theOpolis

Since last weeks game doesn’t have footage and we were run out of the building, let’s just pretend it didn’t happen, and we can focus on Monday’s game, sound good?

Fellas, we were close.  We led for most of the game and even tried to come from behind late, but it wasn’t enough.  But we still have Friday to look forward to.

There won’t be highlights on the blog just yet, but Mr. Doonkeen is working hard on creating a little something special.  He swore on Cole’s first born son that is was going to be awesome.  Since their aren’t video highlights, how about some verbal ones from yours truly.

insert cool background music

• Turbyfill Jr. scoring like 18 goals in 5 seconds was really awesome
• Steffen, did it again, even after missing an open net and putting a couple into orbit, he scores 2 goals
• I’m hoping these are on film, but both Jeff’s awesome spin move and painful fall were Kodak moments for me
• I didn’t run into 1 single wall, so, I am instantly in the running for Barracudos
• Turbyfill Jr. getting checked into the door on the bench, and the proceeding to enter the bench at a high rate of speed
• The goalie scorpion kick-saving Kurtis’ land run shot.
• We had 2 land runs? How many fouls were there!?
• Taylor completely hip checking the ball into the net, followed by Ryan’s relief that the goal wasn’t his fault

I’m sure that there were a ton more highlights, but we’ll let Ryan do work on those.

Apple Slices

Are you kidding me!?  Those were delicious.  I’m on board for someone bringing apple slices to every single game for life.

Barracudos

This probably isn’t going to shock anyone, but this week’s Barracudos goes to Craig.  He could’ve scored at least 3 or 4 more that he passed to someone else, to try and share the love.  I’m not sure what the final tally was for him, 6-7 goals, but we were definitely glad to have him out there.

The Final Countdown

So Friday night is the last game of the season.  And I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like we have gotten a little bit better each game, so I’m really looking forward to Friday.  Since the game is on a Friday, we are trying to get a crowd out there, so tell your girlfriends/wives, parents, friends, whoever.

Next Season

I know this season was rough on almost all of us, with the games being so late.  But, we need to figure who is interested in playing next season.  We are definitely dropping down to the lowest division, relegation style.  And, I’m going to see what I can do about getting our games earlier, they said we just needed to ask, so I’ll try that move.  So, no decisions have to be made right now, we can discuss it after the game on Friday.  The next season starts October 3rd, so we would have a week off.  I had a blasty blasty, and I’m definitely in.

Tough loss last week.  The good news is, those guys were really awesome.  We really shouldn’t be playing against teams of that caliber in the 2nd lowest division.  And in other good news, we didn’t ever give up.  We scored all 3 of our goals late in the 2nd half.  And all of the goals were pretty sweet (more on that later).  

Highlights & Lowlights

We have a little more of the lowlights than the highlights this week.  Mainly because we got completely destroyed, but also because the camera ran out of batteries before we scored all 3 goals.  But, here is last week’s recap set to possibly popular music.

What I learned from the tape

• Cole might have a dangerous shot, if you give him a minute to wind up
• I have the arm of a 12 year old girl, I could barely get the ball past midfield and it always went to the other team
• We have got to get more shots on goal, the goalie made 2 saves on 10 shots in the first half, and the 2 saves were him picking the ball up

Barracudos

And this week’s Barracudos goes to drumroll sound Steffen.  After last week’s gaff, well, I believe Harry from Dumb & Dumber said it best. “Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!”  This is Steffen’s 2nd 2-goal game, impressive.  Steffen is also the first person to score on the landrun this season, slumpbuster.  Job well done.

This Week

The team we play this week is in 1st place.  So, they are apparently better than the other 2 teams that tore us apart.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a shot.  Maybe this scene from Little Giants will inspire you.

The game this week is on Thursday @ 11:50pm, so rest up.

I don’t know about you guys, but I really thought we had turned a corner.  I was expecting it to be all wins from here on out.  Probably got a little ahead of myself, right?  The truth is, we aren’t far from being a decent team.  We just need to keep tweaking things each week.  Here is what I took away, after watching the game tape.

• Our new guys are coming along nicely
• Outside of Matt, our defense is AWFUL.  This week, we should try marking up, instead of playing a zone
• I’m putting myself on the PUD List (Physically Unable to Defend).  I could’ve made an entire highlight reel of me getting burned or just standing around, looking clueless.  I’ll do better
• Steffen is no longer allowed to take free kicks on our side of the field, when the game is on the line and no one is nearby to pass to except for the best player on the other team (zoom, zoom, zoom!)

And the moment you’ve all been waiting for, this weeks highlights.

Favorite part, Cole dropping the jukie at the end and smoking that guy.  You see the focus in his eyes!?

Barracudos

Thanks to Mr. Doonkeen’s brilliant and punny mind, we have a new way of recognizing an MVP each week.  This week, Barracudos goes out to Kurtis.  He scored 2 clutch goals that made the game level before we let it slip away right at the end.  One of them was a nice header off of a completely accidental nice touch pass from Steffen.  The other was off a rebound from a nice free kick from Corey.  Job well done Kurtis.

Our Next Game

A game before 10pm!? CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY THIS YEAR!!  Seriously though, it looks like this should be a decent team this week.  The game is at 9:55pm on Wednesday.  Read over the bullet points above (mostly just about not playing zone) and we should have a good chance at winning.

What can we say, we were just way better than our competition this week.  At half it was tied 3-3, but it ended 11-4.  We aren’t playing worse competition, because this team tied the team we tied last week (woah, that’s a mouthful).  So I guess that just means we are getting better as a team.

Video Daily Double

Kurtis brought his camera to the last game, and we managed to squeak out a solid 3 highlights.  Hopefully we can get better at filming while watching (I’m looking at myself on this one).  The video is a mix of highlights and bloopers, because we take ourselves really serious.

My favorite moment from the video, Matt going Matrix and saving a header in the upper 90’s of the goal, nice!

Other Highlights

• Pretty much everyone scored, including Cole & Jeff (not that you guys shouldn’t be scoring tons and tons of goals).
• Steffen scoring by passing it along the wall, running around their entire team along the wall, and the meeting back up with it in front of the net.  I imagined this song playing while it happened. 
  
• Had enough videos yet?  Good, I’m not even close to being done!
• Turbyfill got another hat trick, on one of the goals, the opted for a 1-man wall, instead of 2, and Turby made them pay.
• I think I would’ve had at least 2 more goals, if Kurtis hadn’t been distracting me by yelling Jurassic Park quotes from the bench. “Shooot her!!”
  

Mighty Ducks Moment of the Week

Remember that kid form D2 that could skate real fast, but couldn’t stop, so he always ran into the wall.  I’m like that kid, except not fast.  But I did run into the wall at full speed.

You just need to watch the first like, 30 seconds.

So who’s pumped for the game tomorrow!?

Blue Barracudas showed their resolve tonight. 2 goals late to tie and then an open net miss by @colemart to seal it.

So last night was pretty fun eh? I honestly couldn’t go to sleep until around 2:30 in the morning. I don’t know if it was the magical way we pulled back into that game or if it was the “almost fight” Mr. Doonkeen got into, but I was wired. It was a fantastic game, and we get more Mighty Duck like every time we take the field. Last game, Coach Bombay had given us some bad advice and he didn’t really care about us. This week, Cole Martin pulled out the Triple Deke and put one in the back of the old onion bag. Next week, Jeff leads us in the Flying V.

Memorable Moments

After Turbyfill missed his landrun opportunity, the ball ended up right at Cole Martin’s feet. He had the chance to tie the game up, and he let the pressure get to him. Even though he missed, the bench went crazy with excitement.

Remember when Baby Travis was all like “zzzzz” and then his dad scored and he went all “zzzzz”, hilars!

I personally loved coming off the field to eager substitutes. This was a huge upgrade from last game where I would come off the field to nearly dead bodies strewn about the bench.

Matt played lights out. The only goals they got by him were ones right in front of the goal that even Cole Martin wouldn’t mi… o wait. That even Jeff wouldn’t miss.

Glad our newcomers both showed up and made impacts.

Can’t wait for next week, rumors are the jerseys might be ready, and they might be awesome.

Closing Thoughts

What do you guys think about having an end of the year team party? I can get some trophies made up, for those that deserve it, or maybe even team trophies? 

The schedule for next week has been posted.  I decided to find out how late we were going to play, so I can spin it to make it sound interesting for Ryan to come.

“We play at 11:30 pm.  Mark Wahlberg was born at 11:30 pm, isn’t that pretty cool?  It will be like you playing with him… sort of.”  - example spin

Well, I couldn’t find us on any of the Wednesday games, on any of the fields.  So I went back, and looked harder, found us.  We play on Saturday at 11pm, against a team called Balls and Dolls.

At first, I thought that “18F” meant it was a league for females, 18 and under.  And I was excited that we might have a shot at winning a game or 2 all of a sudden.  But, it turns out it is a CoEd league for 18 year olds.  Here comes the best part of the story.

The reason that we are playing in the wrong league, is because they confused us with another team in that CoEd league.  Want to know how that is even possible?  Well after looking over next weeks schedule, I also found this game.

That’s right, there is another team, with almost the same freaking name!  There are 2 Blue Barracudas out there.  I think there needs to be a playoff, to see which team keeps the name (Highlander style?).  I’ll have to call and get our schedule corrected, but how awesome is that?

Also, for all of the single fellas on the team, you have an instant conversation piece with the “of age” ladies on this team.  You’re welcome.

Major ups to @TheNateFerguson & @Bethroll for “jumping the broom”. Now you guys can go see that movie, and understand it.