Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Beautiful Game

The best thing about summer is undoubtedly a sprawling green soccer pitch and a nice long-ball that lands at the feet. This is rivalled only by a perfect through-ball that springs a player free. I have not had opportunity to play soccer much the last two years but a few things have brought a resurgence of the sport to my heart of late:

1) My two sons have both begun playing in the local kid's league. They both scored their first goals last night. It is hard to remember the last time I was so thrilled. The youngest scored and simply turned around with a smirk and walked confidently back to center. The oldest could hardly contain himself. He was the first player I've seen in the U6 league to launch the ball off the ground and get all net. It was fantastic. This day will long be remembered.

2) Champion's League has been as exciting as ever. Today Chelsea meets Manchester United and we're watching the game on the big screen at Starbucks.

3) We don't have cable, so having Toronto FC games on CBC on Saturday's has filled a gaping hole in what used to be a wonderful weekend routine for me. I've actually been pretty impressed with the quality of game in the MLS, and the Toronto fans are awesome.

4 comments:

Tony Tanti said...

I love the description of the boys celebrations but I could us more detailed descriptions of the goals themselves.

What a great day that must have been for you proud parents.

Anonymous said...

Yes - more details!!

Jon Coutts said...

Brady scored two. Both breakaways apparently. I didn't get to watch them. He says he stole the ball from a guy on one of them and shot it in the net.

Elijah's was a ball near the edge of the crease in a crowd that he managed to squirt across the top of the crease (imagine a crease with me about the size of a hockey crease) and as it came across he ran with it and put his right foot into it from the edge of the crowd and got his laces into it and put it a foot off the ground into the back of the net. It was really quite something. He scored again tonight too.

Tony Tanti said...

Awesome! Thanks for the descriptions, I can picture them now.

Tell them Uncle Dave is wicked proud.

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