Soccer and the Weekend Plans

So I am now, unofficially, part of the soccer team. Hopefully the paperwork will get done by early next week. What that means is, I've had a chance to break in my new cleats a bit and my feet feel like hell. It also means that I've just been connected to a bunch of young Uruguayans, which is a good thing for sure.

My first impressions of the club came when I went to training last Monday. It just turned out to be running, as they were coming back from a tournament, but everyone seemed to be very nice. The big lankster jumping around hugging people and singing turned out to be the goalkeeper, which didn't surprise me a bit. Always the craziest right?

Wednesday I went to our first game. It was an over-20s game actually, I am eligible to play with the under 20s so I will probablly be doing that with a chance to come on as a sub with the overs if I do well I suspect. The game was really exciting, though the result didn't go our way.

Five minutes in the other team scored a fairly disgusting volley from about 25. Not more than two minutes later our left winger equalized with a snap shot on a bouncing ball to the far post. Early in the second half we take the lead with a golazo of a header from a cross. 2-1 Universidad Catolica. Things were going well until about the 60th minute. My attention faded for a minute, but somehow we let in two goals in 5 minutes, at least one from a defensive error. The rest of the match consisted of us getting fouled or pressuring their goal but to no avail. The boys were heartbroken.

The players here are more passionate, firey latin types and die-hard soccer fans(I'm not sure the two are that far removed). They are also more skilled. The pace of the game is fast, with a lot of pressure, which occasionally leads to some ugly clearances, but overall the quality is quite high, I would like to think this team would beat most D1 teams in the United States.

I got to practice with the squad yesterday, actually about 5 hours ago. Things went pretty well all things considered. The new shoes are being broken in and the field and speed of play took some adjusting. That said, I had a few good plays and not really and bad plays, I was a little slow getting a few passes off but they weren't off the mark and I didn't lose possession much. My defending was a bit weak but oh well. I heard bien Reechaard and a Reechard, a Richard quite a few times so that can't be too bad a sign. I'm looking forward to settling in a bit and hopefully playing on some decent fields. We train 8 am on Wednesday mornings I think on the field where the national champions practice apparently so that should be quite nice.


As I eluded earlier, it's quite early here. I got in fro training last night at 1, got cleaned up and packed up by about 2:30 and it is not 6 a.m. We're going to La Rocha until Sunday then Sunday night is I guess the biggest party night in the year here. Monday is their Independence Day. That's really all for now, chau.

RJ