Thinking about this game still makes me excited...

To this point I have focused much of my frustration of our loss in the tournament last week on one player. Furthermore it’s very clear who “we” have made the scapegoat of “our” struggles to be. And to a certain extent, perhaps I have been too harsh on Brendon (and not harsh enough on “others”). But to sit there and defend anyone’s mistakes with the adage “no one is perfect” is a joke. I’m sick of hearing it. It’s a pathetic display. It’s a feeling that has no association with a heart of a champion.

But for a few moments I will go along with this “wise” excuse. If this adage has any credence at all, then I’m right to surmise that someone other than Brendon made many plays that deserve harsh criticism. Am I right in that assumption? Of course I am. None of us are perfect. But I’m stating the obvious.

It seems that when someone makes a great shot, they get all of the praise. And this praise is certainly well deserved. But, the great pass that set his shot up, from his teammate, is often overlooked. The truth is, though, you can’t have one without the other. The pass gets no praise because someone else made a better play. The same can be said about a bad performance. When one player continues to make questionable play after questionable play, the poor performance of another teammate is evident but often ignored. It goes uncriticized because someone else managed to make a more noticeable mistake.

Just like you, I made awful plays. We all did.

Mike was right when he said: “we all made mistakes and bad plays” but I’m sick of the generalization. I’m sick of having all of us lumped into one mass of terribleness because feelings are being spared. We are supposed to learn from criticism, not become defensive.

Oh yes…I’m finally going to recap game 4:

Game 4: Sweat fancy Moses…how’d we do that?

Game 4 was game one of the play-offs. It was our first game on Sunday. And it could have been, potentially, our last game of the tournament. The play-offs were do or die. And the game started at 8:00 am.

8:00 am. Think about. We had played 3 long hard fought games on Saturday and we needed a quick turn around for Sunday. We were certainly tired. We were out of energy. We were exhausted. And our play showed that we were.

When we got to the park (field? Is there a better term? Brendon, want to help me out? Or is the site part of your “ban” too?) we saw our opponent, the Wolf Pack practicing for the game. We, on the other hand, chose not to practice but complain. Nick was mad that Jared didn’t get him breakfast. Though, Brendon was clutch when he gave me a power bar!! (Hey Brendon look! A compliment!!!!!) And Jared was complaining about how our team looks unprepared in contrast to our adversary. We were standing around…they were practicing. We are the epitome of a team.

Remember the Wolf Pack? You know, it was that team that we shared a mutual respect for. (magic v.s bird style)

Well, they were more prepared than we were. They were a better than we were. And we were tired. Does that sound like a recipe for a win? Never mind a win, how about a competitive game? I had my doubts.

Game 4 started off slow (for us). We were down 2-0 quick. And I’ll be honest, it didn’t look good. Every time we scored-they answered. Jared started off our scoring, making the game 2-1. We gained hope. Then they scored. 3-1 Wolf Pack. We thought the game was over. Then Johnny scored making the game 3-2. We began to believe again. And guess what happened next? Yep, they scored. 4-2 wolf pack. Next, we made it 4-3 with another clutch goal from Jared (were you thinking it was a clutch goal from Brendon?). Suddenly, we felt we could come back and win.

And then they scored. Again.

After that goal we began to believe that we had no chance. We were hoping for time to run out.

Instead, time stood still; because Jared decided to call a time-out.

What a tactic.

During our time-out we chose not to work on a game plan or strategy but we sat there in what was almost a dead silence. The one minute timeout flew by. We were soon told to get up off the ground and play (on!).

But before we started up again Jared softly said to his team “let’s score two”

Wow.

What a motivator.

When play resumed there was a little more then 3 minutes left of the clock. We couldn’t afford to waste time. We needed to strike quickly. We did just that. In the blink of an eye John Riley came up with a clutch goal. To this moment, I still can not believe how Johnny got this ball to go in. He couldn’t do it again if he wanted. This ball seemed to pause in mid and Johnny somehow managed to time the slap perfectly for a goal. 5-4 game.

Despite the momentum changing sides yet again, the wolf pack managed to keep the pressure on us. In fact, they even managed to catch Brett out of net in one instance…Hold ON! Glad I caught myself. I don’t want to say anything negative about Brett! Brendon claims that I’m biased; I don’t want to deviate from my reputation.

Our 5th goal is as Griff would say was “debatable”. It was yet another goal by Jared and this time the ball was almost “willed” in. The ball apparently “trickled” past the goal line. As soon as Jared saw this he began to yell “it’s in! It’s a goal”. The reff blew the whistle. Tie Game.

Somehow we managed to hold down the fort the rest of the way. We were about to have a shoot out.

For a shootout the “team” got to decide who would take the shots. Only three players could go. Johnny and Jared were locks, but who would be our third guy? Luckily (sort of a backhanded thing to you Mike) we never got to that point.

Jared was the first one to take a shot. He scored on a forehand. 1-0 Alliance…it was our first lead. (sort of)

Then the wolf pack's representative took a crack at scoring. Brett wanted no part in that. He was shut down immediately.

And now it was Johnny’s turn to give us a commanding lead. Not noted earlier in this recap was a missed penalty shot by John…maybe John would take something out of that missed shot? Of course he did. He scored on back hand.

It was all up to Brett. Could he finish the improbable win? He is the better Driscoll…what do you think happend?

Game Over. he shut them down. The best game any of us had ever been a part of. And we played awful.

Coming “Soon”: Game 5-Am I done writing recaps?????