Heading into Saturdays game we knew it wouldnt be an easy one. Sitting close to the bottom of the standings, Como probably wanted the win more than we did (the bottom 2 teams from the season get moved to a lower division). They started the game like it too. In front of a smaller crowd at a very nice facuility in the city of Como, we got put onto our heals early.
2 goals right away on counter attacks and this pathetic little croud quickly turned into an Annoying little croud. We finaly "pulled our heads out" and woke up. Our offense rallied back with some strong half court and even a few counter attacks of our own. Half time it was all tied up 6-6.
Starting the 3rd period we had a man in the penelty box so it was really important that we win the opening sprint so that we would not be on defense with a man down. For some reason unknown to me they decided to give ME the task of retrieving it. When my coach told me to sprint for the ball I was more than confused. Dont get me wrong, in practice I can win all the swimsets thanks to my handy flipturns and probably because all the Italians are wondering why I am trying so hard...in practice. But if we were to have a sprint, because my stroke looks more like im having a sesiure than trying to go anywhere, I would probably finish somewhere in the lower half of my team. As we were lining up I asked Michalae "why am I sprinting?" He just looked at me with a blank face. I then told him that I cant sprint, "But I am slow". He responded with a "What?" I shot back at him "I am SLOOOW" only to get another "What?" from him. "I am F%(K&£g SLOW!", then the referee blew the whistle and I was off to the races. With 80 to 1 odds I obviously didnt win the sprint but I made up for it about a min later scoring a goal on the next offense. With a 6-7 lead we never looked back.
After a strong week of practice, and getting my strength and conditioning back, I once again was giving a starting position and the overly demanding and underappreciated job of guarding the other teams center. I dont know what my team was thinking getting some offensivly handicapped player who lies about being 6feet tall when it seems that every other team went out and used their foriegn roster spot to sign a mamouth of a center. This week I had to wrap up with a white Karl Malone look alike from Croatia. Only problem was he had some 5ft 11 and a 1/2 inch annoying American making sure this guy didnt deliver. Dont worry im not about to start talking in the third person like the real Karl Malone, I should really be taking this time to praise my team because our defense as a unit is what would prove to stop the Como attack throughout the game.
No kickouts, no goals from Karl on me and we easly dominated the second half winning 13 to 7.
Michalae came up to me 20 mins after the game ended laughing and said, "Ohhhhh You are F&$k!çg SLOOOOW"...The translation had just clicked.
BUS #10
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
BGR
Pumped is an understatement of how I felt Saturday night as I drove to the pool for my first game back. Then when Queen came on the radio singing "We are the Champions" I knew it had to be an omen! As the song went on I got more into it, cresendioing with every verse. By the end of the song I was in full rock out mode singing at the top of my lungs "NO TIME FOR LOSERS; BECAUSE WE ARE THE CAMPIONS" and getting plenty of stares as I putted alnog the rode in the smartcar getting passed and honked at. This would end up being the high point of the night.
Matching up against a stronger Camolgi team, I could see it in my teammates eyes when I arived at the pool that they didnt think there was much chance for victory. But I had just heard the radio tell me that I was a champion so I was confident that we would still pull it off.
We had our routine half hour team talk about matchups and strategy, none of which I understood but would be translated to me later by Roberto in under 2 mins . Im sure he didnt leave anything out...
When the meeting ended I headed out to the pool to start some pregame stretches and drills. The oposing team started to walk in and I imediatly started looking for the BGR. One by one they came out of the visitor s locker room, normal....,normal....,normal....,FREAK. OK so maybe he wasnt 6ft8in 280 but he definetly looked like he should be wearing a Met-Rex tank top and heading to a Worlds Strongest Man competition. The kind of guy that turns sideways to walk through doorways, because he acually has to. GREAAAAAT this is going to be fun I sighed to my self sarcasticly, but then I Quickly remembered that I was a CHAMPION and started feeling better.
The game started and so did their scoring with their Hungarian Lefty showing us why he has an Olympic Gold medal at home and why we dont. They found the back of the net on their first two posessions puting us in a quick 2-0 hole. On our next offensive we earned a man advantage oppertunity an I ended up scoring a goal from the post. Unfortunetly that was as close as the game would get all night. We stayed reletivly close but ultimetly finshed with an L, 14 to 9.
So much for Queen and for me comming back and being the savior to the season. The loss doesnt completely put us out of the playoff hunt but we didnt make things any easier for ourselves.
Ohh yeah, the post game Pizza was still amazing.
Bus #10
Matching up against a stronger Camolgi team, I could see it in my teammates eyes when I arived at the pool that they didnt think there was much chance for victory. But I had just heard the radio tell me that I was a champion so I was confident that we would still pull it off.
We had our routine half hour team talk about matchups and strategy, none of which I understood but would be translated to me later by Roberto in under 2 mins . Im sure he didnt leave anything out...
When the meeting ended I headed out to the pool to start some pregame stretches and drills. The oposing team started to walk in and I imediatly started looking for the BGR. One by one they came out of the visitor s locker room, normal....,normal....,normal....,FREAK. OK so maybe he wasnt 6ft8in 280 but he definetly looked like he should be wearing a Met-Rex tank top and heading to a Worlds Strongest Man competition. The kind of guy that turns sideways to walk through doorways, because he acually has to. GREAAAAAT this is going to be fun I sighed to my self sarcasticly, but then I Quickly remembered that I was a CHAMPION and started feeling better.
The game started and so did their scoring with their Hungarian Lefty showing us why he has an Olympic Gold medal at home and why we dont. They found the back of the net on their first two posessions puting us in a quick 2-0 hole. On our next offensive we earned a man advantage oppertunity an I ended up scoring a goal from the post. Unfortunetly that was as close as the game would get all night. We stayed reletivly close but ultimetly finshed with an L, 14 to 9.
So much for Queen and for me comming back and being the savior to the season. The loss doesnt completely put us out of the playoff hunt but we didnt make things any easier for ourselves.
Ohh yeah, the post game Pizza was still amazing.
Bus #10
Friday, April 16, 2010
The Bus and Blog are Back
I must star with an apology, I am sincerely sorry to all the POLOandPASTA faithful for the coma like intermission on this blog. I left it about as quick as my shoulder left its socket in the Viagevano game, ultimately tearing my labrum and sidelining me for what I thought (and was told) would be the remainder of the season. I didn't even inform you on what happend, although I was surprised to hear that my injury didn't flash across your TV as ESPN Now Update, and Skip Bayless wasn't debating the next morning on 1st and 10 on how my injury might play out for the rest of Erestampa Bergamos season. The quick summary is I tore my labrum and was told by doctors in Italy that I would need surgery. I did not want to agree with them so I packed my bags and headed back home where doctors state side suggested that I try the physical therapy approach. After nearly 3 months of hard work and the support and encouragement of my family some Close friends, I told the team that I was ready to return and fight for them in the final 5 weeks of season. A week later I was boarding a British Airways flight and headed back to Italy.
Arriving 2 days ago, I was greeted at the airport by the team president Dario, who upon first seeing me exit the baggage claim shook his head and laughed. I dint think many of the team thought when I said my goodbyes in January that they would ever see my face again, let alone come back to finish out the season. We headed straight to the pool where after many more Ciaos and hugs it was time for practice and of course the customary Tuesday 15 x 200s that I missed so dearly.
When practice was finished I was more than excited to rush over to the restaurant where I saw Sergio and began my rigorus Italian diet of Pizza 5 nights a week. The only wierd part about comming back was that it was not wierd at all, infact it felt like I never left. I even got my same apartment and the same clown car (I wont lie, I was pretty excited to be mobbing around the streets of Bergamo in the Smart Car again).
As for the real reason of my return, to help my team make the playoffs, the road will be quite tricky. We currently sit in 5th place and need to move up 1 spot to 4th. Doesnt sound too hard but when they are ahead by two wins and we only have 5 games left (4 against the top 4 teams) it will take a great effort to pull it off.
It all starts tomorrow with our game against current 1st place Camolgi. The main thing that I keep hearing over and over is that they have a Huge Gay Russian. HUGE as in 6ft 8in and 280lbs muscle, Gay as in he literly plays for the "other team", and Russian as in, well Russian. Now dont get me wrong I have nothing against gays, come on I voted NO on Prop 13, but when its my job to match up and wrestle the whole game with this man-handeling boheamoth, it would make even the most open man queezy. It didnt help that the first thing my coach asked me when I saw him was, "Are you ready to sacraffice your A$*h&7£ on Saturday for the team?" I first responded with "yes" and then a confused "no" and felt like I was in the middle of a stupid 1st graders joke with no safe answer.
Besideds the BGR (who has played long enough in Italy that he has naturalised), they had an American who didnt quite work out. About the same time that I left the country in January his team gave him the boot and picked up Gabor Kis. Who is Gabor Kis? Just a Hungarian, Olympic Gold Medal, and a nasty Left handed shot...No Big Deal.
As impressive as their lineup is and as difficult it is going to be to pull off the win, I couldnt think of anything I would rather want than to be than back here in Bergamo with my guys, ready to go to battle again.
Bus #10
Arriving 2 days ago, I was greeted at the airport by the team president Dario, who upon first seeing me exit the baggage claim shook his head and laughed. I dint think many of the team thought when I said my goodbyes in January that they would ever see my face again, let alone come back to finish out the season. We headed straight to the pool where after many more Ciaos and hugs it was time for practice and of course the customary Tuesday 15 x 200s that I missed so dearly.
When practice was finished I was more than excited to rush over to the restaurant where I saw Sergio and began my rigorus Italian diet of Pizza 5 nights a week. The only wierd part about comming back was that it was not wierd at all, infact it felt like I never left. I even got my same apartment and the same clown car (I wont lie, I was pretty excited to be mobbing around the streets of Bergamo in the Smart Car again).
As for the real reason of my return, to help my team make the playoffs, the road will be quite tricky. We currently sit in 5th place and need to move up 1 spot to 4th. Doesnt sound too hard but when they are ahead by two wins and we only have 5 games left (4 against the top 4 teams) it will take a great effort to pull it off.
It all starts tomorrow with our game against current 1st place Camolgi. The main thing that I keep hearing over and over is that they have a Huge Gay Russian. HUGE as in 6ft 8in and 280lbs muscle, Gay as in he literly plays for the "other team", and Russian as in, well Russian. Now dont get me wrong I have nothing against gays, come on I voted NO on Prop 13, but when its my job to match up and wrestle the whole game with this man-handeling boheamoth, it would make even the most open man queezy. It didnt help that the first thing my coach asked me when I saw him was, "Are you ready to sacraffice your A$*h&7£ on Saturday for the team?" I first responded with "yes" and then a confused "no" and felt like I was in the middle of a stupid 1st graders joke with no safe answer.
Besideds the BGR (who has played long enough in Italy that he has naturalised), they had an American who didnt quite work out. About the same time that I left the country in January his team gave him the boot and picked up Gabor Kis. Who is Gabor Kis? Just a Hungarian, Olympic Gold Medal, and a nasty Left handed shot...No Big Deal.
As impressive as their lineup is and as difficult it is going to be to pull off the win, I couldnt think of anything I would rather want than to be than back here in Bergamo with my guys, ready to go to battle again.
Bus #10
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