Fun times at ATX
Jul. 27th, 2024 10:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bill_schubertAustin FC has been a soccer organization for about three years now. I have missed one or two games (on TV or in person) in all that time and watching them has not always been easy. Now they are on Apple+ so I can miss the beginning or the whole game and still see it. But I've suffered through all this time when they have been an OK team. Even when they did well I never thought they were really good. They got lucky, or surprised their opponents, or overwhelmed with offence and had good luck on defense. But they never were a solid, believable team.
That changed last night. Part of it is they have a couple of elite players they just picked up and for whatever reason a couple of the old standbys are just firing on every damn cylinder. The goal tender who has played in every game since the team was created was not feeling well and they put in the backup who had never played with them. He was really not good, not ready for prime time. This game was against a Mexican club and part of a pretty big tournament involving Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. MLS teams. It doesn't matter too much if Austin FC were to bomb out of it. They did that last year, lost two games and were done. So throw in the second string goalie. It's OK.
But somehow the players decided they wanted to win. The Mexican team had a record of victories that ran back a while. They were touted as being elite. There was no doubt they were going to win. All good plans until you get punched in the mouth. Austin scored an early goal and it was a solid shot by one of the oldest players we have, not a fluke. All of the sudden things got real. And it was a cross between rugby and Premium League football. Bodies were flying. Penalties were dropping, pushing and shoving and flying hands to the face. The ref did not do a great job and wasn't consistent. Ended up giving one of our best offensive guys two yellow cards which resulted in a red card and he was out of the game, no replacement allowed. So Austin played most of the game one player down. Then Austin scored again. Another really good goal. The place went wild and more bodies flew.
The Mexican team did score once more before the 'interval' and there was some jawboning between the Mexican and Austin coaches on the way to the locker room.
These two teams had never played before but it was now a grudge match.
Second half was more of the same. At one point we swapped out one of the guys on the field who had run out of gas for one of my favorite defensemen. This new guy was welcomed to the field by an elbow shove to the face while setting up for a corner kick. Very close to a full out brawl as another of our defensemen jumped in to protest the shove.
On the one had you hate to see the pushing and shoving. Play soccer. But to have a teammate jump in without a thought to be a brother in a brawl was something to see.
This kept up at an unrelenting pace. The game never really slowed, never was boring, never just passing around. It was always attacking and defending and full out running to the other end in a break away. Lots more yellow cards. No more, fortunately, ejections.
All of the sudden there was a break and damn if we didn't score again. At 3-1 and about 20 minutes left everyone in the stadium started to believe and there was noise as only La Murga de Austin (the 100 or so band and cheering section) can do. The Mexican team scored once more so it was a bit of nail biting when one of our guys tripped one of theirs in the box and it was a penalty kick. With our second string goalie who had spent the game playing down to mediocrity.
No one misses a penalty kick and Casey went up to the plate. And damn if the goalie didn't jump the right way and save the goal. From crap to king in one second.
The rest was a foregone conclusion. We were all defense. Our guys were everywhere and just kept kicking the ball all the way back down the field, killing time until it was finally done. Austin FC's best game in the history of the club.
I read a Reddit entry by a visiting English tourist who said it was better than watching the Premier League, as good a game as he'd ever seen.
Austin FC plays again on Tuesday vs Monterey here in Austin. No idea what will happen but it is going to be a good game.
That changed last night. Part of it is they have a couple of elite players they just picked up and for whatever reason a couple of the old standbys are just firing on every damn cylinder. The goal tender who has played in every game since the team was created was not feeling well and they put in the backup who had never played with them. He was really not good, not ready for prime time. This game was against a Mexican club and part of a pretty big tournament involving Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. MLS teams. It doesn't matter too much if Austin FC were to bomb out of it. They did that last year, lost two games and were done. So throw in the second string goalie. It's OK.
But somehow the players decided they wanted to win. The Mexican team had a record of victories that ran back a while. They were touted as being elite. There was no doubt they were going to win. All good plans until you get punched in the mouth. Austin scored an early goal and it was a solid shot by one of the oldest players we have, not a fluke. All of the sudden things got real. And it was a cross between rugby and Premium League football. Bodies were flying. Penalties were dropping, pushing and shoving and flying hands to the face. The ref did not do a great job and wasn't consistent. Ended up giving one of our best offensive guys two yellow cards which resulted in a red card and he was out of the game, no replacement allowed. So Austin played most of the game one player down. Then Austin scored again. Another really good goal. The place went wild and more bodies flew.
The Mexican team did score once more before the 'interval' and there was some jawboning between the Mexican and Austin coaches on the way to the locker room.
These two teams had never played before but it was now a grudge match.
Second half was more of the same. At one point we swapped out one of the guys on the field who had run out of gas for one of my favorite defensemen. This new guy was welcomed to the field by an elbow shove to the face while setting up for a corner kick. Very close to a full out brawl as another of our defensemen jumped in to protest the shove.
On the one had you hate to see the pushing and shoving. Play soccer. But to have a teammate jump in without a thought to be a brother in a brawl was something to see.
This kept up at an unrelenting pace. The game never really slowed, never was boring, never just passing around. It was always attacking and defending and full out running to the other end in a break away. Lots more yellow cards. No more, fortunately, ejections.
All of the sudden there was a break and damn if we didn't score again. At 3-1 and about 20 minutes left everyone in the stadium started to believe and there was noise as only La Murga de Austin (the 100 or so band and cheering section) can do. The Mexican team scored once more so it was a bit of nail biting when one of our guys tripped one of theirs in the box and it was a penalty kick. With our second string goalie who had spent the game playing down to mediocrity.
No one misses a penalty kick and Casey went up to the plate. And damn if the goalie didn't jump the right way and save the goal. From crap to king in one second.
The rest was a foregone conclusion. We were all defense. Our guys were everywhere and just kept kicking the ball all the way back down the field, killing time until it was finally done. Austin FC's best game in the history of the club.
I read a Reddit entry by a visiting English tourist who said it was better than watching the Premier League, as good a game as he'd ever seen.
Austin FC plays again on Tuesday vs Monterey here in Austin. No idea what will happen but it is going to be a good game.
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Date: 2024-07-27 16:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-27 16:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-27 20:42 (UTC)