Not so friendly after all.

Played friendly games with my team last night, and it wasn't a good night at all.

First I played as the keeper and got hit by many balls flying into the goal just out of my paddle reach even though I was watching it all the way. Being stuck in that unfamiliar role also means I didn't know when and how far to stay behind to defend or move up to attack. After staying far away from the action in the first game and effectively removing myself from the game by being too cautious, I take the ball and dribbled in to attack in the second game, and got caught out when the last man couldn't mark the opponents doing fast break attacks.

Secondly, I'll remember the night for its Zidane moments, when the captain of one team inexplicably lost his cool for no good reason TWICE and acted like a hooligan, to the extent of verbally challenging my friend. Referee had to blow the whistle not because my friend fouled him but because he wanted to stop the commotion from turning into a brawl. He later asked me to bear no hard feelings for the incidents, but gave me a lame reason to justify his actions (from his attitude he evidently felt that it was justified), and said it was 'too bad' that he had to behave like this. It didn't help that his team was also paddling in an inappropriate manner, throwing paddle fouls around and paddling at my team's throat level across their boats, though this was most likely done unconsciously.

I regretted arranging the friendlies game last night - it did us no good at all and only bred ill-feelings. I'm sorry to have made my friends come down to suffer all these indignities from a team lacking in sportsmanship.

Winning is not everything.