So the summer season ended on saturday and I’m proud to announce that Zambezi played in the last game. Overall, we played great soccer. Winning 7 out of a total of 10 games, drawing 1 and losing to only one team is an achievement to be proud of.
Yesterday, I scored my first goal in about a year. It was a great feeling to know that my mojo still exists. I’m, however, suffering from pretty severe shin splints. My movements since the game have been very limited. On the bright side, I have an excuse to be a couch potato for a while.
I’m signing up for one last soccer season. It’s a new Nike turf field. Quitting now will be terrible thing to do.
Early saturday morning, Coco woke me up to inform me that Ghana’s Black Stars had beaten South African 2-0 in Johannesburg. It was a pleasant surprise. Like many others, I was expecting, at best, a 1-1 draw. You know, they say there’s always a time and a place. I guess the place is Germany and the time, now.
I am finally beginning to accept that my high energy days are a thing of the past. Yesterday, I got onto the pitch at Randolf and Ogden to see if I could recreate what I used to be so good at doing. I sucked. The enthusiasm is still there. The desire to win is still there. But the energy has vanished.
Zambezi’s next soccer season starts late June and I’m wondering whether or not I have what it takes to go through another season. Spring hasn’t been easy. I pulled a hamstring during the second game of the season and that largely contributed to my inability to perform as expected in subsequent games. It just seems a little pathetic that I could go through an entire season without scoring a goal when barely a year ago, I averaged 1.2 goals a game.
I guess that’s a part of life. I’m heading towards the stage where I join the fans. Perhaps Zambezi and I would be better off if I stand by the sidelines and cheer — or boo. If I bow out this summer, at least I’ll go knowing that I had some pretty good moments. But it’s going to be tough to say goodbye. I have so much love for the game.
It was winter in the West. Back in Accra, the dry harmattan winds were in full effect. Ghana had just won the youth world cup a few months earlier in Italy. At that time, the ultimate hero you could find in town was a soccer star. Those of us who were too young, too unskilled to be heroes were smart enough to associate ourselves with the real ones. Every kid had an adopted name in addition to their given name. With a felt pen, I wrote mine on the back of a levi t-shirt my visiting uncle had bought me from Cambridge, Massachusetts. My name was Alex Opoku, the midfield maestro and captain of the Ghana youth team that won the World Cup. I was unfazed by the jealousy of my peers. I knew I played just like him, if not better. The only difference was that I was 12 and he was 17, allegedly.
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Count down to the rematch. I’m retaking the LSAT on December 6. Unfortunately I haven’t been as disciplined in my preparation as I would have liked. But that’s me. I can’t believe the year’s almost over. I’m still trying to figure out what my greatest accomplishments have been this year. Oh I have an idea. I should make a list of my high points in each sphere of my life this past year. Of course the most notable will be my scoring 9 goals in a 9 game season. I still don’t know how I was able to do that given that the previous year, I managed only one. Thierry Henry in the making!
And while we’re on the subject of soccer, I should probably tell you my latest experiences officiating an adult co-ed indoor soccer league. First, while it sounds simple and easy, it’s not. Unless of course the teams playing are just there for fun and don’t care whether or not they win — but that’s hardly ever the case. I’ll admit, I’m soft. Heck, timid sometimes. But when I reach that threshold, I can be brutal.
So there was this 7pm game I was officiating. (more…)