Disappointing Victory!

How exactly do you manage to be disappointed after destroying another team 17-2!? Well, there are a number of reasons why, allow me to explain!

Today's match was hyped up as the best opportunity for our first foreigner goal, as only Koreans had yet to score for the Spitfires. Knowing that I'd be gunning for one, and hoping that others would recognize my efforts and possibly assist, I bet Nate that today would be the day when I put one in the back of the net.

I arrived at our Apgujeong pitch a few minutes before I was supposed to as I have a track record of being a few minutes late; thanks to the subway, transfer and short hike that I have to take to get there from Kansas, oh wait, I mean Junggyedong. I warmed up by kicking a ball around with Joseph and Craig who had also arrived early. We stopped passing around however when the ball rolled out onto the field and we were yelled at by the makeshift ref judging the makeshift game that is played before us every Sunday. These guys do not actually reserve the field and are apparently a group of Korean actors and other celebrities (as our home field is in the Hollywood of Seoul) who will go to great lengths to make themselves seem important. Primarily, they will stay on the field until the clock literally strikes four o'clock, when our games are scheduled to begin. . .how super totally awesome of them!

I'd give you a game summary of our match but it pretty much went like this. . .we scored, they didn't! We played the worst team in the league (though that means they are only three positions behind us, previously ranked 5th) and expected good things to happen from the onset. Of course, everyone was anxious to see just who would be the first wayguk (foreigner, I believe this is the term everyone uses) to score.

No more than five minutes into the game, our star center midfielder, no, not me silly, the other one, Joseph, managed to send a ball scorching to the back of the net. Having gotten one under his belt, Joseph begin sharing the ball a bit more, putting a number of passes right in my path. Again and again, at least four times in the first half, I would receive a ball just outside the 18, look up to find a clear path to their lumbering goalie, and take an absolute rip at the net. Yet, each time, somehow, the bear managed to come away with a fingertip save or something else equally as lucky!

Soon after Joseph put the Spitfires' first goal away, I had a fantastic opportunity to break the foreigner seal! A ball was played over the defense and snatched up by the other team's diving keeper, just as I was chasing it down. As I pulled up to avoid a collision, a member of the opposing team came streaking by me, apparently on my tail the whole time. WHAM! He smashed into his own keeper, sending the ball rolling out of the goalie's hands! I quickly lunged forward and tapped the ball into the back of the net! I had done it! I scored the first wayguk goal!

Alas, I should never have considered this a possibility! The referee, who is notorious for making blind and hypersensitive calls, immediately blew his whistle! I turned around aghast that something should be wrong! As the referee waved off the goal he informed me not to attack the goalie once the ball was in his possession. . .this just killed me! But whatever, that's not the way to score the first goal anyways right? Lets go for something a little classier!

A few minutes later the Spitfires were awarded a corner kick and I was caught in the thick of things. I managed to get up for the header which was blocked and landed back almost right in front of me. All of a sudden Todd comes swinging in to crush the ball into the back of the net! Yaaay, the first foreigner goal! At least I could feel proud about my 'assist.'

Let's just say, from there, everything was down hill. I had an average of probably one opportunity to score every ten minutes. Each time I sent a scorching ball towards the keeper and not once did I miss the target. Unfortunately, I managed to come up just short every time!

Finally, late in the second half, the other team made an illegal passback to their goalie who picked it up, constituting a handball, and landing us a penalty quick! As the first to notice their mistake, I immediately called out to Sun that I would like to take it. He and Nikki (benched for the game from an ankle injury) agreed that it should be my kick!

With a terrible goalie in net I had planned to do no more than blast it at him and pick up the rebound if necessary. Right before I approached the ball Joseph decided to reassure me that all I needed to do was roll it in on the ground. Not wanting to disappoint, I decided to opt for an inside of the foot shot aimed at the bottom left corner. Never, never, change your shot right before shooting. I managed to shank the ball worse than Baggio and sent what should have been an easy, and my first, goal soaring over the net from no more than 10 yards out. I know, I owe Abu a 'red' and now I owe the team a case of beer. . . .I take full responsibility and am extremely embarrassed at the miss!

To make it worse, I spent the entire rest of the game gunning for the goal, only to fail on every attempt to put one in! Only two others besides myself managed to go scoreless in our game against DA-ROK (Democrats of America in the Republic of Korea). To top things off, with only a few minutes left in the game, I came charging up from defense to assist in our team's corner kick. As the ball sailed across the box I made solid contact with it, sending it snarling towards the goal where I felt certain I had beaten the keep. Alas, he manged to just put a finger on it sending the ball skywards where it hit the underside of the cross bar, bounced down, off the endline, and up again into the goalie's waiting hands!

I simply could not have bought a goal this game if I wanted to! And to make things worse, we were scored on twice! Not that it's a huge deal, as we still pulled off a 15 point differential, but until this game, we had played 270minutes of soccer without giving one up. So, of course, it was a little disheartening to give up today's clean sheet.

Anyways, we did pull off a 15-2 victory and I had a great time in the process! It's too bad that I couldn't put a goal in and even worse that I shanked the ugliest ball in the history of the game. . .when I probably could have rolled it in for a score!

Oops, my bad!