My Tuesday night Co-Rec men's league team won the Div 3 winter championship last night, as we beat Nimble for the first time Ever 2-1 on 2 goals by our star midfielder Dhani. After a flurry of scoring chances from the frantic Nimble attack in the first 30 minutes, and some heady plays by our quality goalkeeper Tim, we gradually eased into our game, and our defensive line anchored by Pat and I in the middle were able to severely limit their effectiveness in the last 30 minutes of the match. Tied 1-1 at halftime, we scored on a free kick after a foul I suffered, but was given a yellow card for a "retaliatory act."

We have been up at Division 3 for three seasons now (intuitively, there are winter, spring, summer, and fall seasons) after two consecutive runner up finishes in the winter and spring seasons last year down at divisions 5 or 6. Last summer and Fall, we managed about .500 records -- usually displaying the sometimes annoying but sometimes rewarding habit of "playing to the level of the competition." For the winter session there were significantly less teams across all divisions participating, and as a result -- although divisions 1 and 2 were kept largely intact -- participating teams from 3-6 were thrown into a 10-team "division 3" for the winter.

We rolled through the first 8 games of our season with a 5 wins- 3 draws - and 0 losses record. Occasionally, we were fortunate to get a win instead of a draw, and occasionally, we were unfortunate to get a draw instead of a win, but by and large, we were the superior side in most of our matches. In game 9 -- the last game of the "regular season," -- we were sitting in first and met the aforementioned Nimble, a team we had played at least 7 or 8 times in the preceding handful of seasons and never managed to defeat (although there were some draws along the way. We lost in the most disheartening and frustrating way: 1-0 off a first-half penalty kick that should never have been called -- our player was deemed guilty of a "slide tackle" in the box although he never left his feet or actually slid.

As a result of that match, we were dropped into 2nd, and met the 3rd place team, Racer X, whom we had defeated early in the season 3-1, in the semifinal playoff. With no overtime or shootout in the league procedures, we had the advantage, having finished ahead of them, that a tie would advance us to the final.

The match was largely a stalemate. Both sides scored first-half goals on what amounted to goalkeeper errors. We took a lead in the 2nd on a play that was precipitated by a Racer X defender's error. With time running out, they managed to tie on what would be classified as an "own goal," when a dangerous cross was misplayed by one of our defenders (not me) into our own net. Despite this, we still clung to the draw and advanced to last night's final.

Last night's match was also largely a first half-stalemate, and although their quick and aggressive attack had us on our heals at times, we seemed to enjoy an advantage in possession. This was seemingly furthered in the second half, although our overall inability to generate quality scoring chances kept us from securely stamping our mark on the game.

I had been frustrated with this team up until a year ago, when we started to dominate the lower divisions and finally moved up. Before then, I had considered dropping this team and finding a higher level team to play on. We have some players that aren't quite up to par; and it was certainly true this season that with the expanded division, there was some sub-par competition to be had out on the pitch. Even so, I am hoping that for the spring season, with some stronger overall competition headed our way, we can keep our heads above .500 and continue on our winning ways.

--- and its been a while since a long-winded soccer rant, eh?!