A late goal by Joe McDonald fueled an upset of the soccer league's third place team by Fear The Mullet.
Despite hovering near the basement of the league, FTM gave itself a significant advantage by bringing nearly the entire roster. In all, their 14 players and regular subbing matched plenty of fresh legs against the other team's eight, which was a marked advantage in sweltering 90 degree afternoon heat. Further, with the opponent fielding only one woman player, they were forced to play a person short.
Still, midway through the first half FTM yielded a laser-like goal and entered halftime 1-0.
As the second half wore on, the winning team grew visibly tired, and FTM started beating them to the ball. The confidence sharpened their passing, and the ball spent more time at the offensive end.
At last, McDonald broke behind the defense around 3/4 field and handled a bouncing pass from a teammate. Two steps later, the effort seemed thwarted when the ball skidded off his foot several feet ahead toward the goalie. To everyone's surprise, the goalie fumbled the ball right back to him, and he easily found the open net for the tying score. And then gasped toward the sideline, pleading for a sub.
The 1-1 tally (and McDonald's rear end glued to the sideline) stayed that way through the end of regulation. A five-person shootout ended up 2-2, and in sudden death FTM punched one in for the victory.
For the man whose most noteworthy contributions thus far were stopping a ball with his face and scoring against his own team, the day was a shining success.
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