La Pelota: Let Go and Let Be
We won a few desperately needed games which lifted the morale of the team, but we continued to struggle with inconsistencies. We either played the match of our lives or the absolute worst. There were massive improvements since going back to basics, but I could sense that things had not exactly clicked together.
One night we scrimmaged Eduardo’s state champion side for a second time. This to me, was the ultimate test. Most teams we played were different than the others, which made it hard to judge our successes, but with Eduardo’s team it was the same every time, the same elegant shape and quality. We stuck with our 4–3–3, with two 5’s and a 10 in the midfield to mirror theirs. This time, with our newly found strength and aggression, we completely battered them every chance we got, cutting off their elegant play with rough tackles, shirt pulling, elbows and many shoves in the back. Eduardo’s side couldn’t cope with our intensity and even gave up a few chances for us on their side of the pitch. We showcased our technical improvements with a few plays of our own involving intricate passes through our midfield and wide players. Boggess hit the woodwork on one occasion.
The scrimmage ended after 25 minutes following a skirmish between Winstead and an opposing player. Eduardo’s side had still managed a dominant 2–0 victory, but it was us who walked off with our heads high, laughing, cheering, and sharing high fives. We had tasted blood and wanted more.
That night Eddie turned to me and said, “Let go and let be.”
One thing was certain, they didn’t feel like good players, but they certainly felt like strong ones, and they quite enjoyed how it felt to be physically superior to another male on the pitch. If I was going to have any success here, it would have to be by halting the war between my philosophy and Antifútbol, and find a way to create serenity between the two.
At the same time, Holiday had recovered from his tibia injury and was ready to rejoin the team, only now we played with one striker instead of two, and Boggess had scored six goals in his last five games. Holiday was our most gifted player and needed to be on the pitch, but Boggess was in too good of a form to pull out. I had no intentions of abandoning the three-man midfield because of our success with it, and still needed to find a way to stop conceding so many goals. Our high press was killing us in the back. Our center-halves lacked the physical attributes needed to safeguard an entire half by themselves while still caging the opposition in their own half. For the first time in the season, I felt that I had all the right pieces to the puzzle, only now I had to find the way to mesh them together.
Until next time,
For love and glory.
