It was a rainy day that greeted us when we arrived early at the pitch and this was soon joined by thunder and lightning, which was reflective of our mood since this was the last training session under this training academy.
Thankfully the rain abated at training time and it was time to kick ball! After warm up rondos, we did a slow jog around the field before splitting into two teams for a match, and because of the numbers, we had the coaches in our teams as well (2 each!). Our coaches combined really well to start and finish some beautiful attack moves, while I was at left back primarily because no one wanted to play there, and for good reason too as their right wing was a young fast paced sullen chap who once scored 4 goals in a training match. He was fast and really outpaced me when a through pass came through, but thanks to the slick pitch most of these went sailing over the touchline before he could get there. Between my excellent midfield chipping in to shackle him and me, we managed to contain him somewhat, although he did manage to score one off a rebounded long drive that I couldn't stop him without giving away a penalty. Most of the time, it was easier just to cut off the pass to him rather than shadowing him outright, intelligent marking for the win! Even managed to one touch an incoming pass that left him for dead and eventually he began to tire (thank goodness) and less runs were made. One particular tackle early on saw him running towards me at full tilt but i managed to time it such that when he pushed the ball, i stepped in and dug in for the tackle meaning he had to step aside to avoid me (but didn't really manage to) and i even came away with the ball.
The final score was 4-3 to us, but i think the winner at the end of the night was soccer. =)
