I just came back from a soccer match with a
local team from Kerala. It was a fairly easy game for us, beating the visitors
5-0. I too scored a goal; it was my second goal in my whole college career. It
has been 3 years since my first match that I played with my team. I came a long
way from being a rookie with nothing but pure power in the legs to a play maker
with proper skills and judgment navigating the whole team. I played in almost
all the positions for my team through the years ( stopper , center defense ,
right/left wing back , right/left mid field , center mid/play maker... you get
the point ) except the goalie position , if I get a chance I will play in
that position too.
Today I was playing at center midfield for my team. It was a bit difficult at
first because it was a relatively new position for me and i was not quite used
to dribble a lot and hence this was not a cakewalk for me. But, I definitely
could sense that my skills and judgment improving match after match. The main reason was the proper feedback and encouraging criticism of my coach - Akbar sir ( The matches i played in Purdue also helped a little bit ). This was
the fourth match we played in this semester .One could say that we are in kind
of a winning spree as we won the previous matches 2-0 ,6-0,5-1 . Today's match
was not supposed to be an easy one but the visitors had petite stamina and
hence it turned out to be a cake walk for us. We pushed the visitors right from
the kick off (which was at 6:30 AM!!! – damn too early) and the ball found my
right foot at the 6th minute. There was about 20 yards distance
between me and the goal. I thought I could take a chance at the goal, so I nudged
the ball a little forward just enough to give me proper space to take a decent
swish at the ball. I suddenly realized that there were three huge defenders
charging towards me, so I had very little time. I managed to kick the ball with
just enough power and just enough swerve away from the goal keeper.
The next thing I know
the ball was in the net and I was ecstatic, I could feel the adrenaline rushing
through my blood vessels and was shouting at the top of my voice and hugged my
teammates. As I mentioned before, this was my second goal in my whole college
career for my team- IITH FC, so I was really euphoric after scoring the goal. From
then on we dictating the terms for the entire match, our defense were seldom
tested and our goalie just got the ball twice during the whole match. The ball
found the net another four times before the final whistle was blown. I then
realized that I could never live without playing football. I totally could get
why many players in the professional arena return back the football world in
their 40s and 50s as coaches, trainers and managers. A true football fan can
never leave football once he /she started playing the beautiful game. The
adrenaline rush that one gets after scoring a goal, after a successful tackle,
after a beautiful assist or a perfect cross is unmatched and cannot be got in
any other moments in life.
Football ~ My soul ------- A blog by Aswin Reva
PS: I keep using soccer as well as football in
my blog because to me the name of the game doesn’t matter, it’s the game itself
that should be respected and cherished.
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