3 - 11 isn't bad for a team with only 8 players

So we had a tough go at it today. My youth team player "early" in the morning, around 11:00. I went to that game for 3/4 of the game then I had to leave for my game which was at 1:00. I was excited to say the least if you didn't read my blog post from last night. "Read it" and you can see my new kicks, (Tacos in Spanish). So here is a picture of the field we played on. It's one of the nicest fields in the area but it's kinda of a random location. It's tucked up in the mountains and right next to a corn field. So behind one goal you can see the mountains behind you, and behind the other field you can see a corn field.
So your wondering how the game went. Well what I can tell you is it went. I actually didn't figure out until we were about 3 minutes into the game that we were only playing with 8 players. And that wasn't are full team because our goal was Tim. Thanks to the big guy for being humble enough to but on a jersey. The game was going well I thought, I was very curious because both teams scored in the first 10 minutes. We were the first score and it was off a header. That was the moment that I was like wow Tim got a good team together. Then the other team score a very easy goal and then they scored again, and then again. OOhhh we are in trouble. Luckily we got a penalty just outside the box, this is where I discovered that one of the guys on the team had an amazing ability to place the ball. This is about when I discovered we were short players because made a push at us they really pushed like 5 players forward. When we made our pitaful attempts we push 2 guys forward because everyone else was on support and defense. playing 8 on 11 is hard work. Besides were were completely out of breath before half time.

Half time came with a great relief. Because some guys from the team showed up late for the second half. Sweet we had a complete team maybe we can make a dent in the score. which was 2-7. Granted we were all very tired and one of are guys cracked his head(lots of blood) trying for a header in the first half. But he was our 8th player so we gave him a quick break and then got him back in the game. At halftime we found someone with a gauze wrap and we tied up the guys head. WE were still tired but we did better once we had a full team even though we were all very tired except for the 3 guys that showed up at random times inbetween the first half and the second half. We actually went back to 10 player fairly quickly and it wasn't the kid with the cracked head. Time switched out of goalie for 5 minutes so some guy on the team could do a pentalty kick. But within the time Tim switched and before they could switch back the guy had a ball drible up to him and he stepped out of the box. RED card and he was out of the game and we played man down ball the rest of the way. By the way if you didn't read the title it was 3-11.

Ok the funny story about me is I had a hard time playng quick sharp soccer because every time a guy would want me to do something with the ball he would speak to me in spanish. If you didn't remember I'm still learning. So I don't react real quick. I translate and then react. I think alot of the guys on the team were laughing at me quite a bit. Who cares right I'm having fun.

I'm an idiot story. I was going for a block and the guy on the other team shot a lazer right at me. I don't get hit in the head or fall over, but I did hit the ball with my hand. The bummer about this was my hand was in a fist right infront of my chest. So the ball hit my hand and then crushed into my chest. SO my crest really hurts this afternoon but I'm fine. It only really hurts if I laugh or breath in really deep.

Have good one


Scott Ekstrom