Hanover's first full day of soccer in Ireland was very full of soccer. At the end of a long day, the weary Marauders rallied from two goals down to steal a point from a very big, physical and temperamental Corrib Rangers team, 3-3. It was a classic Ireland game: two potent rain squalls, two dazzling rainbows, a gleaming green pitch and an opposing team that taught us a lot about speed of play and composure. In the end, the team with the most composure was Hanover, and the result got the trip off to a nice start.
We'll start at the beginning: We gathered at 8:00 and walked the obligatory mile to breakfast in the University dining hall. Then it was back to the dorm to change, and another mile walk to the training pitch in a nearby neighborhood. We chose the astroturf venue because it had rained so hard last night that there were flood warnings for the county. It rained a good bit of the morning, and really opened up just as we were tying our shoes. Practice was run by Phill Trill, a smart, energetic Irish Full Badge Coach who is a rising star in the Galway United program, and coaches their senior womans' team. Phil trained us two years ago, and we have been in touch ever since. We were delighted he was available. His drills were precise, well-designed and high intensity. We build gradually from smaller groups to larger, and ended with a fast-paced 8 v 8 scrimmage. The workout lasted almost two hours, and it took m most of our energy to walk slowly back to the dining hall for lunch. We were the only soccer team in the place, but that changes tomorrow when dozens of teams playing in the Galway Cup move into the dorms. Hanover played in the Galway Cup 5 years ago, but it has since shifted to a tournament for younger teams. We will still head over to Drom (the home park for the host team, Salthill Devon) to watch a match if we can. We will be playing the Salthill Devon U16s on Saturday. National U16 champions, so no problem.
We walked into town as a group after lunch, and turned everyone loose to get back on their own (in small groups). That's how quickly and well this bunch have adjusted to the place. I got to be on my own for a few hours. I bought my daily "Irish Times", a football magazine, and on the way home I stopped by the amazing Galway Cathedral. It's "only" 50 years old, and magnificent. The strained glass, the Irish marble floors, the California cedar ceiling, the many chapels along the sides. There was a mini-organ recital going on. I needed this fix of being in a sacred space, especially because I was holding the news of the sudden death of the nephew of a dear friend. My prayer for him didn't lift my heavy heart, but my friend's response to the message I sent her did. As she put it: "Life".
Back at the dorm, we gathered to walk (guess how far) to the pitch right near the Galway University Hospital, beautiful and more green than any photos can convey. As we warmed up, the other team began trickling in. Many of them brought their wives and kids. No kidding. So this was a true men's team. They were a cut above any Sunday league squad, and they brought a lot of experience, physicality and bluster to the table. Hanover, coached tonight by Souther Maine CC Heard Coach Brian Dougher, who will handle this chore all week, responded well. We learned that playing quickly helped us avoid crunching tackles from behind, and learned not to be bothered by calls that might not be going our way. Corrib scored first on a nice close-range centering pass for a short shot past An drew Enelow, but Hanover's defense stiffened, and we pulled even late in the half when a hard shot by Charlie Adams deselected off a defender and wrong-footed the goalkeeper, who was capable of kicking the ball 70-80 yards down the pitch, Again, we adjusted.
Hanover subbed a good bit going in the second half, and we were not at our best when Corrib broke us down for a pair of preventable goals. It would have been easy to pack it in at this point, but Hanover had other ideas. Andrew Enelow, busy in goal all night, made a number of excellent saves to keep us in the match, and we were able to keep the ball on the ground, combine passes, and counterattack affectively. Blake Palmer was a monster on the wings all night, and pulled back a goal with about 20 minutes to play, beating his defender on the left flank, closing on the goal line, and beating the goal with a blazing roof shot from a bad angle. Jack Gardner nearly tied the match a bit later, battling both a defender and the keeper for a loose ball and nearly succeeding. With about five minutes to play, Palmer found room on the left side again, and this time after taking space he found Eli Stack in front, and Stack's close-range shot five-holed the keeper to pull the game even. Both team continued to ball end to end, and despite having several players come off with cramps, Hanover continued to threaten. Enelow bailed out the Marauders with big saves several time, and well into injury time the match was called. The 3-3 draw was a fair result. Hanover has much to work on, and a week to start sorting things out. But there were many heroes on the night. Charlie Adams and Kyle Doucette did what Captians are supposed to do, and led in every way. Judd Alexander was a beast on defense. Eric Ringer played all over the field, and was praised by Coach Dougher. The aforementioned Enelow got a round of applause from his mates after the match. Latham filmed a great match after he came out to rest his hip. Every one of the 16 players got all of the playing time they wanted.
Tomorrow we will take a short break from soccer for a tour of the city, and then Thursday evening we are back at it with a match against the Galway Hibernians. Time to pull the plug on this rambling post. Goodnight!
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