Full speed ahead !

   It was rather unexpected. It came to a point where I assumed I would never be able to touch the ball again. But overnight, things turned around. I was nearly out of the soccer team of MRCET which played only one tournament ever, at ICFAI and was crushed to a 2-1 defeat by NIFT in near darkness. Our weak players and low experience made us easy targets that ‘night’. But today was different.

 

I was somehow pushed into the team, and I begged Kamaz, the captain to place me in the reserves. Instead he gave me a place in the Subs, which is more than what I could ask for. It’s been nearly an year that I played soccer, or even touched the ball for a few minutes. And suddenly this tournament comes up and I find myself in it. It was rather unexpected.

 

It was rather unexpected. I was standing with the team. Most of the players were first years, seemingly inexperienced. It’s the first thing that comes across your mind when you see first years. I stuck to my place in the subs and stayed that way all day long. The team that I was seeing around me was different from last time (2 Years ago!). There was grit in everyone’s face. There was confidence, and nervousness and some occasional humour too. I didn’t know what to expect from the opponent teams but had a certain amount of faith in my team. After a few hours’ wait, the team took to the field, and I took a seat in the bench. It was fun watching from the sidelines anyway. Especially because it was a 20 min per half game which meant teams should hit 5th gear within a minute. There’s no time to settle, there’s no time to play around.

 

Game 1: We had a positive kick off. We dominated for 7-8 minutes and only once did the ball enter our court. That was the moment when everything fell apart. There was panic and defenders were scrambling for cover. The opponent striker from Gurunanak held the ball for a few seconds just 6 feet away from the post, looked for an empty corner, and casually took a shot. Maybe he even had a cup of tea which I didn’t notice! We gave away the first goal like the most unselfish people on earth. We had to strike back. And surprisingly enough, the attacking players kept their cool while the defense was still making mistakes. We quickly grabbed a messy finish which looked like an own goal, but two of our players claimed the last touch was theirs. So taking all versions into consideration, I think the ball touched about 5-6 players before entering the goal. 1-1 gave us some confidence and improved the movement. Soon, we were back into dominating the game after that it all looked like a breeze. We slotted home 3 more to finish 4-1 and were more than pleased with result. The next game was scheduled at 3:00 PM.

 

Game 2: VNR looked like a fancy dress team with the theme being red. Each was dressed in his own favourite team jersey while trying to make sure it’s dominant colour was red. In the match that they beat the host college, we found 3 ManUtd Jerseys in the attack and a few Milan jerseys in the defense. There were 2 C. Ronaldos (we named them Left Ronaldo and Right Ronaldo) and a Rooney attacking, and they did a pretty good job living up to the reputation. Our game with them would definitely be tough. The Winter heat was dehydrating us at an alarming pace. I was again confined to the bench and watched the match from tent which did nothing to prevent the heat from the 3:00 PM sun. The tire was visible. To add to that, our poor players were made to stand in the hot sun for some high profile ‘dignitaries’ having a photo session and some weird shawl ceremony. There were 5 men who were honoured by wrapping a shawl. The Photo session was a headache, and the men were given some ‘Life Time achievement Award’ kinda thing which delayed the process 10 fold. In all this, our team took the beating from the sun. The opponents were not fully charged too, but our team looked weaker. Players weren’t charging towards the ball, they weren’t sprinting, they were almost lazing around. The defense looked terribly weak again. 3 minutes into the game which felt like 30 minutes, there was a shot from the mid-field. The ball harmlessly soared across half the pitch almost lazily and suddenly entered the goal. We were stunned. Our team was ahead. The shot of the day gave us the lead. After that, it was back to that lazy play and nearly 95% broken defense. We had a few scary moments and a few delightful moments but none of them were converted and the game ended 1-0. We won for a second time in the day, which was again more than what we could ask for. It was 4:30 PM and I could take no more of the sun. I literally fled from the place. I told just one guy that I was leaving. This is still January which is technically Winter, and the heat was worse than what we felt during summer, and the dryness rubbed salt on the injuries. Oh yeah! Injuries. Nearly 5 players were injured in various circumstances, one player suffered from cramps in his legs, and the star player raised an alarm after he started to feel dizzy, but recovered soon. The team had a positive result at the end of the day but suffered heavily from physical injuries and heat.

 

That was my day today. And though I sat on the bench the whole day, I took a severe thrashing from the sun too, it’s high time we realized the effects of Global Warming. Tomorrow’s game is at 8 in the morning, and my strength has been drained out so badly that I can’t think of collecting myself up to reach that soccer ground 30 KM away that too, early in the morning…

 

I need sleep, and it should be dreamless..

 

Long live, my fvourite game in the world.