Cpher: No pictures here (and we did bring the camera to Dewitt, just didn’t get anything worth posting here); lacrosse has been going well, a 6-2 win against Dewitt and a 9-1 thrashing of Haslett. Bad news is when we do well (like against Haslett) the defense stands around and gets bored.
Against Dewitt Cpher did some of that standing around and literally watched a guy come in and around him to score a goal…..so, a few reminders about not watching and getting his body and stick on anybody who comes near the goal….he only had one chance to ‘defend’ against Haslett but that time he did knock the ball away from the kid.
Matthew: Two games on Sunday, won 5-1 and 4-3.
A certain predictor of good things; if Matthew is involved and getting his head on the ball, it means that he is hustling, playing hard, and playing where he should be on the field. This is the team we played last week and won 8-3…and we pretty much were on top of things here as well.
I don’t think this picture is from the first minute or two, but, Matthew’s efforts brought us our first goal, he moved up the sideline, tried to center the ball, had it blocked back to him, centered the ball again and we swooped in and scored.
My hazy-and-getting-older-memory thinks that he was in the exact right position for this corner kick BUT that kid right in front of the goalie or #64 deflected it…so, all for naught.
Yes, we try and get as many of the Aerial Matthew shots as we can…..
Suzanne got some very close-ups of Matthew this time. Love the sweat running off of his cheek in the last photo….
More head on ball action,. We’ve been joking with him that he closes his eyes right near impact (I mean, what else would you expect??)….
Game 2…we tied this outfit of U9’s in the first game of the season. That’s back when the talk around here started to turn to “What’s wrong with Matthew” and that talk didn’t end until after the tournament. Everyone happy that the mini-slump is over.
But, this game did not start well. We went down 0-2 and given the ‘slump’ we had, there were more than a few “uh-oh”’s from the parents about what could be coming. This is Matthew just missing another corner kick, on defense this time. The bad news is that the guy in white gets it and puts a shot on goal….that got Matthew and the other big kid in orange shoes there yelled at…..can’t be too mad t Matthew, he certainly tried for it. Think maybe he and that other kid shouldn’t be so close to each other but, hey, soccer happens….
We scored the next four. Matthew scored the second goal which you can watch if you clock on the picture above (go, watch it, it’s 15 seconds, and it’s hard to explain if you don’t watch it).
When there is a foul, you are awarded a free kick if you are outside of the ‘box’ (where the goalie can use his hand) and a penalty kick if you are inside. When I first saw the play I thought it was a penalty kick and started to zoom in and center on the net. I think most of our team, and certainly all of the other team, either thought it was a) a penalty kick or b) a free kick which we would take our time setting up…
BUT, you don’t have to do that, you can do a quick restart…and Matthew had been doing that a lot in indoor this year, as soon as the ball is set after a foul, boom, go, and that go is usually a shot on goal. So, he sets the ball down here (and just in case you didn’t watch the video), he hits the cross-bar and the ball deflects down and in. I didn’t see it, I don’t think many of us saw it. When I watch the tape you couldn’t convince me it crossed the line, but, the ref and the linesman were pretty emphatic about it. And the other coach didn’t say a word…..
(I like Aerial Matthew pictures a lot, I like pictures without any feet on the ground a lot too…)
This kid is trying to get by Matthew….
and doesn’t.
This kid is trying to get by Matthew…..
and doesn’t.
Again, these U9’s are really good…I think they are like 30-2 or something this year. They were, for small kids, pushy pushy pushy and as things started to come off the hinges for them, their parents started getting nasty nasty nasty. Ref had to stop the game and come over, twice, to tell them to shut up. A lot of hard fouls and frustration in the end as we hung on for the win.
We probably will play them again late in the playoffs…that ought to be fun.
