Sunday, June 16, 2013

Keeper-Sweeper?

Let's talk strategy. 

I was inspired recently by the following footage demonstrating an outstanding effort from a goalkeeper:



Unfortunate deflection from the opposition defence.  

I want to be this keeper.

The Boffins need to score more goals.  And quite frankly, at this stage of the season I really don't care if we let a few in.  Let's just score more!

Our recent games have been characterised, I think, by a fear of being scored against.  The Smurfs did this to us.  They took our middle-aged mojo (speaking for myself)  when they kicked four goals in the first ten minutes against us three weeks ago.  The presence of my family (did they jinx us?) on the side line did not prevent a bewildered profanity escaping from my lips after this keeper was beaten for the fourth time.  "Can I please just go home now?"

The fact that we stayed and played, and let in no more goals but rather scored two of our own to nil in the second half, seemed a small victory at the time.  Actually, it was no victory at all.  It was still a 4-2 defeat.  But at this stage in my life, sometimes it's the little things that count.  Like the way that half of a soccer match won outweighs the other half of the same match lost badly. 

Or so we tell ourselves.  But we left the field, in fact, losers that night.  And we've been losers ever since.  

Even worse, I arrived home that night a loser in the eyes of my family.  

This week, I just don't care.  Let's forget about trying to stop the opposition from scoring, and let's try to score a few ourselves.  How about 5.  Or 6.   

Let's throw caution to the wind.  

Let's play forward.  Well forward.  

And let's enable this forward-play by playing the keeper, in this seven-a-side match, well up and out of the goal mouth.  Let's keep the ball in their half (except when they rebound and score easy goals, I hear you say).  Let's play the keeper up at the half way line when we attack, and let's put everyone else in the attacking half.  

In fact, let's just play without a keeper.  We'll put the gloves on some bloke and he can pick the ball up if he's in the goal mouth.  But otherwise he can run the field.  

Let's do that.  

But we'd better score some goals, please.  

Or we'll all look like idiots.  



No comments:

Post a Comment