Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Pelé, I'm not

Since last October, I've been playing off and on in the project team's Monday/Tuesday night soccer league. Actually it's more like a pick-up game than a real league. I've probably played in ten games out of the fifty available to play since last October. Last night I finally scored my first goal.
Actually I scored two. I haven't played competitive soccer since I was 6/7 years old. I've been vowing to score a goal since the second game I played (last October). I have noticed that as an American, I really don't have much to go on for foot skills. Our sports tend to be more hand-eye coordination sports (football, basketball, baseball and even hockey), so I'm not accustomed to all this foot control. So at soccer, I've sucked. I don't like to suck. I don't need to be great, I just don't want to suck. Last night, I felt like I was a level above sucking, so it made me feel a little better.
Since last October, however, I have taken solace in my ability to play goalkeeper in a not-so-bad fashion (more of a hand-eye coordination job). It appears that the Europeans think it a shit job and rarely know how to play effective in front of the net. In fact, it's the place people go to "take a break." Thus, I'll often volunteered to play keeper anytime I can. Otherwise, I mostly play defense and throw my full-figured, American body around to get people off the ball.
Also, with the World Cup around the corner, I thought I'd also throw out a heads up for everybody to throw their support behind the American team. We've drawn into a group that we should be able to advance out of. England is the favorite to win our group, but the top two teams can advance out. So, we just need to beat Slovenia and Algeria to make it to the elimination round. Should be a doable task. Heck, we might just win our group.
We kickoff against England on June 12th. Good luck guys!








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