When a Tie is a Loss
Meaty Greens vs. Ichi-gos
9:50PM Rose City Futsal East
8 to 8 tie
Last night, we played well. We've been on a roll. This court suits us, and it would be hard to articulate why exactly, maybe it's the size, maybe it's the terrain, maybe its the placement within the facility (I actually have a suspicion that it's one of the refs who generally runs this court. Gracias, Juancho!).
We started off under. Just a few minutes in we were down 2 goals (more on early leads in a future blog). But I knew who we were and who they were. The game hadn't been going our way yet, but I knew it would break and give. The thing about ties is that they are tricky.
Clearly, at zero/zero the game is tied, but there is no desperation yet, it is a phase in the game where momentum and hierarchy are slowly being established. There isn't panic. There isn't desperation. There may be nerves.
By half time we were winning by one: 4-3. And we deserved to be up. They were becoming winded by too fast a pace since the beginning. Their tanks were emptying. And second half we started very strong and created several situations where we were one step off for many clear chances.
We are a team of many moving parts, so if it's an night of excessive imprecision, the machine breaks down. Just that final pass would've done it several times.
They, on the other hand, were a team of few moving parts, and lapses in judgement and reaction cost us goals that were improbable, but ended up in the back of our net: just one long pass, a run, a shot and done, or a blast from distance, or who knows what other bloopery antic.
And still we pulled ahead toward the end of the game, and we were up 8-7. From the bench, with 10 second to go, I saw them luckily break to blast in a toe poke of a last attempt that ended up getting through.
8-8.
And they cheered like they'd won (maybe it's similar to that feeling you get when you lose something and then you find it again). And feeling like we'd lost, we high-fived the other team, a sour taste in our mouths.
The game ended a tie though.
But that's the tricky thing about ties: the team that equalizes, is the team that at any tie with goals feels like the winning team, they gain momentum and morale, and the team that has been equalized feels like they are under. And why do I say they feel that way? 1) because I've lived it and felt it, on both sides. 2) because you can tell by the way the teams respond on the field. Teams start playing like winners and losers. The winners take control and continue to put the other team under pressure. The losers start scrambling, becoming frazzled, making poor decisions. But it is a tie, and nobody is winning and nobody is losing.
Still... the other thing about ties is this: soccer is a game involving a high degree of change (more on luck in soccer in a future blog), so the result can be deceptive. Clearly the score board reads right, but in soccer, the better team can lose. So, especially when the scoreboard ends in a tie, the question is, who was the better team?
Like boxing matches that run their course and must be decided by judges, if you were to take the game, delete all of the goals, and assess what team deserved to win, I can objectively and unbiasdly say: us (more on merit and winning in a future blog).
9:50PM Rose City Futsal East
8 to 8 tie
Last night, we played well. We've been on a roll. This court suits us, and it would be hard to articulate why exactly, maybe it's the size, maybe it's the terrain, maybe its the placement within the facility (I actually have a suspicion that it's one of the refs who generally runs this court. Gracias, Juancho!).
We started off under. Just a few minutes in we were down 2 goals (more on early leads in a future blog). But I knew who we were and who they were. The game hadn't been going our way yet, but I knew it would break and give. The thing about ties is that they are tricky.
Clearly, at zero/zero the game is tied, but there is no desperation yet, it is a phase in the game where momentum and hierarchy are slowly being established. There isn't panic. There isn't desperation. There may be nerves.
By half time we were winning by one: 4-3. And we deserved to be up. They were becoming winded by too fast a pace since the beginning. Their tanks were emptying. And second half we started very strong and created several situations where we were one step off for many clear chances.
We are a team of many moving parts, so if it's an night of excessive imprecision, the machine breaks down. Just that final pass would've done it several times.
They, on the other hand, were a team of few moving parts, and lapses in judgement and reaction cost us goals that were improbable, but ended up in the back of our net: just one long pass, a run, a shot and done, or a blast from distance, or who knows what other bloopery antic.
And still we pulled ahead toward the end of the game, and we were up 8-7. From the bench, with 10 second to go, I saw them luckily break to blast in a toe poke of a last attempt that ended up getting through.
8-8.
And they cheered like they'd won (maybe it's similar to that feeling you get when you lose something and then you find it again). And feeling like we'd lost, we high-fived the other team, a sour taste in our mouths.
The game ended a tie though.
But that's the tricky thing about ties: the team that equalizes, is the team that at any tie with goals feels like the winning team, they gain momentum and morale, and the team that has been equalized feels like they are under. And why do I say they feel that way? 1) because I've lived it and felt it, on both sides. 2) because you can tell by the way the teams respond on the field. Teams start playing like winners and losers. The winners take control and continue to put the other team under pressure. The losers start scrambling, becoming frazzled, making poor decisions. But it is a tie, and nobody is winning and nobody is losing.
Still... the other thing about ties is this: soccer is a game involving a high degree of change (more on luck in soccer in a future blog), so the result can be deceptive. Clearly the score board reads right, but in soccer, the better team can lose. So, especially when the scoreboard ends in a tie, the question is, who was the better team?
Like boxing matches that run their course and must be decided by judges, if you were to take the game, delete all of the goals, and assess what team deserved to win, I can objectively and unbiasdly say: us (more on merit and winning in a future blog).
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