We know you are thinking it.

We occasionally see it in the comments and hear it from people all the time.

Even to myself I often wonder?

As writers at the The Daily Eastern News, the reader probably wonders, what gives this person the right to comment on sports?

Sure we attend the games, but so do many other students on campus.

So I decided to take things to the next level. Friday, I took on the Eastern men’s soccer team in penalty kicks. The video can be seen on DENnews.com.

I challenged junior goalkeeper Sean Molony to see who could stop more kicks. Knowing that I was at the disadvantage, he gave me a one-goal handicap as we each took five shots against players, head coach Adam Howarth and each other.

My strategy coming in was simply to try and stop one shot. (And try not to embarrass myself as much as possible.)

I knew the odds were against me because my only goalkeeping experience was in the PlayStation game “FIFA.”

But sure enough after I won the rock, paper, scissors game, I was in between the posts, 12 yards from my first opponent. I decided not to wear the goalkeeper gloves out of pure intimidation; something I regretted after the first ball was kicked.

The first shot came, and I do not think I even got out of my goalkeeper stance. I tried to dive at the last minute, but my reaction time was slower than molasses in January.

Molony went and luckily the ball got past him, so we were tied.

My second shot I decided to pick a side and dive as soon and the ball was kicked. It was a bullet right up the middle, and if I did not dive, I might be dead right now.

The third shot came and then the fourth, but still, I was not able to make a shot. Molony was able to stop, so we were tied at one.

Now it was my time to shoot against Molony and to my surprise, I got it in. We were still tied going into the final round and I had one more shooter to go.

The final shot was against sophomore midfielder Ryan Child. Now, earlier this season in an exhibition match against Butler, Child surprised the goalkeeper by running up to the ball really hard and chipping it over his head.

When Child lined up for the shot against me, he placed the ball down and walked far back.

In my mind I thought, ‘If he chips it at me, I have a chance to stop it. But if he decides to blast it, well, I’m screwed.’

So as he came up, I sort of stood up in my stance and luckily the ball came right at me. I’m pretty sure he just did it out of pity because I was not close to another shot all day. But hey, I’ll take it.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or dscusack@eiu.edu.