It was an early Monday morning start today with training at 9.00. We started off with a little keep ball in a tight square, the standard wasn’t bad since the pitch that we were playing on reminded me more of a place where cows would graze rather than a place where you would find the beautiful game! This was due to our usual training pitch being water logged. We moved on to a crossing and finishing session which is simply to play it out to the wing, cross and finish. Sounds simple but it wasn’t. We finished with a bit of shooting for about twenty minutes.
At about 3.00 we had to go and meet our teacher who was going to attempt to teach us Swedish. (It’s about 3.15 now and I’m stuck, I don’t understand anything so I’m writing this blog instead!)
Match: Ange IF v Ljustorp IF
We were playing Ljustorp IF on Tuesday evening, it was a 6pm kick-off and we had a good chance to make up some ground on the leaders because they weren’t playing tonight. The first twenty minutes we were shocking, our midfield was all over the place and couldn’t string a pass together, and at the back we were left exposed. We conceded quite quickly and what a goal – the striker looped the ball over the keeper with his back to goal. He will never score a goal like that again and we made sure he didn’t want to either with some crunching challenges.
After the goal we got our act together – more movement, quick passing and more communication which I think is the problem. I’ve never heard a quieter team on the pitch, maybe because the referee will send you off if you ever raise your voice, which I found out later.
We scored a penalty and then swiftly scored another two and went into half time 3-1 up. We came out much the same, the game was dead and the other team lost heart, so the ref took it upon himself to try and even it up. They missed the penalty.
We scored one more goal to make it 4-1. With just five minutes to play, I managed to get myself sent off. It was the same ref who sent me off two weeks previous, so I think he likes me! We won the game 4-1 and have climbed up to second in the league.
It was back to Swedish school on Wednesday morning. I learnt the alphabet and basic communication, it was quite interesting but if anyone asks me to say something on demand I can’t, so maybe I haven’t learnt it!
Due to my sending off on Tuesday, I was asked to play for the 2nd team. I started centre-midfield and the standard was like playing pub football but without the violence. In other words it was bad but fun! In the first twenty minutes we were 3-1 up; I sat in midfield passing the ball and subsequently set up all three of the goals.
In the second half I set myself the challenge to score. I had a couple of one-on-ones with the keeper – first one he fell over and I hit him, and the other one I hit the woodwork. After that we scored two more goals and won the game 5-1.
All in all it was an enjoyable game, I don’t think I’ve ever had that much time on the ball and I don’t want to get used to it!
I was at school until 12pm on Thursday, struggling with the pronunciation of farm animals so that was rewarding! We had training at 6.00 and we were running again so after two days in a row I was in good shape to roll over and die.
We were running from one end to the other as fast as you could ten times and then in two’s sprint away from your partner and we did that ten times. Unfortunately I had the 100m sprinter to chase so I did well! We then went into small five minute games; we split up into four teams and played each other once, my team lost all three.
We had a well earned day off on Friday and I was grateful for the rest but about 4pm I did drag myself to the gym and I was straight on the running machine for a thirty minute run. Later on I decided I needed a treat so I stuffed myself with pizza and coke – I enjoyed it!
