Frustration mixed with a measure of satisfaction. That’s what I’m feeling as we ride back
to the hotel from our final game in Sao Francisco do Conde against
Conquista. Our last 2 games will
be in a different city. We lost
3-0, but that doesn’t begin to tell how close the game was. In today’s game we finally
competed. From the first whistle
all the way until the last. We had
a game plan from the outset. It
was working. A couple mixups with
a new back four and an injury put us in a 2-0 hole and hampered our ability to
attack. But even so, we hit the
post with one shot, had another miss by only a foot, and had a couple more
shots.
From the beginning of the game we looked dangerous, using
Diego on the left hand side to get in behind, but we gave up cheap goals in the
6th and 15th minutes. But the boys recognized that despite giving up 2 goals
faster to this team than to either of the others, we could really play with
this team. An injury to Diego
meant that we lost some of our ability to attack down that flank, but we
continued to look dangerous and able to get opportunities on the break. The best opportunity was probably when
Fabio won possession deep in Conquista’s half but couldn’t keep the shot on
target.
It was a hot day and our game was earlier in the day so
fitness played a role in the second half.
Conquista came out fast at the beginning of the second half as they had
in the first. But it showed that
our fitness level was a little higher than Conquista’s as we had the majority
of the opportunities in the final 30 minutes of the game. Our best opportunity came when Richard
(one of the Brazilians) got behind the defense on the left side of the endline
and put the ball across the box but Chris’ shot, with only the keeper to beat,
missed the left post by a foot.
Later Richard had a shot from distance that hit the post and the rebound
was followed up by Guilherme (another of our Brazilians) but he skied that shot
over. Tyler also had a couple half
chances with a shot from the right side just inside the penalty area and a
header off a cross, but neither could find the back of the net. We gave up a final goal in the final
minute of stoppage time off of a corner.
So while we may have given up a couple early goals in this game, we
prevented the slide from occurring and kept the game tight all the way
through. We had our longest period
of not allowing a goal of 68 minutes. And as I already explained we had far more chances on
goal than in our first two games combined.
After our game we went up into the stands to watch the next
game, Cruzeiro vs. Sao Francisco do Conde. So, while it didn’t help us scout any teams that we were
about to play, it did allow the guys to relax and experience a game from a new
point of view. The fans were loud
and boisterous. The game was tense
and physical. Sao Francisco
started well and controlled the opening ten minutes. The game actually stopped for a while in the first half
because the referee was knocked out cold when the ball was lasered right into
his head. They brought on a new
official after a while and started the game back up. After play restarted Cruzeiro looked far more
dangerous. Cruzeiro scored in the
first half off a free kick that was blocked but then a Cruzeiro player
collected the ball and played it to a man just behind the Sao Francisco wall
and he buried the shot. For the
longest time Sao Francisco looked like they had no ideas as to how to break
down the Cruzeiro defense, but then were handed a lifeline midway through the
second half when a Cruzeiro player was given a straight red card for what
seemed a simple professional foul.
But the referee deemed that it was denying a goal scoring opportunity
and suddenly Cruzeiro was playing down a man. To make matters worse for Cruzeiro, the resulting free kick
was struck well and scored to tie the game at one apiece. We left with a couple minutes left in
the game as Cruzeiro was holding on well.
Play continued to go in both directions and both sides looked capable of
grabbing the winner. As of this moment
I don’t know who won or if it stayed a draw, but it was a good game.
The highlights were definitely the ref getting hit in the
face and knocked out cold, the Sao Francisco goal (for the crowd reaction as
well as the impressive strike), and the drunk guy in front of us slipping and
falling while running around and yelling at all the fans in attendance.
Beyond the soccer, my thoughts don’t really have a central
theme to them like yesterday. It
occurred to me that against us, the Brazilian teams seem to predicate their
attack on their ability to win the first 1v1 challenge. If their player can beat his
on-the-ball defender then it forces the whole defense to shift and passing
lanes can open up. It was
interesting to see the Cruzeiro-Sao Francisco game because the defenders were
able to match up with the attackers, and so the attack had to come from ball
movement. That is why no goals
were scored in the run of play.
The ball movement wasn’t quick enough or incisive enough to create goal
scoring opportunities. I think
that if our players could match these professionals in technical ability at
speed and under pressure, our recognition of passing, movement and spacing
would be evident. But as every
coach knows, you can take a player with technical ability and teach him to play
the game. But going the other way
is difficult. It is very hard for
us to teach our players the technical skill of the Brazilians when our players
are already 16.
I ran on the beach today. This is the second time I’ve done it. The sand is a little coarser than the
sand at the North Carolina beaches I grew up on. The result is that the sand is not nearly as compact and
collapses under foot. Every step
is unstable and is like stepping out of quick sand. So my muscles and joints
have to work very hard. Today felt
far better than Saturday’s run.
Part of that is that my body is adapting to the routine of activity,
rest, and eating here. Also the
tide was low this morning allowing me to run on more compact sand near the
water’s edge. At the end of
Saturday’s run the arches of my feet were tight and sore, and my quads were
feeling weak. But its good. Running on the unstable surface is
making the small stabilizing muscles work and identifying my weaker muscles to
balance them out.
I ran down the beach toward the city of Salvador far enough
to get to see real Brazilian life.
Horses running on the beach.
Small fishing boats anchored in the space between a beach and the large
sandbar. Small cooking fires lit
with pots of stew bubbling. The
stench of a fish market sitting not 50 yards from the ocean’s edge. Men pushing carts or carrying sacks of
small drinks and treats ringing their bell occasionally to alert the kids to
run ask their parents for some change to trade for a little bit of sugar.
And the soccer.
I can’t neglect that. Today there must have been a dozen
games of soccer going on in just the half mile of beach in front of the
boardwalk. All the games ran
lengthwise along the beach. Some
were small, no more than 5 kids running back and forth in between two goals
made of a couple sticks planted in the ground. And some were big, two full squads playing about 7v7 or 9v9
all wearing uniforms, semi permanent regulation size goals buried in the
beachhead, and a referee following the play ready to blow his whistle at an
infraction. The bigger games had endlines
drawn in the sand, but there didn’t seem to be any sidelines in any of the
games. I saw players battling for
possession in the surf and within a couple feet of plastic lawn chairs that
scatter the beach with no clear owners, but plenty of occupants. I couldn’t help but think, don’t these
people have to work? A funny thing
for an unemployed engineer to ask, but seriously, this was 10:30 on a Monday
morning. Whoever plans organized
soccer games for a Monday morning must somehow know that everyone that might
want to compete will be free at that time.
I wish I could show you pictures of all this stuff, but I
was running. And if anyone has
seen that oh so mediocre Jim Carrey movie “Yes Man” and wants to say that I
should try running photography, I will also say that I was alone. I am confident that as a 6’2” man I
shouldn’t have too much trouble in the daytime anywhere I go, but I don’t want
to bring any undue attention to myself as a tourist or as someone carrying
something valuable.
I did take a fair number of pictures on our bus trip to Sao
Francisco do Conde today. These
should give a decent idea of what the terrain looks like.
Unfortunately, I don’t have many decent
pictures from inside the town as we never got out of the bus except for at the
stadium and the streets were narrow so the opportunities to take photos were
incredibly short. I will say that
it is kind of strange to have every single person on the street stare straight at your
vehicle as you drive through town.
It’s obvious from the fact that we’re in a large coach bus that we are
outsiders. Lots of people are
always standing outside their homes or sitting on the doorstep. They also seem to do most of their
cooking outside by fire. The town
is electrified, but electricity might be too expensive and gas stoves might not
be available. But for whatever
reason, small fires are lit in the street outside roughly one in every ten
homes. As we were leaving the sun
was beginning to set, so the log cabin wood structures that they use were
either standing unlit or were still visible through the flames that had just begun
to eat away at the fuel.
I’m reading avidly for the first time in a long time. If you ignore all the books I’ve read
simply because they were required for a class, you wouldn’t have a tremendously
impressive collection left. I had
read Fountainhead for senior year AP English, so then later in college I picked
up Atlas Shrugged. I’m a fan of
Steinbeck. I did really get into
East of Eden, and then immediately read Grapes of Wrath. But the past three years I’ve might
have read 2 novels and a handful of nonfiction volumes on social, political,
economic topics. The last book I
read was a collection of mythology that took me a couple months. But now, I’ve rediscovered the novel
and I’m diving headfirst into Life of Pi.
Two-thirds of the way through when I started it only 2 days before I
left for Brazil. I have another
book waiting for me in my car in Miami for the trip to Europe. But I’m beginning to think I may need a
second book for those three weeks.
Hopefully, this reading kick will last, but we’ll see. It’s easy to read when you have a few
hours a day to kill while relaxing at a hotel by the beach. It may not be so easy when I have a job,
and I have to go back to cooking my own meals, and cleaning my own living
space.
My blog writing was just interrupted by a round of Happy
Birthday singing to Wladimir, a coach that is helping us because he is the
father of one of our Brazilian players, Matheus. The fun part is that the English version of Happy Birthday
was immediately succeded by the Portuguese and then the Spanish versions.
Well, I’m racking my brain and I can’t think of anything
else I want to get down. We’re
getting back into town now. It’s
raining. First time I’ve seen it
rain here.
Tomorrow is our free day, so we’ll see if we can’t get these
guys out of the hotel and into real Brazilian life for a while.
G’night.
