May 26, 2013

Hi Guys,

As we were enjoyings beers together after today's games, I jokingly asked who the team on the pitch wearing our jerseys today was. It certainly didn't look like the Compass team I'm use to seeing.

Our 1-5 thumping at the hands of our cross-town rivals was what it is--one of those rare, completely bad days for Compass where nothing went right for us and everything went right for our opponents. There were a few other significant factors:

As I standing on the sideline all by my lonesome through most of the game, I couldn't help but notice the 10 Tubbies players on the sidelines, constantly subbing in and out. Compass played most of a very hot match with just 11 guys--11 somewhat out-of-shape guys who hadn't played much in the last 3 weeks. As the game progressed, this made a big difference--our defensive could barely keep up with sprinting Tubbies' offense and our midfielders started slowing down getting back on defense, widening that gap.

We seemed rather flat and uncoordinated as a team most of the match, although there were plenty of great opportunities that Jon kept out of the net (I told him he was 'man of the match' afterwards). He swatted out at least 4-5 very nice head balls from Oto, Hans and others that were heading in. The one goal we did get--a beautiful shot by Arnaud over the Tubbies wall on an indirect kick--was actually not counted by the young, inexperienced Taiwanese ref, who changed his ruling after the fact, saying it didn't touch anyone on the way in.

Probably the biggest factor, though, as was noted afterwards over beers, is that the game just didn't seem that big a deal to us. In fact, there was debate about how to motivate ourselves more to get pumped up for it. As Gary (an ex-Tubbies himself) pointed out, the Tubbies go home and beat up their wives, beat up their girlfriends, kick their dogs, etc. when they lose to us. However, there was a kind of "whatever" attitude after today's match among us. One idea I have is perhaps introducing some sort of funny Compass-Tubbies trophy that the latest winner gets to keep possession of.

Anyhow, it is what it is and now it's time to think about our next game, which actually means something. Next Sunday (weather permitting) we have a 4 p.m. Taichung Society Cup match on the Chaoma pitch vs. Chunghsing University. Here's what I have so far...

I hope more of you can make it than you did today--in this hot weather and with our fitness levels, we need more players. Please let me know.

Go Compass!

Doug