My high school team has a huge, huge game tomorrow. We play the team favored to win our district. The game is at our place where we are undefeated in the history of the school, but this is our toughest home test by far. I told the kids to make sure a ton of their classmates show up, but we’ll see. I would be more confident about this game if we didn’t have such a poor showing on Tuesday. We had a pretty good practice today, and hopefully that will lead to a great effort tomorrow. We’ll need it.
Can the team win this game? I think so, and I had a long talk with one of my captains who feels the same way. Will we win, and keep our undefeated streak going at home? We’ll see, but we better play our best game.
Why is it that the coach gets more nervous than the kids for these games? I might not get much sleep tonight….partly nerves, and partly the fact I re-injured my ribs yesterday and they almost take the breath out of me when I roll over (but that’s a story for another day).
UPDATE: A good first half with a late fluky goal against us. The second half was terrible. My stopper decided to play sweeper, let two balls over his head which the other team ran on to for two goals. We scored late, but so did they for a disappointing 4-1 loss. It’s our first loss at home…ever. My goalie is too timid, and didn’t go for the ball. I’m sick and tired of seeing the ball go over my defense’s heads and watching my goalie stand on his line and do nothing.
It will be fixed today, but I’ve said that before. We have another huge game tomorrow that will determine the league champion.
We have to get better.
Darren Copeland 