My last post prior to today was about the start of my soccer team's first indoor session of the year. Well, that season did *not* go so well. We finished with 1 victory, 1 tie and 6 losses. After the success of our last season (we finished 7-1), we were pushed up a division, which hurt. At the same time, we lost some of our players, which hurt.
So we're now two games from the end of our second session for the year and are now 4-2, having been pushed back down to the third division since the second season. Our game this past Sunday was a victory, but only in name - the other team forfeited due to lack of players; we scrimmaged (giving them two of our players) and the rest of the team just could not get it together. I think it ended something like 7-1 or some crap like that. :-(
In other athletic news - I've only run one road race so far this year (since the Belle Isle Fun Run on New Years Eve), which was the Super Bowl 5K - it was a slightly long course by both my Nike+ and my Garmin, but I felt very good and thought I had a good race.
Tomorrow I run a second race for the year - another one associated with Running Fit in Novi - The Run Fit 5K. I'm looking at another 4 in the next 6 weeks or so, so things are picking up.
I also think I've managed to pull together two teams for the Detroit Marathon relays this next October, which I'm happy about!
Lastly - as for general running - January was a slow start - not so much because of the weather but because of the house flood, hotel, etc., situation. I finally settled into things (running at the office several days a week to juggle schedules) and have managed to rack about 375 miles this year so far! I'm in a challenge on the Nike+ site to run 1,000 miles in the 2008 calendar year - I think I'm well ahead of pace right now, but it's a good goal for me!
Showing posts with label Soccer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soccer. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
A new season of indoor soccer starts
Well, I never did close out on my last season of indoor soccer here, did I? My last post on soccer was providing some updates on our improvement as a team. The season after I posted about there (that would be "S3" - i.e., session 3 for winter 2007), my team actually won the division! We finished with a 7-1 record, with the only loss being our first game, and with a victory over a team that hadn't lost in over two full seasons! It was great. We didn't have a huge offensive output but the team played a very tight defense. To put in terms of the table from my last post, the Average Joes averaged 5.13 goals/game and our opponents averaged 2.13. Sweet :-)
Tonight, we started our first indoor season as the Average Joes for this year. We skipped the first session (November-December) because a number of us were injured. Some of the guys played together on other teams, but the Average Joes held off.
Our game tonight ended up with close loss - 7-9 - to a team that had a couple of phenomenally good offensive players. Now, the shocking thing is, I actually scored 4 (maybe 5) goals (I say it that way because the fifth goal seemed to be an own goal by the other team, but my own team insisted I take credit for it as I was standing right next to the guy)! I couldn't believe it, to be honest (and still don't). Just had some great passing and I managed to get myself into the right place a few critical times, I guess.
My knee (which if you know me, has been bothering me since my outdoor season) didn't bug me during the game, which was a great thing. I'm hoping it doesn't start bothering me any time soon.
This will obviously impact my running, but I'm still hoping to get in 4 or so runs on average a week. Of course, our recent plumbing disaster has also put a (temporary) crimp in running.
Tonight, we started our first indoor season as the Average Joes for this year. We skipped the first session (November-December) because a number of us were injured. Some of the guys played together on other teams, but the Average Joes held off.
Our game tonight ended up with close loss - 7-9 - to a team that had a couple of phenomenally good offensive players. Now, the shocking thing is, I actually scored 4 (maybe 5) goals (I say it that way because the fifth goal seemed to be an own goal by the other team, but my own team insisted I take credit for it as I was standing right next to the guy)! I couldn't believe it, to be honest (and still don't). Just had some great passing and I managed to get myself into the right place a few critical times, I guess.
My knee (which if you know me, has been bothering me since my outdoor season) didn't bug me during the game, which was a great thing. I'm hoping it doesn't start bothering me any time soon.
This will obviously impact my running, but I'm still hoping to get in 4 or so runs on average a week. Of course, our recent plumbing disaster has also put a (temporary) crimp in running.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Soccer updates
Well, seeing how it's been so long since I've posted, I've played a few seasons with my soccer team.
Since I last posted, I played a full summer season with a house team at the Soccer Zone. Turns out that the summer seasons are quite a bit more competitive, probably because only the "hard core" teams play. We ended up playing against teams that were much better and lost all of our games.
Last fall, back with the regular team, we actually managed to win 2 games, which was a big improvement for us. Of course the team we beat was, um, not so very good and we beat the same team in both games that we won.
In my most recent season, which ended a week ago yesterday, we actually won 4 of our 8 games! It was quite an achievement for us and was a combination of getting a few new (better) players on the team and also a significant improvement for those of us (myself included) who are still learning to play.
We started the third session last night with a loss to the team that is pretty much the same team I played on the house team with last summer. We played better against them then we have, but still need to improve.
If you look at our performance over the last several seasons, here's the goal differential from our first season to our most recent full season:
As you can see, we've steadily improved our goal differential each season - from more than 8 in our first season (ouch!) to less than 1 in our most recent season!
Since I last posted, I played a full summer season with a house team at the Soccer Zone. Turns out that the summer seasons are quite a bit more competitive, probably because only the "hard core" teams play. We ended up playing against teams that were much better and lost all of our games.
Last fall, back with the regular team, we actually managed to win 2 games, which was a big improvement for us. Of course the team we beat was, um, not so very good and we beat the same team in both games that we won.
In my most recent season, which ended a week ago yesterday, we actually won 4 of our 8 games! It was quite an achievement for us and was a combination of getting a few new (better) players on the team and also a significant improvement for those of us (myself included) who are still learning to play.
We started the third session last night with a loss to the team that is pretty much the same team I played on the house team with last summer. We played better against them then we have, but still need to improve.
If you look at our performance over the last several seasons, here's the goal differential from our first season to our most recent full season:
| W05-06 S2 | Average - Team Score | 1.25 |
| Average - Opponent Score | 9.5 | |
| W05-06 S3 | Average - Team Score | 3.13 |
| Average - Opponent Score | 6.5 | |
| W06-07 S1 | Average - Team Score | 3.13 |
| Average - Opponent Score | 4.25 | |
| W06-07 S2 | Average - Team Score | 2.5 |
| Average - Opponent Score | 3.38 |
As you can see, we've steadily improved our goal differential each season - from more than 8 in our first season (ouch!) to less than 1 in our most recent season!
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Soccer game number 6!
Tonight, my soccer team (the Average Joes - mostly fathers of kids who now go to or previously went to my kids' elementary school) played the sixth game of our first season.
We lost...
Again...
Not too surprising - it was against the team in first place in our division and the same team who, um... to be polite, beat us 15-2 in our very first game. However, we played a lot (!) better tonight. We "only" lost 7-0 and only gave up 1 goal in the entire second half. A much better showing than we've put forward before.
I played 6 or 7 shifts - my first was about 10 minutes long in the first half as forward. I've found that forward is one of the least taxing positions on the team because (unfortunately) the ball tends to spend most of its time in the other end of the field. I try to stay about midfield so that I can be somewhat ready when we recover the ball (typically when our goalie makes a stop - and tonight he made a lot of them!) to receive the ball downfield.
I've found (or perhaps confirmed) tonight that my major weaknesses are still lack of experience with dribbling and lack of knowing the techniques to really kick the ball hard. The latter came to light when I had a couple breakaway plays going downfield and couldn't put enough oomph behind the ball to feel like the shots on goal (OK - "shots near goal" ;-) ) had any chance of getting past the goalie. I've got to practice, practice, practice!
We have two more games left and then our next season will be starting just a week or two after the last game. I'm hoping we continue to improve. It'd be nice to feel like we're at least being competitive in a game.
We lost...
Again...
Not too surprising - it was against the team in first place in our division and the same team who, um... to be polite, beat us 15-2 in our very first game. However, we played a lot (!) better tonight. We "only" lost 7-0 and only gave up 1 goal in the entire second half. A much better showing than we've put forward before.
I played 6 or 7 shifts - my first was about 10 minutes long in the first half as forward. I've found that forward is one of the least taxing positions on the team because (unfortunately) the ball tends to spend most of its time in the other end of the field. I try to stay about midfield so that I can be somewhat ready when we recover the ball (typically when our goalie makes a stop - and tonight he made a lot of them!) to receive the ball downfield.
I've found (or perhaps confirmed) tonight that my major weaknesses are still lack of experience with dribbling and lack of knowing the techniques to really kick the ball hard. The latter came to light when I had a couple breakaway plays going downfield and couldn't put enough oomph behind the ball to feel like the shots on goal (OK - "shots near goal" ;-) ) had any chance of getting past the goalie. I've got to practice, practice, practice!
We have two more games left and then our next season will be starting just a week or two after the last game. I'm hoping we continue to improve. It'd be nice to feel like we're at least being competitive in a game.
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