On the bright side–I scored a goal. On the dark side–we got beat by a team that showed little sportmanship in seemingly boorish behavior by racking up the score. Our regular goalie was at a tournament in Australia so 3 fairly inexperienced volunteers (thank you, thank you) took their  respective turns in the goal box. We were also missing 6 regular team players. For future reference  ladies, let me tell you how it is done. After it becomes apparent that scoring in a situation like this is as easy as say, brushing your teeth, you then should start rotating players into different positions. For instance; move your forwards into the fullback line, let your fullbacks have a run at being a forward, bring your goalie out to play on the field, put people that usually don’t play the keeper position in to experience the goal box. Mix it up.  Start passing to those gals that usually don’t get a chance at a lot of ball handling. Really! It is disconcerting and should be totally unnecessary to tell folks that. But there you go. Sportsmanship is not dead. It just needs to be taught. Remember, it’s called Playing a Game.

Goal x 2. My usual position on the soccer field is as a sweeper, the last defender before the goalie. My team got something in their collective noggins, apparently too many head balls, and moved me up front to play as a forward. A hand ball in the box with no volunteers to take the penalty kick and with urging from our usual sure-thing PK takers, resulted in my defacto situation, facing the goalie one on one for the penalty kick. I felt some serene confidence however, and agreed to try my foot as it were to tie the game 1-1. High and hard the ball soared over the 5′11″ keeper’s outstretched fingertips and punched into the top left corner of the net. Well placed, I must admit…this is no time for modesty. Less than 10 minutes later I received a lovely through pass from my teamate L. an undefatigable, skillfull, cloud touch controlled forward/mid-fielder. I took control of the ball with a couple of light touches and shot low around an aggressive fullback and a stunned goalie. The ball skimmed low to the inside of the right upright pole about 2′ off the ground. Poofh! into the net!!!! Goooooooooaalllll #2.  The winning goal. I don’t think I have scored for about 10 years. Today, I scored 2. Because my team had the confidence  to mix things up a little, put players in different positions, give me a try up front, I was able to score. We are an adaptable team.  We are able to adjust and play in various positions on the field. We are supportive of one another. We are winners this week. Way to go, Ladies.