We had our first loss today against the Gold Coast Rep side, and that means we (a humble club side) played the best players in the region, and only lost 5 -3.
Actually that doesn't even come close to describing the day.
We turned up at the Runaway Bay Super Centre (the venue) thinking that the other mob had booked the pitch, and found out they hadn't. We then were told that the game must be booked across the road at the Gold Coast Soccer Club's pitch so we all went over there to find that the pitch there was already booked too. This was after I had sent numerous text messages and emails confirming all the details.
The GC club then sent out a couple of guys to mark up a large, recently mowed area with cones so that we had somewhere to play. The pitch was probably five metres shorter than a full sized pitch, but they did a good job.
Goals? well we had to make do with corner flags stuck into the ground roughly the right distance apart.
No linesmen, and a ref whose son played in the opposition team, added to our troubles (one of their goals was offside- the whole crowd were up in arms) plus we decided to split the game into thirds owing to the heat. Two thirds of the game we were playing into a force eight gale. Our goalie couldn't even get the ball to the half way line. We only played with the wind for one third, when we scored all our goals, they got all their goals playing with the wind too.
Despite all the problems on the day, we really enjoyed ourselves. The boys were elated to know that they took on the best of the best and matched them, and my assistant coach and I got to see how the lads played under adversity. They played with a lot of spirit and aggression, after going two goals down, fighting back to 2-2, though we never actually went ahead.
Great game, enjoyed the day, plus the couple of beers afterwards.
