The 2011-12 season began, sort of, with a rare preseason friendly. And it was a rare chance for DPR to get into the swing of things before the season started, rather than the customary halfway-through-the-season.The match was against a decent team, and certainly not one that was going to let us cake walk. From the start, new guys Craig and Jordean showed their value to the team, patiently working the attack from deep in the defensive end until attacking options appeared. There was good ball movement, and good movement off the ball. Transitions were pretty strong too, with some good counters, and Nick, Craig and Jordean jumping into good attacking positions.
The high points included some nice strikes by Dan, who drilled some missiles inside the posts, and Craig, who repeatedly placed tantalizing balls just beyond the keeper's reach. Edi, as usual, made some ridiculous saves, stoning a couple of shots from point blank to prevent things from getting interesting.
Now, if there were any doubts about my defensive abilities, I like to think I put them to rest yesterday with an exclamation point yesterday. Early in the second half, I lost the ball to some dude who someone snuck one past Edi. I then followed that up with a flatfooted toasting where my guy ran 15 yards into a receiving position in the time that I was able to run 1.5 yards. (And it wasn't even a sneaky run; it was telegraphed from the beginning. Like, even the old ladies who were warming to play after us were like: "oh, my, that guy's headed for the far post.") And to couple insult to injury, the play resulted in goal and a hurt keeper. Fittingly, the game literally ended with some dude punting me in the shin.
Final Result (preseason friendly)
DPR 12-5 Bloody Shins*
*All scores are approximate.
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