The beautiful game

The world cup began on June 11th and in honor of the world’s most popular sporting event, I decided to write a blog about soccer.  One of the amazing things about the World Race is the variety of opportunities that the Lord gives you.  I have been a big soccer fan for several years and I love playing.  I knew going into the race that it was “the world’s sport”, but for some reason, I didn’t really expect to play at all.  Boy was I wrong.  Soccer, like running is therapeutic for me and God knew I would need a lot of therapy this year 😉  Here is a break down of all the places I’ve played the beautiful game this year.

 

Ireland

 

This was the one country I though that I would get a chance to play in, but alas, no football for me.  You’ll have to make do with Ireland’s biggest enemy.

Romania

 

I played probably four or five times in Romania, mostly in a gymnasium near the village in which we were living.  I also got to play in a sweet indoor stadium in Brasov, complete with astro turf and fans.  Highlight?  Our contact Adi was the captain of an all-Romanian team playing against a group of Americans.  He chose me over some other Romanian dude.  Is it girly to squeal?

 

Montenegro

 

Didn’t expect this at all, but we got to play soccer almost every day on teh beach.  Although most of the time it was against overweight vacationing Australian kids, there were a couple of times I got to play against legitimate competition.  Then, in our second location, another excellent astro turf facility.  I have discovered an amazing truth – if you start playing soccer in public, people come out of the wood work to play or watch.  Great ministry tool…

 

Israel

 

I arrived in Israel and crawled into bed.  I crawled out two weeks later to fly home to be treated for a rare bacterial infection.  I didn’t play soccer this month.  Do video games count?

 

Turkey

 

Got to play three times in a cool astro-turf place.  These things are all over European cities where there isn’t enough space for a real grass field.  The only problem was that it was about 1am by the time we started.  Still, it helped us build a solid relationship with Nurgeldi, a Muslim from Turkministan with whom we shared a lot about Jesus.

 

Uganda

 

We played almost every day here, on a dirt field near where we lived.  It was the first time we got to play 11 v 11 and Geoff and I impressed so much that we were asked to play with the local club team in a tournament.  Geoff ended up scoring about five goals in the run and I had a few assists.  It was a blast and TOTALLY different from soccer in eastern Europe

 

Kenya

 We got to take part in a couple of training sessions with a local secondary school team.  It was pretty cool to be a part of something organized, but we never really played a game, just scrimmaged.  One of our last days saw us visit the island of Lamu.  I was walking along the beach and some African yelled up to me, “YOU!!  Come play!”  So I did.  This was the highlight of my international soccer career.  When a mzungu (white guy) entered the fleld (or beach) of play, people started to gather and by the second game there were probably fifty people or so watching.  There was one guy who totally thought he owned the beach – you could tell.  At one point, I stole the ball from him, pulled the ball across my body and (very luckily, I admit) nutmegged him and scored.  If you don’t know what that means, google it.  The crowd erupted and I looked up to see my friend Nick surrounded by a huge group of cheering Africans and he just laughed and shook his head.  I shrugged.  It was awesome.

Me on the beach in Lamu

 

Tanzania. 

Unfortunately, we never played, although we did get a good deal of basketball in.

Philippines

Once again, we didn’t play any soccer.  If you’ve been to the Philippines, you know it’s absolutely basketball CRAZY.  We played b-ball every day.

 

Cambodia

 When we were in Phnom Penh, we went to a nearby stadium to go jogging, but when I saw that the exterior was crawling with futsal games (futsal is a soccer ball that is smaller and heavier than a regular ball.  This helps it to stay on the ground more and is used in games with a smaller area or smaller number of players), I skipped the run and played street soccer.

 

Thailand

 

Probably my favorite one of all, we got to the YWAM base in Bangkok and I climbed up to the roof to get my bearings.  Down on the street I noticed a lot of people getting together to play.  I was so excited I just ran down and started playing.  I didn’t speak a word of Thai, they didn’t speak a word of English, but we played and it was a blast.