An Existential Crisis
“It happens that the stage sets collapse. Rising, street-car, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, street-car, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according [13] to the same rhythm—this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the "why" arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement. "Begins"—this is important. Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same time it inaugurates the impulse of consciousness. It awakens consciousness and provokes what follows. What follows is the gradual return into the chain or it is the definitive awakening. “ Albert Camus The Myth of Sisyphus
There are those like Camus who find that to find meaning in a meaningless world is absurd. Others believe that all life is pre-destined and we are powerless to change our fate. Either way, we are encouraged to find comfort and pleasure in the life we have.
This has been tough of late. It seems that with JV1 soccer, we are either following the easy path going through the monotonous, repetitive tasks of life and not asking “why”, or we are desperately battling against our fate and finding we are destined not to find victory.
Robert Frost wrote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Could there be something out there that does not love our JV1? There seems to be some cosmic force determined to keep us from claiming victory. Maybe on Family Weekend we inadvertently offended the gods of soccer and this is our punishment.
Yesterday amid the seasonal drizzle, we traveled out to Canaan, NH to face off against Cardigan Mountain School. This was our second time meeting with them. The first resulted in a 0-1 loss for us. We were confident that if we played hard, we could defeat them. In the previous game, we had dominated and kept them scoreless for 74 minutes.
In the first half, our efforts ebbed and flowed with the intensity of the rain. Mario Espurz Garcia was tremendous in the goal. CMS was able to sneak in several times for close shots, but he shut them down. We kept Cardigan from scoring for the first eleven minutes. Then they got a shot off inside. Mario was able to get a hand on it with a dive but the ball deflected back in the middle and CMS was able to recover it and sent it to the post. Fourteen minutes later, Cardigan proved effective using the give-and-go up the middle and then went one-on-one with Mario. Mario was forced to commit to one side and the Cougar sent a finesse shot to the opposite post. It might sound like our defense had broken down, but we saw great plays from our defensive line. Michael Jung, despite having to peer through water distorted lenses, was incredibly effective. Brian Lee similarly bookended the other side, displaying his calm but deadly attacks. Jacob Hebble buzzed around the middle thwarting attempted drives.
Our shots on goal in the first half were minimal. We did see a nice drive when Will Stedina passed the ball up to Will Sewell. Sewell took a quick left-footed shot that the keeper deflected. Sewell continued to rush the net, but the keeper was able to recover the ball. We also saw in the last minute, Simon Nowlan slid the ball to Trong Phan who passed it outside to Sewell. Will took the shot, but the ball went wide.
At the end of the half, we were down by two.
The second half saw a much more aggressive and determined KUA team. Two minutes in Ollie Cozzi took advantage of a Direct Kick to send the ball into the middle. The keeper deflected the ball and an awaiting Amir Lesbek rushed inside, but the keeper dove in to get his hands on the ball. Minutes later Cam Barton sent a sweet chip up to Will Sewell, whose shot went wide. Then in two different attacks, Tom Huang sent a long pass up to Sewell, who shot. The keeper saved both of them. Trong, too, blasted a long shot, but it was saved. Adi Lesbek, Kohki Shinohara, and Conrad Lopez Moss battled up the midfield and set the plays up for the strikers.
Our drives increased as the minutes ticked down. Will Stedina chipped up to Sewell. He blasted it in, but the keeper deflected it. Will Sewell then passed up to a rushing Ian Surgenor, but the keeper saved it. Then our two boys tried the drive in reverse but came up with the same result. Simon tried sending the ball to Sewell: the same result. Trong worked with Ian, but again the ball went wide. Simon tried it on his own, but the ball missed by inches.
Finally, with two minutes left. CMS got in close to Mario, but again he shut down their attempts. With less than a minute left, Simon passed the ball outside to Will Sewell. He sent a beautiful cross into the middle to meet a rushing Leo Barta. Leo got his head on the ball and drove it off the top bar. Cardigan was able to recover the deflected ball. They took advantage of our aggressive forward positioning. They sent the ball up to an awaiting striker who got behind our forward-playing defensive team. Cardigan had a one-on-one run from midfield against an awaiting Mario. Cardigan took the shot and Mario dove and kicked the ball out wide. However, Cardigan had a second striker following up and he was able to kick the deflected ball behind a prostrate Mario.
We had one more play. Ollie was awarded another Direct Kick. Again, he dropped it in low by the penalty kick spot, but the keeper was able to rush in first to claim it.
At the final whistle, again, we felt we had outplayed our opponent, but we could neither get a ball in the net nor walk off the field with the victory. These two things have led to long weekends of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But maybe there is a better way to follow such defeats.
Perhaps we should be like the Oedipus Rex who Camus wrote about, “Thus, Oedipus at the outset obeys fate without knowing it. But from the moment he knows, his tragedy begins. Yet at the same moment, blind and desperate, he realizes that the only bond linking him to the world is the cool hand of a girl. Then a tremendous remark rings out: ‘Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age and the nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well.’"
With fewer than two weeks left in the season, we should embrace the moments. So, whether we are faced with an indifferent world or are fated to a certain destiny, we will live out our last few days as a team, enjoying our time together and taking pleasure in each other’s company.
This Wednesday we travel to New Hampton School for our first game with them. The match will start at 2:30.
