A Keeper is Born

Well, maybe not really, but I played my first keeper position in last night's game. Our regular keeper was out and I have a cold and haven't been feeling quite up to snuff, so I volunteered to play the 2nd half with the gloves on.

And it was a good thing, because after a couple of hard runs in the 1st half, I was dogged! Playing keeper was fun! I wasn't particularly great at it, but it was a different way to look at the game. There is something exciting about having 20 players moving in your direction, picking out the offense and thinking, "Oh, shit! They're coming for me!"

My career clean sheet lasted about 20 minutes. I made a couple of saves, leaped for several crosses and corners, and found myself woefully out of position! The goal on me was a one-on-one with the striker on the right side. I came out to reduce the angle, and he coolly slotted it far corner. Very professional on all sides!

Anyways, the team is coming together. We've got a couple of new bodies and it looks like we'll have good numbers for the matches, which is oh, so important in the over 40 league! We will still probably not win a lot of matches anytime soon, but we're in it for the fun and for the challenge of trying to play quality football.