Because when you are the mom of three small boys, who has time for me, myself, or I?

Certainly not you, not now. Right now, you have a six-year-old in a Tae Kwon Do uniform wiggling his top tooth loose with his tongue. You have a three-year-old in an inflatable Hulk costume making farting sounds. You have a six-month-old in a swollen diaper standing in the stroller and chewing on the straps of what was once your favorite and finest Italian silk bra. You have all of them all around you: the sole, freak female in the house, sitting on the potty, pleading, “Can I please, please, have some privacy, please?”

Your boys, these sons, think they have a right to your body morning, noon, and night. If you lock them out of the bathroom, they will panic, shriek, shrill, and cry — as if you have locked them out of your very heart. They will kick the door, thrust themselves against it, and then rattle the doorknob, yelling, “Mommy, Mommy, Mom!”

The writing is good and intense. Take the time to visit the link and read the whole story (free on Salon). Allen, who grew up as the daughter of Hall of Fame NFL coach George Allen, has also published a full book of her stories, Better Get Your Angel On (1989). She is more famous for her memoir Fifth Quarter (2000) of growing up with her father and brothers, one of whom became a US Senator (George) and one of whom ran the Redskins rather poorly as GM (Bruce; neither contract nor trade for Kirk Cousins).

Photo: Lucia Spisiakova. Three boys on the shore of Liptovská Mara.

SC Kittsee on the other hand was sitting in twelfth spot, headed for relegation. A win was crucial. Ironically in the Covid shortened 2020/2021 season, SC Kittsee was first and ASV Deutsch Jahrndorf was last.¹

The game ended up played mostly in mid-field, with neither team making many chances, nor showing any particular flair. It was if neither side particularly wanted to win until the last twenty-five minutes when SC Kittsee picked up the pace.

Christoph Drobola eludes ASV Jahrndorf defender and captain Martin Puster

Michael Wernecker brings ball out for SC Kittsee, as referee Faruk Sevik runs with him.

SC Kittsee forward Joseph Machovec traps a high pass and shoots while Peter Majerčák hinders his shot.

ASV Jahrndorf keeper Michael Unger neatly catches a floating shot.

SC Kittsee’s Patrick Pail goes on tip toe to control a high pass at the boundary in front of Kittsee fans.

SC Kittsee’s Patrick Pail runs around and under ASV Jahrndorf’s Alessandro Blazevic to drive in on net.

SC Kittsee’s Daniel Arnold Klinkhammer splits veteran ASV Jahrndorf defenders Martin Puster and Mario Katzler.

Juraj Fuska drives the ball down the right wing past ASV Jahrndorf midfielder Aleksa Slavkovic

Patrick Pail delivers a good corner to Jozef Sombat. The game is starting to turn in SC Kittsee’s favour here as the ball is far more often in the ASV Jahrndorf end.

Kittsee star forward Jozef Sombat closes in on Pail’s corner cross as Mario Katzler tries to get back to stop him.

Jozef Sombat winds up to hammer the ball on the bounce, as Katzler continues to give chase.

An unimpeded Jozef Sombat whacks the ball with extended leg.

Jozef Sombat watches his well hit ball scorch towards the net as ASV Jahrndorf’s Mario Katzler and Alessandro Blazevic shudder in horror. This ball went just wide.

Jozef Sombat was not done yet. No one on ASV Jahrndorf could stop him this day. Between Matthias Graner and Alessandro Blazevic, Sombat easily controls a high ball coming his way.

After getting control of the ball, Sombat passes it quickly to Christoph Drobela who will adroitly slip his shot past keeper Michael Unger.

Christoph Drobela shows good touch here, catching keeper Michael Unger out of position and putting just enough force on the ball to slip it past Unger. In the background, Peter Majerčák arrives too late.

Christoph Drobela watches his shot take off towards the net.

ASV Jahrndorf keeper Michael Unger attempt to fall on the ball but it just slips past his outstretched hands.

Christoph Drobela starts to celebrate the match’s crucial first goal at 71 minutes.

Christoph Drobela watches the ball hit the back of the net as keeper Michael Unger lies defeated on the ground before him.

A vexed Michael Unger rises to collect the ball, post-goal.

Patrick Dietmann prepares to his throw in. Due to injury, Kittsee has not had enough Dietmann this season. Hopefully we’ll have him back at full strength next season, toughening Kittsee defence, sending dangerous long balls forward from the back.

Jozef Sombat slips past Mario Katzler again while substitute midfielder Florian Gombay chases the play. Kittsee coach Manfred Wachter observes the action from the bench, while Kittsee home bench fans enjoy a lead for a change this season.

Aleksa Slavkovic forearm punches Jozef Sombat in the air but there was no stopping Sombat today.

Sombat unleashes a precise shot from the left wing, past the outstretched mitt of Jahrndorf keeper Michael Unger.

Jahrndorf keeper Michael Unger must watch a second ball drift towards the net behind him. One could feel this goal coming based on Sombat’s excellent play today.

Jozef Sombat enjoys his own handiwork, convinced now that the shot is headed straight to the net.

Time is suspended for keeper Michael Unger. Curious that the bounce of a small round ball could hold such power over men.

The ball flies on, emotions flow.

ASV Jahrndorf keeper Michael Unger is not happy. If he were an English speaker, we’d be able to read his lips. That same word exists in German but is not generally used as an exclamative.

Strangely, it’s a sweet moment for the Kittsee season. There have not been enough games where the opposing keeper suffered despair or rage this year. The 2019-2020 season had many such games, with three or more goals marked regularly.

Referee Faruk Sevik has remarked Unger’s ill-temper and harsh words and drops a yellow card and a warning on him to make sure the end of the game does not spin out of control, with bad temper and wild fouls. Late game antics when a game is already decided can burden the losing team with pointless red cards and leave winning side crippled by senseless injuries. Better to nip it early.

This was the second last game of the season. Peter Majerčák, David Bodo, Ladislav Pavlovic, Juraj Tomasek, Patrik Majcher made a quick memory.

I asked them why they weren’t more upset about the loss. They explained that Deutsch Jahrndorf was third in the league after a very good season but there was no hope of obtaining first any more. Many players were injured and the team took the occasion to play players who needed more game time.

SC Kittsee did desperately need this win to avoid relegation so Deutsch Jahrndorf’s more relaxed attitude worked in our favour.

Post-game SC Kittsee coach Manfred Wachter meets with former captain Michael Wernecker, current captain Thomas Bastian, goaltender Manuel Schiszler, defender Sebastian Skerlan and club secretary Markus Raithofer. Agenda – how to win more games and avoid relegation.

I can understand the frustration of the SC Kittsee players on an evening where the officiating was so unbalanced.

In the second half, Orhan seemed to have remembered himself and realised that such an unbalanced set off judgements could lead to charges of bias and until the 80′ only offered a single yellow card to SV Wimpassing, despite a second half which probably should have seen a couple of double yellow cards and even some outright reds. There were at least four cases where I saw a player push another player to the ground after play was over, or even punch that player when play was in the other direction.

Just as in the bad old days two seasons ago with Pavol Dures leading the charge into rough play, both Patrick Dietmann and Sebastian Skerlan received yellow cards. It’s all well and good to book five yellow cards per game as long as none are red, if a team has a very deep bench. If not, this means sooner or later Skerlan or Dietmann will take another yellow card and have to miss a game. The team will sorely miss Skerlan’s deep runs, shifty moves on the flank and solid tackling. Equally missed will be Dietmann’s his well-placed long balls and persistent shadowing of opposing stars. SC Kittsee can ill afford to have one, let alone both of them missing.

Both teams were more frustrated on offense than effective. There wasn’t much style or co-ordination in the play of either team. SV Wimpassing did very well to shut down SC Kittsee’s normally prolific attack. The previous SC Kittsee trainer Franz Ziniel worked very hard to convince SC Kittsee players to play with their heads and to forego counterproductive rough play and unnecessary penalties. If SC Kittsee are to continue their winning ways from 2020 (leading the Herbsmaisterschaft, Fall Cup before it was shut down to the first Covid-19 lockdown in Austria), new trainer Erwin Reithofer must do the same.

Despite the bitter loss it was a beautiful summer evening. There’s nothing nicer than sitting out with one’s neighbours enjoying some a beer or some spritzers on a cool summer evening. Here’s a few photos from the (subdued) after party.

That’s not to say Wallern’s tactics weren’t effective. Kittsee coach for the evening Markus Roth felt compelled to pull Patrick Dietmann at 2:1 as Dietmann was so angry about being repeatedly fouled. I can’t really blame the referee Arif Erdem: he called many yellow cards and couldn’t have his eyes everywhere. It would take a league season ban on some Wallern players to bring them under control. There’s little video at these games so it’s hard to police deliberate dangeous behaviour meaningfully.

Kittsee jumped out to an early lead which they maintained until 67 minutes. Kittsee fought hard for the go-ahead goal but Wallern was able to hold them off. While it was a pity to lose those two points, the fight in Kittsee’s team until the end was a good augur.