The Week in Review..

Sooo we suffered a heart-breaker of a loss on Saturday. We were late, we were down, we were up, back down, tied, and than lost by 3. I was satisfied with my play and actually felt pretty good most of the day, after the 1st quarter at least, but the game ended poorly for me and it soured my entire opinion on the game.

To review, most of the team got lost and we showed up late. Then, we went down by a bunch of points early in the first and than came out on fire, dropping in 37 in the second quarter. This run was capped off beautifully by yours truly by stealing in inbounds pass halway between the 3 and half-court with 3 seconds left, turning, and wetting a bomb of a three at the buzzer. We went into the half up 8.

Within two minutes of the third quarter, however, we were losing by 1. We took a BUNCH of bad shots in a row and our defense was suspect at best. BOO.. So we went back down by ten, than tied it up in the fourth quarter with like 3 minutes left. Got whistled for an intentional foul on a REBOUND which lead to two free throws and an and 1 runner in the lane by their American... 5 point possession in the last two minutes, eeeyaa later (to clarify, I committed neither of these fouls.. I felt I needed to say this since my dad thought I committed BOTH).

My mood was sour after the game because within the last minute I hit a three, grabbed a few big boards and choked on two free throws.. Woo hoo... It was a minute full of emotions and the last one was an "I suck" feeling. Luckily, my teammates were there to pick my mood up after the game. We didn't do much that night.. Just relaxed after the loss and watched Godfather Part 2 for the first time. Freakin awesome and I highly recommend...

The other major event of the last week was the planning of Eurotrip 09. On Sunday night, Fletcher, Andrew, and I met to talk about our adventures and they are going to be serious. The basic sketch is to start in Venice, hit Naples quickly, Rome for a few days, Florence, Nice and Barcelona... this is where the plan has haulted. We cannot decide whether to do a long train ride from Barcelona to Paris and than hop over to London after a few days, oooorrrr do an extra day in Barcelona, hit up Madrid for a couple days and hop on a cheap Ryanair flight from Madrid to London. I will be putting a poll on the side of the page and would appreciate you voting because all of us want to see everything and we cannot make a damn final decision.

We even emailed our old Art History professor to see his opinion and in true Art History professor form, he said we will figure it out in time and that deciding is part of the learning process.. Damn you for still trying to teach us things about life! So, once we do London for a couple days, we are going to go to Dublin for a couple nights and than I am coming home April 19th! Woooo hooo, very excited about coming home.

Speaking of home, my parents will be arriving here in Germany on Friday morning. I cannot wait and I am sure my pops is super psyched to see a game this weekend, so we better make it a good one. I know not having Amherst basketball every weekend has taken a toll on him.. haha... After the game, we are going to see some German cities before they go home on Tuesday. Should be fun and I cannot wait to see some family! That is all for now, don't forget about the poll....

- MFG

Short and Sweet..

On Saturday, we absolutely spanked a team 106 - 72. They were bad. I mean, really bad. None of the housemates scored in double figures and we still had over 100! That is just crazy talk. When the game started, it felt like I was playing against an average high school team. I have an extremely hard time focusing in games like that, so I am very happy that I did not end up embarassing myself too much throughout the game.

Our young Germans were all smiles during our post-game locker room celebration as T, Trev, Marko, Junior, and I rode the pine most of the day so that they could clock some big time minutes. The newspaper articles seem much happier this week and they even commented on how much everyone has improved throughout the year with the help of the 4 Americaners...

After the game, a bunch of our teammates came back to our apartment to chill and celebrate. Trevor and I taught them the fine art of kings, horse races, and up the river down the river. We ended up just hanging in the apartment instead of going anywhere else.. a decision I was very happy with.


Earlier in the day Saturday, Freddy and I went to Dortmund to check out the shoes and clothing stores. I guess there were a ton of sales, so I picked up a new v neck and buttown down shirt from H and M. When I tried on the buttown-down shirt, Freddy looked at me and said "Indiana Jones.." Haha, so if you can picture Indiana Jones type gear on me, that is what I picked up, so don't try messing with me anytime soon cuz I may look like this stud muffin. But, for realsies, haha.. I felt that it was a tight Euro-look that I could still pull off so I went for it.

Trevor's mom has been here for the past weekend, bringing with her powdered gatorade, slim jims, and reeses peanut butter cups. Staples in any American's diet if you ask me. Special thanks to her for bringing a little bit of America with her to Germany.

Big love sent out to my boys at Amherst for holding it down against a very good Middlebury squad on saturday for senior day. I wish I could have been there for that, but it is all good. Now, it is their time to go out and get a NESCAC 'Ship... I know they can do it and they know they can do it so I say let's make it happen. Next week should be interesting as we have a week off from games and there is a major German festival going on all week: Carnival. More to come later....


- MFG

It Could Have Been Epic...

This weekend could have been one of the most epic weekends of my entire time here in Germany except for one little problem. We got SPANKED on Saturday by Hagen Haspe. They simply outplayed us the whole game and I got to give them credit, I think they are the best team in the league. They just know their stuff and what works for them and they do it and than do it again and then add in an alley-oop from halfcourt to make sure you know they did it.
So, who really cares that much about the game, it sucked and you do not want to hear me talk much about it. One good aspect of the game though, was that Andrew came to see me play because he played earlier in the day on Saturday. Always great to have a familiar face in the crowd. Trevor also had a visitor all weekend, his friend Lilly from high school. She was tight and was a pretty quality roommate for 3 days straight and she bakes tasty ass chocolate chip cookies.. mmmmmmmmmmhhhmmmmmmm.....

So, on Saturday night, I taught the house Strategic War. If you do not know about Strategic War please click the previous link. It is a legendary game Andrew, Fletcher, and myself created as freshman at Amherst. Clearly, Saturday night went pretty well, but the real fun was to be had on Sunday.

Super Bowl Sunday was most glorious. On Saturday, Trevor and I checked out the Joy of Cooking all afternoon and went to the Grublinghoff (the biggest food store in Werne) and picked up so many tasty, Americanized treats to cook that I almost died of finger food overdose during the Super Bowl. In addition, I invited Andrew and Fletcher to partake in our festivities - two dudes who definitely understand the concept of keeping it live.

Trevor cooked an awesome batch of chili con carne to start off our eating around 10:30 or so at night. For those not in the know, the game began at 12:28 AM in Germany. Although we began eating at night, Trevor and I had been preparing our dishes all day. I ended up making potato skins, serious nachos, and the buffalo wings I learned how to make from my brothers. Shout-out to Will and John - those wings are tasty as hell no matter where you make 'em.

In addition to all this great food, when Andrew and Fletcher showed up, they came with two cases of Iserlohner (great beer), a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of whiskey. As soon as they walked in, I thought to myself, man, that is so much unnecessary alcohol. Well, kids, one thing I have learned from hanging with the Amherst crew is no matter what it looks like before the night starts, usually its all gone by the time the night finishes.

An hour before game time, I began to assemble an array of glorious dishes to all be done at the same time. I quickly hooked up my potato skins (most of the work for the taters was done earlier in the day) while beginning my wings and and putting my nachos in the broiler with the homemade salsa I had concocted. While all this multi-tasking was happening, I had yet another task to complete. A power hour. Andrew had suggested it to the crowd while I was cooking and than called me into the room. He said that he needed to ask me a question which was "What do you think normal people do in an hour?" And I responded, "I dunno... a power hour?" And thus, the epic evening began.
After the power hour, I brought all the food out to the crowd and the game began with everyone well-lubricated and hungry. Oh, I forgot to mention, Fletcher brought over the projector which he has in his apartment, so, we got to watch the game off of my computer projected onto an entire wall in our family room. It was amazing. Throw in a great fourth quarter to the super bowl and some quality company and you have one of the best super bowls ever. If we had done this last year for the Gmen, it might have been the highlight of my life, but, alas, we did not. It was an epic evening to say the least... just wish we had won that damn game on Saturday...

- MFG

Guess who's back, back again?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have officially returned to Werne and began playing basketball once again. I will be starting to blog as much as I previously did so I suggest checking back every once in a while for some quality stories.

My break in the States was awesome. I went back up to Amherst for a weekend, ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, and saw all of my loved ones as much as possible. It is amazing how much your baby niece grows in such a short time. She is a straight beast and I LOVE it. This is a picture of her and her proud papa on a beautiful winter trek. She is a tough one. While I was home, I had a part-time job slinging trees to well-off folks all over northern Jersey. It was ideal. I worked probably a total of 10 days or so and earned lots of loot due to my superior tree-carrying abilities and my old-lady charm. Those two characteristics combined to make me a force in the christmas tree tips game.

The rest of my time was consumed with physical therapy, helping coach basketball up at Delbarton, and making frequent trips to NYC to hang with the big bro and the gf (mostly the gf, Brooke.. haha). Coaching was awesome and I learned alot about myself by doing it. Shout-out to Coach Whalen and all my young guns for treating me well throughout the process.

I also got to live the dream in Boca Raton for a week after Christmas. The Rosenkrantz's treated me so well I almost felt guilty (key word - ALMOST, haha). We went to see Lebron vs D Wade in Miami one night and the weather throughout the trip was absolutely gorgeous. Overall, definitely one of the best weeks I had during my break and I can't thank them enough for that.

Now, this past week in Germany has been full of ups and downs. My plane ride sucked as my row was the only row in the entire plane in which the stupid tv's did not work as well as the only row with 2 young German women with severely small bladders (I was the aisle seat). That, my friends, was a down. However, upon arriving in Germany, I was greeted by a familiar face in one Mr. Kyle Noonan and his friend Rob from Philly U. That was most definitely an up and I feel I showed them a great time while they were here, but you would have to ask them about that (wink, wink). We kicked it in Werne and I showed them the German ways of drinking Pilsners and eating late night Doners (pronounced Durnas), the greatest thing to come out of Turkey... well, ever.

They left on Saturday and the weekend continued the up and down pattern the prior week had held. On Saturday, we got a nice w to start off 2009, after which, I watched my beloved Lord Jeffs hold it down in Williamstown to get the rivalry win. HUGE... Now, you may be asking yourselves, "Matt, that sounds like a great weekend to me, I am sure you went out and celebrated after those wins Saturday, and anytime Amherst beats Williams, it is a great day so where is the downer of the weekend?" Well, yes, I did have a lovely time celebrating those wins with my teammates at a crazy Russian club and yes, I love when we spank the Ephs in anything, but on Sunday, the Gmen were knocked out of the playoffs by the stupid eagles. This would not have affected me so much but my wonderful girlfriend and her family got me something called a Slingbox for Christmas which led to me having the pleasure of watching the worst Giants performance of the entire damn year live on my computer. I do love that damn Slingbox though...

My game on Saturday was an interesting one. I was very nervous going into the game due to the fact that 1. I am not in tip-top shape by any means, 2. my shot had sucked all week long in practice, and 3. I am clearly still a little rusty post-injury. As expected, I started off the game by clanking a few threes, but I then proceeded to get into the flow of things. It always helps when you are being covered by an old German dude who had a game very similar to a combination of #5 and #9 in this glorious Youtube clip. I think I played pretty well, probably having 15 points and 15 rebounds by the time the last buzzer sounded - Marcus Camby-like numbers if you ask me.

This last buzzer sounding, however, had an interesting twist. For the first time in my long, illustrious basketball career (haha) I had a buzzer-beating shot for a win. It was actually a buzzer-beating tip in but whose counting. With the game tied and 30 or so seconds left, the other team ran a crappy play that lead to a bad shot and a TV Werne rebound. T (our pg) got the outlet and came down the floor with around 14 seconds left. We ran a sorta broken play that led to T kicking the ball out to our center who swung it to our 2 guard, Freddy. Freddy throws up a three that goes in and out with around 4 seconds left. As soon as he shot, I came flying through the lane at full force looking for the rebound.

My Amherst teammates understand exactly what I am describing because whenever I barrel through the lane it is usually followed by either a charge going the other way or an And 1 followed by a ridiculous celebration. There large immovable fat guy (see Youtube clip if you have not yet), does his best hack-a-shaq impersonation and fouls the hell out of me as I reach up and tip in the shot. As the ball fell through the net, the buzzer sounded and we got the W. I turned and in typical fashion held out my arms at full length and screamed jibberish towards my bench (it was an away game). It was a most glorious feeling and I was quite pleased with myself. I chose the picture above because first, it is a picture of one of our many, absurd smashings of Williams, demonstrating my pride in the young guns getting the W in Eph-land, but secondly, it is usually what I look like right before I either get a charge or an And 1 due to the fact that once I start going to the hoop, there aint no stopping me.

On a side note, I forgot just how terrible German refs are and how badly they despise Americans. This game quickly reminded me. I got a technical foul in the middle of the second half for absolutely no reason. It was confusing, but hey, alls well that ends well. This is the link to the article. The headline is something about the golden fingers of Matthew Goldsmith.. haha, I love it.

Congratulations to Amherst for getting the w vs Williams as well as big Kevin Hopkins for signing with a new team over in East Germany. I think all us Amherst boys are doing pretty well for ourselves over here in Germany. I miss you all and will try to keep you updated as much as possible throughout the next few months. Keep on keepin' on.

- MFG

P.S. I truly appreciate when people make comments after each blog entry. It reminds me that I am actually writing this for more than just my immediate family (particularly parents) haha, no offense mom and dad because I would write it just for you anyway.

Productivity.. The Spice of Life

I recently realized just how much I love being productive. First off, a quick story to relay... on a beautiful Sunday afternoon where we did not have much to do, the roommates and I went out and played pick-up soccer against some locals. It was ridiculously fun and we ended up playing for probably around 3 hours. Now, we could have just sat around all day in the sun or just took it easy, but instead, my roommate, Trevor, went out and found us a soccer game to play in. Thats legit and I give Trev mad props for having so much ADD that he drove around in our van til he found something to do.

Embarassingly, however, one of the local youngsters broke Trevor off a little bit of "football" love by not only going through Trevor's legs on a move but also making him fall over... with a damn soccer ball. It was amazing. As I was rolling over in laughter, I quickly remembered that I was still the goalie at the time and if one of my defender's was on the ground, I may be screwed. The kid turned and rocketed a ball to the inside post and scored. Respekt. Us Americans gained their respect too, however, by going undefeated on the day at 4 - 0. I felt like I was a lightning bolt again. Where is Mr. Noonan filming home videos when you need him?

Now, back to the truly productive day. Yesterday, as usual, I got up early and went to work, half sleeping the whole way there. When I arrived, I had a sudden burst of inspired energy and finished an excel spreadsheet followed by a powerpoint presentation. I dont know what I was thinking, but it might have had to do with the fact that the wonderful GMEN lost to the lowly Browns and I was attempting to hold off my depression by focusing on other things. The day went on as usual and I ended up finishing a good amount of stuff.

I got home and instead of taking a quick nap (like I used to do), I went out to run some errands. I purchased a new wallet so that I could keep track of all the annoying change that Euros lead to (their smallest paper bill is a 5), I went to Western Union and sent some money home to me mum, went straight to the gym to lift, and had a nice post-lift shooting session. After shooting, I hit up the grocery store and got this weeks food and than cooked a lovely meal of gnocchi with garlic tomato sauce and mozzy sprinkled over the top. Oh, it was tasty. I went to bed exhausted, full, and satisfied with the day's work. Prior to settling in for my neeps (a strange word that I picked up at Amherst, not really sure how, but I know one M. Bradley uses it quite often) I debated topping this day off by doing some laundry but decided better of it so that I would still have something to do over the next few days. On a side note, I just heard that while Brandon is here, he is taking German lessons. I am jealous, learning a new language is tight.

Speaking of productivity (not really), I am not allowed to ask you to CLICK the stupid advertisement links on the side of my blog! So don't do it damn it (wait a tic)! I was reading an article on how bloggers make money and this is one of them. The more clicks, the better. I will pay for many rounds at either The Office in Morristown or McMurph's in Amherst, I promise. I figured since writing this blog makes me as giggly as this kid, I might as well try to make my blogging experience more PRODUCTIVE. Haha, productivity from a guy who had a giant wooden entertainment center with 3 tv's throughout college, who woulda thought?

- MFG