My Memorable First Goal in Football

Posted by Avinesh on September 24, 2008 · 19 Comments 

Lots of philosophy in my posts.. Well this time I am trying for something new..

Football: 1 ball 22 players.. At a time only one man holds the ball.. The probability that one holds the ball depends on the team that one is playing against..I am not a good player but used to play this @ school…The only game i didn’t play in my 4 years @ IIIT-H for my house (Aakash)..

The story goes on like this.. The day before the match Arpit (captain of our house) asks me “Avinesh do you play football???”.. I was thinking “Oh God what happend to Aakash its asking for players like me”… Well I am not that bad at this game as I am describing..Two things you need to have to play football are idea of the game and stamina…I play as Right Out i.e. Forward line Right Wing in Hockey (Basic idea of the this is similar to football).. Only difference between them is ball is controlled with stick in Hockey and with legs in Football.. As far as stamina is concerned not a big problem these days (participated in 22km Half Marathon)..

Match Day (Debut Match) : Abhilash one of our star players was not feeling well.. I was working in the lab suddenly i got a message from him “Avi come to the football ground we have a match”…I reached the ground pretty early.. Practiced hitting the ball (longtime i touched football..)… Then i realized “Ahaa not bad avi not bad..”…

Then comes Arpit “Bhai thoda kicks practice karlo…”.. We practiced for a while ..

Now comes the team meeting..Captain Kabeer and Arpit were deciding the team..

Kabeer : “Which position do you play???”

( I was thinking “Wow first match and he is asking me for my favorite position.. that means iam in the team”..seriously which position do i really play ???? Right Out naah i.e Striker in Football naah.. First match and you ask for a striker position i.e. his position …not fair :P…)

Avinesh: “I can run well” .. (Goshh… what kindoff answer is that)

Arpit : “Offcourse you can run.. Then Midfielder..”

Avinesh: (Midfielder is too much for me) “Running is fine, but it should be with the ball.. Its not 100 m dash.. I would prefer playing defender..”

Arpit and Kabeer: “Fine Defender.. Central Defender or Right Back “

Avinesh : “Right Back”…

Match Starts… Aakash Vs Prithvi (Prithvi is the strongest team on paper)

Prithvi played well initially.. We were getting few chances (truly speaking ball was on our side for the maximum time..)..Then suddenly our midfielder chips into their goal post.. Kabeer controls the ball and hits it to the Goalkeeper.. Ball deflects from the goal keeper and Saurav kicks into the goal..wow.. 1-0 Aakash leading… good start…After few minutes comes equalizer from Aman (ball curves in and dips into the top corner).. 1-1.. Later Kabeer converts the controversy penalty chance for Aakash making 2-1.. 5 more minutes to go.. Privithvi house players were striking the ball into our goal.. We just needed to defend our goal..Then comes the cross from Pratyush and the ball was about to come to Aman.. As i was marking him I managed to deflect the ball.. but GOAL… GOAL … GOAL..

Oh no… my first goal and that too SELF GOAL… And that too 5 min to go.. If we would have won this match we would be going into the finals without any pressure.. Oh no Aakshian’s would remember me as the SELF GOAL guy who shattered their dreams of entering into the finals.. NO NO what happened.. Shit Shit…i shouldn’t have touched the ball.. I was feeling very bad that day first chance and that too i screwed up like anything.. Everyone came to me and said “Kya baath hain OWN GOAL..”.. I never faced this situation as I always played in the front line in hockey.. Mistake of a striker is not taken that seriously.. But one mistake of Defender is a big mistake…

Anyways it was Vayu who defeated Prithvi in qualifying round and gave us the ticket to the finals.. It was then my regret of OWN GOAL ended… Thank you Rahul and team (Vayu) once again ..

Filed under Experience · Tagged with football, memorable goal