A beautiful late May evening. We’re playing on a pitch that’s wedged between a power plant and the city freeway, lovely. Tillman has come along to watch the old guys.
But, we’re having a great game.
The defence is really clicking. After the other team came running at us for the first half, we’ve settled down and they’ve run out of gas.
The Giftzwerg (troll) that kept pushing his shoulder into my hip has finally recognized that he’s run out steam and that I will stand in front of him.
We’re down 2:3.
2 minutes left in the game. Buddies from the sideline yell “Only 2 minutes! Pressure”. We get the ball on our right side and move it down the line.
Pressure? Okay, off I go and make it across the centre line for the first time. The ball is still moving down the right sideline, I’m trailing. Behind me I can hear my teammates think, “Run, Julian, RUN!”
My teammate turns into the D, gets a shot off on the goalie. This is my moment, there’s no one around me. Time slows down. I know the ball is going to bounce off the goalie. It does and it comes my way. Afterwards, literally every teammate tells me that I should have let it drop to take the shot, but I’m in full, glorious stride. I bat at the ball and actually hit it. Full contact. The whole thing is glorious! Apparently, someone had moved the goal half a metre to the left while I was focused on running.
Habe heute Abend die Chance meines Jahrzehnts in letzter Minute zum Ausgleich vergeben.
💩
Verteidiger halt.#hockey #berlin #alteherren— Julian Dierkes (@Schaumkroenchen) May 31, 2017
And, everyone wants to talk about that chance after the game. Most of the remarks from teammates are along the lines of “But, we weren’t expecting YOU to show up in the D!”
And to add insult to psychological injury, I don’t even have any money in my wallet to buy a round. Instead, I beg a game of a defence teammate.
But we played a great game and we had a great time! And I finally got to use the 💩 emoji in a tweet.
Scheisse, Scheisse, Scheisse!
The Berlin Sabbaticalers 