It´s been a crazy week...

So it´s been a crazy week. I think in the span of seven days I have gained a few more grey hairs and learned quite abit about the catalans arounds me. Some of the week has been worthy of a smile and snicker and other events...well let´s just say some adjustments have to be put in place. I will let you decide if i decide to write about it. For now...the smiles:

This weeks´s game was a very important one. Not that any game is to be taken lightly, but the team we played stomped us 7-0 in the second week of play. In the game of soccer, any team can beat another on any day. All that is needed is Jupiter to be aligned with Mars, the barometric pressure to rise or the stock market to take a plunge for some unforseen force to seperate one team from the others. Unfortunately, the first game was played in their home field. The field was made solely of leveled dirt. The game soccer balls seems to be made of some super rubber. I missed most of the game from the bench as a cloud of agitated dirt seem to rise ofver any action making it near impossible to view from one side of the field to the other. To make matters worse, the referee, unfairly, gave David (the keeper) a red card (that means expulsion) in the first 10 minutes of the game for a handball outside of the penalty area. David was trying to clear a ball and it got away from him. Momentum carried him over the line as an opponent struck the ball on goal. The ball bounced off David´s left arm and he recived a straight red car (rather than two yellow cards for two occasions which equal a red). Still afterwards, the ref gave the other team a penalty kick. If David was out of the box then how could the fault happen in the box for a penalty. Penalty kicks are like free throws in basketball. They are "gimme points" but if you are Shaq, they are a struggle. Even the best players have missed thier chances at scoring or, worse, missed the goal entirely. For the keeper...it is the epitamy of the mindset of a keeper. Think about it...your sole jobe is to not let the team get scored on. Sure you can use your hands but sometimes you need about 8 more sets of hands. And the story being told, we only had one keeper that game as Coris was away on a ski trip. So with one man down, we decided to put Oscar in the goal. Oscar is a few inches taller than me and solid as can be. But can he stop a goal...remember the score was 7-0.
So fast forward to now and how we prepared for this game. I spent a lot of time watching the boys and how they performed and tried to mend up any knocks and bruises. I spent a lot of time planning on defensive manuevers and some attacking formations. Being that we practice from 8:30pm to 10:30pm, a lot of warm up activities in our near freezing rainy nights.
So now it´s game time and I am amped. The boys are amped. and then the whistle blew. After some back and forth, we had a few attempts at goal but nothing brought a goal. Kader, who normally could out dribble their whole team, was not on his game and didn´t get a shot off. And as usual, Sebastain, the team hothead and fastest attacker, was getting frustrated. Still the halftime whistle blew and we were off to the dressing rooms.
After the break, the game when back and forth as usual. Their team started to make some headway and on their firt real chance attacking our side of the field netted a goal for them. They celebrated and I tried my best to find out what happened as I was speaking with Sebastian about some changes on the front line and getting our substitutions ready to come in.
Just then, there was an injury on the field, and I prepared to run out wiht the ref´s approval. As I made my way across, I saw Benito, also an incredible ball handler, slowly making his way to his feet. We spoke for a minute then made his way off the feild. after a few moments he seemed to spring back to live and entered the game.
As I made my way around the field and past the opposing team´s goal keeper, I prayed that no injuries manifested at the other side of the goal, I am too old to make that run. Luckily I made my way back to my bench just in time to see Ferry get fouled in the penalty area. Benito set up to take the penalty kick and he was spot on! now we are tied with 20 minutes left to go in the game. A definte nail biter!
The game went and on and seemed to be destined for a tie. tHe crowd...oh my gosh...the crowds here are an unruly bunch. I can´t understand everything, but the tone of speech is not one of niceness and support. I guess I am downplaying a bit...it was darn right hostile!

Just then, a scramble in their penalty box was building and after a few attempts the ball popped back out and our efforts seemed wasted and lost. But still soccer is a sport of being in the right place at the right time...and there was Oscar to send in a low and hard shot into the far post. In slow motion, the ball seemed to find a whole thru a multitude of bodies all taken by suprise at the fierceness of the screaming shot. A desperation yell and dive from their keeper told the tale of nearly stopping the ball´s entering into the net but his fingertips had not caused much of a defelction but just enough to put the ball off its course. The ball rattled the inside of the post and danced along the goal line. Now a goal is not officially scored unless the complete ball has crossed completely over the 3 inch wide painted line. as the keeper dove to his right the ball traveled off the post and travelled to the other post and slowly tipped itself into a clear goal. The boys lost thier mind in celebrating. The anger filled thier opponents and as I looked at the clock ticking away, their celebration was taking just long enough to piss the opponents off.
So 5 minutes left on the clock and surely some extra time to be added on by the ref. Now the game plan was to shut down the opponents and take any chance we could to further our newly created gap. To waste a little time, Jose fially got the call to come into the game. To his defense, no player wants to come into a game at this point but he is a team player and he knew his job. the other team were a bit wreckless and brutal and the boys were not liking it very much. Just as I saw the clock his the final minute, Jose got into a 1 on 1 situation with an opponent. Jose was not backing down and bumped the player as he frantically tried to not lose the ball in his defending half. the opponent turned and delivered a nice elbow into jose´s chin, mostly out of frustration. But in a blink of an eye, a second elbow was delivered to Jose´s jaw as he reeled from the realization of what was happening. Then it all slowed to a snails pace for me.

I saw Jose´s step to the guy as he stepped back to prepare for the thunder Jose was about to deliver. The ref blew the whistle denoting a foul and was running over to the action and before anyone could stop it, Jose through a right hand cross and connected with the other players jaw, to even the score i would say. Well I knew then Jose was getting the red card for 5 minutes of work. But the red card never got a chance to be shown as the benches cleared. I admit i hesitated joing in the melee, only from my american upbringing as Nurture has taught me not to run into a fight as there might be someone with a gun! But wait...I am in Spain...worse case someone has a knife.

SO i ran into the mess, my first objective was to get to Jose and make sure he was not being hurt by more than one person. I tossed bodies by the wayside with ease. I am not sure if it was adrenaline or that I was living up to my namesake of Big Hoss 9000. Still it felt good to toss around a few bodes like I was in Wrestlemania XXI. When I reached Jose, seemingly he was more than fine. a bit winded but smiling amid the chaos.
Soon cooler heads prevailed as I spent some time calming Danny (Jose´s older brother who was a spectator) and Sebastain (who got knocked down and kicked in the head during the scuffle) but we got the other team off to their showers and I settled up with the ref. Were there any red cards..no. Actually the ref called the game at that point and got the hell out of there. Still I am a bit embarrased as the boys showed me their bruised knuckles as they took the opportunity to get in a few licks.
When it was all said and done, felt like I was part of the team moreso now. I felt that the other members of the club looked up to me for protecting my kids and being for Tossa. I felt the pats on my back from unknown hands and knowing looks from that today and still I am feeling this today. It´s a good feeling.