yeah yeah, I know that everyone else calls it football and in the right circumstances I do as well. Just know that this story is about non-American-football, futball, football, or soccer, whatever your nationality refers to it as.
As far back as I can remember in my life, I was good at nearly all sports, especially soccer. I practiced a lot and really dedicated myself to this one sport and ended up getting a full athletic scholarship to a Division-1 university because of it. The thing is though, I genuinely enjoyed the sport and wasn't just practicing so that I could get a free ride to college. I wanted to play all the time and would do so, sometimes for 3 or 4 hours in a row, as often as possible. Thinking back from my 40 year old brain now, it is difficult for me to imagine having the energy to do anything for 4 hours in a row other than sleep.
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There was a particular year in my "career" where I had just moved to a new city, was unable to impress the coaches during the tryouts and ended up being on the Freshman B-league team. I knew I didn't belong on the B-league team despite the fact that I didn't really know many of the other people on the squad. I knew I was better than most of them but I also think that politics and the fact that the coaches had no idea who I was nor my history lead to me being on that team.
I felt a bit miffed by all of this and kind of approached the B-league with a bit of rage. I had been slighted and I was going to prove to the coaches that they had made a mistake by absolutely dominating the other B-league players both on and off my own team. Here lies a problem with football though, even if you are extremely good, if you don't have anyone to pass to, you aren't going to have much of a chance to shine. That was one of the main issues that I faced on this team. I was good, I could keep possession well enough and I could make shots on goal with levels of accuracy that nobody else on my team possessed. However, this resulted in me getting covered very closely at all times even if I was out of position and many opposing teams would dedicate a player to continually shadow me even if I wasn't near the ball at all. This was frustrating, but I believe it made me a better player because even though all the people I was up against belonged in the B-league, they were still capable of kicking my legs out from under me and the referees in US soccer at the time were terrible and rarely called fouls for stuff like this.
I'm deviating too far from the story though. There was one particular game where for many reasons, mostly that we were outmatched and my "one man army" approach was only able to get us 2 goals that we suddenly found ourselves drawn at 2 a side. I was primarily an offensive player but the coach asked me to play the entire field and while I was a bottle of energy at that time in my life, I can't be everywhere all at once. The team we were playing against had 4 or 5 better than average players so they were able to play circles around our rather piss-poor defense. If I went back to play defense, they simply avoided passing the ball to any of the "good" players that I was marking.
They had good coaching and a better overall level of ability than our team did. But I didn't want to lose and that is exactly what we were facing on one particular attack that the other team had on us.
Our keeper was substandard, and that is me being very kind to him by using such a word. So when one particularly good attack formation left one of their better players completely unmarked and about to strike I found myself guarding the far post after a cross. He shot, the ball headed just to my right (with my back towards the goal) and had I not done what I did next the ball would have gone in and we would have lost the game. I saved the goal with a diving header and this drew loads of applause from the few parents in attendance, my own teammates and even some of the players from the other team including the guy who took the shot.
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I'm obviously not Robin van Persie but I felt like I was at the time. I guess the adrenaline was pumping because it took me a minute to realize what had actually happened. I could tell by the dizzy feeling that I was hurt, but it wasn't until I looked at the ground and my blood splattered shirt that I realized that my head, and my teeth had made contact with the post after I saved the goal. I felt like a bit of a hero because i wasn't feeling the pain at the time but once we made it to the sidelines it was noticed that I was missing the bottom half of two of my teeth. It was then that the pain set in and since the blood wouldn't stop flowing, it was the one and only time that an ambulance had to be called in during a match that I ever played in.
I wasn't going to die or anything but my upper lip was gashed pretty bad from the contact, two of my teeth were split in half, and there was fear that I was concussed. The EMT's treated me on the field and I wasn't taken to the hospital by my own request. I wanted to see the rest of the match.
It was kind of funny to me because the other players were all searching around the goal post looking for the other parts of my teeth. They found them and it was a nice gesture but what did they think we were going to do with that? Super glue them back on? I suppose it was the sense of community and concern that is endearing to me because even the opposing team and parents of the opposing team were concerned for me at the time. This was the early 90's so my parents weren't even called about this and found out about it only once I got back with stiches on the inside of my mouth, a swollen face from the impact, and a toothless smile on my face because I was still overcome with the heroics.
My team ended up winning that game 3-2 by the way and that makes me extra proud because they accomplished this without me on the field.
I did end up saving the two tooth bits in a glass box on a shelf with all of the rest of the awards that I would end up winning over the years but sadly, they have been lost many years ago along with everything else.
I do have the memorabilia from that day in my mouth right now though in the fact that the bottom half of two of my front teeth are, and have been, fake, for nearly 30 years. They always will be fake unless some new scifi tech is invented that regrows teeth. I have to have them reshaped every couple of years or so with some sort of magical dentist stuff that is called veneer.
I will forever remember that day because even though I would go on to score many many goals in the next 6 years including 2 unassisted corner goals, that's the moment that sticks out in my mind the most about how dedicated to the game I was. I didn't intend to hit the post with my face of course, but I wasn't going to allow that ball to go in, no matter what. For the next two weeks I was treated like a hero at my rather gigantic high school. This was even though most of the school and other athletes didn't really give a damn about soccer/football, which was common at the time. I was also soon after called up to the A-league team, an offer that I refused.
I miss those days of sports and I am forever grateful that my parents encouraged me to be involved in as many of them as possible. I am older now and my sport activities are mainly the type that you would expect of someone near 40 like racquetball, jogging, and the occasional game of volleyball. I will always have the memories of the days of glory though and any time that I start to forget about how awesome it was to be involved, all i have to do is smile at myself in the mirror in order to see the barely noticeable lines on two of my front teeth.