In the past 3 weeks a lot has happened. We have played in 4 games, losing our first match of the season to Capalaba, and we have won 2 more league games, bouncing back from the loss with an 8-1 victory over Souths, and we progressed to the
quarterfinals of the Canale Cup with a 4-0 win Tuesday night over a second division side. We are still creating an unbelievable amount of scoring chances in every game, we just haven’t been putting away an early goal, which usually gives us the confidence to go and score for fun.
In our loss to Capalaba we still dominated the game but were unable to come up with the plays that we needed to win the game. I give Capalaba credit because they only had 4 shots (compared to our 20) and scored 3 goals, although 2 of them came from fortuitous bounces.
Other than the games, I had been on trial last week with Gold Coast United, one of the A-league sides, and did fairly well. It was nice to train again every day with good competition. However, I wasn’t able to make enough of an impression on the head coach. At the end of the trial he told me that I was good enough to play in the A-league but not good enough to take up an international roster spot. He had a few critiques for my game, all of which were weaknesses that I am well aware of and know that within a professional environment I can improve upon those weaknesses. But if I didn’t think that I could become an impact player for a first division club what business do I have pursuing a professional career? The good news is that, Patrick McMahon and Trent Clulow, my roommate and good friend/teammate were invited to come back and train with Gold Coast after our season has concluded, so they will get another opportunity to impress the coaching staff and possibly earn a contract.
Outside of soccer I took a trip up the coast to the Steve Irwin zoo, which was totally awesome. We got to see all of the native Australian animals like koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, wombats, salt water crocodiles , and we watched one of their famous croc feedings in the “Crocoseum.” The show was really cool and we learned about the crocodiles eating habits and got to watch them in action, when they are in the water and make a move for food they are unbelievably fast. I’m glad I made a trip up there and I’ll need to go back to that area sometime soon because the mountain range that is close to the zoo, the Glasshouse Mountains, are quite a sight and made for good scenery on the drive.
