Tuesday, February 26th, 2008...8:40 am
Another Tortured Soccer Metaphor?
I used to be on an indoor soccer team in an over-30 league. Things went okay, until the league was changed to a regular adult league. All of a sudden, we were playing younger teams. We managed to get some younger players on our team too, but it didn’t do much good. We’d lose game after game.
The players were no worse than anyone else that was playing. On paper, we should have been, at worst, a shade under .500. Our competitors had their stuff together, and we didn’t.
These games would all go the same way, at least we were tied at the beginning. Sometime during the game and I’d look up at the scoreboard and see that we were being beaten 6-0 with about a bit more than 18 minutes left. At first I’d be thinking, we can score six in eighteen minutes. Then, they’d score again. I’d look back up at the scoreboard and it would read 17:20 left. This darned thing wasn’t going to end, ever, but we were compelled to keep going for reasons unknown to anyone.
At that point, the whole team would get frustrated with each other. I’d notice that I’d be kicking at ankles more than I did the ball. We’d yell at the referee for so many calls against us when nothing gets called on the other side, without realizing that the other side felt no need to foul.
Finally, the darned game would end. We’d walk away relieved more than anything else.
I don’t know why I thought of this.
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