Soccer Sundays...Strike Back!!

Yeaaaaaah baby yea!! Soccer season is back!  And it couldn't have come soon enough.  I'm so bored/stressed/consumed with studying that being able to get away from the books just to run around on a turf field for an hour is like a vacation for me!

I actually had to scale back on soccer this spring (believe me I'm not happy about this), I couldn't play with my women's league because their games were scheduled during the hours I'm sitting in bio lab, so I'm only playing with my co-ed league this season.

We had our first game this past Sunday, and for some reason winter decided to pay us a visit.  I know it's only early march and it should still be cold out, but it was a low of 26 that night and right now, 3 days later, it's 70 degrees out *scratches head*.  We've had a really mild winter here and the weather keeps flip flopping lately.  So I had all my cold weather gear on, hat, gloves, smart wool socks, running tights and a few layers of long sleeves. (I found these super awesome light Marmot shirts at REI on clearance, they're wicking and great for a base layer, so worth the $12 I paid for them :)).

We ended up tying 1-1, the other team scored a nice shot that hit the side post and bounced in in the last minute of the game.  I'll give them credit where credit is due, it was a close match.  We played really well I think considering it was our first game and most of us hadn't played together before.  More importantly I had an awesome time, made some good passes and didn't make a fool of myself.  I left the field kind of with an "I really needed that" feeling.  I really missed playing.  Taking all winter off was not fun.

Of course several days later I'm still feeling the effects of the game...not in a good way though lol.  My hamstrings were killing me for two days after the game.  I had an epsom salt soak Tuesday after bootcamp, but I think acupuncture really help clear that up.  Of course now my right hip is not feeling so hot, it started bothering me during today's leg work out.  I made sure to do an extra long stretch.  I go through this every start of the season after taking some time off.  No matter how much I condition and sprint, it's so not the same as actually being out on the field during a game!

So the moral of this post is stretch stretch stretch! Soak and rest...and also make sure you keep doing things you love as your work outs, it makes it so much more fun. :)

Ok, so theres been a lot of soccer news goin' on so here's my mini soccer news section: 

The Lionel Messi Show stomped all over Bayer Leverkusen.  Messi scored 5 Goals during a Champions league match, the first player to ever score that many goals in a champions league game! No one is better than him right now, no one is even close!

US Women's National team place 3rd in the Algrave Cup against Sweden.  Alex Morgan scores a hat trick.  This girl is on FIRE as well.

Ok, to me this is the most important news of all...

Arne Freidrich signs to Chicago Fire!!! No I'm not a Chicago Fire fan...but this latest signing is testing my allegiances. Who is Arne Freidrich you ask?  If you follow the German National Team you know... if you've followed any of my past soccer posts you might know as well.  He's a defender, which I dig because that's my position usually, but I've had this liiiiittle crush on him for oh... since the 2006 world cup, and he's now playing on American soil!!  Guess who's going to the next DC United v. Chicago Fire match... this chick. (See MLS...take a lesson from kickette, this is how you sell tickets!)

 Seriously... look at the man...

how can you not?!...just.  

No words right now.

Crushes aside this is good news for MLS.  The league needs more signings like this.  We need to attract more talent over here to make the games more exciting.  He was a big name on the German National Team (82 caps and a goal scored during the world cup--if you're thinking so what one goal?  Just remember he's a defender, we defenders rarely get the opportunity to score.) he played in 2 euro cups and 2 world cups, it's an impressive international career.  My only wish is that he signed with DC.  I'm sad that I never hear of DC getting any big international signings.  Is the club broke?  Their stadium situation is a mess, there's even been rumors of moving the team (which I'm ok with because the rumor was a move up to Baltimore and that's my home town)....but what's going on DC?

And now for some funny shit... Shit Soccer Girls Say from @soccergrlprobs


Yeah, I would so be the chick crying over a broken head band I can NOT work out with out my headbands! and the "T-shirt tiiime" was definitely me too, until I decided to clean out the drawers and donate to good will, now I only have a few colors that I really like (Black x2, red, purple, white, grey, navy...oh I guess I really didn't clean them out)

Soccer Sunday: Can you feel it?

My co-ed team lost its final game... our unfortunate win-less season is over but I could care less, I enjoyed every minute on the field, I loved playing with my team, despite the heart breaking losses we gave it our all every game and I don't think anyone gave up on encouraging each other to keep trying. Sadly my soccer seasons are over for a few weeks, but I'm not fretting or going into a panicked state of loss and denial clutching my cleats against my chest crying because there are no more games. In fact I think I'll be ok, more than ok actually, because there's a little bubble of excitement returning that's been dormant for four years...

Can you feel it too? That little twinge of anticipation...The feeling of wanting to jump up on your desk and shout "come on already!"...

I've had that feeling for a while...The anxiousness of following the qualifying matches, the fear or relief when the groups are announced, then the waiting, oh the agonizing wait...but all of a sudden there's little glimmers of hope... magazine covers start talking about it... you're friends want to know your predictions... you spend an evening at the bar with beers chatting about it...afternoons reading your magazines...

Are you confused? Can you not guess what I'm talking about?

I'll give you a hint.

It's not eclipse.
(I'm a blasphemer I know)

Just click play and watch the GREATEST commercial EVER! ;) you know you want to...

fdjakeioafneaio earu39a9!*!&*!&!^^~!!!!!!!!!!

*throws fist in the air!*

Are you still breathing?!?!

Maybe you're just watching it on repeat

And it's STILL 17 Days away!

*bangs head against desk*

Do you understand how many levels of awesome that commercial is?!?

Do you feel what I feel right now??

fanboys and girls...Imagine having to wait 4 years for the next favorite LOTR/comicbook/starwars/startrek film... now do you understand my level of excitement? This is bigger than all of that, this is bigger than anything, ever. Period. For one month the entire world is watching, cheering, crying, rejoicing...

Maybe you don't get it, maybe you're not into the beautiful game like I am...but maybe you should just give it a chance. There's no other sport out there as universal and uniting as soccer. All you need is one ball. So tune in it all starts June 11th, 2010!!

p.s. The video didn't feature one of the greatest players in the world...probably because he's not sponsored by Nike... but I will pay homage...

My hero... Lionel Messi

Watch out for him and the Argentina squad! Very eager to see how they do.

(call me crazy twi-fans but I *might* chose him over Robert Pattinson
if given the choice to meet both but I could only pick one--although I'm sure maybe Rob might want to meet him too and we could just go together, so it would all work out in the end ;))

image from Sports Illustrated

Soccer Sunday! Finally! We Tied!!

Just a short post today...I just have to say I am SO happy for my co-ed team... we FINALLY FINALLY TIED!!! Our record is 1 tie 6 or 7 losses and no wins... well now we have 2 ties!!! YES! We didn't win but we didn't lose, it was a 0-0 game but who cares, they didn't score against us!!! All of our defenders should be brushing their shoulders off and big props to our center mid who was constantly dropping back or running to the outside to help us out!

There were a few close calls with shots on goal, one guy ran past me when I thought our keeper had the ball and it was like I was watching it all happen in slow motion, ball bounced up off keepers fist, I thought it went out of bounds so I didn't do anything, other teams forward (my mark) starts running towards the ball that was still in play, our keeper is on the ground and me like an idiot was just standing there with a delayed reaction, but fortunately our keeper got up in time to save the ball again... *whew* THAT was a close call!! Another one was from a header from one of our team mates but again the keeper was there to recover...A good keeper is invaluable!

We have 2 games left in the season, our last game is the first round of play offs so if we save all our wins for the play offs ;) then our season will be even longer.

My women's team has it's last game next Saturday... super duper sad face!! BUT Summer session is just around the corner!

Soocer Sunday: Mega Post

Feeling is slowly starting to come back into my fingers now from playing out in the cold this evening.  So it's been two weeks since i've made one of these posts and I've played a lot of games since then plus a lots happened in the professional soccer world as well... So I'm going to do a two week mega post.

Last week's ladies league...

I played two games back to back and ran midfield for some of it.  My team won probably 5 or 6 - 0.  It was a beautiful day for soccer, sunny not too humid or hot.  The perfect weather to play in however half of our opponents team chose not to show up so me and a few other girls from my team were loaned to them so they could field a full team and we could play our game.  Lets just say I didn't play as "tough" as I normally do.

Game 2: I was helping out our other team (our team became really large and lots of people wanted to play with us so we split in 2 teams).  This was a rough game for them.  We play in the rec division (ie the fun relaxed division), but because in spring not as many people come out to play, the competitive division doesn't have a full schedule of teams.  So we sometimes have to play a competitive team...these are women who probably played in college at higher levels or what have you.  Our leagues motto is "for the love of the game".  Now given the circumstances (competitive more experienced team vs rec less experienced team) you'd think they would have backed off... you think they would have played a little more friendly and less aggressive...but clearly to THEM this was the world freaking cup. Hookers please.  Who are you trying to impress?  You're playing on a chopped up grass field in the suburbs... This isn't camp nou!  We lost by a large margin and it wasn't fun for anyone.   There was nothing "friendly" about this.

After about 140 minutes of play I had NO legs left!  And a nice case of sunburn on my face and scalp... Fun times :)

Sunday co-ed game:  My co-ed team is having a rough time this season.  I play with great talented players they're all skilled in their own way but we can't seem to manage a win. I don't get it.  It was another rough game and we lost which makes or record 1 tie and well however many sunday's it's been since our start... lots of losses.

This weekends games:

Ladies league on saturday.  Another game where I played back to back.  Once again the other team we played had attendance issues.  They were a bunch of highschool kids and had to take the forfeit.  But once again we loaned them players so we could just get a game in anyway.  You know what I REALLY HATE about women soccer players... they're catty bitches!  A guy will get physical with you on the field if he's pissed, women start snarking and talking shit.  One of the stupid teenagers had an attitude problem and was trash talking our captain who is almost 40 years old.  Excuse me! Fortunately our captain is kick ass and pretty much shut her down 90% of the time and tried to kill her with kindness which only pissed her off even more.

Game 2 = More snark, more cattyness.  However, all I'd like to point out is that we won 3-1.  *brushes shoulder off* that's right bitches....how you like us now!?

Co-ed league Sunday... SO SO close to a tie this game.  The ref took away one of our goals claiming a foul was commited before it went in the net :(. We would have been up by 1.  The score was 0-0 up til the end and then I guess our defense fell apart and we let two goals in.  I'm blaming myself.  If I had been more agressive and stepped up I could have stopped at least one of those goals. I shouldn't have stayed outside marking my man I should have stepped closer to help out in the middle. I felt like it was moving in slow motion and I just stood there as the guy took a shot. Stupid!  The other one I should have put more pressure on the guy from the outside before he crossed the ball. Ugh! I'm really upset with myself.  I played great yesterday, I played well enough for almost the entire game today but I felt like I fell asleep behind the wheel towards the end and I let the team down. :( End result 2-1 loss for our team!  We'll get a win one day!

End result of this weekends games... sore lower back, sore right hip, right ham, and whatever the tendon is called that runs along the outside of the right calf muscle to connect to the ankle.  It hurts and I can't seem to stretch it out.

In OTHER soccer news.  Lionel Messi proves once again he's the greatest player in the world...

Enjoy the Lionel Messi show...I mean FC Barcelona kicking Arsenal's ass in the Champions League quarter final...


I was sitting at my desk watching live stats trying not to jump up and down every time Messi scored a goal haha.

Also here's FC Barcelona proving not only are they the greatest club team in Europe...but they're the best in Spain as well... suck on that Real Madrid.

Injuries Injuries Injuries...

Every players worst fear!

Fernando Torres (of Liverpool and Spanish national team) is out for the rest of the season!

Wayne Rooney (Manchester United and England national team) hurts his ankle... he'll probably be back for the world cup though.

David Beckham (LA Galaxy, AC Milan and the England national team) is watching a lot of basketall these days.  Unfortunately his injury is going to keep him out of the world cup and probably for the rest of the MLS season. There's talk his career is over.

Also, my cousin who lurks but never comments *cough* you know who you are... well her fiance Mr. Cousinwholurksbutnevercomments sent me this awesome video... I want to see this movie. :)





I love this game!

Soccer Sunday's: Eau de Bengay

So soccer this weekend was kind of a bust. It was a bad soccer weekend for me. They can’t all be good. It started Saturday; I had my first game with my women’s league. I only played about 15 minutes before I had to leave the game. I went for a header and didn’t get there in time and in order to avoid a hand ball I snapped my arm back really fast and did some sort of awkward turn and as a result I instantly had pain shoot between my shoulder blades and up my neck. I tried to shake it out but I found pretty quickly I couldn’t move my neck from side to side! WTH!

I swear I am the only person on the planet who injures themselves by not doing anything at all…I never have another player to blame for pushing me or tackling or whatever… I always manage to hurt myself! Case in point, last fall I hurt my foot just by running on a muddy uneven surface…must have twisted it the wrong way or something. Not laying off of it resulting in me having to sit out a week of soccer….and now this.

I sat on the sidelines the rest of the game trying anything I could think of to stretch my neck and back out but nothing worked so I laid down, but then I found I couldn’t get up again because I couldn’t lift my head up! I had to roll over to stand! When I finally got up I stood like Lurch all hunched over because I couldn’t stand up straight and I couldn’t turn my neck to see in my peripheral. It was attractive let me tell you. Driving home was fun. But on the plus side my ladies team rocked it and we won 3-0!! I tried my best to cheer them on with out moving haha.

After the game I hit up the drug store for some icy hot cream and pads, and then I laid down for the rest of the afternoon. Smelling like bengay and I took like 800mg of ibprophin. I felt better after that, but had a shitty night’s sleep because I couldn’t get comfortable and I woke up the pain reduced itself to one area. I now had a culprit. My freakin' left shoulder!

I HATE my left shoulder! I’ve injured it umpteenth times. It’s always been out of whack and I think it’s been that way since high school when I threw shot put and discus for the track team. I injured it when I was 22 (carrying an overly heavy camera bag for several hours with out evenly distributing the weight…big no-no ladies), then again at 26…playing softball just by throwing the ball. Once again… I hurt myself doing nothing!

So I’ve done the whole physical therapy thing, it didn’t really help. I’ve been getting massages every month sometimes twice a month which is costing me a pretty penny…but it’s never been right and I just learned to modify my work outs once I start to feel the muscle fatigue. For example I can only do about three regular pushups before I have to do pushups on my knees because I feel the muscle about to give. Side planks on my left side are near impossible because I can’t really weight bear, and tricep dips are pretty much a no-no for me. I don’t every carry a shoulder bag on my left side, I won’t play any sport that involves throwing, hell half the time I won’t even take a throw-in in soccer…but I still managed to hurt myself!...Doing nothing! Grr!

Ok Deep breath!

Back to soccer. So I was laid up most of Sunday as well. By the afternoon I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to make my game at night, but constant rotation of icy hot/ ice pack/ Tylenol / laying down on a memory foam pillow I felt better by 6 in the evening…which left me two hours from game time. And I REALLY wanted to play!

Soccer is like a drug to me… It’s my own personal brand of exercise heroine! LOL! If I have a game and I’m not out of state…I want to play!

So by game time I had minimal pain in my neck and I could move it side to side, my shoulder…well lets just say the Tylenol and icy hot took care of that for me (Eau de bengay is my newest fragrance). So I was ready to play. Mother Nature had other plans. It POURED it’s ass off. And I’m talking sideways monsoon rain. But we play on a turf field so there was no reason to call the game for bad field conditions. So, to quote Wayne’s World… GAME OOOON!

By the end of we were all a sopping we mess… not a dry article of clothing on my body, shirts, socks, shorts, shoes, and undergarments… all of it was soaked. And we lost…but hey the conditions were tough, especially when we spent the first half with rain in our eyes. The second half of the game the rain was on our backs and we could actually see the field but the other team was already so far ahead in goals.

So I got to play, I didn’t play well and I also ran off and left behind my water bottles because I was in such a hurry to get out of the rain. That makes water bottles #3 and #4 that I’ve lost in the last month! DOH!

Well… that’s enough griping from me I have an extra long massage scheduled tonight so I’m looking forward to that!

Soccer Sunday: Detoxing from TEJAS!

Hey, ya'll I'm back from Texas! Don't worry the accent has not permanently rubbed off on me. So, I had two predictions for my trip... Liver failure and hearing damage and I think I accomplished both!

I saw amazing music at SXSW and in Dallas, I danced like no one else was watching (or Ashley aka shoewhore would say rather that my bangs danced), I enjoyed bbq and tex-mex and muchos mixed drinks. Basically I threw all my rules out the door the second I stepped foot in Tejas...well sorta I did work out for 2 hours straight ran 3 miles and killed my abs and legs the first day I was there.... but AFTER that all my rules were gone...and I don't regret a second of it.

I had a fabulous time, and I met wonderful people that I hope to call my friends for a long time to come.

But now I'm back home in the north east and it's time to get back to my routine. I'm happy to report that if anything the scale might have gone up only a pound or two from my week of debauchery. But now that I'm home and it's spring time that only means one thing... OUT DOOR SOCCER!!!! :D

Dear readers bear with me for my first week of spring soccer sunday's!

Today I had a game with my co-ed team. Now that I've been with this league for more than 3 seasons I'm starting to feel a bit of comraderie on and off the field with people I've played with or play with currently. I'm happy to see some of my team mates from last fall, and even two fall's ago are on my team again.

We did not win tonight, but I don't think we played a bad game either... The frustration of soccer is that sometimes you wish the cross bar was a little higher, other times when a ball is being shot against you're goal you want it lower or right where it is lol. We had a lot of close shots but unfortunately couldn't make it into the back of the net.

I played defense and outside-mid this game. I hadn't played mid in probably close to two years and I forgot how much running you have to do, basically you better be able to sprint the entire distance of the field. I hadn't done much sprinting in general while I played indoor because the field was too tiny to really run on. At one point I had a corner kick come right to me and I tried to fight through the other teams D..the goal was just in my sights but I didn't make anything happen.

Then I was back on D and I had one moment where I could have used a little coaching, I just wasn't sure who I should have covered and my hesitating allowed someone to run through and they scored off of a pass from the outside.

Over all I'm not disappointed with how I played despite the fact that I hadn't worked out in 5 days and hadn't done a whole lot to build of my endurance for a game on a larger field...and I'm happy to be with yet another talented group of soccer players. Our season record so far is 1 tie 1 loss but we have an entire long season ahead of us! So wish me luck!

Stay tuned this week I'm going to make a post on legs and ass! But for now I'm off to geek out and read my twilight graphic novel... seriously impressed with the drawings. I've never seen a manga comic book before (figures twilight is my first in this department as well), but I really like it.

p.s. Uber happy to report when I weighed in this morning at bootcamp that I was actually DOWN a pound and not up at all...maybe I didn't eat as terribly as I thought and that dancing must have helped ;)

Too Much to Look Foward to Be Looking Down!

Well it's been just over a week since I've posted... if you read the post below my absence can be pretty much explained by that. I just didn't have it in me to blog I needed my time to mope/brood/stare at Rob and Daniel to make me feel better.

I hope you forgive me in general for bringing the mood of the blog down. Clearly sometimes I'm irrational....but I also have a competitive streak so losing wasn't fun, especially losing in front of all my co-workers when I was sure I had already won... and then one of them had the nerve to ask me why I was so upset while trying to imply I was being a sore loser. Hookah please... I was mad at myself not at the girl who won and I didn't need his commentary to make me feel worse.
Then,  I lost an indoor soccer game, my teams first loss of the season. It wasn't a fun week in general. Now that I've had my time to think back on it all I've realized a few things...

1. I was pissed that I lost weight? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!

2. I broke one of my own rules and compared my weight loss to someone else! BIG NO-NO Ladies! This only ends in disappointment.

3. I focused so much on this contest and then on the fact that I lost that I didn't have time to focus on the good things that are happening in my life!

Most importantly, I know what I need to do to keep losing now that I've broken through my plateau. This is HUGE. I plateaued for months and I pushed past that! My bootcamp has been doing weekly weigh ins and I've gone down every week... this is something that hadn't happened for me from September through December but since the middle of Jan. the scale has dropped little by little every week!

As I said I was so focused on being negative after that contest I didn't get to share this with you all... On February 15th.... I was on TV! Yes, it's true... I was on TV. I didn't post about it because at first I was freaking out, then I wanted to have a video to share with you all, but my parents (who own and know how to operate a dvr) recorded over the segment with the Olympics! Thanks mom! Hope the figure skating was awesome.

BUT! I have some photographic evidence... here's how the whole thing went down... Sometime in late Jan the people who run my bootcamp said they were doing a segment on the local morning news and they wanted to have two girls go on tv and talk about weightloss and why we love bootcamp. They asked me to be one of those girls because I had some of the best results! I was pretty damn honored but also terrified because I'm so NOT a "spot light" kind of person. But they reasoned with me that it was a way for me to just push myself out of my comfort zone so I agreed. PLUS... we were getting make overs ;) and what girl says no to that!

On Feb 14th we had a salon day where several of the girls from bootcamp who have been working hard along side me got make overs and photo shoots. I got new slightly lighter hair color, but I wasn't about to let them cut my hair, only my regular stylist is allowed to do that lol.

Guess who got to play photographer??

ME! That's me playing photographer :)

It had been ages since I had done anything remotely involving my college degree so it was fun just to play with lights and my camera again.

Then of course I had to get my own hair and make up done....and It was my turn to get my picture taken, someone else stepped in to take the snaps...

Here's the pic they put on the bootcamp website:

Size... 22 ---------------> Size 12!!
(and the dress was on sale at Anthro! WIN!)

The first was my before picture they used on the news and I've used it on the blog before but I'm not hiding my face this time. See ladies it is possible even the geekiest, most introverted of us Twi-hards can get out there and make a change :)

We also had to do a sporty look... so here's my sporty look...

Wearing my favorite sporty shorts and sambas :)

I'm not there yet (cough *sparetirearoundmymiddle* cough) but I'm still working on it. I'm certainly not striving to be stick thin. First its not possible with my bone structure, second I want to be a healthy weight with an athletic figure... I've realized that my size/height sometimes helps intimidate on the soccer field especially as a defender so no stick figure look for me!

So the next day I got to be on TV had my hair and make up redone for that... and was able to talk briefly about weight loss and what a great work out bootcamp is! I really hope that someone watching the segment looked up sparkpeople (which I made sure to mention) and might be inspired to start their own weight loss journey. Over all it was a pretty cool experience and I'm glad I did it.


So I really have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to keep looking forward to! Too much to look forward to in fact to wallow in self pitty. Here's a line up for March alone...



March 14-20th TEXAS!!! To hang out with my friends and see family, can't wait to see my Aunt and Uncle and the ninos!!

• Bobby Long and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club w/ Band of Skulls in Dallas :)
• SXSW in Austin!

March 14th - Co-ed (Sunday's) outdoor soccer starts... I'm missing my first game because of Texas, I promise to be back with a vengeance the following week... Soccer Sunday's will start again on the blog!



March 27th... Women's (Saturday's) outdoor soccer league starts!! Yay I can't WAIT to see my soccer gals again!!

March 30th... I'm getting braces! This is something I've wanted for 10 years and it's finally happening. I can't wait to have a nice straight smile!...and yes, I will probably officially look 17 again.

And it all starts with tomorrow. Tomorrow's going to be a good day... you know how I already know that... My gym bag is packed. I'm looking forward to sweating my ass off on the treadmill!

Also... I just had to post this video because it makes me laugh every time I watch it! Jimmy Fallon is such a fanboy lol :)



I've learned my lesson this week... always laugh and don't take yourself too seriously.

Soccer Sunday's: The End of the Road

What!? There's no crying in soccer!

Ok, well maybe just a little crying...but only because the seasons have ended and there's NO soccer for months as boring cold winter settles into the north east! Boo! Yes, I know I could play indoor but honestly I'm not a huge fan of indoor...however, I might end up breaking down and playing if I go soccer stir crazy in the middle of the winter.

So here's a recap of this weekend's games....

Saturday w/ my ladies team: Game 1. To say the field we played on sucked is putting it lightly. It's on a low ground and runs slightly down hill, so with several weeks of rain in a row it was a choppy muddy freakin' mess and very difficult to get your footing in when you're constantly sinking and sliding in the mud. (note: this was the same field I hurt my foot on, I did not go balls out during this game because I did not want a repeat of that mess). We tied 1-1, and over all it wasn't very exciting because as I said before the field was difficult to play on for both sides.

Game 2: Back to back soccer baby! We got to switch fields and play on a field that was less choppy, actually flat and dry. We also played a comptetive team--we play on the rec level which means we're out there for the fun of it not necessarily for victory all the time but hey, winning is nice too. The competitive team played a man down, but we were playing on tired legs so in my opinion we were equally matched. They dominated the first half of the game and managed to score one on us. However second half of the match we got our rhythm going and scored 3 goals two were headers...always beautiful when you score on a header! (see: Messi in this years champions league final.) Anyway, despite the other team supposedly having more skill than us we won 3-1. It was a great feeling and a great way to end our season which mostly got rained out!

Sunday Co-ed league: This was the first round of play-offs for us (second round for other teams who were placed lower). We were up against the team that was tied for third place with us that we defeated 5 or 6 to nothing a couple weeks ago. We knew they were unlucky that game and that they weren't going down with out a fight this game. By then end of the second quarter they scored two goals on us. Start of the third quarter we got a break when one of their defenders scored an own goal (take what you can get right?) and then we came back a few minutes later and put another one into the back of the net tying the match. The rest of the game was an all out fight for another goal during regulation time. Neither side was successful so we went into over time which is five minute golden goal, end of the first five minutes we were still tied. So we're now in double over time, down to the last minute it's looking like we're going into PK's at this point but from a corner kick a header was chipped into the top corner of our net. It was impossible to stop and our playoff hopes were squashed with that one goal and our season ended. Over all it was a closely matched game and well fought game. Not happy with the results but it is what it is. We still managed to have a great season and I think third place during regular season play is nothing to scoff at :) Bring on next season!

For now though I need to bump up my running make sure I stay conditioned for the sprinting and get back out there and keep up my ball skills. The end of soccer season means there's two less days a week that I'm working out so I still want to make sure I work out 6 days a week.

Trying not to cry right now because this is my last Soccer Sunday for a while! *sad face!*

Soccer Sunday's: You Win Some You Lose Some

Well, I haven't posted a weekly soccer update in a while. For two weeks in a row now my women's league has been rained out! It always seems to rain on Saturday's and since we play on grass fields they call the games. (Honestly I'm glad they call the games because playing on a muddy field is how I hurt my foot in the first place.) Sunday's however have been bright and clear.

So last Sunday my co-ed team played an amazing game! We won 5-0. Our forwards were on fire and our defense (where I play) was unbeatable.

This week however we lost 0-4... our worst loss of the season. So what changed in a matter of a week?

Well last week we had one sub...which went down to zero subs because one of our forwards suffered a hamstring pull, but at least for half of the game we had someone with fresh legs.

This week we had no subs and everyone had to play the entire game.

Last week all of our incredible forwards were present and gave us a solid lead which they took even further in the second half.

This week two of our forwards were out (one with a hamstring injury).

During last week's game one of our strongest forwards dropped back to play defense after we had a solid lead. Either he coaches or he's just that smart of a player but he's an awesome communicator on the field. It's good to have someone who communicates especially on defense because that way someone essentially has another set of eyes for you and warns you if someone slips in behind you. It's good for moral too and I'm the type of player who likes to have someone giving me direction especially because I did not play growing up and didn't ever have the guidance of a good coach. I felt like we played one of our best games defensively because of good communication and working well as a team.

This week communication was severely lacking on the field. I felt like our defense was a bit scattered and the other team took advantage of that. We played the team I was on last year and I knew how most of their players played (but they also knew how I played...however I have improved a lot since last season and my former captain acknowledged that at the end of the game... thank you very much!) So anyway, I pretty much knew there was no way I could out run their captain, he was too fast and he's also got a strong shot.

Having a lack of communication on defense let another guy slip by me that ran in quick and I could have been marking him instead of playing so far outside and he ended up scoring as well.

Sometimes a loss helps you realize where you need to improve and having such drastic scoring differences between these two games made me see how I think we should play going into the play offs and my teams mates agree we need a line up like we had last week. I'm crossing my fingers that with us likely having a bye week next week due to our ranking (3rd place) it will give time for our one forward to recover from his hamstring pull and everyone will make sure their calendars are clear so we have a sub or two!

I'm feeling optimistic for a good post season! (Now hopefully it won't rain next Saturday so I can see my gals again before our season ends and play on a dry field!! I can't injure myself for my Sunday team we've got some play off games to win!)

Soccer Sunday's: Rain Rain Go Away!

This weekend in soccer I got to do something a little different. I got to sit down and watch a game instead of play.

During my woman's game on Saturday it started to rain. Do you know how fun it is to try and pass the ball and run on grass that should have been cut three weeks ago? How about running on that grass in the rain? Apparently the school that owns the fields wants to achieve some sort of wild untamed meadow effect on their soccer fields. So essentially we were playing on drenched shag carpeting. Not fun. Passes just stop rolling for no reason, the ball slips off your feet and out of your hands on throw ins, and the worst part: soggy wet socks! Yuck! Probably my least favorite thing in the world next to the Republican party and the Hills is running in wet socks. Can we say blisters? Ugh. Unfortunately we lost 1-0.

And also unfortunately due to the rain that did not let up all afternoon, night and into early the next morning my Sunday game was canceled because the county closed the field we were to play on due to flooding. Bummer.

But all was not lost in Team Six Pack's soccer world this weekend. My uncle called up at the last minute on Sunday and offered me two tickets to DC United's game. I almost wasn't going to go because it was so last minute and I couldn't find someone to take the other ticket, but the words "field seats" had me jumping in the car for the hour drive to RFK stadium.

Did I mention I was close?

I mean really close?

Unfortunately DC fell 2-1 to San Jose. Due to traffic and a slight detour caused by getting lost because idiots decided to change the highway signs around and I missed the exit... I arrived close to the end of the first half with DC up 1-0. DC's starting keeper left the game sometime in the second half due to a shoulder injury. After that San Jose was allowed a free kick. The penalty was out side of the box but they were perfectly lined up in front of the goal so it was a pretty good opportunity for them to score. The ball just sailed into the back of the net on the right hand side, our substitute keeper was standing all the way to the left looking a bit stunned and pissed. Hell I would be too. Score is now tied 1-1. I'd say possession was 50/50 throughout, DC did make a few more attempts on goal, but were unlucky. San Jose came down the field on the attack and took a shot which hit the cross bar and ricocheted back out into play. DC defenders weren't fast enough to clear it and San Jose took another shot. This time our keeper was down because of the dive he took to try and stop the first shot, San Jose's second shot went right in before he could react again. Tough luck for DC, but a good game. Oh, and did I mention... awesome seats!

Nice tat's Santino

p.s. all photos taken by me please on my crappy point and shoot do not reuse with out permission. Thanks.

Soccer Sunday's: When Balls Play & Not Brains

Yep, I know it's Tuesday & I'm late posting this one, but I needed time to process the soccer events this weekend.

I'm not sure how else to describe this weekend's co-ed game as anything other than bizarre!

I've never seen so many yellow and then red cards fly at a rec level game. Especially considering that none of the cards were really warranted. None of the fouls called were for disrespectful or dangerous play towards other players. To me that warrants cards. These fouls were called for a collision, which happens. Hell, even I collided with another player earlier in the game. It's a contact sport, we're not supposed to curtsy and say "Good Day, Sir" as we let the other team blow by us with the ball. Sometimes we run into each other. This same ref called me on a charging foul during Saturday's ladies game. I had possession of the ball, I was moving up the field and a girl who was probably 110 pounds wet came running at me from the side. I passed the ball just before she slammed into me and dramatically fell over. Sorry, but you all know my weight since I've announced it on the blog, someone who is 110 pounds isn't going to knock me over...they bounce off of me, that's just physics ;). However, I was called on a charging foul. Fair? Not in my opinion. But I don't argue with the refs... apparently not everyone share's my philosophy... I'll explain more later.

The other yellow card of the co-ed game (actually issued first) was issued because one of our guys kicked the ball after the whistle was blown for a foul. Apparently he had done it previously in the game and been warned. I watched the whole thing it really wasn't that big of a deal, but considering the previous warning I guess the ref had had enough.

This is when trouble started brewing. I was subbed out when the guy who got the first card of the game was sitting on the side lines pissing and moaning about how unfair it was and that it was a bull shit call. (we have a "hot head" rule in the league for yellow cards, you have to sit out for 10 minutes and calm down). Hey I agree it was a bull shit call, but arguing it isn't going to take the yellow card away. I suggested that he just let it slide, because if a player mouths off or argue's with the ref, the ref is going to remember that player and watch every move they make on the field just looking for a foul at the next game and the next game and so on. I think it's best to just keep your head down, your mouth shut and play the game. He didn't seem to care for my advice. I said my piece and walked away to cheer on my team mates on the field.

When the second yellow card of the game was issued against our team mate for the collision that's when all hell broke loose.

Seriously... who let you out on the field?

I suppose one or both of the guys on our team who were issued cards demanded an explanation for the calls. The ref started arguing with them. At one point they started walking off the field, but something must have been said and tempers flared even further. The ref started yelling at the other teams captain, then he started throwing out red cards, and then he decided to CALL the game with only about three minutes left on the clock! WHAT!???

Meanwhile the other 19 people on the field, myself included, were ready to finish the game. After the screaming match back and forth between the ref our two players and confusingly the other teams captain, the rest of us were left there wondering what the hell was going on?? Suddenly we were shaking hands and that was it.

So now we're left wondering if our 4-2 lead with only a few minutes left in the game even counts? We played fairly and earned those goals and that lead. Whose fault was it that the game was called?? It might go down in history as one of the great rec soccer mysteries. *sarcasm alert*

I'd never ever seen anything quite like it happen on the pitch. Especially at a rec level which is friendly/competitive play. I guess men get pissy and sportsmanship is thrown aside when their ego's get stomped on...


In other soccer news my Ladies team won 2-0 with no serious fouls or bad tempers to report! Go ladies! Go!



Images from radio.webblogs, nycbridgerunners.com & thenewts.net

Soccer Sunday's: A hard fought loss

Soccer Sunday's Week 2 -

Well this Sunday's game was a hard fought loss (3-2). Two of the goals scored by the other team were cheep, undeserved goals that accidentally rolled in with out any real attempts at taking a shot at goal. While our two goals were beautifully scored by our talented forwards. So if you want to count quality we won by a point ;)

I think over all we took more shots on goal, but we weren't connecting with the back of the net. A lot sailed high, several hit the posts -- I always watch in agony over those shots, they always look like they're going in and if the ball were ever so slightly off from where it was they would have been goals.

Over all I'm not too disappointed with my performance. I did make one big mistake, a pass was coming right to me and it slipped just past my foot and went out of bounds. I always hate it when I make mistakes, mentally it's sometimes tough to get yourself back in the game. I think the natural tendency is to beat your self up for a bit, but you have to snap out of it because the game doesn't stop. Fortunately, after the throw in I gave up our stopper did a nice play where he kept possession of the ball but let it roll out with out touching it so that we could have a goal kick. Then I was able to bounce back because a similar pass was made to me and this time I didn't miss it and I was able to pass it directly up the line to one of our mids.

So like I said over all I'm not disappointed with my performance. I think I did more good defending through out the match and only made that one mistake which ended up not hurting us just wasting a little time. It was a hard fought game, and I'm very happy with how well we played, but unfortunately we fell by 1 point. It's only game two of the season and we're 1 - 1. Plenty of time left to keep on winning!

Soccer Sunday's!!

Yesterday fall soccer season kicked off and in two weeks I will be in full soccer mode! My ladies league will be kicking butt on Saturday's and the co-ed league is already kicking some rec soccer ass on Sunday's! So all fall long it will be Soccer Saturday's and Soccer Sunday's baby! (But I guess I will only do a recap at the end of the week...and yes I realize its already Monday.)

Recap!

I was a bit nervous with the co-ed league, you never know what it's going to be like starting with a new group of players. If we're going to mesh well on the field or if we'll need a game or two to get into our stride, but we took off running with a win 5 or 6 to 0. It was one of those games where so many goals were scored you lost count. And then you started to feel bad for the other team because you could see their talent and frustration but they weren't able to get the ball in the back of the net. But didn't feel bad enough to go easy on them of course ;).

I was on defense and I felt I did well enough. All the practicing on my own and boot camp sessions has definitely made me faster and stronger. I had a little difficulty keeping up with one guy on the other team but he was definitely their fastest player. I ran neck and neck with him a few times but he managed to get one step ahead, but at least the other defenders had my back and didn't let any of his crosses go anywhere. Other than that I had some good passes and had one good defending moment which even the guy on the other team complimented me on. So all and all it was a great start to the fall season!!

I'm super excited to be back out there doing my favorite exercise!!

And now for some Messi!!