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whockeywhore · 7 years

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Winning Bet 6

Are you in your seat?

Yep! Can’t wait to see you play!

:) Up for a drink afterwards?

I sent the text and set my phone down in my locker, leaning down to lace up my skates. The air was electric in the locker room as we all got dressed out. The Assistant Coach called for warmups and I bumped into Mitch as we filed into the tunnel.

“You nervous? Big game with Shane watching and all.”

“Nah.”

I stepped onto the ice and pushed into the middle of the rink, finding a spot to drop down in a stretch. A puck slid over to me and I stopped it with the tip of my stick, grabbing Morgan’s hand when he offered to help me up.

“Is she here?” I nodded and he scanned the crowd looking for her. “Where?”

“She said she’s behind the goal.” I looked towards Freddie and Morgan followed my gaze. He slapped my arm when he saw her and I looked at where he was pointing.

“Is that her?”

I nodded again and froze where I stood, my stomach dropping heavily. I felt a jolt of anger surge through me as Mitch came to a stop next to us. He turned towards where Shane sat and paled, looking between me quietly.

“Hey man, you okay?”

I watched Shane snap a photo on her phone before tucking it into her pocket, a smile on her face as she rested her head on some other guy’s shoulder.

“She brought another dude?”

Morgan reached out to put a hand on my shoulder and I shook him off, heading back towards the bench. Babs eyed me as I stormed in the tunnel and snapped my stick over my knee, taking a moment to let out my anger. He poked his head in a moment later and called my name.

“What?” I shouted, leaning against the wall.

“Matthews, what the hell has gotten into you?” He studied me for a moment and I dropped into a squat. I threw my gloves off and pinched the bridge of my nose, frustrated and confused. He cleared his throat as he drew near and slapped my shoulder. “Whatever it is, shake it off. You’ve got a game to play.”

I took a deep breath and nodded, letting him help me up with a quick slap on the back. A moment later, the team funneled back into the hall and we got ready for the anthem.

“You ready to go?” Willy asked, tapping his stick against my knee pad. I clenched my jaw and he elbowed me in the side. “Dude, are you okay?”

“Auston, she’s a bitch. Just forget about her.”

My blood boiled and I turned towards the ice, blocking out any and everything around me. The game flew by, three goals in the back of the net before the end of the first. I found myself looking up at Shane every time and it was Morgan who pulled me back into the moment. I watched her celebrate with her date and a dull ache built up at my temples.

Near the end of the third I met her eyes through the crowd and she smiled at me, her hair bouncing as she jumped up and down. For a moment I got lost in her, the rest of the arena fading away until it was just the two of us, and I smiled back at her. She felt like a shot of adrenaline and my breath caught in my throat as she slung an arm over the guy next to her.

I swear I saw black and I lashed out at the closest thing I could find. The stands erupted as Karlsson hit the glass and he turned back to me, his fist cocked over his shoulder. It slammed into my jaw with a force that rocked me and I backed up to catch my balance before hitting him again.

A second later the referee stepped in and pulled us apart, guiding us to our respective penalty boxes. I sat back and watched the clock run out, my teammates erupting in cheers from the bench next to me. I stepped onto the ice and quickly ducked into the tunnel, itching to get over tonight. My head was throbbing and I pulled away with blood on my hand after wiping my lip, taking my helmet off and hurling it at the wall. The locker room was empty when I got in the shower and I sat under the hot water with my hands on my hips.

“Matts, where’d yo- hey man! What was that about?”

I looked up at him and shrugged, grabbing my towel from the hook and wrapping it around my waist. He followed me to my stall and tugged off his jersey, dropping it as he unbuckled his chest pads.

“Hey big guy! Hell of a fight out there.” Matt lifted my chin to look at the bruise blooming on it and I winced as I licked the cut on my lip. I sucked on it gently and started to get dressed, leaning back as I watched the room empty. Matt reappeared from the shower and pulled on a hoodie, reaching out to slap my knee. “Dude, you okay? You’ve been sitting there for like, an hour.”

“Yeah, ‘m fine.”

“You ready to go?” I looked at him warily and he threw his bag over his shoulder, shooting me a sympathetic smile as he pulled a hat down over his hair. “I’m heading out man, call me if you need anything.”

I watched him go and I stood, picking up my backpack and dragging it towards the door. My whole body ached and I pulled my hood on as I stepped out of the locker room. The hall to the waiting area was empty and I hesitated with my hand on the door. I could hear laughter from the other side and I glanced at the side exit, contemplating a quick and quiet escape.

Before I could do anything, Matt poked his head in and jumped when he saw me standing there.

“Dude, so glad I caught you! C’mere.” He grabbed my elbow and tugged me through until I came face to face with Shane. She was tucked under Sydney’s arm and had her hand on her stomach, bent over laughing with her eyes squeezed shut. Syd was nearly in the same position and she wiped tears from the corners of her eyes before she noticed me.

“Auston! Auston Matthews, you are in so much trouble!” I forced a smile and she shook her head, turning to Shane with a wide grin. “Where have you been hiding this girl? Dude, she’s a trip!”

Shane sobered when she saw my face and I set my mouth in a hard line. I pushed through the group, heading towards the parking garage, when she caught me with a hand around my waist.

“Where ya going, stud?” She leaned up to kiss the corner of my jaw and I stiffened under her touch. “Wh- Auston?”

I kept walking and she caught up with me, stopping in front of me with her hands on her hips. A cold silence had fallen over the group behind us and I thanked the lord when Steph broke it with a joke.

“Auston, what’s wrong?”

I shoved my hands in her pocket and looked down at her from under the brim of my hat.

“I dunno Shane, you tell me.” Her brow furrowed in confusion and I continued, trying to hide the hurt in my voice as I spoke.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Shane.”

“Auston, I- I thought we were going out for drinks.”

“I’m not in the mood anymore.”

“Well, why not? Baby, what happened?”

“I don’t- you know what, I don’t care. Just tell Syd and the guys that I’m not in the mood. Better yet, why don’t you tell your date that he can go ahead and take you home because I don’t want to see you right now.”

She stepped back and paled, her eyes widening as she snorted a laugh. I caught Matt’s eye as she bent over, her hands on her knees to brace herself. She brushed her hair back from her face and cleared her throat, trying to focus before she fell apart again.

“Shane-”

“Auston, I- I’m so sorry. Could you just...” Her thought broke off as she dissolved into a fit of giggled and I clenched my jaw tightly. She took my hand in hers and I stiffened when her head fell on my shoulder. “Auston,” she mumbled into my sweatshirt. When she looked up again, her mascara was smeared around her eyes and her cheeks were ruddy, a bright red from laughing so hard.

“What are you laughing at?”

She turned her back to me and waved the mystery guy over. He was deep in conversation with Matt and she shouted his name.

“Donnie!”

He looked up and walked over, his arms crossed over his chest as he approached. I felt myself bristle as Shane stood between us.

“Donnie, this is Auston. Auston, this is Donnie... my brother.”

#auston matthews imagine #auston matthews fic #winning bet #nhl imagine #nhl fic #hockey imagines #hockey rpf #hockey fic #winning the bet

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flauntpage · 5 years

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Five Thoughts on Your Second Place* Philadelphia Union

It feels like every time the Union start stringing some wins together, they sputter and spin out.

It happened last year, when the club won a franchise-record 15 games, yet blew another U.S. Open Cup Final before crashing out in the opening round of the playoffs. All of the goodwill that squad built up quickly went right into the toilet, which was unfortunate.

The 2019 team is going through one of those stretches right now, having mustered just two of a possible nine points in a three-game home stand against Western Conference opponents. Seattle bunkered and held on for a clean sheet. Portland carved open the U on a pair of counterattacks, and Colorado blocked double-digit shots last night at Talen Energy Stadium in a 1-1 draw.

In that span, Jim Curtin’s team scored two goals on 64 total shots, which is kind of crazy to think about. It’s not for a lack of trying, but they just can’t put the ball in the back of the net right now.

They’re still in second place* in the East, though I’m a points-per-game guy, and the reason I use the asterisk is because the Union’s 1.67 number is better than D.C.’s 1.63. However, there’s now just four points separating second and fifth place, which makes me feel like this little slump is gonna come back to bite them in the ass in a few months time.

Five thoughts, after the jump:

1. formation change

Curtin went back to the 4-2-3-1 last night as a way to switch things up, get a different personnel grouping on the field, add some width, and help unlock a stagnant offense.

For the most part it worked, with the Union mustering 13 shots in the 67 minutes before Marco Fabian came in, which saw the U shuffle back to the 4-4-2 diamond they’ve been using for most of the year.

One thing I think I disagree with, in hindsight, is Jim’s decision to start Ilsinho instead of bringing him off the bench, simply for the fact that I think Fafa Picault plays better as a winger in that shape. Why not start him in that position, yeah? Instead, Jim played Sergio Santos on the left, Ilsinho on the right, and moved Jamiro Monteiro further up the field while leaving Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin in the 8 and 6 roles.

I may have done it slightly differently, but I didn’t have any issues with that formation last night, and I think Jim was correct to try to switch things up. They took the lead, created chances, and probably should have added a second goal, but it just never came.

2. Jamiro Monteiro is the real deal

I’m ready to say it –

Monteiro is one of the best Union players I’ve ever watched. No joke. He’s only played in nine games, but I’ve seen enough to say that he can play any midfield position and he’s got the two-way skill set that makes him an excellent pressing midfielder who also has spatial awareness and good ability on the ball. Dude is only 5’8″ and 140 pounds, which gives him that balance and low center of gravity that you see in guys like N’Golo Kante, Sebastian Giovinco, and Lucho Acosta. Those types are a pain in the ass to defend.

Playing about 70% of last night’s game as a number ten in the 4-2-3-1, Monteiro assisted on the Union’s goal while adding two more key passes, five shots, and going 7/9 on dribbles. He was Whoscored.com’s highest rated player of the game.

He also brilliantly weighted a couple of balls in the final third, including this one:

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Said Curtin of Monteiro’s performance last night in a more advanced role:

“He probably could have had four assists if you add it up. His natural spot is probably on the side of the diamond in midfield, a little deeper, but he still created enough chances for us and almost had the goal at the end, maybe it was a penalty, maybe not. But Jamiro had a good performance and I thought was one of the guys that checked a lot of the positive boxes tonight and was one of our few bright spots. His ability to get out of tight spots and set guys up with passes, plus he has a real urgency and intensity about him for the entirety of the 90 minutes. On a night when we weren’t our best, he was a guy who I thought had a good game.”

Agreed. He’s been consistently one of the best players on the field in every game he’s played for the Union.

3. need attacking fullback play

Curtin will tell you that a fullback’s first responsibility is to defend, that if one guy is forward, the other needs to stay at home. That’s partly predicated on the fact that Haris Medunjanin is a different kind of #6, a defensive liability but a brilliant distributor and build out facilitator.

Ironically enough, Ray Gaddis had two great scoring chances last night, one a 30-yard volley that just missed the upper corner, and a slashing run that was blocked inside the box.

What he’s not doing is putting crosses into the box, those 2-3 per half that Curtin wants from his fullbacks (this was quoted in a recent Jonathan Tannenwald article that I can’t find).

Last night, here’s how Gaddis and left back Kai Wagner did in crossing the ball and making key passes:

That’s it.

Four unsuccessful open play crosses for Wagner with one key pass, then zero attempted crosses and zero key passes for Gaddis.

If you listen to the “It’s Always Soccer in Philadelphia” podcast, you know I’m a Gaddis critic, though I try to fairly point out that he’s a guy who has been bounced around in his career, from right back, to left back, back to RB, LB, now RB again. It’s rather ridiculous, and he’s a good defender, but when teams are sitting in and inviting the Union to break them down, Gaddis and Wagner should be able to provide a little more width, that crossing threat that pulls opponents laterally and allows Kacper Pryzbylko to get his head on some service in the box.

4. Marco Fabian still has a role to play

I’m not gonna sit here and say this was a bad signing, or that Fabian has bombed out, or anything along those lines.

Dude is a Mexican international with tons of experience, and right now they need somebody to sit at the tip of the diamond and help unlock teams that are going to park the bus and invite the Union forward before looking to counter. Brenden Aaronson has done a lot of things well this year, but he’s 18 years old and needs time to grow into the role. Monteiro looked good playing further forward last night, but I like him as a shuttler more than a CAM right now.

If you’re asking me for a starting lineup based on a 100% healthy roster, I’m going with this:

I think you either give Olivier Mbaizo the keys to the car at right back or look for somebody else in the transfer market. They could also use a stud striker, especially after trading David Accam and losing Corey Burke for a few months.

5. Haris Medunjanin and transitional defense

Probably the biggest weakness on the team, transitional defense.

You saw two instances in the Portland game where Monteiro and Bedoya coughed the ball up, which doesn’t happen often, but it took them out of position and really left Medunjanin and the center backs in tough situations.

This was one:

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Yeesh, yeah, that’s not Medunjanin’s strength, and Auston Trusty doesn’t cover himself in glory there either. Sometimes you just gotta yank somebody down, take the yellow card, and get your teammates back on the dead ball.

You’ve seen this year how important Monteiro and Bedoya are as shuttlers, guys who dig in, protect Medunjanin, and allow him to ping the ball around. It’s a big reason why the Union are a top-ten possession team in MLS, because Haris is bracketed by a pair of hard-working, two-way midfielders who can press, pass, and put out the transitional fires that he cannot. When one or both of those guys is taken out of the play, that video clip above is an example of what happens.

Fortunately, the Union are only being dispossessed 9.7 times per game, which is 17th out of 24 teams. It’s not happening as frequently as it could be. But they are averaging 15.3 unsuccessful touches per game, which is 9th in the league:

Those numbers both increase at home, since the Union have more of the ball. The above chart involves all games, both home and away.

So yeah,all of this is the blueprint moving forward: protect Medunjanin, get the fullbacks more involved in the attack, and hopefully a healthy Fabian starts clicking, starts breaking down defenses with a bit of skill and flair. The Union are putting shots on goal but they’ve been a bit stale in the final third overall, which is something they need to fix in order to stay near the top of the table.

I’m not worried. I think they’ve got enough quality to do that, they just need to get a little creative in and around the box, need somebody to show that killer instinct and nose for goal.

The post Five Thoughts on Your Second Place* Philadelphia Union appeared first on Crossing Broad.

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flowing-paint · 7 years

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Myth the boardgame. A review.

This post is going to be my very first review on the blog and it’s about a board game that in my opinion deserves way more attention. I am talking about the dreaded “Myth” designed and published by Megacon Games. This is also the first post of a small series because the subject is vast (at best) and I would like to cover it in the details. One thing that I would really like to point out is that I have no affiliation with Megacon Games (although I have many of their products) nor I took part in this game’s Kickstarter so all you will read is just my personal unbiased opinion.

Well, enough said for the introduction, let’s move to the actual game review.

Myth, the board game.

All the reviews I’ve seen for this game almost always seem to agree on the fact that Myth is a cooperative dungeon delving kind of board game. However, I see this game from a slightly different perspective and I think calling Myth “a board game” is reductive. Yes, it comes with a lot of boards, tons of tokens and a whole bunch of cards in a big cardboard box but in that very same box there is more than meets the eye. You know..,? Many games happen to stand right in between the classic board game and a tabletop miniatures war game like, let’s say, Warhammer40k. They are usually called gateway games and Myth is definitely a kind of gateway game even though it elevates the concept to a totally different level. After diving into the game mechanics and starting to grasp the philosophy behind the game you will surely realize that this is a hybrid gateway game that stands on the vertex where board gaming, tabletop wargaming and role playing meet. And then it mixes all of them together creating a kind of experience that is very hard to reproduce with other games. But let’s try to analyze this game point by point.

What is it about

As I said, it’s a game where players cooperate to fight against grim hordes of minions manipulated by the evil will of the Darkness. How do you do that? Of course with you stereotypical fantasy heroes. But don’t let this turn you down: what you have in your hands is definitely a unique incarnation of said stereotype. In fact, each hero gets to draw from a special and unique set of hero cards that represent the limited actions available in the present turn and players must ensure they pull off the best combos to kill as many Darkness minions as possible. There is no “IgoUgo and then we throw a bunch of dice and count casualties”; people really need to sit down in a circle and try to figure out the best approach to the fight. It is therefore a cooperative game with a strong built-in strategic approach that will make your group thinking for the whole game. The heroes featured in the base game are the following:

Soldier: the tank in the game. Can deal massive damage to single or multiple targets

Acolyte: the healer of the group. He can also smash the enemies with his big hammer.

Archer: ranged attacks allow her (or him) to move around avoiding melee fights.

Apprentice: the magician of the group. He can manipulate the elements at will and deal a lot of damage.

Brigand: the Myth version of the thief. He can lurk in the shadows and strike hard and repeatedly. Probably the deadliest character.

The game comes with a dynamically sculpted miniature specific for each hero: if you go online and do an image search you can find some gorgeous paint jobs so that you can have an idea of the quality of the minis. If you are lucky enough you may also find the alternate gender heroes that came as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter… here is a combo picture of the original KS images where you can see a couple of the models.

According to all the stuff I covered up to this point, this is the part of the game that is closer to the board game spirit hence, a lot of people make their final decisions at this point: 5 players, tiles, cards, tons of tokens, a bunch of hero miniatures fighting random villains? This means “board game”. In my opinion, this is short sighted and you will understand why as we move further into game mechanics.

Darkness Mechanics

Myth puts you in control of your heroes but, unlike other games like Descent, there is no “evil player”. Instead, you have a sort of randomized AI mechanic that takes control of the bad guys for you. Basically what happens is that when you play a hero card it comes with a small cross-like icon in the bottom right corner that tells you how dangerous that action is (in terms of the so called Action Points) and if it puts you on the Darkness’ radar. If the total amount of AP you generated reaches 6, the darkness will activate and will do its thing. This does not immediately result in monsters attacking you as they may be too far away to notice your shenanigans. You have probably seen this in many video games if that’s your thing: just imagine you enter a big room in a dungeon and have some monsters minding their business on the other side. They don’t mind if you jump around or even cast spells on the distance as long as you avoid them. However, throw them a fireball and when they see some of their friends on fire, they will come at you. Pretty hard. And it’s not over: when you kill a bunch of bad dudes, your threat level rises and you will become more and more dangerous for the Darkness up to a point where the more intelligent enemies will start targeting you before other less dangerous heroes. If you keep with your bloodbath (threat level 10), the Darkness will eventually get really mad and throw top tier countermeasures at you, like mini-bosses or agents. That is something you do not really want to do.

I find this to be one of the most interesting and innovative mechanics in the game because it leaves you the freedom to decide how to approach the enemy. You can either go berserk (and get tons of Darkness activations and maybe a mini boss) or have a more stealth-like approach to keep the Darkness at bay more easily. You can dive straight into the battle or flank your enemies from the side if they haven’t noticed you to better coordinate with your team mates. It’s completely up to you to choose the strategy you think may fit better. These kind of things usually belong more to the miniature wargaming realm where on the contrary, board games tend to slightly limit your freedom to somewhat limit the game length. Myth leaves you with all the decisions and that’s why, in my opinion, it is a great gateway game.

Word exploration and tile population

Another aspect that puts Myth in a different category from your standard dungeon delving game is how the exploration of the dungeon itself is carried out. Usually when you start a dungeon delving game, you get a sort of preset scenario with enemy, token and treasure locations already fixed on the dungeon tiles. And again, probably the tiles themselves will probably have some fixed arrangement that will drastically limit your choices. In Myth you don’t even have a real reason to go out and fight the Darkness (unless you play modules. More on that later) as nobody tells you where to go and what to do. As a result all of these exploration/game setup matters needed a totally different approach and the guys at Megacon Games came up with the idea of legends on the world tiles.

This is a screenshot from the 2.0 Rulebook where you can see all the symbols you may find on world tiles. I won’t go into the details as you can look for them in the rulebook but as you can see they basically tell you how many treasures are available on the tile, if there’s a trap, monster hunting packs and so on. So, how do these come into play? Let’s imagine you and your friends heroes are having some mead in a tavern and then somebody comes up with an idea like: Guys! You know what? We should definitely go out and find some adventure where we can smash some critter and get some gold ー The dude is probably drunk but so are all of your team members so you just decide to head outside the town to look for adventure! Here’s the deal, you have to design your own adventure from this point on: you have to decide where you are heading in your quest for adventure so what you do is going through your reserve of world tiles and choose the one you think is appropriate as your first step. Here is where the icons come into play. If you have a quest symbol in your tile, this means you can decide to draw a quest card that would kickstart your adventure or maybe you decide that you just stumbled upon a grubbers camp that you then proceed to destroy. Whatever your decision regarding the world tile setup, none of the the icon is mandatory so it is you and your friends decision only. You can go as hardcore as you want. Or just loiter around the empty tile. Well, the loitering option is not good for you as you get affected by a penalty that lowers the total amount of available treasures for the rest of the campaign. But you get the idea: you get to write your own story with your own rules while still obeying to the global system rules. This is practically what happens when you play a role-playing game. You don’t need a dungeon master to drop monsters and events on you but instead you get to decide as a whole group what you guys want to do. I may be wrong but I have never seen this kind of mechanic in a board game and this makes Myth even more fascinating to me.

As I was expecting this post is growing pretty big so I just stop writing for now and split the post into two parts to avoid overloading this one. In the next post I will cover the aspects of the more boardgamy game mode (Modules) and the aspects of the campaign mode (the way your hero evolves) as well. Ah, and don’t forget the miniatures! I will also give a brief description of the two expansions belonging to Myth Journeyman and probably conclude with some final thoughts. So I guess I’ll see you next week! In the meantime,

... game on!

#board game #myth #review #Megacon Games

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