It was the second time last night when about 19 guys show up for our weekly futsal. We only have 1 hour to really accommodate all. So we agreed the system of 6 minutes or 2 goals winner. In the event of a draw, a one-step penalty is applied. That made the Saturday night game always frantic and full of competitiveness. Every one wants to play a bit longer. My team didn't really do well. We were beaten by the long-shots. If I'm not mistaken... about 3 games we lost because of long-shots. (Shots that were taken from across the opponent team with strikes laden with venom!)
Thus the situation pushed me to play hard and return to my normal position at the back. That's where some of my guys (of opposition) muttered the word... it's gonna be a dread situation. Because instead of playing at the front, pretending to be Torres... I would be pretending to be Carragher when I'm at the back! Of course, upon clearing the balls I won't be using Messi's technique but seriously Carragher's. I would steal the ball with my left foot and bang it away with my right one. And using my physics to body-contact the opponents which most of the time I would prevail !
The key-word is that no matter how hard and vicious my style of football, it has to be done correctly and `with grace'. Meaning, I have to ensure the opponent won't get hurt because of my play. The most is small bruises or sometimes they might crash onto the gates. I once scolded an opponent for tackling (skidding) my frontman. I said it loudly that he could injured him. Of course, he was apprehensive but who cares. Someone got to say it. And I think it's better be me because I don't want someone tackling me on a futsal pitch. The injury risk is greater than playing on the normal pitch. You can block the kick but never do the Masherano on the futsal pitch. After all, the weekly game is meant for fun. The competitiveness is welcome but it shouldn't be taken as if it's a real competition.
On the same note, I do get involved from time to time with some competition for my organisation, in particular the inter-departmental games and inter-media tournaments. It always pissed me off when the opposition or my own players goes for serious kicking and hurting somebody, be it deliberate or not. They say it is difficult to differentiate if a kick on your shin is intentional or otherwise. Yes I agree. But my point is : we're not a professional footballers. On Sunday we play, on Monday we have to show up in the office. Do you want to ruin your working days with a limping foot? So my advice would be, play with your heads. If we win, so we win. If we lose, so be it. We can try again next year. We don't need injuries.
But in the inter-media tournament, the most weird team would be TV3 and NST. These two teams are famous for bust-up. As long as I can remember during my participation, they either had a bust-up with each other or with other people. Fortunately, when we play NST a couple of years back, we didn't have problems. Probably when the two of us met, it was already in the semi-finals and that was like the 5th game of the day for both. Tiredness and the hot sun, didn't really motivate us to really go for the kill. In fact, my instruction to my players (I played left back) is just to finish the game without conceding any and may be get some lucky break in the counter attack. The game ended 0-0. NST advance because of the goal margin. Me and my team were quite happy because now we can go back to take shower and may be a quick nap. I remember I tackled my good old friend, Ramlan Said. He's problem was that he didn't put on his shinguard. He tried to break away from me but my Carragher methods managed to stop him. Of course my left foot hit his right shin and I send him kissing the green! And he thought he got a free-kick. Sorry Ramlan, I got the ball first, then your foot come second. hihihi.... Sorry bro. Unintentional!
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