Regarding the anger

For those of you who perhaps weren't aware of what Ali was referring to in his previous post, our indoor football team competes in Auckland University's competitive league every Wednesday night. This is our first season in the league, and our first match was a bit of a disaster. The referee seemed to favour the other side, often penalising the slightest bit of contact with a free kick, and sometimes a yellow card to boot. Ali was the biggest victim, first getting a yellow card for 'dissent' and then being sent off for a second bookable offence - a late challenge, though he assures me he got the ball first. I got a yellow card for what was a squeaky clean tackle, as did another one of our teammates. That is not to say that the 1-2 scoreline was unjust, or that we would have won the match - we were outplayed for most of the second half and our passing was shocking. However - and this relates to my previous post on refereeing - it would have been nice to see the referee take charge of the situation by warning players before issuing yellow cards, rather than booking players for their first offence. As players, we realise that we can get out of hand at times - we are only human - but we would appreciate it if the referee showed some patience and allowed the game to flow, rather than blowing his whistle every time a player went down under a challenge. Hard tackles can be fair tackles too.

Anyhow, it's in the past now. Our squad of 10 players is down to 7 for this week, as we have lost two players to tests and Ali's suspended. Here's hoping that we'll get a better referee this time. And for anyone who is keen, come down and watch La Furia (that's us) play Hand of God at 6:30 p.m. in the Rec Centre, followed by SWAt (our mates) vs. Persia (the team that beat us 2-1). We're going to try and win this one for Ali.

That's the end of what I hope will be my only personal post. I'll return to uploading news items and random clips later today.