Countdown to a New Season

By: Sean | September 11th, 2009

10 …weeks since the last match of your previous recreational soccer season. Your weekends have been curiously devoid of anticipation and the local park kick-around, while enjoyable, just doesn’t scratch the itch, so to speak. You genuinely find yourself missing the regular Sunday rush of competitive league play.

9 …days on vacation. No soccer. At all. Your ankles don’t ache for once when you get out of bed and the left knee doesn’t pop when you go up stairs two at a time anymore, but too many Long Island Ice Teas found a happy home in your belly during your time off. Your soccer shorts fit a little tighter around the waistband than you remember.

8 …new teams in your division when the upcoming league schedule is published. It is a little easier to visualize yourself on a pitch against a team that has a name, sure, but what the hell kind of skills does a team called “Stud Muffins FC” really have, anyway?

7 …days before Match Day One. You realize in exactly one week, at exactly this very time, you will be making overlapping runs, going to ground, and gasping for breath as a 22 year old kid tries to repeatedly nutmeg you. And it will be awesome.

6 …P.M., three days before the weekend. Only seven members of your team show up for the last pre-season practice. You work on corner kicks for fifteen minutes and then scrimmage on small goals until you get kicked off the field by a City-sanctioned coed kickball league.

5 …new players on your roster, including a former semi-professional midfielder and a Brazilian striker who only goes by a single name. These two players alone should ensure at least a .500 season.

4 …socks in the bottom of your sports bag that match your team’s uniform. One of them didn’t get washed after last season. Two others have holes in the heel, but you are sure that you scored a game winning goal in at least one of the four socks, so you pull the least odorous lucky garments on for the hundredth time and leave for the field.

3 …cell phone calls from your team, confirming the match details. Is it Parkwood Field #2 or Woodfield Park #12? Is kick-off at 1:00 p.m. or do we have to be there at 1:00 p.m. to set up the nets? Do you have my jersey from last season, because I can’t seem to find it?

2 …hours before kick-off and you are lugging the old corner flags and net bag out of the trunk of your car. It smells of dried mud and turf and sweat and synthetic leather and menthol muscle rub and for the briefest of moments it is the most glorious smell in the world.

1 …minute to go before kick-off. Your heart starts to beat just a little faster and a familiar rush of exhilaration and uncertainty flashes through you. You are five years old again in your first jamboree. You are starting with the varsity high school team for the very first time. And you are a middle-aged adult, ankles taped almost to the point of immobility, drunk on Gatorade and pumped to the recommended daily dosage of ibuprofen to get you through another ninety minutes of pub league football. And you wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

The referee looks down at his watch, motions to the keepers, and puts the whistle to his lips.

TWEET!

To all my fellow Weekend Warriors anxiously awaiting the start of your respective recreational soccer leagues this autumn, I bid you all good fortunes on the pitch and a safe season. Good luck!