Where are they now?

So where are they now?

Brett is in Memphis
www.memphisfieldhockey.com

Maarten is in Holland
Til is in Germany
Olaf is in Germany
Louise and Phil are back in Ireland

SF Hockey Still Going Strong

Ok, so there haven't been many posts here in the past year. Don't be alarmed; the sf team is still playing and still having fun. I think folks are just suffering from blog fatigue....to contact the team and to see the teams latest results check out bafha.org

SFX Pre-End of Season Party!

This Friday October 21st at 8pm

Pre-end of season party for the SFX Hockey Team (Don't worry Lisa, we
will make sure you are around for the real one)

8pm at the Rickshaw Stop

www.rickshawstop.com
155 Fell Street, between Van Ness and Franklin

Bring yourself and bring a friend. Bonus points for fun friends.

Be prepared for an evening of excess...$6 Vodka and Rockstars...live
band after 10pm...

See you there!

Long Road Back

OK - here it is.

Torn ACL......good news that I can run, cycle & swim. Bad news is no hockey etc due to instability. But I still want to play so I will probably have surgery in 4-6 weeks when full movement has returned in an attempt to play again. Rehab is another 3-4 months....

Oh yes and 50% chance of arthritis in the knee in 5 years. Triffic.

SFX

So here is a brief recap of the past week or so:

Last Match: Our last regular season match started well. We were playing against PA Blue and we were playing even with them, until the last 10 minutes of the first half when Corin attacking into the PA circle took a hard fall. Something was definitely wrong as Corin did not get up for several minutes and had to be helped off the field. Julian from SF1 filled in, but the team never was the same after losing one of its key players and leaders.

A few days later we learned the bad news that Corin had torn his ACL. Corin is a persistent and steadfast player so we are confident that he will approach his rehab in the same manner and will rejoin the active squad sometime next season.

BAFHA End of Season Cup Competition: No word yet from the league when that will occur

Olaf has departed happy SF to return to the grey cold of hockey in Germany. We will miss him as a player and a teammate. Hopefully his travels take him back to SF and he can rejoin the team some day.

New Players: Hey, the news is not all bad. We have two new players joining our team.

Jan is from Germany and was sent to play for us because the German hockey association heard that we were falling below the stipulated 25% level of German players.

Pierre is from France and joins us from the "Racing club de France" where he played on the team that won the second division French Championship.

End of Season Party
Yes, it is getting close to that time again. In addition, if we time it right, we will also be able to celebrate the fact that Maize is a new father (Ute is due in around 4 weeks!)

So, lets plan on having the party around mid October....

SF-X 4 Palo Alto Red 6

In a game of contrasting fortunes, we suffered from defensive frailty for the first time this season and showed great composure in front of goal (also for the first time this season!).

SF-X got off to a flying start when wunderkind Helene timed her run perfectly behind a static defense where Olaf picked her out with a pinpoint 25 yard pass. A deft touch to round the keeper and a nonchalant backstick finish is a great way to make your debut.
Palo Alto responded immediately when we (i.e me) were caught napping at the back leaving Jim no chance to save from close range. We bounced back with a goal from Christian (or was it Olaf or Helene ?) but PA scored just before the break with a very well taken deflected shot into the far corner.

We were shaken by a quick two goals at the start of the second half when we failed to clear our lines (good job Parvinder wasn't back there too!) and suffered another two reverses to sit on a very unpalatable 2-6 scoreline.

But then, cometh the hour, cometh the man. James roamed forward, found space, and rifled a piledriver of a shot past a shell shocked PA keeper. Why stop there ? In the next minute we pulled another goal back when Helene ( or Christian or Olaf - Who can tell with all that blonde hair anyway).

All in all, great to score four times, not so great to ship six - but the beers were cold after the match and were a nice pitchside farewell to Olaf.......

SF-X 2 Cal 1

Wow - what a game. Fielding ten ragged players against the 16 or so fit young things from Berkeley looked to be a tall order. However, we rose to the challenge with a tireless midfield of Maize, Olaf and Brett providing an outlet from an overworked though dogged defense. We were called 'veteran players' by Cal - as a compliment I think !
Olaf opened the scoring from a crisp short corner midway through the first half but our celebrations were short lived as Cal hit back almost immediately.

A perfectly balanced game was turned in our favor (American spelling though I'm not sure why given our team make-up) when Olaf drilled a 70 yard through ball to Parvinder who created space, drew the last defener and slipped the ball to lisa - unmarked at the top of the D.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man - or woman in our case as Lisa, predator in their midst, calmly controlled the ball and chipped her shot past an advancing keeper. A nervous moment as teh ball looked to be drifting wide, but no, it rattled around the backboards as SF-X teammates celebrated from 80 yards away (because they were all too tired to run up and support !).

The second half could have been one of collapse as the energy sapping heat was enough to break the morale of most teams. However, a valiant rearguard action, marshalled by the tough tackling Andreas, held the line firm and as the game wore on Cal became increasingly frustrated with a very disciplined SF-X team.

The final whistle did come with some relief - but hey, we're back !

SF1 5 PAB 1

For a minute there I thought it was 2004! San Francisco hockey club was back in form on Sunday! It just goes to show how good of a group we can be when we play together. For those of you who do not know we man handled PAB on Sunday. The possession was all ours the defense was solid, it was a great day for SF. Thanks to the SFX players who crossed over and helped out.
The game started well for both teams spreading the ball around, SF had most of the ball and I guess Phill got tired of the lack of scoring and took the ball in to the D and gave it a good wack. 1 nill! nice goal Phill. Maze tried to get in on the action with a somewhat strong shot at the top of the D. Nigel came infront of the keeper and trapped the ball, turned and flicked it in to the net, 2-nill! Sorry to take your goal away maze but we are both leading the league in goals scored, besides your shot was a little weak and I did you a favor by giving you an assist. Like I said SF was very impressive with the ball on Sunday, spreading it wide. There were some great runs by the two wing forwards ( Hayler and Parvinder). PAB was a good defense and played well for the score to only be 2-nill at the half.
The half time was spent in the shade drinking H2O and feeling good about ourselves.
BAM!!!!!!!! 3-nill. Yes we scored in the first 2 minutes of the second half. Once again we had taken over a game. Maze got a nice goal from top of the circle which put him on top of the scoring table ( see what happens maze when you play for SF1). I think it is safe to say we left the best for last which began at our own 22 on the side line. Jemma played it to Phill who split 2 defenders and then laied the ball up to Lo who also show a little skill and then quickly gave a nice long ball over to Parvinder. Parvinder beat one man and was in the circle and put the ball at the far post where Hayler knocked it in! Great goal, everyone should get an assist on that one.
Final score was 5-1. I have to say it was a pleasure to play for SF. Once again the cooler was full of beers and most of the lads stuck around for a few drinks, good times!
We did get a chance to watch the 2 best teams in our league duke it out to a 4-4 tie. I think we all realized that we still have some work to do to defeat both of these teams. I know we can do it. It just means we need at least 12 players turning up to play. Come on San Francisco lets play some compeative hockey again, this is a great step in the right direction.
Oh, since we play each other lets have a team social after the match on July 10.