Not a Win Win

Tonight at my soccer game I got there early to warm up.  As I was practicing on the field and I was juggling.  You may remember my soccer ball that I blogged about a couple weeks ago.  It was a really nice Nike light blue soccer ball.  Well I was on my marry way warming up getting ready for our last game of the season, when I kicked the ball up and took a shot at the goal.  It went way over and I thought I saw where it went but when I went over to find it, it was no where to be found.

I lost my brand new soccer ball.  First loss.

Then it was unbearably hot at the fields at 6:30 and I was out of shape for the heat.  It was a relatively close game until about 10 minutes until the end of the game and 3 girl goals slipped in.  Girl goals count for 2.  Second loss.

Can't be a win win all the time!  Better luck next time!

How did we tie?!

We fought so hard last night! We scored first and early but to my surprise we didn't pull out a win, we didn't lose, but we did tie.  If you have been following the blog you have have read about us winning the last 3 games in a row! We have been on fire recently, if I must say so myself.  I love it, adult coed recreational soccer that is.  I went shopping for some new gear to prepare for our game, over at Dick's Sporting Goods.   They were super friendly and gave me all the advice I needed on which new soccer ball would withstand the normal wear and tear.  I ended up getting the new bright blue Nike soccer ball.

For all my Soccer needs

I also bought these really comfy ADIDAS soccer socks and pink athletic tape to hold my socks up. Oh and I bought a mouth guard that forms to your mouth with a 10,000 Warranty!!  I gave my old deflated soccer ball to my dog General. haha He has already torn it up! haha.

So I made my mouth guard to form to my teeth and then, wouldn't you know, after all that I forgot to wear it during the game.  So, going back to the game.  I warm up now with my friend Kathleen, and she is sweet as pie.  Getting lots of touches on the ball is so important and you want to make sure you do that before the game because you never want your first touch to be during the game because no one will pass to you if you mess up too much ;)

Soccer is a game about trusting your teammates to complete passes to other players successfully when you give them the ball.  If you don't have confidence in someone during a game you will not likely pass them the ball, or if you are new on a team.  You kind of have to earn people's respect on the field, marking players, defending the players, getting to the ball first, passing successfully and accurately.   All of these things go into making a good player.  But it doesn't matter how good you are, you need to be able to have the trust of the other players on your team.  So I am glad my teammates trust me.

Me and Raul scored goals early in the game and I was feeling much better from my mini injury last week and then the other team tied it up then they score then we scored.  So the score at the end of the game was 4-4 because my goal, as a woman counts for two.  To be fair, they had a really good keeper!  I remembered him,  he looks slow but was just the opposite, he was quick!!!  We had many chances but just couldn't pull out a win, maybe next time!!

Playing with a little bit of Pain

Jason Heyward, courtesy of  Getty Images

The legendary Chipper Jones was recently quoted as saying, “What Jason needs to realize is that Jason at 80 percent is a force, and Jason at 80 percent is better than a lot of people in this league. And that there are a bunch of his teammates that are out there playing with discomfort and not healthy, and still going at it.” Some might say he was telling Heyward to play with a little bit of pain.  No, if you are going to hurt yourself further should you play, but sometimes an amazing player is still really good when they are in a small amount of pain!  So I took his advice, here's the full scoop!!!  Enjoy...

Tonight I got stuck in traffic at 8:50 pm going southbound on the interstate, which even for Atlanta OTP (Outside the Perimeter) is unusual, and was running late to the game (I like to warm up, but was still on time for the start).  When I was ready to go in, I was literally on my first offensive run down field when I collided with another player and his knee hit the soft part right above my knee and stepped on my toe and boy did it sting.  So I was subbed out.  I tried going back in after letting it sit for a minute and took one hard kick down field for a pass and BAM, the pain was back. So I subbed out.
Then I got some ice, I rested for a minute and then before you knew it, it was half time.  I asked the keeper if I could take some shots on him to gauge the threshold for how hard I could realistically kick the ball without killing my knee!  He might have appreciated the extra practice too, who knows?!

Nagravision soccer team pulls out another victory!

Well the second half was my time to shine, I went back in and keep in mind this was a really close game.  My friends on my Nagravision company sponsored team had them close, so it was still a pretty good game.  The referee wasn't calling fouls like I would have liked so the players on BOTH teams were having to be really aggressive, which is also unusual in a recreational league!  But I really got into it the second half.  We were passing really well and when Marta passed the ball to one of our guys on offense I made sure to be in good position by the goal.  He passed to me and I made a clean strong one touch shot to score for our team.  Since I am a female in a co-ed league my goal along with other woman counts for two!  So we secured our win, and I played through a little bit of pain.  We ended up winning that game 6-3 and we also have won the last three games in a row!  What can I say we are hot right now on a winning streak!  I am just very thankful to play with such classy players!

Soccer is my Passion, What are you Passionate About?!?!

It was all smiles after I scored a goal for my team.

You hear people all the time say do what you are passionate about.  Do what makes you happy.  When are you at your best?  As a woman in my twenties I can happily tell you I am at my best when I am playing a sport, most notably soccer!!!

Most people have heard of ADIDAS, but do you know what it really stands for?  All Day I Dream About Soccer, this is true for athletes all over the world.  Here in North East Atlanta on any given night is no different.  All different types of players from semi pro to recreational players to youngsters just trying to have a good time.

For the last couple games we were not doing the best. But tonight, as you can see from my smile, we were winning for a change.  We were up 4-0 at half and people said we can't let up because about two or three weeks ago we were in the same position and we ended up losing 4-5.  So I told everyone, it's like running a marathon, you have to try to play harder the second half just like you run faster the second half of a marathon.  It's called negative splits, in running.

Well the second half started and we scored a couple of goals, just like I had hoped.  But then they scored and started to look like they were having a come back, but then we scored.  The game ended up being 9-4 with our team winning.  It was the best possible outcome we could hope for during a game.  I will say the other team was very aggressive and made things difficult for us.  One thing that helped us is we had a couple girl goals and they count for two when their goals were all guy goals, only worth one. Life is rough.

So that was my night, soccer with my team, sponsored by Nagravision.  Thanks everyone for coming out!