However, there are some things that can spoil a sport as grand as this. Soccer is plagued with evils such as corruption and drugs. Players and fans being murdered and soccer hooliganism are major factors in the bad side of soccer. However, today, the same day I'm writing this part of the article (18/11/2002), I relised another reason why some people don't like soccer; sometimes the games just plain suck.
At my school, all 13 Year 9 forms participate in an indoor soccer tournament. My form, 9D, was pretty good. After beating two other forms, we were in the semi-finals against another form, 9A. I thought, at first, that it would be a close match. I had heard of how good 9A was. I really REALLY thought that there would be a hint of suspense in this game.
I was watching from the gym balcony which overlook the "playing field" (ironically the playing field was none other than a basketball court). My friend had gone down to the field or court, whatever it is. I stayed up on the hall balcony.
The game, at first, was pretty good. Both teams had good defense and attack strategies. However, my team (9D) was down by one goal in the first minute of the game. Ah well, no need to worry. This had happened before, and we still managed to win.
After about 5 minutes, we equalised. By the end of the 10 minute half (pretty short) we were winning 2-1.
Now, the second half was what really got my goat. Apparently, the first half had made everyone tired. Not much actually happened in the first 5 minutes of the half (except that they other team scored a goal) but after that, this was where it really started to get really insane. The goalkeeper on the other team stuffed up completely as he tried to save the ball. We all laughed when that happened. About two minutes later, our goalkeeper did exactly the same thing! Amazing isn't it folks? This was one of those days in which you'd expect to see in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Then this happened twice again, but both teams took an equal amount of brunt from this stupidity. In the end, my form won the match. Final scores were 4 to 3. Some might say that we won by default. We'll that does seem to be the only (plausible) explaination.
And if that wasn't enough, a few days later, the grand final match in this indoor competition happened with us and another grade, this time 9B. And guess what the final scores were? 4-3! But this time, it was a good match, with both teams having good offence and defense.
