football life

 

Playing soccer is the only hobby that throws me off the hook. I not only get to run, juggle the ball, yell at my friends every second so we don’t lose the game and swear all the time...but I actually get to free all the negative energy that’s been running through my veins throughout the day.

We practice 4times a week, and we play one game every Sunday. Everybody comes to watch, the friends, the family, so the more you show off, the better it gets by the end of the game, because humans, specifically teenagers always look for that admiration from those that are close to them, it’s the perfect time to get that attention.. sometimes it turns into a game of ego, where there’s no teamplay, and of course, we lose quite often.

We learn from our losses, our coach understands our immature little minds, but never let us get away with it, he gets us ready for every game, making it clear that the consequences to any childish or egotistical behavior, will be cruel. I personally laugh at him, because I never take anything seriously when I’m not playing, but once we step on the field, nothing matters, everything vanishes, the problems, the stress, the thoughts, the negativity, the fear of losing. Winning is the only word that runs through my mind.

People look at sports as a way or a method to be healthy, to lose weight, to enjoy the food, to give the sweet tooth what it wants after sweating a little bit, but the less majority, the people that’ve invested themselves into a specific sport, know that it’s not only physical, it’s mostly mental, because your body gives up before it empties all the energy that It’s got, and that’s when the mental strength comes into play, that’s when you think of resisting and pushing yourself to get a few more steps, to run a couple more yards so you don’t fail your team, score that goal you’ve been bragging about to your family for the past month so you don’t disappoint them, think of all the struggles you went through, and see where you’re at, an all you can  think of is “get something out of that pain”. Soccer taught me some of this, it’s real.

When the summer was around the corner, that’s when we usually play our last games right before we finish school, the coach gathered us in a café, to discuss the plan for the next few weeks, his exact same words to start off the discussion were “no more bullshit, we are here to WIN” I smiled at him, he almost threw his cup at me, made me shut my mouth for a second. We got to talk, we had a laugh about our coach, how stupid he looks when he’s angry, but it was a good time to remember what we’ve been through during this year, the struggles, the tears, the pain, the fights, it’s astonishing to me how time runs so fast that it’s starting to make no sense, how much time we spend complaining, talking about what we want to do, wasting time, planning everything ahead of us, dwelling about the past, making excuses for what we are supposed to do, while we need to be looking at what we have instead of what we don’t have. I genuinely believe that it’s about the mindset, the perspective, it’s how you look at your life that triggers everything either into progress and success, or to permanent pain and suffering. From which angle you’re looking at it?

The due date to the match was the 18^th June, so we had about 3weeks to get ready, everybody was thrilled to play against the other team, the enthusiasm in those training sessions was staggering, day in day out, we sweat, we yell at each other, all of it coming out of love, no holding grudges between us. We had no days off, and miraculously, none of us was exhausted because of the long extreme 20days of training, all of us were fired up to beat the other team up.

The day finally came, we played with no stress, despite the presence of the tremendous number of the audience watching us, we had fun during the game, all went smooth, not even nearly what we expected.

It’s about giving it a 100%, so when the opponent comes, you’re ready for all challenges that might come along with it. The score was 5-1, all of them were pissed, and all I could think of was :“how does it feel to lose, when you prepare so hard for something that you believe during your journey that success is the only way out and failure is just a myth? Does it encourage you, or crush you?”