Soccer Memories

When I arrived in Germany in 1965 I was shocked to discover that they only had one 'major league' sport - soccer - and they played it year round... Now - soccer was virtually unknown in the U.S. in the early 1960s so I was a total novice...
The German coaches did what they usually did with American kids - they had me play goalie... That makes perfect sense - German kids are raised playing a sport that prohibits using your hands. So it should come as no surprise that catching a soccer ball goes against every instinct they possess :-) Even an inexperienced American kid is better equipped to play goal than most German kids.

But there was more to it than just being able to catch a ball...
When I played traditional American sports (interminable boredom punctuated by bursts of chaos) I was easily overwhelmed - during those few seconds of chaos my brain couldn't keep up... I'm not sure if that was because I was overanalyzing everything or because I didn't understand the game well enough... But regardless - it was an impediment.
Soccer was different... The game was simple and clean - it moved at a pace that I could easily handle... Within a matter of weeks I was seeing the passing lanes and shooting angles and directing my defenders' movements. I was almost never caught out of position...
OK - I'll admit it. I went "obsessive/compulsive" - I fell in love with the game... It could be as simple or as complex as you wanted it to be yet it always made perfect sense. And it was about the only thing in my life that did :-)

When I transferred to Ako (Aloisiuskolleg) at the end of the summer those two hours of afternoon sports were my favorite part of the day. But I soon realized I'd never be a really good goalie until I got over my "pain avoidance" issue...
First off - I needed proper equipment. The school contacted my mom and once I had the money in hand I was allowed to go to the sports store in town. I remember it like it was yesterday - I bought a pair of Puma Benfica cleats, some knee pads and elbow pads and goalie shorts with built-in hip pads...

But having the right padding was only the first step... I had to be able to dive horizontally through the air without thinking about the landing - and for the first time in my life I wanted something bad enough to ignore the pain...
So - I got some of the best forwards in the class to work with me. They spent hours taking hard shots on goal from close range. And I dove for every ball - whether there was a chance of reaching it or not. Even with the padding I was bruised and hurting after every session - but it felt good... There's probably a medical explanation for that, but I have no idea what it is :-)

BTW - One of the reasons it's taking me so long to write this post is that I keep starting to drift off into lengthy expositions on a variety of goalie related topics, like how to decide exactly when to move out of the goal and attack an opponent on a 1-on-1 breakaway. I could go on for pages about that one... BTW - If you do it right there's a good possibility you'll get kicked in the stomach - hard... It happened to me at least 3 times... And it hurt... A lot... :-) But I digress...

Long story short - I eventually became the starting goalie on the class team... And not too long afterward I moved to defender. And after a brief stint at defender I was moved to center midfielder... That is considered by many to be the most critical position on a soccer team - the primary playmaker... It was quite an honor! (But I really was that good.)

Yeah - I know I'm boasting... But I don't think you'll find too many American kids with less than a year of experience playing center midfielder on a German team. But hey - when you take a bit of natural ability and mix it with a bunch of OCD that's what you end up with :-)