All Hacks Indoor Soccer Team Vol 901-904

All Hacks,

Has anyone else noticed how fast time is flying nowadays. Weeks blur together and even months start to roll by so quickly. I've left the unofficial newsletter writing for a while and before I know it, four weeks have passed in this ninth season for the All Hacks.

So here goes a fairly short review of the 4 matches. After a successful campaign that saw the All Hacks become division 4 champions last seasons, most players felt they needed a rest and consequently, we've just managed enough people for most of the matches so far.

The first match against Sup Bee Archers Justin A, Cooma, David and the emergency man of late Adrian come to fill in the gaps. With regulars Maal, Justin and myself, we managed to fill a full team. We shouldn't have been worried though, this new Sunday division of 16 teams means there are varying quality of sides. Sup Bee showed little resistance (apart from a two minute burst when the All Hacks got too cocky and they scored two goals) as the All Hacks steam rolled them to put through 10 goals. If we had shot a bit more accurately, we could have easily scored 15-20 goals.

In the second match, again, numbers were extremely low. After Justin's invitation from players on the side line to play a free match was met with negatives, finally Edward stepped up. According to Justin, Edward had played one match for us before, but such is the shambles of our memory, no one else could remember. With good team rotation, the 5 players managed to play out the whole game with no one vomitting. The impressive start to the season continued when we beat Zos easily 4-1.

In our third match against last seaons finalists Yemazel, we were expecting a very tough match. With only five players to rely on again, it wasn't looking too good. Much to our surprise when Yemezal initially rocked up with only 3 players and two African ring-ins. Later in the match, more Yemazel players came and they were able to rotate their players. It was close to begin with, with the African's attacking flair catching us off guard so that we trailed 2-1. But once we got them sorted out, we started to attack ourselves, and their defence was found lacking. Some neat forward attacks from Khar reaped him 4 goals. Harinder also scored his first goal in a few seasons. But the surprises weren't to end there. Justin came onto the field for a few minutes and unlike his penalty miss in game 1, this time he scored a field goal with a great strike and the whole team was on the score board. We ran out winners of that match 9-4.

The fourth match was the best turn out so far. Players have started to get over their Premiership hangover and returned to play some more. It was also the toughest and most brutal match so far this season. Tuan, who was visiting from Queensland decided to play a match for the All Hacks. In what was a tight match all game, as in the World Cup, a crucial refereeing decision decided the game. Yasoo Globetrotters had scored an early goal, which was equalised by Maal immediately after their keeper fumbled. Yasoo was extremely physical and played the game on the edge the whole time. They conceded foul after foul. When I had counted four fouls, I clearly asked the referee, "Is that four fouls", to which he replied yes. Then when Yasoo committed another foul, I pointed to the penalty spot, to which the ref said that was four fouls. Justin and I started to protest, as he just said himself two minutes ago that that foul was the fourth. Anyway, we continued to play on. When Yasoo committed their sixth foul, finally we got a penalty shot that Ara calmly scored from. The defining moment of the match would occur in the second half. After the inexperience ref "Maniche" had been hassled and intimidated all match by Yasoo, he made a call that even a blind person who had an understanding of Newton's fundamental laws of motion would disagree with. When Yasoo took a shot, the ball was saved by Justin and clearly came off the side post to rebound back out. The ref blew his whistle and everyone was wondering what had happened. The worse we thought was that we conceded a penalty, but no, he had given a goal. This got our whole team pleading with the referee as to what had happened. He said that he had called it and can't change the decision. Even after the stadium management conceded the ref had made a mistake, the decision would stand and it was a draw at 2-2. We had fought so hard this match and were robbed of our record 8th win in a row. Instead, we got a draw and a taste for revenge should we meet them in the finals. Yes, I'm talking finals so early because basically every team will make a final, just in a different division. Lets try to make the division 1 final and win that.

Here is the crowd doing a Mexican wave at the record crowd breaking game between Melbourne Victory and Sydney F.C that Justin, Justin A, Irah, Harinder, Adrian and myself attended.

Thanh