It's been three years since I've played the glorious game of football. This past Sunday I had the chance to get back into the game in my university's intramural leagues on a co-rec team. It felt pretty good to be back running around kicking the crap out of a leather sphere. It felt even better to play with a mixed gender team; I always thought that playing with boys was better than playing with all girls. I thought they put less drama into the game, unless it was for a reason. My pleasure however was a bittersweet pill.
A word about my team: this was the first time we've all played together, so naturally I wasn't expecting plays to connect right away. I would compare the composition to a typical American Youth Soccer Organization team: a few excellent players, a handful of about average players and still a few who have the capacity to be good but need a little push to be more assertive and aggressive.
Unfortunately, our first game was definitely not the best I've ever played with a team. From what I understood, we were up against a team where about half or more of them played on the club team. It started out as good fun, but before the first half even ended it had become a bloodsport. In my opinion, they were total assholes, with no sense of honor or respect to us. To my knowledge, there is no existing slaughter rule in this league, so that apparently encouraged this opponent to be complete dicks and score goal after goal, no holds barred. What made it even worse was in the second half; I was the keeper, and as keeper I am by default the captain of the defense. As I was calling out instructions, I could hear their substitutes making snide comments. At one point, two of their players started taking dives in an attempt to pull a sympathy call. The first time they succeeded, but the second time I took the guy out while making a legitimate pass for the ball. He of course made obnoxious loud noises and tried to pull a penalty kick out of it, even though I had only clipped him and still managed to get the ball. To rub salt in the wound, they had the nerve to still tell me "Nice save" and "Good game." Good game my ass.
I can't even remember the last time I've been that enraged. While that second diver was on the ground I considered kicking and punching his face into the backside of his skull. All I could allow myself to do though was snap at him to get up. Quite frankly I'm surprised that's all I did. I suppose subconsciously I knew it wasn't worth the brief satisfaction of beating the shit out of him in front of the crappy referees. Regardless, I have no respect for people who quibble over the scorekeepers not changing the score fast enough or those who don't know when enough is enough. That however does not justify instigating a fight on the field of play. Overall it's not worth the card, or a possible permanent ejection from the team.
I can only hope karma comes back around someday and splatters their stupid asses all over the astroturf. Then maybe, just maybe, they might understand what it's like to see when a game no longer is a game, but an embarrassment on their part when they create that big of a margin between scores.
AdventureTime in College: The Confrontation Consideration
