first time as head coach

I am so trying to enjoy my day after my soccer team won last night's game (7-2) and I was the only coach on the bench. We played against Histolaric at home but I knew this team has not done well in the first 9 games of the season. Still I was nervous about my Spanish and the referee did not make it easy.

We have a book with the player's paperwork in. Each player and coach is documented to play and before the game we present this book to the ref. Normally the book is all prepared and ready to go but with some of the lower aged kids given opportunities to play up, sometimes I have to go and arrange it quickly. Normally Jesús has this all done but of course he has been sick for some time and not able to come to the field, thus I have been entrusted with the team indefinitely. So if I am lacking in Spanish, I had better step it up. Normally I arrange the boys in order of jersey number. I was not told to do this but then again I guess the club can realize, despite language, that I am not some dummy.

Right before the game, the ref lines up the boys in the locker room and calls them out one by one. This is to check their equipment, jersey numbers and names to match the picture on their data sheets. I ran into a slight issue with Sebas since he wears #7 for the cadets and I have Lluc (yook) who also wears the same number. So I put a little tape on Sebas' jersey to turn his 7 into 71, since I also have a 17 on the team. Still I had a little issue with the arrangement of the boy’s player cards. I have now learned that I should put in the starting 11 in the front of the book and then the last 4 subs in the back. Normally we do not do this but it seemed to be a problem with the ref and I had to quickly change it.

Normally, I don't have such issues but one of my players and the captain, Benito, sometimes has a face of frustration when it comes to me. He is a great player. He controls the game and tempo very well and is probably the best ball handler I have ever seen. Still he has a way about his that can only be defined and confident and arrogant. These are not bad traits to have for a footballer as confidence can be the difference between a good player and a mediocre player. But as a coach, you spend way too much time putting him in line rather than coaching or some occasions. When this whole fiasco was happening with the ref, I could look in his face and see he wanted to help but it's frustrating for him and some of the boys to have to deal with a coach they cannot speak with easily. Sure most of the boys understand English as they are required to take it in school for many years. But his face told it all and made me that much more nervous and unfocused. He assisted me with ref but I knew he rather be on the field worming up rather than doing my job.

We had many players who were recovering from injury. Ramon and Lucito were both unable to play this week. Sebastian is still deciding if he wants to play after knee surgery, but we still have some more work for him to do to strengthen his knee and get his mind from worrying so much about it. I called up 5 cadets (lower team) to fill in my ranks but only 4 could make it. This was the first time I would work with 3 of them but I knew they were up for the challenge. Still, my Spanish is lacking so I did not understand the rules for player substitutions so I stayed on the side of caution and only changed 3 players in total, especially when I knew we had the game well in hand. The cool thing is despite being a goal down in the first 10 minutes; my boys were not afraid to keep pressing and quickly broke down the other team's defense and scored within 5 minutes of their goal. From then on it was a blood bath as we quickly ran up the score to be ahead 3-1 right before the break. Christian hurt his leg during a scramble near the top of the box which resulted in him injuring his leg and asked to be substituted out. I had to use my first sub of the game in the first half when I had planned on subbing him in at half time which is a free sub. Drats!!

They had a few threatening moments from their number 11 as I quickly made sure Najim picked up his marking responsibility to keep Christian clear since he was also playing with a sore back. Unfortunately, I put Najim in a difficult position as he picked up a yellow card for a tackle to clear the ball against Nº 11. The ref called the foul in the box but it was clear it was outside, resulting in a penalty for the other side. They converted and we went into the locker rooms 3-2. Still I was not worried.

I did my best in the locker room to commend the boys and keep them up so we can go out and finish this game off. I reminded them of what was needed to be done in the best Spanish I could muster. Funny, even though I brought Christian with me to the locker room to translate, his mother Helen is English, I don't think I needed him once to explain what I was trying to get across. We exited the locker room pumped up and ready to go.


The second half began and I admit and it was all a blur. I was counting my chickens sitting on the bench and had 3 people ready to go in when called. But with 2 subs left I was not sure how to get them all in for some playing time. I felt bad as I knew Albert, the youngest of all the players but still as effective as anyone else, we to suffer at my hands and not get in the game. I apologized to him but with the deficiencies I have in Spanish, I could not fully explain myself. Why do I feel this need to explain to the players? I think mostly because if this was an away game, I could have initiated the last change without fault. But being the home team, I did not have the luxury. Sometime in the second half when I knew I was not able to get this player on, his father came over in a rage and told him to get his things and let's go since his son was not playing. He did not say this directly to me but I caught the jest of it.

I was a bit torn on how I felt about this. One the one side I want to fit into this society. Coaching football, opening my own little shop and having a wife who is from here all helps but does not guarantee me a place in this small town. In order to make my assimilation into this culture smooth, I still have to be fair on the field, work hard in my shop and be nice to those people who I may not know who could be somehow related or good friends with someone that is a part of my wife's former life here. Still I feel like it has been all too easy for me so far. I have only had one bad time with someone here and that had nothing to do with language and more the character of person he was and his trying to take advantage of my business for his sake. That story I can tell you about later.

Still I am trying to sit pretty in our glorious victory last night and look forward to next week's game away against an even poorer team.