Underdogs..

Yesterdays soccer was like a wake up call for our team.. We've been missing out the times of simei.. Those were the times where we are underdogs, the times where we push ourselves to match our opponents, the times where our team's potential is shown..

I always believed that our team will only play it's best when we are underdogs.. I always feel when we play on sat, my team has this mentality that they are the best there and thus, deserve to win.. But we all know in soccer, if you have this mentality, it will come back and haunt you.. Cos the ball is round, nothing is certain in soccer.. Even if Man Utd vs Singapore, Man Utd will not win 100% all the time.. Maybe out of 1million tries, Singapore would win once.. Okay, i know it's alittle too far fetched..

Maybe like Man Utd vs Leeds United.. Leeds i believe is 2 divisions lower than Man United.. But maybe out of 10 attempts, Leeds was able to contain Man Utd once.. Okay, as long as you get the picture..

And when you think later, why would a better team lose to a lousier team, the answer is complacency.. When you know you are the better team, you tend to stop doing the small little things.. For e.g, if you were challenging a team of equal status, passes would be alittle faster cos you know they close down fast.. But if you take on a lousier team, suddenly, the passes are slower, you tend to dribble n hold on the ball more when normally you wouldnt..

It's this little small things that really determine a game.. Like if you're alittle more skilled, you know you go past the player but what you missed out could be a passed that had let to a goal, maybe a one-two was a better solution, maybe another player was in a better position, even thou you could go past your opponent.. It's all these, could have been factors..

So, when my team plays a stronger opponent, the passing is faster, movement better, helping out in defence is more than sufficient.. Suddenly we become a team.. Cos we know that this team can be beaten even thou it is stronger, and we like to prove the stronger team wrong.. Maybe we gotta work on our finishing, but when i play on sat, i dont have that "team" feeling.. I have that complacency feeling when we play..

That was why i was urging them to play yesterday against my bro's team.. Cos my bro's team has a very strong foundation.. They started since St Hilda's had a soccer team then.. They were the last batch of that certain CCA in our school.. They went out to form a team, playing regularly weekly and ultimately joining a prime league of ESPZEN.. They climbed from i believe, Group 7 to Group 1.. Think of Group 1 as the EPL, then as the group number is bigger, the standard is lousier.. Ever since they joined the league, they managed to promote every season.. A very powerful record if you ask me..

So, yesterday, i struggled to form a team, but was still desperate to go play.. Initally only me hj n hp decided to play... Quite predictable cos we have been playing soccer together since forever.. Besides Matt Lim, we are like the core members of a 5 a side team.. The last of the 5 a side team was always changing.. First it was Xing Jin, then i believed Nicky or Jx, or Matt, and it was only later that Terence became the last fixed 5.. But he also couldnt make it cos he had something on, which i think had something to do with girls.. LOL..

Then Lucas n Leslie gave me crap excuses for not playing.. Lucas said it was too late.. My reply to him was that whenever we play cage it was always that late.. Last time we wld play cage from 12 or 1 till 2 to 3.. Then he himself wld still go macdonalds to eat after that, still can tell me too late.. Then he came up with another excuse, going out the nxt day.. I ask him what time, he said at nite.. KNN trying to be funny sia.. In de end when he no more excuses, he came..

As for les, he told me he got something on.. But when i told him almost all of us that are playing on sat are playing on fri instead and that no one is playing on sat already, he caved in as well.. WTH!!

So we finally had a team..

Every match we played against my bro team was always long even thou it's a one goal knock out style.. Cos we stood our ground, defended well, and always looking to counter.. Initially, some of us were impatient with their tactics.. Cos they would hold the ball for a long time then "BAM!" they would attack.. And leslie lost his temper abit, but after awhile, we adapted to their game.. Just hold your ground n dont commit.. I never believed our team was good in pressing.. I always think we play very well if we dont commit, let them make their mistakes and we capitalised on them..

But we suddenly changed our style since dunno when to a pressing kinda side.. As long as we dont have the ball, we try to harrass the opponent, and they are more than willing to let us fall into their trap by passing the ball around and making us more impatient and then strike when we commit too many players..

But yesterday was much better, we were in the game so long becos almost all the time we never commit and counter alot.. If not for some brilliant goalkeeping, we would have been up by alot..

It was truly a game worth playing, and i think all of us miss that feeling of underdogs.. After the match, we went down to Mac for some late night supper, with the exception of hp, everyone was buzzing about how well we played n stuff..

We need more of these!!!

I cant believed how much i've typed.. It just flows out whenever it is about soccer.. Im just a fanatic.. If you have read until here, i salute you if you're not a soccer fanatic.. Even if you are, also salute, cos it has nothing to do with you either, it's all about me n my team in this post.. HAHA!!