Sunday morning amateur football
Yep, at the age of 38, that is where my skills stretch. But, I still love to play the game as much as when I was just a 6 year old kid.
Fact is, every morning when I need to go to work, I have it hard to hear my alarm clock, but on sunday mornings I wake up before my alarm even has rung. Amazing, especially at my age. Boys will be boys, I guess.
This morning, we played our first official game of the season. We are in the first league of a local competition with three tiers. Our skills are quite limited, but we have a real team. Some very good technical players with a history in higher leagues, and some fiercefull defenders with, well, a history in the current league. :-) But our real strength is team spirit, and the fact that we all fight for each other on the pitch, and love to drink beers together when the game is over. I have played in higher leagues when I was younger, and before I tore my posterior cruciate ligament in my left knee. But never have I had the kind of team spirit like I have encountered it the last few years.
Player/Coach
Last year, I got "promoted" to player/coach, which sometimes has the side effect, that I have to put myself on the bench for the benefit of the team and team spirit. That just comes with the job, but I have no problem with that, all for the team. But, this morning, due to some players being unavailable for today, I had the positive selection problem, that I had only eleven players, myself included. Which makes it quite easy, no disappointed players, and I could place myself in my favourite position: target man in front.
And then the magic happens, after our central midfielder already had taken advantage of a mistake in the defense of the opposing team and scored 0-1, a perfect corner was taken and I could hammer the ball with a perfect header in upper right corner, 0-2!. I scored, and still, after so many goals in my "very moderate" carreer, the feeling is something very hard to describe. Pride, joy, adrenaline, endorfine, pure happiness... That's the closest I get to describe it. In the second half, my nephew that also plays with us, dropped the ball in the box, I control it with my left, pass the defender and ram it with my left foot in the left corner, 0-3! Again the feeling jumps up in my body. I scored twice, the feeling is even more intense now!
Eventually, the game ended in 1-4, we won and are top of the league right now, how about that!
Sincerely,
Pele23
You never get tired of scoring a goal I guess. Regardless of the league you are in!
I did stop playing football but still have the same feeling if one of the sons scores. While I am very happy when the teams scores, it is a completely different feeling if the scorer is one of your siblings!
Cheers,
Peter
I'll keep playing until it is physically impossible. I just like the game too much...
Wow, great performance then, congrats! Once scorer, always a scorer :-) But, isn't it too stressful to be a coach after a playing career? So many young guys have so different mentality than those who were in their age one/two/three decades ago. Maybe not enough loyalty, maybe its a problem with self-motivation - I don't know how to describe it.
On our level, the "coach" is actually the one that texts everybody to be there on time, and just put a competitive team on the board, so "coach" is a very big word actually! ;-)
I kind of know what do you mean by that. Still you are in charge of the game.
It is always a great feeling of elation, the next thing that comes to your mind is the kind of celebration to use.
No crazy celebrations for me, just one hand in the air and a hug with the team mates! That's more than enough!