The soccer field

There is one place where I can go to get away from it all. Free from the stresses of life. Free from responsibility. Free from being an adult. The soccer field.

Playing soccer is one of my passions in life. I love it because it allows me to be a kid again, getting to spend time with the boys. The competition allows me to relieve all my stresses and it’s fun (when we win of course).

The most memorable game I’ve ever played in happened when I was 18 years old. My team, the Halifax City Wanderers, was playing in the provincial semi-final match against our archrivals, Halifax Dunbrack. This game was very important for me personally because our opponent was a team I played for my entire life leading up to that season. I left a lot of friends behind to play for the Wanderers, coached by my uncle.

The game took place at the end of August. It was a scorcher. I tried to load up on carbs and fluids before the big game and tried not to think about it too much. A lot of my friends on the other team started the trash talk in the days leading up to the game. They thought we didn’t even belong in the playoffs and that we were going to be humiliated. I was really nervous. I didn’t think we had a chance against them.

I got to the field an hour before game time. Put my gear on as I normally would – shorts first, then my shin guards and soccer socks, followed by my jersey, with my head down the entire time. I looked up and saw the crowd. We normally didn’t get many spectators for soccer games, but this one was different. There had to be over one hundred people. Then the goose bumps appeared. I’d never felt this way before any game. I looked around at some of my teammates. They seemed nervous too.

I grabbed a soccer ball and started my normal routine of juggling, dribbling and passing the ball around. I always wanted to get a good feel for the ball before games. Plus, I didn’t want to stop because I knew that the nerves would set in again. Our team warmed up on one side of the field. I refused to look over at the other side because I could just envision some of my friends starring over at our team.

When the game began, tensions were high. I had to put friendships aside for a few hours because on this day, they were my enemies. The first time I touched the ball, I took a hard tackle from one of my friends on the other team. I looked at him afterwards and he just glared at me. I think he was trying to intimidate me, but that didn’t happen. The tackle only motivated me and the nerves disappeared.

The playing conditions weren’t the best. We were playing on a grass field that had a lot of pot holes. The ball was bouncing all over the place and we had to be careful not to turn an ankle. As the game wore on, fatigue started to set in. It had to be almost 30 degrees outside and my legs were getting tired. In the second half, they felt like jelly. I knew that I didn’t have a lot of gas left in the tank.

We were losing 1 to 0 when I was able to lose the player who was marking me and make a run down the field. One of my teammates saw that I was open and sent a long pass to me near the goal. I knew that if I got control of the ball, I was on a breakaway. Both of my hamstrings began to cramp up as I challenged for the ball in the air against an opponent. I ended up getting to the ball first and headed it down in front of me. I looked forward and saw only the goalie to beat. All of a sudden, I took a hard tackle from behind. One of their players had chopped my legs from under me. I hit the ground hard face first. Then I blacked out for a couple of minutes.

I snapped out of it to see my uncle starring at me with a few players in the background looking on. My uncle was asking me questions like “Are you ok?” “Do you know where you are?” I felt really groggy, but I knew that there was another problem. My vision was blurred looking out of my right eye. I had lost one of my contact lenses.

I had to play the rest of the game with a headache, blurred vision and two cramped hamstrings. Not a pretty sight, but I refused to stop playing. I couldn’t because we had to win the game.

We eventually tied the game late in the second half and won the game in a shootout.

For about three hours of my life, I was able to free myself of stress and responsibilities and follow one of my passions, on the soccer field.