As mentioned previously, my goal for the next couple months was to win one of my indoor soccer league games... Well, tonight we had our second game... and an event it was...
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This time we came much better prepared. We added a few members to the team to help out, and we all had already played on the turf once, thus we knew what to expect. Confidently, my team was ready out onto the field.
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I, on the other hand, was nervous. I don't know quite why, but I imagine that it was because I really wanted to win, and whenever I want something very badly, I tend to get nervous and screw everything up.
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Before the game, we had the chance to loosen up on the field. I maybe loosened myself up too much, because I became a little irrational. Someone had popped the ball up in front of the goal, and I decided to try my never-before-seen-nor-attempted bicycle kick. I was in the process of lifting up my leg, when I relized that O.C. (the nickname I chose for my roommate), acting as goalie, was running to catch the ball. Well, I tried to abort, but such a feat is difficult to back out of, as you can imagine, and O.C. ended up crashing into my left knee. I then followed by crashing onto the ground in pain, and began to limp off, dropping a few minor curses. After I decided that walking was futile, I laid myself out flat on the turf, and realize that this might be a bit more serious than just a simple bang-up.
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You see, while working at a local restaurant 2 years ago, I had a large tray lifted over my head, while climbing some stairs to reach the party I was serving. On about the second to last step, I felt an indescribable jolt of pain from the very same knee. My table heard my moan and saw my limp, asked what was wrong, and then still tipped me badly. And I didn't even drop the tray! How's that for appreciation?!
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Ever since then, I've still felt the pain. Partly for the bad tip, and even more for the bad knee. I still feel it whenever climbing up a large staircase. The knee that is, not the tip. But usually I can avoid the pain by running up the stairs, strangely enough.
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So, there I was, with what was becoming a worse knee than had been just a bad knee before. But I streched it out, shook out the pain a little, and kept going. By this time the game had been going for a few minutes.
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The team captain then called me out for a sub. I ran, a little awkwardly, to our goal where the opposing team was making an attempt at goal. Shortly after ariving at the scene, and stressing that I had only been on the field for maybe, i don't know, 3 seconds?, and I suddenly got a face full of soccer ball, given to me well-intended by my other teammate. Now, this wasn't just a simple grazing of my cheek, it was a right-on-target bullseye. I don't remember too much what happened to that, but I do remember my captain calling me back in after 3 seconds with, "Sub, Tom, sub!" and I know I had to recalibrate a bit before getting further into the game. Unfortunately, I lost my left contact, which typically would be a mere inconvenience, but when playing a sport that requires a great deal of depth-perception, I was even more handicapped.
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So, I played out the rest of the game, with a limp and one eye squinted. My vision was so poor, I often couldn't connect with the ball, and kicked high when the ball rolled underneath me. It was embarassing, but I still wanted to give my team my best.
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We lost 6-1, despite the good effort showed by my teammates. But honestly, I left very upset, with my knee still aching.
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I did regardless have one bright thought, when considering my knee. David Beckham just hurt his knee earlier this week. Maybe this is a confimation that David and I really have a connection, and I am destined to be a soccer star? Sounds reasonable to me...
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But we have a game monday, and I plan, knee-willing, to go running everyday (except sun., of course) to improve my skills.
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One other thing. So apparently, O.C. believes that the population of Shanghai, China is greater than the population of the U.S. According to Wikipedia, he's wrong, fyi.
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