The twelve days of Chritsunamimas

The twelve days of Chritsunamimas

1 On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, Laura’s sweater with the goose family three.

2 On the second day of Christmas, Tsunami sent to me, Noel and bell and more on Amy [‘s sweater, that is.] and that sweater with the goose baby.

3 On the third day of Christmas, my goalie kicked to me, three Santa sweaters, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

4 On the fourth day of Christmas, Kris & Sheri showed to me, two reds with nuts, three Santa sweaters, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

5 On the fifth day of Christmas, Diane bestowed on me, one u-g-l-y top!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

6 On the sixth day of Christmas Courtney said to me “ugly is the new black!” five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

7 On the seventh day of Christmas Sammi said to me “my white is also ugly” six bulky black ones, five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

8 On the eighth day of Christmas Steph lit up just like a tree—sparkles on her corsage, seven also ugly, six bulky black ones, five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

9 On the ninth day of Christmas Leslie sent to me—a keg for tsunami, eight floozie’s flowers, seven also ugly, six bulky black ones, five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

10 On the tenth day of Christmas a sausage came to be, on the plate of one devoted veggie!, nine players drinking, eight floozie’s flowers, seven also ugly, six bulky black ones, five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

11 On the eleventh day of Christmas, Miss B stepped out with me--eleven ladies dancing, ten foods verboten, eight floozie’s flowers, seven also ugly, six bulky black ones, five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

12 On the twelfth day of Christmas, lo! beneath tsunami's tree--eleven ladies dancing, ten foods verboten, eight floozie’s flowers, seven also ugly, six bulky black ones, five u-g-l-y tops!, four rutting reds, three Santa dolls, Amy’s noel and holly and that sweater with the goose baby.

Notes:

1. apres-tsunami fun continued by the fire circle with a chorus of kumbya captured by Stephanie.
   
2. Stephanie's recipe:
   

CONFETTI CRISP

2 sticks of butter (NOT margarine)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup M&Ms **
1/2 cup peanuts **
1/2 cup broken pretzels (twists work) **
Saltine crackers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange Saltine crackers on a foil-lined cookie sheet in a single layer side by side.

In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter and vanilla. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture comes to a full boil. Continue boiling for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and immediately pour evenly over crackers.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Allow chocolate to soften, then spread evenly over baked crackers.
Sprinkle pretzels, peanuts and M&Ms over the melted chocolate.
Lightly press down into chocolate so it will stay.
Refrigerate until it is firm. Break into pieces and serve.

**You can add other toppings or take some out. It is up to you.

Tsunami 2000 Ugly Xmas Sweater Party

Extra, extra... read all about it. Tsunami 2000 first ugly xmas sweater party. Take a look at all the ugly sweaters. We missed you teammates who were not able to attend.

Enjoy the pictures.

Recap: the view from my bed

Yours truly is somewhat writing impaired this week, but there are photos!

Swaggering Cougar overheard at check-in: “We should have just called in this game.” Apparently several of their players had such confidence, and did not bother to show up. They started with 9

and soon had 10. Tsunami had three subs.

The first half saw Tsunami dominating, but neither team scored.

During the second half, Tsunami had the downhill advantage and Suzanne’s hot foot. Tsunami’s defense was fierce, as well—no Cougar went unchallenged,

and Sammi stopped all their shots. Suzanne scored from the edge of the box early in the half. Then she scored from closer in, rocketing a drone plane that weaved through a half dozen defenders before landing in the lower left corner:

Leslie put in the third and final goal with her head. Someone (Suzanne again?) had sent a ball that was going to just graze the far post, but Leslie speared it and sent it into the net.

Cougar Express had planned to take home the “champion” shirts. Their rough play intensified as the second half progressed and victory slipped further from their grasp. Tsunami went home victorious, but bruised—I don’t think they spared anyone.

Run Sharie, run

See Sharie run. Run Sharie, run. Sharie hurts all over. Stop Sharie, stop. And so it came to pass that Sharie played in the goal during the second half of Tsunami’s game against (909) United.

But that’s jumping ahead. Here’s how it started:

By the coin toss, both teams had garnered the minimum number of players—7. As we took the field, both teams were up to 8. During the first few minutes, Tsunami struggled with the discombobulation of unfamiliar positions—Sharie at fullback, for example. 909 U exploited our discomfort with a few early runs on our goal. Sharie, Stacie and Belinda kept most of the shooters on the outside, and Pam stopped the early shots.

You work with what you have: soon everyone was settled in the lineup and Tsunami was flowing with its usual elan. There were some amazing defensive plays: Pam sacrificed her body to the turf and several 909 U feet. Once when she was down, Belinda scooted into the net and blocked a shot with an unknown but legal body part. With her speed, Staci prevented the “shot” part of many 909U fast breaks.

The defense successfully wafted the ball into 909U territory to set up several Tsunami fast breaks. Leslie and Brittney ran down these balls as they landed deep in 909U territory, only to shoot high, wide, over, around. Neither could buy a goal, leaving it to Staci and her speed (and footwork). Dribbling forward from her fullback position, Staci left everyone from both teams in her wake as she motored towards the goal. Her shot from about 30 yards out sailed over the goalie's head and into the net, putting us on the board.

Shamed, the offense went to work, and worked the ball closer to the goal with some good passing. Suzanne had arrived, as had 909U’s 9^th player. By shooting lower balls from closer in, Tsunami set up rebound opportunities, which Diane exploited for two more goals. 3-0 and there was still time. With no subs and lots of back-and-forth runs, the teams showed signs of fatigue, and lapsed back into relying on the defense to launch missiles from the backfield into 909U’s side. Leslie still had a few big runs in her: chasing a deep left kick from Pam, she sprinted under it, headed it to herself, crossed it to herself, and fired a strong grounder through the goalie’s legs.

The second half saw more good passing by Tsunami players, but 909U was passing more effectively as well. Neither team was making it to striking range with enough oomph left to execute strong shots. As time wound down, Sharie fielded a goal-ward ball and moved to the edge of the box to kick it. Her kick was a tad shallow and—not having spent much time in the goal—she forgot to run back into the net from the edge of the box. 909U got an easy pop fly into the net, right over Sharie’s arms.

Soon after, 909U got off a real shot, and scored again. Oh no!

Tsunami rallied to defend the 4-2 score, and gave them no more chances. We had a few chances but were thwarted, and the team focused on defense. Thus it ended, the two teams tied for third place had sorted themselves out into third (Tsunami) and 4^th ((909)U).

Stay tuned for Diane’s email about next week’s semifinal game (surely against our nemesis Gang Green).

the good fight

Gang Green and Tsunami brought equal desire for a victory to last night’s game. Tsunami kept the lame knee ladies on the sidelines (Shari, Steph and yours truly) on the edges of our seats for an hour and a half of back-and-forth battle.

Gang Green dominated the first quarter, keeping Sammi and the defense busy. Sammi stopped a break-away only to have Gang Green quickly regain possession and have a chance at the goal—but there stood Leslie, who swatted the ball clear with a powerful kick. Eventually Gang Green got a shot off from near the right corner flag. It just cleared the upper left corner of the goal and put them on the scoreboard. After GG’s goal, Tsunami took possession of the game, and gave them very few additional chances in the first half. Tsunami had many chances, including a spectacular long shot from Brittney that almost went into the upper left corner (but ricocheted off the outside of the corner and out). Suzanne would have scored on a beautifully arced corner shot—but GG’s goalie grabbed it.

Tsunami dominated possession during the second half, and GG had very few shots on goal. Leslie, Patti, Belinda and Sara made it difficult for GG to get set up for any shots , and the few they got off were handily stopped by Sammi. Leslie won several foot races with GG’s forwards, averting breakaway shots. The ball seemed often in the middle in a frenzied scrum involving variously Sara, Rachel, Laura, Suzanne and Pam being shoved a lot as they scrapped to move the ball west and GG struggled eastward. Tsunami most often prevailed, and Rachel, Britteny, Diane, Suzanne and Aime had lots of shots. Unfortunately, constant double- and triple-teams inhibited Suzanne, preventing the launch of her typical rocket shots. Nonetheless, Tsunami hammered the goal.

Pam passed the ball down the line to Aime, setting up one of the best chances in the second half. Aime dribbled into open space, then crossed a perfect ball towards the goal, where someone got a foot on it (Brittney?), then Diane--standing on the goal line--almost got a head on it. But the goalie snatched it. The second best chance of the half came when the GG goalie fouled one our forwards in the box, giving us a free kick at close range. Suzanne got a good shot over their wall, but the GG goalie grabbed it.

So we left empty-handed, but not without a calorie-draining fight (over 600 calories burned, according to B’s device). Next week we meet (909) United at 8:15. The good news, however, is that Gang Green meets Cougar Express (at 4:45).

ghu

Morgue bound

Tsunami’s 9-0 slaughter of ER Bound on 29 August provided opportunities for all to shine. In baseball, a designated hitter bats in place of the pitcher in the rotation. Thus, the DH bats only as many times as the team goes through the rotation, thereby distributing the DH’s “at bats” evenly through the game. In Tsunami soccer, we have the DS, or designated scorer, aka Suzanne. Suzanne can show up for a mere half, score a couple goals, then go home to ensure her kids make their school-night bed time. At home she’s probably the DE, or designated enforcer.

On 29 August, we had eleven to start—Diane, Leslie, Rachel, Sammi, Belinda, Shari, Pam, Suzanne, Staci, Patti and Brittney. We got off to a fast start with Suzanne socking one in from the key. This was followed by a goal with some nice passing—finally put in by Brittney (I think). Suzanne scored another, and a fourth goal made it 4-0 at the half. ER Bound’s offense never gave up, so both sides of the field saw action, albeit less on defense than offense, and Sammi had very little to do during the half. Suzanne and Belinda left, leaving us with nine for the second half. Leslie took over the net, allowing Sammi to warm up in the prematurely wintery night air.

Tsunami had gravity on its side in the second half, and it was a wild ride for ER bound’s defenders. Five more goals were scored by several members of the team, the last couple with little resistance from the goalie, who finally switched positions and let someone else deal with the relentless Rachel and Diane and Brittney, being fed by Staci, Pam, Shari, Patti and Sammi. ER bound? Morgue bound seems more apt.

Tonight we meet Gang Green. They hold second place with a record of 5-1-2. We are in third with a record of 5-2-1. Let’s knock them out of second place! Be there for the 6:30 game. I hope our DS will stay for both halves.

If you haven’t registered for next season, bring your $63 to sign up.