Week 3 - Final Squad selection 16th to 23rd September

I made it to the final 29 man squad for the first team. It has been a gruesome tough 3 weeks of serious fitness training and selection by the coaches. The final squad was announced today. The coaches approached me and asked me whether I would be available full time for the squad.

It felt great especially for the fact they came to me personally. It shows the amount of respect they have for you and the faith they have in you. Now to commit and return the favor and deliver results. I thought I would be drafted as a defender but I managed to prove myself as a midfielder and get the nod.

Some guys got cut especially because we were a huge number. From 46 to 29 . Now the quality gets better and competition higher. Next step is to fight for a first 11 position. #DreamBigPlayHard

Week 1 training Summary September 2nd - 9th 2016

The body is adapting well to the sessions. So far so good. Today we had a serious morning session where we played possession games before moving to competitive matches later on. The coach started me in central midfield for the first game. Then moved me on to the central defense for the second game. It seems this new coach has those two preferences for me to play.

The week has been tough given the fact that we had a 3 week break so at the moment. Most of the training has been jump starting the engine and body so that it can perform well. All in all it has been good.

Our first competitive game is tomorrow against Zetech College. So today its just resting and preparing mentally for tomorrows game. We are currently ranked position 8 though we have some games in hand. We need to win and play as a team tomorrow and do our best.

I will carry my video camera tomorrow and get clips of my match highlights.

Cheers for now.

Back to Training

This is the first week of training for this semester. It has been tough given that we had a three week break from competitive play and training. The coaches have mostly been concentrating on our speed and lots of running to increase our stamina and prepare for this weekends coming league games.

There are some new players on the team. Some are really good at least this will improve the quality of the team and increase competition among the players for starting positions. My goal this semester is to be on the first 11. To be a constant and consistent start for the remain leg of the season even as we prepare for the KUSA ( Kenya University Sports Association) games.

The new coach played me at center back on Wednesday even though that's not my natural position. Nevertheless we managed to keep a clean sheet. Today we had some core workouts to cover then we divided into teams and played a simulation match. I scored a penalty.

Tomorrows session is more of tactics and game play to prepare for the Saturday game and come up with a team for it. Can't wait to play. Am feeling super energetic and excited.

Next week should be serious running drills. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes.

The Weekend that Was

Goals - the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

We played really well this weekend. On Saturday we won 2-0 against Zetech University. The second goal we scored was spectacular... Totally something to write home about those goals that you live to tell your great grandchildren about. Goals that are undeniable awesome. Oh, how I wish I had a camera and recorded it for you guys to be able to see.
Enough talking about it... 
 
So we are leading 1-0 into the second half of the game midway we get a free kick close to the half pitch ( the center circle where kick off takes place) . I central defender steps up to take it. The distance is so far from the opponents post so the opposing goal keeper doesn't require a wall to protect him. Plus this goal keeper was big and had good reflexes noted from the shots he had saved earlier on from our strikers' attempts. 



Our defender started calling out our wingers name indicating that he would cross to him so he had to prepare himself for a header or something. The goal keeper on the other hand was quickly dishing out instructions to his defenders to mark the player who was being called. Little did he know he had stepped out of his box and left his goal post unmarked probably. I mean who would even dare shoot from that distance only guys like David Beckahm or Juninho or Ronaldinho. Like in this goal he scored against England it was unforgettable:

So picture this half way goal but now as a free kick of the above video that's how awesome it was. The below video just summaries everything for me. Talk about technique and guts. I could imagine what the coach would have said if he missed it.

Sunday was almost disastrous because we threw a 1-0 lead to NYS late in the second half by gifting them a penalty due to an intentional handball from the same player who was the star on Saturday. How ironic. He wins us the game on Saturday and costs us the game on Sunday. It happened like this a cross was made into our box the goalkeeper got off his line and came to collect it but missed. One of the opponents strikers got the ball. There was a scramble in the box as we tried to block him from getting a shot off. We were unlucky. He shot the ball and then the unthinkable happened........


The ball was heading straight into our post we had 3 defenders rushing to save it with their heads of course because if anyone touched it would be a  penalty. No sooner could you say that June first is a holiday our defender jumped thinking he was "maradona" (hand of god defender style though) brought the ball back down with his hands.

Something like this but in our case he was standing. He was given a straight red card and a direct penalty kick. And that is how the cookie crumbled and NYS equalized.

There was drama that came up afterwards about how the coach made the wrong substitutes. How he shouldn't have made changes to the back line but at the end of the day he is the one in charge and decides what will happen.

I can't wait till next weekends games. Till then #DreamBigPlayHard

Victory #1

The last time I wrote was in 2015. It has definitely been a long time. A lot has happened. I recovered from the injury, I am just about to finish my college education, I am about to decide whether to play professional or not, my leg got better, the Euros are coming up so a lot is happening.

This year is going pretty fast if you haven't noticed. It's now May 26th 2016 so if you haven't got to your new years resolution I suggest you do so because after today there are 219 days remaining. If you started somewhere in January and stopped in February I suggest you pull up your socks and get back to it. This is because there is nothing as bad as giving up. That brings me to the theme of today's blog post #VICTORY

Victory is defined as winning, success, triumph ,overcoming defeat,conquest and the list of definitions goes on and on and on.

This picture just sums it up for me:

Boy doesn't it feel good to win and be victorious. Quick images that come to mind are all the different league winners in the different football leagues around the world.








In the EPL ( English Premier league) we had the fairy tale story of Leicester city winning the trophy.

BayernMunich the Bundesliga winners

Barcelona the La Liga winners

The biggest question that comes to mind is what makes these guys winners and victorious? Winning the league is not easy. It's definitely not a one game tournament. Are there life lessons we can learn from these guys. Let's see if there any characteristics that could make one win and become victorious.

First and foremost they have a GOAL i.e. a set target. Got to rush to class will post more later today in the evening.