soccer - yay!

After I came back kicked in the groin (will explain later in this post) two years back, I was quite "disenchanted" with the game and wanted to move on. Squash was supposed to be my one night fling but there was just so much chemistry that we developed a long and healthy relationship. For two years, I was very slowly getting better, thanks largely to Sanjiv, Faiz, Daniel, Duncan, and Raghu (note, in no specific order). For two years, I was quite happy, having discovered the best game ever. For two years, I was mistaken.

On a cold Saturday morning last month, I stepped out to go to the markets for my fortnightly veggie shopping. In the park across the street was a group of men playing soccer and I don't know why, I went over and asked them if I could join in. The 6'7" man replied in the green. I ran back to fetch my soccer shoes which had been ignored for, you know how long. The first 15 minutes or so, I was quite rusty and even slide-tackled a 50+ man who later told me that he just had knee surgery (you'd think I'd be like "oh god! kill me now" but I have done worse things in my life). But then I started getting the moves right, starting intercepting the ball much better, the legs got all warmed up and was moving rather well. I think my strength is intercepting opposition passes.

The second game on the following Saturday was atrocious (on that day the thought of having God come down in all his glory and killing me might have crossed my mind once or twice). They made me look like a freakin amateur! We were absolutely blasted - 5 under-30 guys, beaten by 5 over-45 guys. But that just showed that we were freakin' amateurs - big deal :)

Last week's game was much more motivating. We were running a bit low on players but had a 4 on 4 start and realizing that wasting energy like a hamster on a wheel doesn't help the teams cause. Understanding your strengths and limitations, and playing to your strengths does.

I am reverting my decision and place soccer back on the top of the list. A beautiful game with minimal resource requirements and complete body exercise, not to mention LOADS of fun. Squash is also fun, squash is also tiring, but you gotta have a decent opposition...

P.S. About the kick in the groin - that was the work of a Vietnamese guy when the Viet team fought with the Chinese team and being the smart-ass I am, I was trying to break the fight up. The Viet guy took a good swing and wanted to get the chinese fella in the nuts, who was wise enough to show fast reflexes, unlike me, who was later termed as "collateral damage" by the other players :(