GAME 1: ¡FUTURISMOS! 0 – Glass Ceiling 2 (or a shiny harbinger of a glittering future)

My faithful ¡FUTURISMOS! fans, the first game of the season acted as our first practice, last practice, and our first showing of a completely revamped offence. This is not an excuse. It is the truth. C’est la vie.

I’m not getting into highlights for Game 1. Oh, don’t get me wrong. There were highlights. From Big Pete’s professional grade heeled pass up the sideline to Elliot’s indefatigable sprinting to Kristy’s yard sale in the corner in which a gentleman took her for everything she had to Kahn seemingly growing out of Big Pete’s back to field a ball a la Athena from the head of Zeus; to Caguin’s Striker promise; to Stilts’ standing on the sideline with her arms crossed. But that’s not what this game was about.

This game was a glimpse into the future of your ¡FUTURISMOS! and there’s something different about us this season. Whereas last season we routinely got locked into place and did a lot of standing or slowly shuffling around, our movement was dynamic against Glass Ceiling. ¡FUTURISMOS! were flying all over the pitch. Sometimes pointlessly, but this is good. Pace is a critical element of futbol well played. We rarely had it last year and had it throughout game 1.

As a result of our pace and movement we had a couple of serious nearly missed goals and generally speaking did a good job of getting the ball up field into the opposing penalty box. I lost count of how many corner kicks we generated. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8. That’s a lot. No doubt this is due to the fact that everyone on the team either played last season or extensively in at least high school.

Last season we were good for a least two massive defensive collapses. Against Glass Ceiling we didn’t have one. We didn’t play perfectly, Glass Ceiling had their chances, but none of them were obnoxious 2-on-none breakaways. The first Glass Ceiling goal came midway through the second half and was a class shot. The shooter found a little seam and struck one hell of shot from a tough angle that found its way into the near upper corner. The second goal was scored with a couple minutes left in the game and found its way through congestion in front of the goal. Two ¡FUTURISMOS! narrowly missed deflecting the shot.

Even though we hadn’t practiced, even though we lost two critical players, even though we’re starting this season is poor shape (late winter is a cruel time to train), even though my new 1-4-1 formation proved ridiculously complicated and we played the game largely without positions, our improvement was evident.

Spring 2007 is a season of renewal indeed for your ¡FUTURISMOS! I can feel it. We all felt it. Under the banner of “LADY SEASON DEATH STRIKERS” we will march where no ¡FUTURISMO! has gone before – ¡Into the victory column by defeating an opponent who shows up to the play the game!