It started last Saturday, after Canada lost their match to Morocco, my youngest son suddenly asked "Dad, do we have a soccer ball at home?" Without hesitation, I answered, "Of course we do." I proceeded to ask, "Do you want to play?"
"Yeah. I want to try it out."
Upon hearing that sentence, I raced down to the basement and dug up the size 3 ball I bought for my two older kids when they were little. I bought that ball hoping that I could play with them and get them interested in the sport, but they never showed any interest. Unwilling to give up on promoting the beautiful game in the family, we also signed up my little one to an indoor soccer class when he was five years old, but he also showed no interest in even trying to touch the ball. Now, three years later, because of me watching the World Cup nonstop for almost a month (and my youngest seeing me do that for almost a month), my little one suddenly showed interest in kicking the ball around. That was awesome!
Why so fixated in getting the kids into soccer? You thought I was a basketball guy? Yes, I am a basketball guy, but I also played three full summers of soccer with my friends back in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Deep down, I've always enjoyed watching and playing the beautiful game. Naturally, I wanted to share that with my three children, but they don't seem to be interested, at least not until recently with my little one.
The old size 3 soccer ball, hidden under a pile of old sports equipment, although deflated, was still good as new. I quickly inflated the ball to proper pressure and promise my little one that we would go play at the park after dinner. As promised, we went to the park and kicked the ball around for fun that Saturday night. We also went Sunday night, Monday night, and on Tuesday night, my older son also joined us. We were passing the ball and they also shot at the goal while I was goalie.
We went to the park again tonight with our soccer ball. As we arrived at the park, we noticed two of my sons friends were also at the park playing basketball. My older son went to join his friends, while I was passing the ball with my little one. Shortly after, they approached us and challenged us to a soccer match. The two of them versus my two sons and me, full court. My immediate thought was that they were out of their minds trying to play full court (even though it was an elementary school gravel field) with so little people. But I'm not the type of person that back down from a challenge, especially when challenged by 13 year old kids, and especially, ESPECIALLY when they're so arrogant as to give the adult on the field the man advantage. So I accepted the challenge, but suggested we play diagonally between the end goal and the goal at the mid-field side out-of-bounds position. It was still a good 150 feet between the two goals, a good distance for the amount of people playing.
The game was fun, but very tiring, as both my sons are not very good at the game, and I was doing most of the heavy lifting. The relief was that my son's friends were also not very good at the game, but damn they can run. I believe one of them is on the school volleyball team. So, even though he had no idea what is footwork or body positioning when fighting for the ball, he can sure chase the ball and chase you down. Eventually, a few other kids wanted to join us and we ended up playing 4 on 4 for a full 45 minutes, no hydration breaks.
It had been a while since I had sprinted and kicked the ball around like that. It felt rusty at first, but after a while, it felt like I haven't lost my touch (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was playing against inexperienced kids). I was also surprised how quickly I got winded. Those long runs that I go on regularly definitely did not prepare me for all the sprinting that was required to play the beautiful game. But, being the only adult on the field, and the only person with actual playing experience, of course we kick their asses. We ended up winning 21-16 (I had to call game at 21, because I thought my heart was going to fail by the time we scored the 21st goal). After the game, the older kids went on to play basketball, and the little kids went to play tag at the playground. Meanwhile, I sat on the curb next to the playground, heart pounding, legs sore, completely drained, trying to catch my breath, and thought to myself "Damn! It's so good to be young!" I may have won the game, but at what cost? I guess I will feel the cost in my legs tomorrow after I wake up.
They say age is just a number.
They say we don't stop playing because we grow old.
They say age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
I say they have not sprinted on the field for 45 minutes along 13 year olds and are just talking shit.
I say I'm simply too old for this shit!
Hahaha 😂
We might not be world elite athletes, but keeping a good flow to the game is important to us.
That's so relatable. I bet you'll get your wind back pretty quickly if you keep going but I remember feeling like I was going to die after playing pickup basketball with some younger guys after not having played for years.
That also reminded me of the most fun pickup game I ever played. My friend and I, who played all the time, were challenged by three middle school kids. I'm sure you remember those old NBA commercials with the players subbing into a children's game, that's exactly what it was like!
The kids have to stay interested for there to be a next game. We will see how it goes tonight. But my little guy had already expressed disinterest, telling me last night at bedtime that he wants to go to the park tonight, but don't want to play soccer anymore, because there's too much running and he's tired. I told him to not decide so quickly and see how he feels after dinner. Hopefully I'm able to somehow psyop him into still wanting to play...
see what you diiiiid there.
Beautiful story, man!
Thanks!
Haha great post.
I bought my kids a World Cup soccer ball. We have kicked it around in the backyard a couple times but haven’t had any 45 minute pickup games yet. If we do I am playing goalie. Haha
Goalie is a luxury we could not afford when playing 4 on 4.
Back when I used to play in the street, the goalkeeper was the worst player on the team, hahaha.
my point exactly
There's nothing quite like the winding you get from running around on a soccer field when you haven't done it in a long while.
My children have also been inspired by world cup and we've done a few pick up games, but they are younger, so I don't have to work very hard.
It's awesome that you've gotten into a few pick up games with your kids too. The difficult thing with getting a soccer game started has always been the number of people needed to play a full field game. Do you have the number of bodies in your neighborhood park to get a real game going?
Back home—since we’re Cuban—my heart is really in baseball, but here in Brazil, the buzz and the soccer fever surrounding the World Cup have been huge; it’s really taken over our household, too. This is my oldest son’s first World Cup. I’ve tried playing a little baseball with him, but it feels a bit foreign to him because at his church youth group, all the other kids play soccer—so he ends up playing soccer all day long, haha.
I think I’ve lost that battle.
Although, the other day I found out there are some Japanese guys here in the city who play baseball and even have a field; I might just decide to drop by sometime, even though it’s on the other side of town.
Whatever sport it is, I think it's just great when your kid wants to join you and play with you together.
Baseball is really popular in Japan. You should definitely drop by and go play a game with them. Let us know how it went.
Wholeheartedly agree. At the end of the day, it’s not even about the sport itself, it’s all about spending that quality time together and building memories. Hope he checks out that baseball field!