"Hall Pass" - The Official Ironmen Blog of Ryan Hall

Another bump in the road as we fell to 3-3 this past Friday night losing to Milwaukee 8-6. This loss was by far the hardest of the three losses to swallow. The team played very well but came up just a bit short..
The trip started off on Friday morning where we had to be at the Newark airport by 8:45 for a 10 flight. We had a direct flight from Newark to Milwaukee and the team seemed to be in good spirits as we were waiting around the terminal for boarding. We touched down in Milwaukee around 11:20 central time and most of us figured out real quick what sub-zero temperatures mean. If I recall correctly when we landed it was -3degrees out, sunny but unbelievably cold. We got to the hotel, checked in, and were on our on till 5 where we had to meet in the lobby and head over to the stadium.
When we are on the road trip I usually room with fellow defender Evan McNeley. We got our key from coach Namazi headed up to the sixth floor. We opened the door and literally felt like we stepped into the Caribbean in the middle of July. Of all the rooms in the hotel this place gave us the one with the broken thermostat and the temperature stuck on 97 degrees!!! We quickly opened one of the windows which allowed the frozen tundra air to come in and now we were sitting in a room which was blasting Bahama heat at us from one side and allowing -3 wind come in from the other. I called the front desk and they said they would send someone right up to fix it (which means in hotel terms the next few hours). We eventually got the thermostat fixed and were able to take a short nap before going to subway and getting my usual pregame meal.
The game itself was a good one from a spectators point of view. Not many goals were scored but the game itself was very fast with a lot of physical play. Milwaukee came out flying. They were high pressuring all over the field. We weathered their initial storm and heading into half time up 4-2. The second half was more of the same with Milwaukee high pressuring all over the field and we did a good job of just remaining calm and staying one step ahead by moving the ball quickly. Both the teams had plenty of chances but unfortunately for us, Milwaukee was able to capitalize on one more opportunity then we were and we ended up losing 8-6
After the game everyone was obviously very upset thinking that we just let one slip right through our fingers, and we did. The majority of us just headed back to the hotel where we met in the hotel bar and had a late dinner and a few drinks. The next morning we were up and in the lobby at 8 to head back to the airport. We got back to Newark around 12:30 and the recovery period for many of us began...