vostoklake: (otterly)
Mt Albert-Ponsonby Reserves (D. Lawless, goalkeeper) 0 - Waiuku Reserves 1.
Mt Albert-Ponsonby 1st team (D. Lawless, goalkeeper) 2 - Waiuku 1st team 2.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, you read right, I played two consecutive games of football today, because the regular first team goalie couldn't make it and there are no others. And my legs are feeling it badly. But I think I impressed the first team enough that I might get another game even when their regular goalie is back. My place kicking is still pretty weak, but my punts are good and strong (thank you 3 months of Gaelic football), and I was making some brave dives and safe stops. I only made one stupid mistake all game, letting in the goal in the reserve game, and quite frankly I think we deserved to lose that game - we were lucky to get nil, as they say - so I won't beat myself up about it. Much.

The second game we were very unlucky, though - up 2-0 with 5 minutes to go, coach wonders "Hmmm, would we play as well with only three defenders instead of four?" The answer was "no". But you can really feel the difference playing on a good team. At least a couple of our defence in the reserves game had never played before, and they were doing their damndest with the tackling and blocking, but they were completely lost unless someone told them where to go. Coach said at half time: "Listen to Daphne, she's usually yelling something pertinent". Very different playing with the firsts, though, and I must say I preferred it. I got lots of compliments from some very good players, so maybe just maybe I am ready for prime time.

Oh, and there was another football match today that made me happy as well. :)
vostoklake: (lesbians? in my spaceship?)
... myself and [personal profile] mermaid at the World Cup Qualifier, November 14. (That's us up right up at the top of the picture, me in the ridiculous hat and pink sleeves, mermaid next to me.)

Hey [personal profile] mermaid, I may be back in Welly in early February, want to go to a Phoenix game?
vostoklake: (wayne)
Auckland Harps play in the Cup Final of the Auckland Gaelic football tournament on Saturday. The second-choice goalie (yours truly) has been told that the first-choice goalie will be turning up this week, so there's little chance of getting a game. But I just went town to the park and kicked the ball, chased it and otherwise ran around for half an hour. Some might wonder why. But the point of playing football is not - however much my ego tries to persuade me it is - to get on the field and impress people. The game is its own point. I would rather watch my team win than participate in my team getting beaten. My team, whether coach decides I should be on the field or not.

Plus, after all this exercise, I will be dynamite when soccer starts again. 15 kilos lighter and a truckload fitter than the end of last season, to say nothing of having spent the summer practicing kicking from the hands on a long, long field.

It happened that tonight a local touch rugby team were having a social of some sort at the ground. On my way home after training, some friendly Polynesian men associated with this team cheerfully asked me if I "needed someone to play with". I thankfully declined. When did I become attractive to men? Granted, they were at something of a distance, but still...
vostoklake: (crazy)
Highlights from a travelling weekend:

- atrocious coffee at the railway station at Tongariro National Park, served by one American and one Central European of some description (backpackers have to make a living somehow);
- a righteously pissed-off train conductor threatening to put off a bevy of drunken soccer fans in Levin (a fate worse than death for anyone who knows the North Island)
- chez Crazy Cat Lady / Tofulope, meeting my ex-cat Vega (was she always that hairy?!?) and her skittish but pretty little sister Turtle;
- a delicious meal of tofu and pasta;
- remembering one of the reasons I continue to live in Auckland, viz. the fact that apparently winter lasts all the way into November in Wellington;
- remembering that, while there are many things to love about Welly's public transport, the 60-year-old trains on the Johnsonville line are too noisy to have a conversation in;
- buying a white scarf and hat at Farmers Lambton Quay, and explaining to the clerk exactly where Bahrain is;
- reliving my young adulthood, wandering vaguely around town with [personal profile] mermaid all afternoon trying not to spend money;
- dinner at one of the glorious Middle Eastern restaurants on Cuba Mall (staffed by Assyrians, I believe);
- the kind and courteous fan who agreed to swap seats so the Mermaid lady could sit by me and have the offside rule explained to her;
- lustily singing the National Anthem in Maori, since the English lyrics suck;
- the fantastic cheering effort by the Yellow Fever/White Noise boys, including having the brass nads to take their shirts off with ten minutes to go, on a freezing evening in Wellington;

... and, lastly, being there, and shouting myself hoarse, the day Rory Fallon put the ball in the Bahrain net; my new boyfriend, Mark Paston, saved a penalty; and the mighty All Whites went to their second ever World Cup. I'm only just old enough to remember the last time, so I hope Brazil don't beat us 4-0 again. For the sake of my flist, I do hope we end up in the same pool as Australia, Germany and the US so we can beat you all. XD

Zen moments

Nov. 8th, 2009 06:30 pm
vostoklake: (wayne)
So there I am, goalieing my heart out for the Auckland Harps against the Paddies (spot the theme naming in Gaelic football, folks), and a penalty is awarded against us. (For those not familiar, penalties in Gaelic are taking pretty much the same way as in soccer.) Now, some people would think that penalties are scary, but not really for the goalie - no-one really expects you to save it, so there's no pressure.

So the Paddies striker is lining up the ball, and for some reason the position of her feet gives me the idea that she's not altogether confident kicking the ball off the ground. So I just relax at that point.

And from there, it's just a blur. My mind "switches off", and next I know I've dived full to my right, and the ball is bouncing away harmlessly out of my hands. I didn't think about it, I just did it, there was never any stress, and everything works out fine.

Now if I could summon that kind of "effortless effort" at will, not just on special occasions on the sports field, I would be truly enlightened.

September 2023

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
101112 13141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags