Today's (01.03.98) semi-final ended in disaster, as you can see by the score. We knew it would a lot harder than our previous game against Tet 4. This time they had a full lineup and a goalie. He wasn't their first sting goalie, Ofer, but he was a goalie. His name is Amit. Things didn't start out too well. The game only started at 10:15 because we had to run around school trying to get a ball from the gym teachers. Now I wish they didn't give us the ball.
Last night (28.02.98) it rained and the asphalt (remember, that's what we play on) was very slippery. Already in the 2nd minute we scored. But Nadav had clearly used his hand after it was obvious he wouldn't get to Dima's high ball. They had a couple more chances but nothing too hard for Felix. In the 6th minute Nadav had another good chance but the ball hit the goalie's leg and then the post. Neither team dealt with the wet field very well and many players slipped.
Right at the beginning of the 2nd half they scored. A nice one-two in our penalty area resulted in Roni scoring. The defense was nowhere and the ball stayed in our penalty area alt least 10 seconds and no one cleared. A few minutes later the same thing. This time it was Polokarov putting on the finishing touch. We kept going forward but the last pass was always bad, the main culprits being the two Dimas. Roni's last kick of the game made it 3-0. He was alone against Felix.
All in all, a bittersweet tournament for us. We weren't expected to even qualify for the semi finals and we finished the "regular season" 1st. We only dropped 2 points, in our 1st game against Tet 1. At the time, if someone would have told me that those would be the only points that we would drop, I would have laughed in his face. But we won our next 3 games and morale was high for the semi final. But, it was one of those days that nothing goes right, and we couldn't do it. Tet 4 were the deserving winners (today) and they will advance to the final. If there is a 3rd place playoff, we will give it our best shot. Too bad we don't have one more year together as a class and maybe we could win it all. Next year, we split up into different 10th grade classes.