Matchday 6: You Can't Lose 'Em All!

Sooooooo I’ve got some news.  It’s no big deal but,

WE WON!!!!!! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON!

(deep breath)

WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON! WE WON!

(deep breath)

3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points! 3 points!

I know what you’re thinking: “Jordan, did you guys win?”  Well let me be clear and say that, yes, we…WON!  We won our first game of the season and are finally off the snide.  I’m positive that snide is not the word I want to use there but oh well, it happened.

Unfortunately I’m pretty sure we’re still in last place.

Our game today was against Akropolis.  “Akropolis,” you say, “Didn’t there used to be a bar near your college named that?”  Why yes there was.  Thank you for noticing.  The bar though spelled it Acropolis, so you lose points for not noticing that.  Anyway, Akropolis was the first team all season that I’ve been eligible that we played a team the wasn’t in the promotion zone.  As such we came out and dominated, and within five minutes we were up 1-0.  The game evened out after that, but we held on to win by 1 goal to nil.  I played the last 10 minutes (as a striker, no less) and had a really close chance, but mostly I just ran like a mad man.  I was more tired playing those 10 minutes than at any time during the previous four matches where I played a combined 330 minutes.  We deserved the win, if for no other reason than the fact that we did the two most shocking things in soccer history:

1.       We held a shutout.  I never thought we would do that.

2.       I was subbed in as a defensive change.  Siggi, in all his wisdom, decided to put me in to keep a lead.  I assume it was some sort of Jedi Mind Trick that is above my head.

If ever you doubt that miracles exist, I suggest you think about the fact that I was subbed into a professional match as a defensive change and it actually worked.  Before today, I would have told you that it was more likely that a random bolt of lightning on a sunny day would hit a shot as it was flying into our goal and stop it than me stopping a goal.  But I would have been wrong.

From a tactical perspective, turns out we played a 4-1-4-1, effectively flipping the midfield triangle of our usual 4-2-3-1.  I think it helped us to find good passes in the attacking third, though I don’t think all the players had the same confidence that they had in the preseason.  Thus we hit more panicky long passes than short, crisp ones.  Eric scored our goal and was excellent up front.  He’s really turned into one of, if not our most important player.  Not bad for a guy who didn’t start a single relevant game in preseason.  I predicted to some time ago to a few of the guys on the team that we would make the tactical shift that we did, and now I predict that at some point in the future we will see a lineup with two strikers, either 4-4-2 or 5-3-2.  I know 5-3-2 sounds crazy to you soccer people out there but if we do use that formation I’ll go into detail as to how it could work, especially with the personnel that we have.  It could and probably would work.

Moving on…In the American tradition, I am now going to go out and drink excessively.  A win is not a win unless you celebrate it more than you should.  Also, and I think this is in the constitution of every civilized country in the world, if you have to wait five weeks for your first win then you can drink however much you can afford.  Luckily for you worriers I only have enough money for five (domestic) beers so tonight won’t be so wild and crazy.

I’ll let you know how things go.  Thank goodness we got our first win.  It’s so important for the team moral that we were able to do it.  Now we can go into the next match with some confidence and maybe even a bit of swagger.  I’ll be working this week to get my starting job back, but I think it’s unlikely considering we won.  Coaches don’t like to change the lineups that much after wins.  We’ll see.