Going Solo

My legs are killing me. The Niigata ALTs played in a tournament yesterday as part of our training for Saitama. We took part because one of the teams had dropped out and had asked Pete if he knew of any teams that could take their place. He suggested our team of gaijins and the organisers said yes.

So it was another drive up to Niigata for me. The tourney started at 9am so I drove up to Ryan's on the Saturday evening in time to see the Arsenal v Spurs derby (Ryan has Sky).

All fresh and relaxed, we got to the Big Swan training grounds on time. There was a problem though; two of our players had only just left Nagaoka and were on their way. That meant we had to start with just nine players. We were worried that our opposition in the first match might take advantage of this and hammer us 20-0. But it wasn't to be. We started strongly, perhaps a little too strongly judging by the amount of free-kicks awarded against us. We kept them out, started carving out chances for ourselves and eventually scored! Tom belted one in past their flapping keeper and we were 1-0 up. However, the referee was being far from impartial. Every slight touch that resulted in the opposition going to ground was a free-kick against us. Similar challenges against our players went un-punished. The same was true for handballs and offsides. Whenever an unfair decision went against us, we protested, so the ref gave more decicions against us. Hardly impartial, more incredably childish. The vicious circle cam to a head when the opposion clattered into Pete. The ball went out for a goalkick, which teh referee gave, but Pete was more that a little angry about the challenge and had a few words, in Japanese, with the referee. Taking offense, the referee changed the goal-kick into a corner! The opposition were as confused as we were. We managed to hold out, tempers intact, until teh final whistle. We'd won 1-0 and were through to the semis!

In the next match we had 11 players, but we were quieter than the previous match. We found it difficult to play against this new side two because they were playing some random 4-1-5 formation, which meant they had a gang of players in front of midfield who ran forward when the ball was played through. How do you mark against that? We managed to hold out til half time, when Harry turned up. He slotted into midfield and Joe changed things round a little and we coped better in the second half. It was 0-0 until seven minutes to the end of teh game. Rowan made a tackle in the 18 yard box that the referee thought was a foul so a penalty was awarded. They scored and we had five minutes to save the game. So from the kick-off, we went for goal and two mintues later, we got one! Jakomo had a shot from distance that went through the keepers arms an into the goal. We were ecstatic! We battled for the ball again from the kick-off and Tomo had a shot. It rebounded off the post into the path of Tom Rainey who put the chance away. A minute later the full time whistle blew; we'd won the game and were through to the final.

We must have sub-conciously left our best football til last. In the final, we started strongly and continued strongly playing the best football I'd seen us play ever! Our pressure paid off when we scored in the first half. At half time the only problem we could see with our play was not scoring enough goals. In teh second half we started strongly from the off and soon scored a second goal. My calves were starting to cramp up so I had to be substituted. Unfortunatley the opposition manage to score while I was hobbling around, but we were still winning 2-1. Rowan replaced me and slotted into left-back and had a fantastic game against their right-wing. We kept the pressure up all through teh second half making plenty of chances. Our finishing wasn't perfect so most chances went to the keeper, wide or hit the post. We kept plugging away and eventually we got our third goal! We played for time until teh final whistle blew. We'd played to make up the numbers and ended up winning the tournament!
There was no presentation ceremony; Pete was handed our prize, a golden football, in a green plastic bag. Still, we knew we were champions which was all that mattered. We had our photo taken in front of the Big Swan with our 'trophy' before driving back home to Tokamachi.

When I got to Tokamachi, I stopped off at the Ramen place near Jusco before going home, having a shower and going to bed.

When I was getting ready for work this mornign I got a call from Suzuki-sensei saying that Tokuma-sensei was ill. She asked if I wanted to reschedule the two lessons I have with Tokuma-sensei or if I wanted to teach them by myself. I almost chickened out, but I said I'd do the lessons by myself. The lesson's were already planned and postponing them would be too difficult. Besides, after Friday's solo lesson I felt pretty confident I could handle it.

So I got in to school, checked the materials and headed off for class 1-3. When I got to the class, I wasn;t sure it was the right class. I was expecting the students t be sat about chatting but instead they were working textbooks. They looked confused when I walked in (and so did I probably) but a few smiles could be seen from the students. When I explained that Tokuma-sensei was ill and that I was going to run the lesson by myself, they all smiled and put their textbooks away. I handed out namecards and did the 'pop quiz' warm up with teh noise makers. Then into the TV grid game. I somehow managed to explain this to them and they did the exercise perfectly. We checked the answers and we had ten minutes left. So I used the 'Ask somebody who...' exercise that Tokuma-sesei had me prepare last week which took us up to the bell. So the lesson went okay, but it could be improved. I think teh order Tokuma-sensei would work better so I'll try that in the lesson on TV with Tachikawa sensei at 12pm today.