It was a little last minute, it was definitely haphazard, but it was a really good time. Our Oakland Football (Soccer) club started up our spring soccer league versus the Dublin Elites in Dublin, California last Sunday. We welcomed new faces and had a really good time and though we lost 4-0 we played really well and if it wasn’t for the fact that we were playing in gail-force winds the game might have been a bit closer. As acting Captain of the team I failed to win the coin toss, which put us going against the wind in the first half and to make matters worse I had a starting line up of only 10 players for the first 2-3 minutes. The other team scored 3 goals in the first half all from counter-attacks when the wind just carried their ball from their goalie into our box where I lone guy flew with the wind behind him, while our midfielders and defenders were trying to regain their steps after being swept up by the wind.

I mean it isn’t the great excuse, but when the tides changed and the wind was with us, we were really able to get some great passing and offense going, while our defense wasn’t dying. We had a flurry of shots on goal in the 2nd half, any which could have easily gone in if it wasn’t for some timely saves or bad luck. Our new recruit Keith had a Dirk Kuyt-esque flying kick at the goal that just kept sailing upward, but not by much. I myself had a good chance when I was set up at the top of the box and a quick kick out to my right set me up for what I thought would have been a nice curving shot to the top right corner, but the ball didn’t curve enough and missed by about 2 feet. We had an onslaught of chances in the final 10 minutes, but no consolation goal came our way. Though that was the case, everyone was happy with our first game and we can only see us progressing as a team. I promise that next time I’ll try to win the toss and make sure we have all 11 people on the field.

Stay tuned for more in the near future!