¡FUTBOL!

You better believe I'll attempt robbery to bring this home.

I got home about an hour ago and have not stopped beaming since. I played with the team for the first time today, in a city on the coast of Spain and I cannot even express how much of blast I had!! I missed the deadline to play with the ‘A’ team for the remainder of their league games, but I’ll be able to join them once they go into playoffs later in April. This is the mini-est of bummers, because as I’ve said, I had so much fun playing today!!! First off, the attitude surrounding this team is SO reminiscent of Strikers Club Soccer. People carpooling for little road trips where you pass the most beautiful landscapes (Like, really? The Mediterranean Sea was to one side of me, and the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas on the other. Unreaaaaaaal), obnoxious parents cheering us on/ harassing the other team, and girls goofing around before and after the game. Good stuff. Good GOOD stuff!! Ahhhh

Today was supposed to be a good game because the team we played is super physical, and my team has never even tied let alone beat them. And physical they WERE. I was not expecting it… these girls were smaller than me for sure but they were going for it! DON’T worry. I stood my ground and only fouled once :D Anyway, after all the tension created from the physicality, a fight broke out with like 5 min left in the game. Ahahahah it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in women’s soccer. I saw some hair getting pulled, people getting shoved, the ref wasn’t doing crap to stop it so the coaches and other players ran over. I was laughing myself silly out of sheer excitement of this new experience. Inappropriate? No pasa nada, I’m just the newbie American who doesn’t know what’s socially appropriate :P Oh, and we ended up tying them 2-2, so that felt pretty dang good!

Vocabulario: I was sooooo lost my first practice. It has never before been so deng apparent to me the need for communication in soccer, and all I could do was muster random syllables of poorly translated English soccer vocab. Anyway. I learned reaaaaaal quick that I better pick up this vocab, and that I did:

*****denotes super important vocab that cannot be lived without                      

Word/Phrase	English Translation	Soccer Context
¡Que Buena!	How Good!	Good Job
*****Cambiar*****	To Change	SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!
Peto	Bib	Pinny
Rematar	To Finish Off	Score
Banda	Ribbon/Strip	Flank
Ronditos	Little Rounds	Keep Away
¡Tranquila!	Calm!	Time!
Fintar	To Fake	Make a Move
Tirar	To Throw	To Shoot
Marcar un gol	Mark a goal	Score a Goal

Other things I have noted:

•  Physicality is frowned upon in practice. If you go shoulder to shoulder or get the slightest bit armsy, coach will say ‘eyyyyy’ (BAD). This presents itself as a problem for me. BUT, somehow, once it’s game time EVERY GIRL TURNS HER ‘SWAG’ ON [that one's for you Weinstein], does a 180 and goes full force to win the ball. I don’t understand how they turn it on and off like that. Can’t. Comprehend.
• Like, REALLY, coaches are chill. The other day at practice a girl had volunteered to take the petos home to wash them, promising to bring them next practice. Not only did she not show up next practice, but when coach called her at practice she told him she was on her way home and would see if she could make it to practice but wasn’t making any promises. Coach laughed it off. We continued practice without pinnies.
• Defense is not a focus. Or really acknowledged at all. Sure, there are people who play defense, and they can clear it and play balls out and win balls, etc. But people don’t work as a cohesive unit, they don’t say ‘force left’, and only call out marks for corners. Somehow it all still works though. Again. Can’t. Comprehend.
• The demand for women’s club soccer here is less than that in the United States. Because of that, they don’t have a buncha different women’s teams for each age group. Instead, once you’re 14 years old you qualify for the women’s team. So literally, people on the team range in age from about 17-30.
• As a result of the low demand, women’s teams are smaller. The soccer the women play here is Futbol 7, or 6 + a keeper. This is done on a field that takes up half the size of a regulation field back at home. That being said, I feel like I’m doing less running but more little sprints, which is good! I have noted when we do fitness at practice (and by 'when we do fitness' I mean…we did a 10 minute Indian run…once….) it’s clear that these women aren’t accustomed to running much long distance and makes me feel like a marathon runner. But then they sprint past me during practice and I’m humbled in 3 seconds flat.

I’m still missing GWS very much, and I keep hearing how strong you are all getting and it makes me so excited!!!  Please, let Dubuque and all the other dirty ass teams at us. They gon be sittin on the flo.

**Also GWS in case you didn’t already pick up on this-- I’m already getting crap for running around yelling CAMBIAAAAA all practice. The women here picked up on that reaaaaaaaaal quick and imitate me often. I feel at home :D**