Dear Fussballers,

Well, sir... it surely had to come.  The day had to arrive and it finally did.  A day that will live in infamy for all time never to be forgotten. I predicted it.  Others predicted it.  And now it has come to pass.  I finally lost my sunglasses.  It happened last week at BIS.  Or, at least, I think that it happened there.  You see that is the problem with losing something: you can never be sure if that is indeed what actually happened, where it happened, and when it happened.  Nobody is sure usually.  I blame my wife.  She is always carrying loads of bags of various types, shapes and sizes everywhere with her and now she has influenced me into accepting that burden and performing with the same habit.  She is always carrying too much stuff to keep track of and ultimately loses something from her stash.  And now I am always carrying around too much stuff and losing something also.  Even though she has nothing to do with the loss of those glasses and she wasn't even on the island when the incident occurred, when she gets back from Kalimantan, I am going to yell at her because I lost my sunglasses.  Somebody must take the blame and it ain't gonna be me!  And which brings us to the JIFL this week: 

When you are not playing particularly well, when things are not going your way, when you are feeling a bit frustrated on the field, there is a sure-fire way to relieve your frustration:  Blame the referee!  'If he would just have called that penalty. If he wasn't so blind, that player was clearly two meters offsides; they wouldn't have scored otherwise.  If he would have noticed that Latino pulling my shirt and holding me back than the game would have been different because I would have scored.  If the referee wasn't such a biased bastardo for the other team all of the time than we would be on top and my life would be so much better'.  In fact, all of our lives would be so much more fulfilling if we just had Pierluigi Collina refereeing our matches.  But, alas, we can't have him so what is the alternative when somebody must be blamed for our own frustrations and mistakes...?   How about this one:  Blame yourself!  As we all know already every inquiry can be rationalized away by any good lawyer who is skilled in the art of argumentation and debate.  Here are a selection of answers to the above mentioned 'if' scenarios.  About Dribbling:  'You would not get kicked so much if you didn't dribble so much.  About Offsides:  You would not be offsides so often if you checked your runs earlier. About Overacting:  You actually would have gotten that penalty call but you yelled so loudly and made such a dramatic moment of the foul by jumping, diving, twisting & turning (and foaming at the mouth) that nobody believed that it was an actual foul including the ref'.  (In fact, after all of your histrionics, you are not even sure if it was an actual penalty anymore when you recall the moment later on inside your head).

The Germans have a most excellent view on this type of behaviour in a football match.  They call it 'Alibi Fussball' or 'nach einer entschuldigung suchen' which simply translates to 'looking for an excuse'.  And they are brutally honest about how they use that expression for specific situations during fussball matches.  For example, if you try a desperate slide tackle that misses the ball and, consequently, the opponent goes on down the field to attack your goal, your coach will tell you later (most likely in front of the entire mannshaft) that you made an excuse by attempting a slide tackle rather than utilizing the correct behaviour which would have been to jockey that player and track & channel him down the field properly like any good defender would have done.  I like this honesty of the German culture.  It saves time.  It is direct and it is efficient.  Another of the professor of fussball, Bernhard Schumm's famous quotes which matches this article is, 'Ultimately, your opponent is always yourself'.  So, perhaps the solution to our referee problem is rather than blaming him (or even blaming our opponents), perhaps we take a page from the German football encyclopedia and just be brutally honest with ourselves and with each other on the field starting before, during, and after the games.  Maybe we can try to strip the emotion of our desires and the tainted fantasy of what we would liked to have happened and replace it with what we can really see, understand and agree... perhaps we can just concentrate on what actually happened and, by dealing in reality with honesty, maybe we will find our peace and increase our personal joy.  Que Sera, Sera...    

All the Best,

 

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JIFL Reports & Results

 

18 oct. 3.30PM	BIS	DO IT	5	0	LIONS
19 oct. 3.30PM	PERTAMINA	JAPAN	1	1	ARARIO
22 oct. 8.PM	JIS	JIS	4	1	ONE TREE
MOM JIS: Milan Bloem MOM 1 Tree: Patty Goals JIS: Gordon Boyd , Milan Bloem 3 Yellow : JIS 1 Sid Deutch Ref: 7/10 (JIS), 5/10 ( One Tree) The result of the match suggest an easy JIS win, which was definitely not the case. JIS were lucky that the 1Tree strikers forgot to bring their scoring boots. Both teams created lots of chances JIS had to start with only 10 players, because 6 players arrived late because of a school awards night. From the start 1Tree was putting the pressure on JIS which resulted in a early penalty, which was shot over the bar. 1Tree were dominating the game, hit the crossbar but couldn’t score. After 25 mins into the game the JIS reinforcements arrived and inmediately JIS scored against the run of play when Gordon Boyd’s delightful chip beat the 1Tree goal keeper. The new JIS players changed the game and suddenly JIS was controling  the game. 1Tree started strong in the second half and were rewarded a 2nd penalty. Again they couldn’t convert because of a fantastic save by new JIS keeper Dodi, who is replacing the injured Polish JIFL legend Andreas. Finally 1Tree managed to level the match with a deserved well taken goal: 1-1 Then the Milan Bloem show started for JIS. This talented young player, who just returned from a tournament in Taipei (in which he scored 7 goals), was just amazingly deadly in front of the 1Tree goal and scored a true hattrick ( 3 goals in a row in one half).  The best of the lot was the last one..... a delicate left footed chip which left the keeper in nomansland. Final Score 4-1 JIS. - Jurrien - JIS
22 oct. 8.PM	ISCI	VIKINGS	2	2	WANDERERS

-- NO TIME THIS WEEK FOR A MORE DEVELOPED NEWSLETTER. BETTER NEXT WEEK! --
/Nico