Soccer Update

A few weeks ago, I went to my brother’s soccer game. It wasn’t with the school team but with a separate soccer school called A.C. Milan. This school gives very talented players the chance to get noticed. Every year, this team goes to a city in Europe to compete and scouts from major teams come to find new talents. These scouts go to the school and choose a player to take to Europe and play. I actually met one of the players that was taken to play for a year. He was normal and down to Earth but also very talented. Anyways, this school gives many chances and that’s why my brother plays there. As I told you before, I went to see one of the games. The soccer field was normal sized and the players seemed a little bit older than 15. They looked professional and prepared unlike my brother. I’ve heard him say that in the school games he shines but in these games he’s unnoticeable. These players looked tough and ready to do whatever to take the ball. As I saw them play, I realized that I suck at playing soccer. Whenever they took the ball it looked like they didn’t even know the had the ball and they glided through the field. Whenever I take the ball, I look at it while I’m running. These players didn’t have to look at it. They knew it was there and they are so used to having it, they don’t have to concentrate on taking it but on getting through the field with it. It was amazing how they looked like they had been playing soccer for they’re whole lives. For them, soccer is a lifestyle not a sport. As I watched the players from both teams, I realized that it all takes practice. Even if you know all the theories, it all takes practice to be productive. This practice requires some sacrifice as I notice in all good players. Practice is also very useful because all players need a very good resistance to be able to play through the whole game. Our school games are very patronizing because they only last 60 minutes while professional games last 90 minutes. The games of A.C. Milan do last 90 minutes and that’s why it’s so very tiring. In my brother’s case, he can only play for half the game because he doesn’t have as much resistance as the rest of the players. When I watched the players play every minute until the game ended, they never stopped giving they’re best during the whole game. Even though they were tired, when they got the ball they would run as fast as possible with the ball. The two goals that they scored were amazing and were scored with so much style and perfectness. Watching the game was wonderful and I’m sure I am going to go watch one again.

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A few days ago, we all had a school trip to Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica. The second day we were there, we went to the beach but we weren’t allowed to get in the water which I think is ridiculous because there wasn’t any thunder and it was barely raining. After a while of taking pictures with my friends, I got bored of the same pictures and looked for something else to do. One one side of the beach, a bunch of boys were playing American Football but I wasn’t interested in playing that because they all become savages when they start playing. On the other side of the beach, there were some boys playing soccer. At first I was worried to go play with them because there were many dangerous rocks on the sides and I wasn’t sure if they would let me play. Then I noticed that Diana was playing soccer with them so I went to ask her how everything was. She told that I should play because it was very fun and the boys were not like the boys playing football. I asked  Ariel if I could play because he was the first one I saw and he said it was okay. I started a little shy because I wasn’t used to my team but after a while, I got used to it. I looked for the ball the whole time and when I got it, I tried to dribble with it as long as I could. Every once in a while I would hit a small rock and get hurt but I got over it quickly. There was one moment when I was close to the goal and I shot at the goal. I think I made a goal but I’m not sure because we went back to playing. There was one inconvenience throughout the game though. Every once in a while, a big wave would reach the area where we were playing and the ball was hard to control. It would float and go back to the beach along with the water. Luckily, it never got past the shore so it never got lost. Besides that, there where no other inconveniences until something very hurtful happened. One of the players, Brandon, was running with the ball and he hit his foot with a big, pointy rock. He cut his foot pretty bad because he was bleeding very bad. He stopped playing and after that, other people stopped, too, and the game ended. A few minutes later, we had to go back to the hotel. I enjoyed the game a lot because I had not played soccer like that in a long time. 

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I’m lost. For all of you readers that like this blog because it’s about soccer, I’m sorry to dispapoint you because I have no idea what to write anymore. Any suggestions? I mean, I really like soccer but to play it… not to write about it. I wanted to write about it at the beginning because I don’t have many passions and that was the only thing that came to my mind. But now, I’m starting to regret it. When writing posts, I can’t really express my feelings that much because it’s all about collecting the facts and that just bores me. Let’s say I decide to write about a soccer game. Yes, I can say how I feel about the results and the players but it’s mostly just collecting the facts and reporting what happened. It involves research and time but I prefer to talk about something that I know about and don’t have many opportunities in giving voice to the writing. The other day in class, we had a discussion about giving voice to our writing. Voice is very important because it differentiates out writing from the rest which is very important because writing something is not the same thing as saying it. When saying something, we can give it our “personal touch” but when writing something, it’s just the same as everything else so voice is something very important so that people feel like they’re talking to them and that there is a uniqueness in the writing. When I write about soccer, it is harder for me to give that voice to my blog. So what can I do to give that voice but still talk about soccer? Well, let me tell you that I’m going to keep writing about soccer for the rest of the school year but I’m going to try to write more about some experiences that I myself had with soccer than informing about a soccer event.

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I don’t feel like I have a long history of soccer or that huge passion for it. I don’t feel like playing soccer every time of the day. I’m not trying to learn every new trick I see. So why did I chose to write every single entry about soccer? I’ve been trying to answer myself that question since a few weeks and I’ve still haven’t reached a conclusion with my answer. I never really thought about playing soccer before last school year. Back in Honduras, I was dedicated to ballet and I was really in love with it. Of course sometimes I had my doubts about staying in the classes but almost all of the time I loved dancing. I loved going out on stage and being able to do what I wanted. Another thing I liked was that the light was on me and that I wasn’t able to see the audience’s faces. This way I wouldn’t worry about their faces or whether they liked it or not. I wasn’t worrying about pleasing them but about enjoying the moment myself. The last year I was in Honduras before moving here to Costa Rica, I was really in the group of the best ones in my class. I was chosen to be in front for the presentations. I had important parts in the play. I was starting to get comfortable with the pointe ballet slippers and I was in love with ballet. When I came to Costa Rica, everything changed. I started having classes in a new academy but my inspiration was taken away. The teacher wasn’t interested in what I had learned in Honduras and she sent me back to the regular classes. She lowered my category and sent me back to where I had worked so hard to get to the top. I was disappointed and degraded. After that I stopped dancing ballet and just went to school. Since I had to do exercise, I looked for an afterschool activity to do. The options were volleyball, soccer, and basketball. I was completely against basketball because I just don’t like it. Volleyball had already started so my only option was soccer. I had never considered soccer because it had always been my brother who played soccer and I was the one who danced. He had always been very successful in soccer and scored uncountable goals. He was the soccer star in my house as I was the dance star. When I decided to play soccer, I told my parents who didn’t believe me. They thought I wasn’t going to last more than that season. I wanted to prove my point to my parents that not only my brother could play. I went to all the classes and tried my best but I wasn’t used to that kind of sport. I had bad resistance and couldn’t last that long running. Obviously, I wasn’t even close to my brother in soccer abilities. That season, I didn’t do well at all and I was disappointed. I don’t recall playing that much in games and when I played, I didn’t do much. This year, I played in the soccer team again and everything changed. I believe that I improved a lot … and I scored my first goal! I really felt proud of myself and I couldn’t wait to tell my parents. When I told them, they didn’t believe me and then they congratulated me. Later on, I played in all the games and I felt like I did a lot this time. We ended up champions…out of four teams…but we all felt proud anyways. Of course I couldn’t compare myself to my brother because it was just impossible that I was better than him, but I felt proud of myself. I think that the moment I scored the goal felt like every time I went on stage to dance. To remember that feeling was like the awakening of passion for soccer. After that, I wanted to score a goal in every game, but that didn’t happen. Even though it didn’t, I had that encouragement to get better, not to impress someone else, but to have that wonderful feeling again. The season ended even though I would’ve wanted to keep going but it ended. So why did I chose to write about soccer? I haven’t answered that question but I think I got that inspiration from a wonderful feeling that resembled to the one I got when I danced ballet. The bad thing is that writing about soccer is not as fun as playing it. I still don’t think I have that inspiration and love for soccer like my brother. There is another person that I think really is in love with soccer and could not do anything else than that. That person is Lima. His blog is lima77.edublogs.org. If what you are looking for is many things about soccer, I thing you should take a look at his blog because he really has that inspiration for soccer.

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I know probably everyone who reads this post knows what soccer is but i would like to define it and explain the rules and concepts of this sport before I begin giving informing news about it. Soccer is a team sports with two teams of no more than 11 players. It is considered that it is the most popular sport in the world. Soccer is played in a rectangular grass field with two goals on the opposite sides. The goal is to manage to take the ball to the other side and get the ball inside the goal before the goalkeeper catches it. Each team consists of 11 players which include the substitutes and the goalkeeper. Thee only player that can touch the ball with their arms and hands is the goalkeeper.

At the beginning of a game or after a goal of  the opposite team, there is a kick-off in the center of the field. The two players that are going to kick the ball may be the only ones inside the circle. When a ball completely crosses the sides of the field, there is a throw-in. This throw-in has to be made by a soccer player from the opposite team which got the ball out. The ball must be thrown with both hands and over the player´s head. The player cannot jump or lift any foot when throwing the ball. A goal kick is made when the ball has crossed the goal line and a goal hasn´t been made. If the person who got it out was an attacker, then the goalkeeper kicks the ball. If the ball was taken out by a defender, the it is a corner kick. The corner kick is made by an attacker and the ball is kicked in the corner where the ball went out. Offside is one of the most complicated laws. There is an offside when an attacker is behind the last defense player and recieves the ball.

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