Back on the Pitch

Last night marked my return to the pitch after 3 months off due to various injuries, colds, kids' colds, work conflicts. I had a knock on the front of my left shin - from walking into a 2-foot tall metal post sticking out of the ground at Gig Harbor High School - and it hurt like heck to wear shin guards, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. It had been too long on the sidelines. Funny, how soccer gets under your skin.

It was great to get back out there and run after a ball! And my team is still terrible. Some things don't change. We played with a man advantage the entire game and still lost 3-0. That's our team - the Poverty Bay Coffee Bald Eagles, by the way - in it for the love of the game, not the glory.

I made it through the game without injury, though my calves cramped like hell at the end of the game. I'll be back out there next week, and the next.

My team isn't the only one that had a bad night. In the first of 3 warm-up friendlies prior to leaving for Germany, the US Mens team stunk it up against a Morrocan team that didn't even qualify for the big show, losing 1-0 on a 90th minute, brain-cramp defensive blunder. These guys are not going to make it out of the group play. I'll cheer for them until they're out, but they do not have the look of a dangerous squad.

More World Cup. A growing number of politicians and other dangerous types are calling for a ban on Iran participating in the World Cup, due to their development of a nuclear program. This is Baskin Robbins idiocy - 31 flavors of stupid. Keep politics out of the World Cup. Who gets to say who is excluded for what wrong? Couldn't nations argue to keep the US out for an unpopular, and many would say, illegal war? China, for its human rights abuses? The Dutch for introducing orange jerseys to the world? The list could go on and on. Hey, here's an idea. Let's address the Iranian nuclear issue with...oh, I don't know...international diplomacy. We could even try that nonproliferation treaty the Bush Administration dropped like it was hot.

Besides, if we're going to get our soccer shorts in a knot about Iran, let's take a stand on one of the cruelest human rights abuses...the exclusion of women from watching soccer matches. If there is one thing that worries me most about Iran, it's that they don't realize how ridiculous they are for banning women from watching soccer matches. It reminds of the reverend-without-a-clue types that get all excited about teens dancing becuase it leads to sin. Let 'em watch some football, Ayatollah. Geez.