… that’s how long its been since Dan and Matt last played a game of soccer on the same weekend! With Matt’s last game being on 6 September 2009 before having to have his left knee reconstructed back in March 2010, and Dan missing the second half of 2010 you can imagine our excitement (fear) when they both fronted-up for the Rangers on Saturday in the the first round of the Collegiate Soccer League Cup.
Now, to be honest, this was Dan’s third game back, he returned in Round 1 this year, looking resplendent in the new Ranger’s goal keeping strip as well! But I didn’t have my new Canon 550D back then to encourage me to take photos and was pretty busy making sure the Ranger’s site was reliable at the time. Suffice to say that game 1 was pretty nerve-wracking for us on the sidelines, and game 2 was probably even worse. Still, he has faced similar situations to that which broke his leg a couple of times now and is still in one piece!
Matt did actually manage a couple of trial games back before the season started but went down in the second with what we originally feared was his knee going, but what was actually a strain of the hamstring that had been partly sacrificed for the knee recon. The look on his face at the time though was, to say the least, awful … he was convinced the knee had gone again. So, as a result, he has missed the first few rounds but is gradually getting back up to fitness now. It certainly was good to see him get through about 30 minutes off the bench yesterday.
For the record, Dan played in the division 1B side, losing 0-3 to Pulteney’s 1A team (the cup is played across all divisions) while Matt played in the division 3 side and had a 8-0 win over Westminster’s div 2B rabble.
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