Composure

["Good thinking, coach!" The team has showed great progress on the field this season. Coach Rob pictured above.]

The Street Soccer Stars beat an all Jamaican team by the score of 8-4 last night. After going down we drew level within three minutes, then extended our lead at half-time to 4-3. We missed two easy chances that would have put us comfortably ahead and gave up two goals at the end that we didn't need to. We had played a great first half, finding our target men in the middle and switching the field two even three times to find an opening each possession. We said composure would make the difference in the second half. If we could play our game and not get frantic, we would win. Our composure was tested early. We dropped two goals and the lead, but again we leveled quickly. When we answered again to pull ahead 6-4, it was our opponents who lost their cool. As they fought themselves we added another goal and yet another and maintained possession of the ball most of the half. We could have easily added more to the lead as we missed two open goals and hit the post in the final minutes. We were proud of our maturity on the field today.

Dave and Michael known for their flashes of brilliance gave solid, consistent performances. Off the field their saga continues. Over-stressed to the point of a breakdown, their mother returned to Panama before Christmas after hearing of the death of relative. Not only did the price of the ticket use up her share of the rent, but they received notice the day before Christmas that she would not be returning. Just a couple weeks earlier they seemed more stable than ever. Now, their mother is gone and Dave and Michael are looking for more work to make ends meet. Street Soccer remains the most consistent thing in their life and I marvel not only at their dedication, but their improvement on the field. Here we see the benefit of dividing into two teams paying dividends for the more skilled players and the lesser skilled players, each getting the chance to develop at their own level.

We missed big D-bone and Craig who were both at practice during the day but missed the game, D-bone do to transportation issues and Craig because he was working. Practice featured three new recruits potentially debuting next week for the 945 squad. D-bone also had his long awaited immigration attorney appointment today. Fighting an addiction is a difficult thing and leads to criminalization that makes getting work and renewing your green card difficult. All admiration goes out to D who was straightforward and brave as the attorney explained the worst case scenarios to him. We will hope for the best case. D, by the way is a Jamaican national who came to the US at 13. He is now 31. Many thanks to the Anne Crowdy, sole attorney at the International House which takes on cases pro bono for the homeless.

A lot of credit goes to Jorge and Tim, our sweeper and goalie who had to be strong all day against the long ball game of our opponents.

In this our penultimate game of the regular season, we have put our selves in a good position to finish in the top 3. Mathematically we have a chance at first. Currently we sit third. We have beaten one of the two teams ahead of us and if it were not for our own mistakes against a team we should have beaten early in the competition we would be sitting in a tie for first.

If you are in town come cheer us on in our final regular season game next tuesday.