So why am I naming the Sports Desk posts now? Was looking at my blog backups and one of the files said “From The Sports Desk (32)” and realized a) that’s a lot and b) I could do a better job of naming them to keep them different.
For all that yesterday was finally beautiful for soccer, the weather gods took away the sunny warm day that was predicted for Sunday and replaced that great weather with gray skies and a light but persistent rain. That rain, of course, got harder as the game started.
Should mention here that yesterday and today one of the other center midfielders wasn’t here….pulled his hamstring. This has meant more playing time for Matthew, a little more, but not a lot more, on Saturday. Today, it was noticeable….Matthew played a ton.
He earned every minute of his playing time….scored the first goal a few minutes in; tipped in a crossing pass for the goal. Had an assist on each of the next two goals as we won 5-2.
No video; we don’t tape in the rain. Only pulled out the camera when the rain slowed down significantly in the second half. This is right after heading the ball…he did a lot of that today…
I thought Matthew played well yesterday; he played even better today. When he had the ball, he always seemed in charge of the ball. Again made a ton of great passes to spring his teammates for shots on goal. Really liked his first assist; literally took the ball off of the front of his face (not the forehead where he tries to take it, cheeks and nose this time) and didn’t even slow down before he passed it and we scored. Was rubbing his face quite a bit as he walked back up the field after the goal though!
These pictures, from the header through the end here, are all of the same sequence (I didn’t take many photos because of the rain, but, wanted some for the blog…). A completely neutral observer noted that Matthew was the best player on the field, and that we looked like a rec team when he wasn’t out there helping to run the show. Matthew was not on the bench very often this game…
I think Matthew really impressed Mom and Dad late in the game when he ran back over half the field to track down one kid and take the ball….and then did it again to slide tackle their best player and stop another threat. That slide tackle didn’t seem that bad to me, the ref did not call a foul, but, the other kid did stay down for a bit.
At the end of the game I walk over to get the game reports from the ref. Usually I try to listen to what Alex is saying to the kids while I wait, but, this time, my concentration drifts as I keep hearing “Matthew” from the other team’s kids. Turns out that they aren’t very happy with Matthew for that slide tackle…they sound like they tried to get him near the end of the game and it was surprising to me that every kid on that team knew his name! Ref finishes the paperwork and takes it over to their coach, and their coach starts complaining about the slide tackle!
I ask the ref when he comes back about it, he said Matthew got the ball, and the asst ref says yeah, clean slide tackle. And that’s the end of that.
A pretty dominating performance by number 26 today.
He did take quite a beating; he said most of this came from the slide tackle….a little swelling, but not a lot. Hope some rest will cure all; there’s a lot of lacrosse on deck next week….
