top scorer in our league as well as one of two players with double digits in goals on our team. This season the goals stayed minimal, but another statistic skyrocketed – assists. I played center midfield for most of my soccer career – fast, strong and loads of stamina and endurance. My technique and skills have been more than lacking (since high school) yet I still manage to move the ball, somehow. This season I preferred playing wide (right midfield). This gave me the opportunity to use my speed and create several chances with crosses – many of which were converted. I feel very comfortable on the side now and I more than enjoy crossing. Its sort of my new thing – like Figo and co.
I started 8 times and played all 9 games of the season being substituted 4x – no comment. This fall season I only put 2 goals into the back of the net, yet out of a total of 33 goals scored by our team – I had the privilege of assisting a little more than half of those. My injury list subsided this season as well. I pulled my right hamstring in our third to last game, a week later played semifit with the same injury and then tore my left hamstring due to an unnecessary foul in our last game. To bring it to the point – this season I felt fit! Now what I do need to get working on is technique and ball handling skills.
I have pondered of transferring to a higher division team, often pondering how far I could take it, yet then reality pulls me back and I wonder if I really have the time commitment to stand on the pitch at least 5 days a week for practice aside from classes at college and elsewhere, working multiple jobs and the everyday usual – so with this I guess I end up staying at least till the end of the spring season and taking it step by step. My close – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27