State Futsal

I'll try to keep the long story short and enjoyable, it's already 7.05pm and i'm gonna watch a movie tonight with my family. Another day off school...sigh...i've missed tons of classes in the last week. Marcus and i caught the train to Flinders in the morning. We were going to meet the Intermediate Futsal team at 7.50am. It was Turk, Tommy, Duc, Marcus, Chalky, Brad, Jase, Kev, Denholm, Johnny and myself. Laios almost broke his leg on the weekend and so decided to sit this one out -.-" *SPECIAL* There's a BIG revelation at the end. Don't miss it!

I was praying hard and hoping that my 35-dollar-unbearable-pain sesssion of acupunture treatment would pay off. We got to MSAC at 8.40am, got changed and started mucking around with the ball. The games started an hour behind schdule at 10.30am -.-" Sigh....we were there from 8.40am till 3.40pm and we spent 4 of those 7 hours sitting around, waiting for our next game -.-"It was terribly unorganised. I mean...the organisers were wogs...so yea, that explains why :P Even Johnny, the wog of all wogs, admitted it.

In the first game - I decided to start alongside Brad with Jason in goals, Turk and Denholm up front. We took a little too long to get into the game, and we soon conceeded a goal - a shot deflected off Brad...again! -.-" lol! Anyway, i felt my knee acting up again and i got subbed off for Chalky. It was really funny how Brad was screaming his guts out for me to come on; Chalky was just too slow and Brad had to cover up for him. It was about 5 minutes to full time when Jase pumped a long ball into the opposite half, Kev rose high and strong beat two players to the ball. The ball dropped in Denholm's dangerous strike zone, and he skilfully converted. Marcus came on for 30 seconds :P before the game ended 1-1.

We waited for about 2 hours for out next game. The situation then was exremely tight - there were two pools/groups with 4 teams in each. Every team will get the chance to play each other only once in a round robin. A win would ensure 3 points, a draw 1 and none for a losing team. One team from our pool didn't turn up and thus, every team picked up a bye-victory of 3-0. So we had 4 points; a bye-victory over the team that didn't turn up (3), and a draw(1). We had only one game left against North Geelong. They had 6 points; a bye-victory and a win over the team that we drew with. If we won that game, we could overtake them with 7 points and that would ensure us a place in the grand final.

I decided to start that game again. Before the match, i prayed " Lord, give me the strength. Help us for we need you." And God was gracious, he enabled me to start the game. So it was jase in goals, Brad and i in defence, Denholm and Tommy in attack. I don't know why, but my knee felt perfectly fine! i was able to win most of the headers against these massively tall greek strikers. Brad was doing well too. We worked together to close down, literally, all the spaces. I reckon we had the best defence around. Jase was doing fantastically well in goals! lolz... i mean, Brad and i made sure that he had weak shots to deal with...but yea...he did well. Turk was struggling a little at the front, and Denholm was running relentlessly at the defence; most of their attempts were in vain.

Things started to get moving 8 minutes into the game. Kev lobbed a ball into the danger zone, and Denholm made a precise dash for it. he got the slightest of touches with the tip of his toe and lifted it past the diving keeper, leaving him with absolutely no chance. However, he hurt his left toe in that couragous attempt and had to come off for the rest of the game. My knee started to act up again as well, and i had to be subbed off. The half ended 1-0.

We desperately needed a win to qualify for the grand finals. At 1-0 up, we felt so close to that well-coveted spot. I thank God for literally healing my knee for that short period of time; i couldn't feel ANY pain at all at the start of the second half! haha! We started the game with a bang. Kevin took a kick-in, i controlled it, dribbled past one, faked the shot, pushed it past another and blasted the ball at goal. However, there were two defenders who got a block on my shot, but the sheer power on that shot took the 3 of us out - we just fell the ground. loL! It was hilarious. Ke picked up the stray ball and slotted it past the stunned keeper with his left. At 2-0 up, we thought the game was in the bag.

With 4 minutes left on the clock, the atmosphere was intense. The next two minutes were ones that i will never forget. The ball was played back to Brad, but he couldn't get it under control and was robbed of the ball. I was left to take on two advancing strikers. I had 2 choices - To mark one and leave the other, or to rush to one and leave the other. lol! Both were to my disadvantage. Like a doomed experiment rat trying to find cheese in a maze, i rushed to the player with the possession of the ball and left my man unmarked. He passed it off to the unmarked player and he made no mistake with his strike. Jase was literally screaming his guts out when the ball flew past him; 2-1.

We had to restart the ball at midway. I don't know what got into Kev. He was supposed to belt the ball towards goal, but he made an ambitious pass back to Brad instead! -.-" It was about 4 metres away from Brad and he was taken by surprised. A striker latched on to the stray pass, got past Brad and struck it sweetly past Jasey; 2-2 -.-""" Everything happened so quickly! Sigh...my knee started to act up again, and i was replaced by Turk. Marcus and Turk had many chances to seal the game, but they were just unlucky. With one minute to go, Marcus took the ball with really fast pace on the left flank. He dribbled past a defender, did a 360 turn past another, got to the corner and flicked it up into the penalty area just before it crossed the by-line. However, Turk was well-marked in the area. The game ended 2-2.

Sigh...that was it. We came second in our pool with 5 points; a win and two draws. North Geelong topped the pool with 7; two wins and a draw -.-" We spent another 3 hours or so waiting for the wog organisers to determine if a semi-final was gonna be held. We had the shock of our lives when they told us that we were in the grand final! lol! But it was shot-lived. An expected mistake from the wog administrator -.-" We waited 3 hours in vain! -.-"

Tommy, Turk, Duc, Marcus, Kev and i decided to stay back for the Frand Fianal - North Geelong(the team that we drew with) VS St. Bernards. It was a fantastic game. North Geelong made a spectacular comeback, much better than the one they came up with against us, from 6-1 down at half time to win 8-7! They were the state champions for Futsal! The atmosphere was filled with joy, roars, jubiliation and sheer hapiness. I felt happy for them too =) Duc and Turk claim that we're supposed to be the champions because we nearly beat them. Plus, most of our players have never played Futsal before, AND Brad had a little problem with his quad, Johnny's injured, i had a big problem with my knee and Laios couldn't play. Sigh...we'll try again next year.

I've gained a whole different view of Johnny now. I reckon he's a good captain. Although he may be a little proud, he's a good friend to have. It's a pity that he had to sit out for the tournament due to an injury. Also, i was really touched when i saw my dad at MSAC today. We came down from work just to make sure that i wasn't pushing my knee too hard. I thank God for giving me such loving parents! =)

Okay, now for the BIG secret. It's really HUGE. Trust me. What happened was...after the social last friday, we went for supper in the city and we took a train back home. The "we" consisted of Marcus, Harish, Prashan, Anthony and myself. It was 12am+ and i was feeling extremely tired. I leaned against the window and fell asleep. Five minutes later, i woke up just to check what station we were at. Just then, i felt something on my left shoulder, and then a "Shmuck" sound. I turn to my left and saw Prashan's head just next to my shoulder -.-" I was like..."What the heck?!" I was flustered! He jumped back in horror. Even Marcus and Harish saw what had happened. I asked him what he was doing. He said that he had to tell me a secret. But he couldn't answer when i asked him what it was -.-" x 10000000000 WHAT THE! He's GAY! I just kept quiet through the rest of the train ride. I couldn't believe it. It's hard to believe. I mean...i'm just inferring, he didn't admit it... but...why else would he kiss me on the shoulder when i was sleeping?!

I just wanna end of by thanking God for all that has happened today. Doesn't matter if we didn't make the grand finals, we felt the place with sweet memories and an experience that i'll never forget.