~Where Emotions Are Expressed...~

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Finally, the prestigious Nike Cup begins. Winners of this competition gets to play the Man U Cup(If i am not wrong.) And get to play at Old Trafford if they reach the finals of the Man U cup. Last year, when i was part of the C-Div team, we did not make it through the 1st group stage when we lost all three games during that fateful day.

Today was the 1st group stage matches. My school sent two teams to compete at the U15 level. 1 B-Div team and 1 C-Div team. I was part of the B-Div team. The matches were held at St. Patricks Sec School. Our 1st match was at 8.30 in the morning. One game was 20 minutes long. 10 minutes per half and a 5 minute interval in between the two halves. Our group consists of teams from West Spring Sec, St. Patricks Sec and Clementi Town Sec. All were B-div teams except the team from Clementi Town.

Our match was the opening game against St. Patricks. I started the game at right-back. We were not performing during the game, only managing to get a draw. As usual, my knees were hurting, (and the pain is increasing everyday)but i am beginning to learn to endure the pain. Unfortunately, there was another problem, part of the skin at the front of my left toe was torn off while playing soccer during a PE lesson. It was painful enough to make me afraid of using my left foot to kick the ball for the vibrations that was produced during impact of my foot with the ball was enough to cause staggering pain.

BUT, during a game, my left foot was occasionally, if not constantly, to be called for action. For instance, like clearing the ball as soon as possible. After kicking the ball, I stayed rooted to the spot to let the pain recede a bit. The wound even causes pain when i run, but i was able to endure it as the pain was not as intense as kicking the ball. I thought i was only playing a half of each game, so i did not complain, but little did i know that i will be playing every minute of the three games.

Our performance in the second game against West spring was better. I was a little nervous as they had just destroyed Clementi Town 6-0. During the 2nd half, when i cleared the ball, one of my opponent stamped on my left foot and one of his boot's studs struck spot on of my wound. How i felt like hitting the ground rolling. But had to be called in for action the very next moment. I was needed to support the attack that cooked up when our striker controlled the ball i cleared. From then on, playing was like hell... The pain was friggin' intense. I managed to hold on though, but just barely. Final score, 0-0...

We needed a win with the margin of 7 goals apart in our final game against Clementi Town if we were to have any chance of qualifying as St. Patricks also beat Clementi Town 6-0. We headed into the game, full of spirit. The Clementi Town players were fooling around, for they knew that they had no chance of winning. They adopted a formation 9-1-0. They played around, wasting time and having the time of their lives while we were getting increasingly frustrated. I wanted to laugh along with them, but during that critical moment, i simply wanted to strangle them... We were so desperate for goals that during our corners, everyone of our players went into the opponents six-yard box except for the goalkeeper and me who stayed back in case the opponents wanted to change their tactics and attack. The 1st half ended with the score 4-0 to our favor.

The second half started with us attacking right from the start, nearly scoring another goal. We went all out attack during the second half, i even managed to assist one goal. I went for the over-lapped, ignoring the pain, bent on helping the team increase our goal tally. Our striker actually did not see me running up along the flank, only when our coach shouted at him my name that he spotted me sprinting down the line. He played to me the perfect through-ball which i controlled it towards the by-line. I initially wanted to cross the ball to the far post, but when i took a look, i saw no one. Instead, i crossed it to the near-post, aiming for the head of our striker. Unfortunately, he missed, but luckily, our left-wing, who already scored a hat-trick, was at the right position at the right time to tap the ball home.

I was elated to help out one of the goals. I trudged back to my position, and immediately received pressure by their striker, who suddenly felt like dribbling the whole opposition team. While i was trying to contain him, i suddenly felt oh-so sensitive to all the pain i had ignored. I figured that i would had to put a tackle in for if the opponent were to get pass me, i was as good as stranded. I tackled, but a little too slow than usual mainly cause of the pain. By the time my foot landed on where i wanted it to be, the striker had already read my intentions and dribbled past me and i had not the leverage of running back as the pain was too much and i stayed rooted to the spot. I instinctively grinned as it was quite amusing to see a small size kid like him get pass me even though i was in much pain. I was heavily reprimanded by our team striker who caught me grinning. The final score... 10-0. We had qualified for the next stage of the tournament!

After the game, i told our striker that i stopped running because of my injuries, he told me that he did not shout at me because i did not run back, he shouted at me cause i grinned =(. Right... But my spirit was soon lifted when my coach said to me, "Izzat, i want you to call Nishant(my soccer senior)." I asked why, he replied, "I want you to take both his jerseys and join the team at the 1st nationals game against Kranji Sec." How i felt like pumping my fist at the air in jubilation.

That was basically what happened today. I am very excited for Monday's game against Kranji Sec. It will be my first official B-Div match for the school! Yeah... Wished me luck yea... Thanks!

Labels: Success

Izz left at 3:53 AM

You're Once My Light...
Once Shining Bright...

Saturday, March 22, 2008

It has been quite some time since i last posted my last post... Mainly coz nothing eventful happened throughout the holidays... Having the pox really calls for serious quarantine.

Some may say that staying at home, skipping school is nice. And i DO agree to a certain extent. But it gets pretty dull after some time. And i am lagging way behind in studies. It may seem that i was unlucky as i was sick during the holidays, i thought the same too... But after i got back to school, i was astonished on how behind i was. I really need to do some catching up...

Having the pox is no fun thing during the 1st few days. I slept nearly 18 hours a day for the 1st few days. Felt feverish with body temperatures as high as 38.9... Felt weak with a mentality to sleep sleep and sleep... Didn't really care what was happening around me such as the Malay proverb, Seperti Katak Bawah Tempurung(I am not really sure whether its correct... Never was good at Malay...). But eventually the weakness began to fade and I started to move around more. I didn't felt like posting on my blog as THINKING was an issue. I couldn't really think straight...

The doc said that i was able to eat anything unless i had an allergy or something. But my mum and aunts didn't agree with the doc.

They said,
"Yelah tu! Nanti kalau Izzat salah makan, gatal! Lepas tu pergi jumpa doktor lagi! Doktor cakap gitu jadi nanti dia dapat lagi banyak duit!"
In English...
"Yeah right! Later if you(they meant me) eat the wrong food, itchy! Then need to go see the doctor again! Doctor say that so later they get more money!" I must say they made sense. And its better to be safe then sorry. So it was soup, vegetables, soup, vegetables, soup, vegetables..... and so on and so forth. The strict diet was driving me nuts... I couldn't take it so i stop eating altogether.

I started to eat again when fishballs were finally allowed. I was 'overjoyed'. Felt quite good to taste good ol' fishballs.

Its feels great to be able to breathe in fresh air after being confined at home for a couple of weeks. For the 1st time in my life i was delighted to go to school. And my long overdue dose of soccer was going to be given on Wednesday. I couldn't wait for training. I really felt at home when i stepped on to the field.

I wasn't paying much attention to my knee. I was too occupied kicking the ball around. But after a few minutes of warm-up, my knee started to act up with such intensity that i abruptly stopped whilst jogging. But even after the pain receded, i still didn't resume my warm-up. It wasn't my right knee that was acting up, much to my horror, it was my left knee. I resumed warming up after accepting the terrible fact that now my left knee may be in the same condition as my right. The pain returned when my coach intensified the training. Both my knees hurt. I had to force myself to walk, not to mention sprint, through the pain barrier that suddenly seemed difficult to pass.

The last exercise was a two-sided game compromising two teams of 8. This means more work, which basically means more running, as there was more ground to cover for the lack of players. I play as a full-back, which meant all-out sprinting while covering or attacking. My coach was part of my team, not like he helped out at all. He purposely made mistakes which resulted in the defenders rushing back, including me. I was pushing myself more than ever. I really couldn't run, but forced myself to give my all. There was an instance when my team was attacking, i ran nearly half the length of the field to go for an over-lap, but the ball went too far from my reach. If my knees were not hurting too much, i would have gotten the ball.

But my forced-running were not in vain. The resulted throw-in was given to my opponents defender who was in his own penalty box, i then had this thought of challenging him for the ball, but my legs thought otherwise. I managed to convince my ravaged legs to run. I surprised him and managed to get the ball from him, lay it off to my team's midfielder who promptly made no mistake from five meters out. Unfortunately, i had no time to give my legs a chance to rest a little for my coach told me to get back to my position which was 3 quarters the field length away. My knees screamed in agony, but i forced myself to pull a straight face. The nationals are only 2 weeks away and i want to be part of the team badly, and this is the time for me to show that i am worthy enough to get the jersey.

I really pushed my limits during that training session. Now i have to take much care of not only my right, but my left knee as well. Life really can get harder than it already is...

Life is unfair, but life is a test set by God upon us. Patience is a key to prevail... But my patience is bound to crumble soon...

Izz left at 2:31 AM

You're Once My Light...
Once Shining Bright...