Last game

On Sunday I played my last soccer game. I imagine I'll still be around and available next week, but I'd like to heal a bit and have all of my skin when I arrive in Hong Kong, so I'm sitting out that game.

This is the team that I've played with for 6 years now, being one of the founding members of the team. I've brought in my brother and my brother-in-law to play with us, as well as some other friends who only lasted a year or two.

It was kind of fitting that the game played out how it did. For the record, it was a nil-nil draw, which is somewhat appropriate as the team always has had defence as it's strong point. We've probably had the least turnover on the back line (where I play) as it's been the same 5 guys there for probably 3 or 4 years now. I played left back, as I've done for the last 3 or so years, since we acquired some height and I didn't have to play inside back anymore. I managed to stop a couple crosses, draw a couple fouls, take two or three people down with clean slide tackles and of course, go down in a heal as I took a shot to the testicular region. Oh, and I removed a layer of skin. I also got a yellow for an extremely late tackle that was deserved.

I'm going to miss the team a lot. The team went from being doormats the first 2 years (think 11-1 losses) to being one of the upper echelon teams of the middle division, and it was sometihng that I helped build. I'm going to miss the camraderie of the guys, and I'm going to miss playing with my brother and brother-in-law. I'm not going to miss the carpetburn from dry astroturf, and I'm not going to miss the sore ankles for 2 days after games, but they were definitely worth it.

Fokkers!