In Buddhist teachings, the law of Karma states (and I’m paraphrasing here) that if you are an extremely lucky bastard at some point in your existence on earth, it’s very likely that you are going to be an extremely unlucky bastard at some other point in time. The Buddhists also believe that what happens in a previous life carries over and affects you in this one. So if you were Hitler in a previous life, you now work designing bung removal machines. And in previous lives Bernie was a skinny girl who made fun of fat chicks, Richie mocked footballers who were one-footed, and Gino made fun of peoples’ cars.

Karma also bit us on the bung this past weekend in our top-of-the-table clash against Nordic. All the good luck we’d had so far this year deserted us in a game where we completely dominated the second half but conceded a late goal to go down to a 2-1 defeat to Nordic.

Mid-week saw our now-usual poor turnout for practice, and this was followed by a mediocre turnout for the start of the match. Al anchored the back line with Dave H in the middle, Ed and one side, and Randy J on the other. Cam and Rich centered the midfield with Roddy on one side and Martine on the other, and Mike and Eamon (combined weight 425 lbs; Mike alone 150 lbs) started up front. Media whore Amar Dhaliwal (quoted in the Guardian and in a handsome photo in this weekend’s North Shore News) led the troops from the bench along with Randy A, Andy, the late-arriving Speers and Brad (who combined the roles of substitute and coffee club member). Two phone calls, an APB issued by Eamon, and a call to three parole officers all failed to locate our AWOL sweeper Fergie.

The coffee club also saw the welcome return of Gord (still recovering from a rare combination of a cold, the flu, syphilis, an inner ear infection, acid reflux, and genital warts). Gino was particularly delighted to see Gord and took him for a ride in his Miata. Gord immediately relapsed. (Get better soon, Gordo!) Doc and Harp were among those keeping him company.

The first half hour of the game featured the now typical lots-of-talent-but-no-practice-looking Coveside team that we see at the start of every game. Nordic took the play to us almost immediately and kept us in our end for much of the first half. They created some half chances and capitalized on one of them when a low off-speed shot caught Cloudy thinking about how much he enjoys looking at Randy Ash’s calves. The ball snuck in at the near post and Nordic took a well-deserved 1-0 lead.

After going behind we realized we were going to have to raise our game in order to have a chance at winning, and we gradually began to do so. We started creating some chances. Your scribe slid a shot just wide (and two other shots a lot wide). Andy had our best chance and was only foiled by a good save from the outstanding keeper and Richie putting a free header over the bar. As the half went on we went from being dominated, to being even, to beginning to control the game. And although the half-time whistle saw a 1-0 Nordic lead, we felt good things were set to come our way.

Bernie gave his usual wise half time talk: wise in the sense that all of listening wondered “Why’s he talking about that?”

As the second half got underway, we expected to dominate Nordic like Al Roberts dominated Gino when they starred together in “BackDoorDraft: Firefighters on Fire.” And we did. Chance after chance came Coveside’s way. First, Roddy got behind the defense and had a clear run at the keeper, who blocked Roddy’s shot. Next, Roddy got behind the defense and had a clear run at the keeper, who blocked Roddy’s shot. Following that, Roddy got behind the defense and had a clear run at the keeper, who blocked Roddy’s shot. And then, Roddy got behind the defense and had a clear run at the keeper, who blocked Roddy’s shot. But the best chance came when Roddy got behind the defense and had a clear run at the keeper, who blocked Roddy’s shot. Yes, five Roddy breakaways—one for every toe on his cute little right foot—and five saves by the Nordic keeper.

Although Roddy did not excel on breakaways today, his play was the key to the tying goal. He evaded his defender, who fouled him repeatedly but couldn’t stop Roddy from getting to the bye line and crossing the ball. Bernie showed a firm grasp of the situation by yelling at the ref to stop the play: “There’s no advantage there!” he cried. Just as the word “there” left Bernie’s mouth, Eamon met the pinpoint cross at the far post and nodded in the equalizer. 1-1 and the ref couldn’t resist an “I told you so” look at our sideline. He also couldn’t resist giving Roddy a yellow card shortly afterwards. When he and Rod met face to face on the pitch it looked so cute: like a couple of elementary school kids exchanging hockey cards.

Enough picking on Roddy: there were a ton of other chances that came our way and we missed them all. I think more players had chances than didn’t over the course of the second half. We were creating chances from inside the box and outside the box; from the middle of the field and the flanks; from set pieces and open play; through possession and counterattack. You get the picture. But the Nordic keeper had a fantastic game and our finishing was less than stellar. And then the good karma we had received to this point in the year suddenly all came due.

As we poured pressure on the last thing on our minds was that Nordic would score. But off our corner, the Nordic keeper initiated a quick counterattack. The ball was pinged quickly out to the wing, and a quick chip into the center bounced once and was clipped over the advancing Cloudy into the far corner. It was a textbook counterattack goal, but one that Nordic deserved about as much as Ishtar deserved a Best Picture Oscar. 2-1 Nordic with only a couple of minutes left and the game soon ended that way. An extremely pissed off and disappointed Coveside team retreated to the sidelines to drown our sorrows with some beers and chase them away with some laughs.

Although there was no way we should have lost this game (a 4-1 or 5-1 win for us would have been a fair result), as we sipped our beers and donned our toques we admitted amongst ourselves that we have at times been pretty lucky this year and perhaps this was the karmic payback. The next chance to get back to our winning ways comes in the cup against Freybe this coming Thursday. See you there.