Everyone has at least one person that they would do almost anything in the world to meet. One person that they idolize, worship, dream about being, so on so forth. Meeting this person could have potentially life-long implications on your future. However, not everyone gets a chance to meet his or her role model. For some, this may be a bigger deal than for others. I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet my high school role model. Brace yourself, because if you can’t take what I’m about to say you’re not going to be able to get through this blog. In the summer of 2002 I traveled to Chicago, Illinois to see my favorite (at the time) soccer player in the world. David Beckham, and his team Manchester United toured across the United States playing “friendlies” against other European clubs and some of America’s finest.Before I get into my encounter with David Beckham, I’d like to give a little background on my interest in the man and the sport. I began playing soccer when I was age six. I was not good then, but that didn’t matter to me. At that age the only thing I was concerned about was playing the game and having fun. Showing up to the Rec. fields of Ballston Spa, New York on a Saturday morning for soccer became a ritual for both my parents and me. Any time I missed a game, for any reason, I was utterly devastated. It was almost as if without the game I was missing a part of my life. As the years went by and I got older my interest in soccer changed from just wanting to play to wanting to be the best. I suppose that change in interest is probably shared with many children growing up playing their respective sports. But by the time I entered high school I had been attending two
or three soccer camps a year, playing the sport year ‘round, and my dreams of becoming a professional soccer player seemed to become more realistic. So as a freshman in high school I tried out for the Varsity team, the only freshman in my school to do so. My older brother Adam, a junior at the time was also trying out for Varsity. I couldn’t help but think about how cool it would to be on the same team as my brother. That however, would all change over the next two years of playing Varsity soccer. Early in my first year on the team my brother suffered a torn ACL and was sidelined for the remainder of the season. As a result I filled in his place and quickly elevated my level of play. When pre-season came around the following year, I would be a sophomore and my brother a senior, I made the Varsity again…this time with a little more ease than the previous year. However, due to my brother’s knee injury he was not as in-form as he had a year before. As a result, my coach awarded me with the same starting position I held the previous year, which had been my brother’s. He made the team, but rarely saw playing time, and was constantly criticized about his performance by the coach. I did not like being in the position I was in and tried many times to convince the coach to let my brother play and I could play elsewhere but throughout the season he wouldn’t have it. It was probably the most miserable I’ve been playing soccer…I can say that it was also my brother’s most miserable too. The following season, no surprise, I made the team again – third year running – but this is where my passion for soccer began to lessen. I had a terrible relationship with my coach, our team was young and we weren’t very good, and by the season’s end I was ready to throw in the towel. I had had enough soccer.
During the Spring and into Summer my coach had been fired and a new coach was hired. He had heard about me and didn’t want me to stop playing soccer. But my mind was almost set. My parents however, were doing everything they could to keep me playing. They knew just how much it meant to me. So during the summer my father purchased tickets for a Manchester United soccer game and the two of us went. The soccer game itself was disappointing, none of the players that I knew were actually playing, my favorite player included. But after the game, we hung around the stands for a while and up came David Beckham for autographs. As he was signing my jersey he was talking with everyone around about his passion for the game, and why people in America should take more interest in the sport. I don’t know if you know this or not, but many Americans think soccer to be boring, and not a sport for men. I never held that belief because I’ve endured the pains that go into training for soccer. But I can say at that precise moment I did a complete 180 from quitting to playing. I firmly believe that hearing Beckham say what he did has stayed with me, and will be something that I will pass along to my children in the future. So my final year in high school rolled around and I made the Varsity team for one last hoorah, and as a team we finished fifth out of eight teams in my conference…not really a good season. But I had probably my best season statistically yet. I attribute everything that I accomplished that year to having shaken hands with “the man” and taking in everything that he said.
Now I haven’t played soccer competitively in over four years, but my passion for the game has not diminished at all. Over the last several months, the UEFA Champions League has been airing games on ESPN2 during the day. I haven’t had a chance to catch most of the games, but the times I could watch them I took full advantage. The games aired during the afternoon, usually a 2:45 pm start, in live time (there is a six hour difference between us here in the States and Europe where the games are played). The cool thing is that the games are live and not pre-recorded, but I still have a problem with the timing of the games. Almost nobody has a chance to watch these games, save those who have nothing better to do in the middle of the week in the middle of the afternoon. I can concede that if the games were shown later the novelty of watching a live soccer match would be wasted. But for the children growing up and idolizing these players, and for us older fans a later telecast of the game could draw a bigger American fan-base. However, along the lines of the novelty of watching a live game – in this day in age – if a game were telecast later in the day people would be able to find out who won which game before it aired because of websites dedicated to the sport like ESPN’s soccernet. I’m not saying that soccernet is a bad tool for fans, it is actually a very useful tool. On the webpage fans can follow all of the leagues around the world, as well as international soccer news and results. Fans have instant access to players, teams, and many other useful forms of media.
The availability of information about soccer is so vast that I question why so many people jump to the quick conclusion that soccer is a boring and non-manly sport. I mean, I’ve been there, I’ve watched and played in many of those 0-0 and 1-0 drawn out soccer games, but that
doesn’t make them any less interesting to watch than a 9-3 American football game. The only difference is there are rules. While American football can be, at times, barbaric and downright brutal, soccer can be beautiful: just picture 7, 8, 9 passes strung together perfectly resulting in a goal off a striker’s head just out of the goalie’s reach. The fact of the matter is that soccer requires a great deal of skill. I’m not going to try to say that it’s more than the skills required of athletes in other sports, they’re just different…and that’s what needs to be appreciated. To see some of the World’s greatest doing what they do best click here.
Aside from the skills that some players possess, there is one attribute of soccer players all over the world that stands out the most to me…their fitness levels. Compared to other sports, soccer is one a few where play rarely stops (others that I can think of are lacrosse, ice hockey, and basketball…but there are timeouts and times where play is blown dead). The point I’m trying to stress here is that the amount of running and effort soccer players put into their sport is hard to overlook. Yet sooo many people do and even say that soccer players aren’t tough. During the Champion’s League games aired on television when substitutes come on for players they show the distance covered by the man being substituted out. On average the distance covered is roughly 8,000 meters or 8 kilometers. That’s over 5 miles, which is more than most athletes can say they’ve run in a competition (except maybe for a marathon runner). The other staggering concept to think about is that soccer is played competitively year ‘round. So for soccer players, they are training year ‘round and pushing their bodies to their limits more than any other athletes in any other sport. Again, I just want to stress that I’m not saying other athletes aren’t tough, or don’t train hard, I’m really just sick of hearing soccer players referred to as “pansies”. If anything really I just want you to know that soccer players train just as hard – if not harder – than athletes in other sports…and as a result of their training and dedication to soccer they deserve our respect, and in a sense our admiration.
Soccer, for me, has been my life-force since I was a young boy. To this day, I frequent the internet to read about trades and results, to listen to interviews done by my favorite players – and in some cases my least favorite players, to see highlight videos and pictures, and when I can’t see the games on television I can follow them play by play online. I encourage others to do the same as me. Many people forget that we have a league right here in the States, MLS. Most big cities have a team, and yes, Philadelphia is set to join the ranks of Major League Soccer in the next couple of years. Construction on a stadium located in Chester Pennsylvania is set to begin soon…paving the way for the introduction of professional soccer right in our back yard.
or three soccer camps a year, playing the sport year ‘round, and my dreams of becoming a professional soccer player seemed to become more realistic. So as a freshman in high school I tried out for the Varsity team, the only freshman in my school to do so. My older brother Adam, a junior at the time was also trying out for Varsity. I couldn’t help but think about how cool it would to be on the same team as my brother. That however, would all change over the next two years of playing Varsity soccer. Early in my first year on the team my brother suffered a torn ACL and was sidelined for the remainder of the season. As a result I filled in his place and quickly elevated my level of play. When pre-season came around the following year, I would be a sophomore and my brother a senior, I made the Varsity again…this time with a little more ease than the previous year. However, due to my brother’s knee injury he was not as in-form as he had a year before. As a result, my coach awarded me with the same starting position I held the previous year, which had been my brother’s. He made the team, but rarely saw playing time, and was constantly criticized about his performance by the coach. I did not like being in the position I was in and tried many times to convince the coach to let my brother play and I could play elsewhere but throughout the season he wouldn’t have it. It was probably the most miserable I’ve been playing soccer…I can say that it was also my brother’s most miserable too. The following season, no surprise, I made the team again – third year running – but this is where my passion for soccer began to lessen. I had a terrible relationship with my coach, our team was young and we weren’t very good, and by the season’s end I was ready to throw in the towel. I had had enough soccer.During the Spring and into Summer my coach had been fired and a new coach was hired. He had heard about me and didn’t want me to stop playing soccer. But my mind was almost set. My parents however, were doing everything they could to keep me playing. They knew just how much it meant to me. So during the summer my father purchased tickets for a Manchester United soccer game and the two of us went. The soccer game itself was disappointing, none of the players that I knew were actually playing, my favorite player included. But after the game, we hung around the stands for a while and up came David Beckham for autographs. As he was signing my jersey he was talking with everyone around about his passion for the game, and why people in America should take more interest in the sport. I don’t know if you know this or not, but many Americans think soccer to be boring, and not a sport for men. I never held that belief because I’ve endured the pains that go into training for soccer. But I can say at that precise moment I did a complete 180 from quitting to playing. I firmly believe that hearing Beckham say what he did has stayed with me, and will be something that I will pass along to my children in the future. So my final year in high school rolled around and I made the Varsity team for one last hoorah, and as a team we finished fifth out of eight teams in my conference…not really a good season. But I had probably my best season statistically yet. I attribute everything that I accomplished that year to having shaken hands with “the man” and taking in everything that he said.
Now I haven’t played soccer competitively in over four years, but my passion for the game has not diminished at all. Over the last several months, the UEFA Champions League has been airing games on ESPN2 during the day. I haven’t had a chance to catch most of the games, but the times I could watch them I took full advantage. The games aired during the afternoon, usually a 2:45 pm start, in live time (there is a six hour difference between us here in the States and Europe where the games are played). The cool thing is that the games are live and not pre-recorded, but I still have a problem with the timing of the games. Almost nobody has a chance to watch these games, save those who have nothing better to do in the middle of the week in the middle of the afternoon. I can concede that if the games were shown later the novelty of watching a live soccer match would be wasted. But for the children growing up and idolizing these players, and for us older fans a later telecast of the game could draw a bigger American fan-base. However, along the lines of the novelty of watching a live game – in this day in age – if a game were telecast later in the day people would be able to find out who won which game before it aired because of websites dedicated to the sport like ESPN’s soccernet. I’m not saying that soccernet is a bad tool for fans, it is actually a very useful tool. On the webpage fans can follow all of the leagues around the world, as well as international soccer news and results. Fans have instant access to players, teams, and many other useful forms of media.The availability of information about soccer is so vast that I question why so many people jump to the quick conclusion that soccer is a boring and non-manly sport. I mean, I’ve been there, I’ve watched and played in many of those 0-0 and 1-0 drawn out soccer games, but that
doesn’t make them any less interesting to watch than a 9-3 American football game. The only difference is there are rules. While American football can be, at times, barbaric and downright brutal, soccer can be beautiful: just picture 7, 8, 9 passes strung together perfectly resulting in a goal off a striker’s head just out of the goalie’s reach. The fact of the matter is that soccer requires a great deal of skill. I’m not going to try to say that it’s more than the skills required of athletes in other sports, they’re just different…and that’s what needs to be appreciated. To see some of the World’s greatest doing what they do best click here.Aside from the skills that some players possess, there is one attribute of soccer players all over the world that stands out the most to me…their fitness levels. Compared to other sports, soccer is one a few where play rarely stops (others that I can think of are lacrosse, ice hockey, and basketball…but there are timeouts and times where play is blown dead). The point I’m trying to stress here is that the amount of running and effort soccer players put into their sport is hard to overlook. Yet sooo many people do and even say that soccer players aren’t tough. During the Champion’s League games aired on television when substitutes come on for players they show the distance covered by the man being substituted out. On average the distance covered is roughly 8,000 meters or 8 kilometers. That’s over 5 miles, which is more than most athletes can say they’ve run in a competition (except maybe for a marathon runner). The other staggering concept to think about is that soccer is played competitively year ‘round. So for soccer players, they are training year ‘round and pushing their bodies to their limits more than any other athletes in any other sport. Again, I just want to stress that I’m not saying other athletes aren’t tough, or don’t train hard, I’m really just sick of hearing soccer players referred to as “pansies”. If anything really I just want you to know that soccer players train just as hard – if not harder – than athletes in other sports…and as a result of their training and dedication to soccer they deserve our respect, and in a sense our admiration.
Soccer, for me, has been my life-force since I was a young boy. To this day, I frequent the internet to read about trades and results, to listen to interviews done by my favorite players – and in some cases my least favorite players, to see highlight videos and pictures, and when I can’t see the games on television I can follow them play by play online. I encourage others to do the same as me. Many people forget that we have a league right here in the States, MLS. Most big cities have a team, and yes, Philadelphia is set to join the ranks of Major League Soccer in the next couple of years. Construction on a stadium located in Chester Pennsylvania is set to begin soon…paving the way for the introduction of professional soccer right in our back yard.
A single soccer game may not draw a crowd like the Superbowl or the World Series, but there is not one other sport in the world that is played throughout like soccer is. Every four years we are blessed, that’s right blessed, with the opportunity to watch countries from all over the World vie for the title of the World’s best. No other sport can honestly claim that. Yes the New York Giants consider themselves world champions of football and the Boston Red Sox are world champions of baseball…but sit back and think about that for a minute. The NFL consists of teams only from the United States, and the only team outside the United States that plays Major League Baseball is the Toronto Blue Jays. The 2006 World cup hosted 32 teams from all over the world, and when I say all over I mean it; every continent was represented. Aside from the Olympics, the World Cup is the only competition that brings together countries from all over the world to decide the World’s best. Perhaps the most significant thing to consider about this is that some of these countries may even have bitter feelings towards others, but those feelings are cast aside when the competition begins. Soccer is truly a sport that is loved worldwide, and has the potential to bring unfriendly nations together. I urge all those who have never considered soccer a sport to forget that thought for a minute and realize the impact soccer can have on their lives...just as it does for so many others.
