Random Amateur Soccer Observations - Page 3

The Spanish league is the worst. I tried to watch a game the other night at a pub and stopped after few minutes; they'd dive and be looking at the ref and appealing with hands up before they even hit the ground.

I played from primary throughout high school as a defender though I haven't played since I migrated here. Playing during a downpour was the best in those days, as soon as I'm done with college I will definitely start playing again.

love playing soccer. played when i was young, got chosen to move up in leagues and was kicked off for fooling around. i was about 8 then, i quit and then started playing basketball. i took up soccer again in gr 11 to get into shape for basketball season. now i play for fun and its amazing.
and flountainman i think a lot of those injuries are just due to people not knowing how to play properly. ofcourse injuries can happen and can be bad because of the speed the sports played at. the worst is playing with the italian "ginos". theyll try and fight every time they fall or get touched. ofcourse theyre a bunch of pussies but theyre annoying as fuck.

I took up the game later in life also, after playing the usual USA sports. I agree with your point about the women, a very underrated feature of soccer - lot of slim, fit women play the game.

I'm driving 40 miles tonight to play in a pickup game I found on craigslist.com

Haven't played in over a month and am getting desperate

Pushing three months now and feel just as desperate.

I am not sure if it was because I was young and didn't notice it but I could have sworn diving in professional soccer (or flopping) was no where near as common as it is today.

Maybe we're better at catching them with our enhanced video technology?

These tactics are immitated at the amateur level naturally.

I saw ronaldinho and company play against the chicago fire a couple years ago, and flopping is all those guys were doing. Nonetheless, it was one hell of an experience, and would urge everyone in the chicago area to try out a fire game.

my move of the week during a pickup game: i did a rainbow over the defender, controlled with my forehead, then volleyed a shot and ... hit the crossbar

If you're new to the game and don't really understand passing yet, it's best to play with Africans, as they will share your disinclination towards passing. In all seriousness, I find most adult soccer leagues to be really fucking annoying, because a significant percentage of the players are complete douchebags. They play dirty, and I have seen my fair share of very serious injuries occur because you've got large men in the open field with shitty home lives and often a dollop of class- or race-based anger playing dickbag soccer with overmatched, underattentive referees and essentially no consequences. I've long since given up on outdoor and when I play now it's usually co-rec indoor. The women keep the game under control, and there's a much better ref : player ratio.

some of the most intense games i played were with [west] africans. had to be quick in thinking and reacting because otherwise meant broken bones.

I joined a local Futsal team. For those unfamiliar, Futsal is basically 5-on-5 mini-soccer. It's generally played indoors, but it's not like indoor soccer because there are no walls - balls that go OB are kicked back in. I play outdoors on a turf / pellet field, but the place I go to is a little higher end. Anyway its a blast and the guys that play with me are insanely talented. One of my friends is helping me train, he played soccer professionally in Japan, Australia and Switzerland as a striker. He was even on Japan's generally strongest team, Nagoya Grampus. I'm shit, but it's definitely the most fun sport to play IMO. Also there are no injuries in Futsal except self-inflicted ones. The skills you need are more technical than soccer. Most of the best Brazilian players do Futsal in the off-season.

futsal is great for ball control, and there's no question it does amazing things for your ball skills. i hate it though. it puts an emphasis on a lot of things i do poorly, and takes away the need for the things I do well. And at my age and with the time I have to dedicate to building my skills, I have no desire to be off learning new soccer shit.

i play futsal sept-april once or twice a week. smaller no-bounce ball is great can do so many (useless) tricks and then playing outdoors with a size 5 is far easier in comparison. though I have seen people get injured and not always self-inflicted. it can be a bit rougher on the knees since hard court but get yaself some mizuno indoors. in general i prefer turf shoes even on grass fields, the rubber studs give me enough traction and no pitch here is ever watered regularly enough to warrant blades let alone metal spikes