Futbol this weekend was like a study in contrasts. Saturday we played a team that's just starting out and they were short players, so we won by a lot. Then Sunday, we played Independiente. Our relations with them are strained at best, in large part because a number of their players used to play for us. Matches against them often end up in lots of cards and/or out and out fights. We were all braced for a tough--and ugly--match.
We actually started the match short two players, and from the first minute we were under pressure. Our sole goal was to keep the ball out of our net and hope against hope that we could hang on for a 0-0 tie. At Cecy's direction, I was running all over the place trying to cover the midfield and keep them from getting long shots on net, and by halftime we were all dead tired, but we had a 0-0 tie in hand and were feeling pretty good about it.
Second half, more of our players showed up, and we eventually got some chances on net, one of which Casa converted. Then Independiente evened it up on a defensive mistake. Late in the half, Sabina took a shot that ricocheted off one of their defenders and eluded the keeper into the back of the net. We held them off until the final minute. Then they got a corner kick, and as soon as it floated into the penalty box I instinctively knew they were going to score. End result: 2-2.
In all honesty, we played better in the first half when we were short players, I think in part because we figured there was nothing to lose, we were already at a disadvantage, might as well go down swinging. Unfortunately, by the time we reached full strength in the second half, most of us were already beat from the first half, and I think mentally we let up too. But we're hardly professionals. For me, it just felt good to play a hard-fought match and come out of it feeling pretty good about both my own personal play and the play of the team as a whole.
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