I got hooked up with this team after the team captain posted on our internal company message board that his team needed a female for the team. (It was mandatory for each team to have at least 1 woman on the field at all times.) I must have been feeling particularly sporting the day I replied (or maybe nostalgic?), but I figured why not just give it a go?
Our team, Le Selecao
The only problem, aside from the fact that I was a bit rusty after not playing for so long, is that I definitely needed a backup female (considering my current cardiovascular condition) or I would probably die. So I made a posting on this local English-speaking website for an experienced female player to join us. The woman who responded, Rebecca, turned out to be super-nice. (As she is from New Zealand, this is typically the case...)
Les filles!
We had one practice with me, Rebecca, and two guys from the team. It went pretty well. I didn't meet the rest of the team until we showed up to play on the day, but they turned out to be a group of very friendly men, who were also amazingly talented players.
I have to say the whole tournament was superbly organized. There were a total of 6 fields at this facility, 5 of which were used for games. The other was left open as a warm-up/practice field. There were a total of 40 teams, and they broke it up into 8 pools of 5 teams. They also provided lunch and drinks for everyone, which was very handy.
They ran the matches like this: a guy at the PA stand had a horn. Each match would start and end at exactly the same time when the guy blew the horn over the PA. So the timing ran very smoothly. Each match was only 10 minutes, and there were unlimited substitutions (when the ball was out of play), which helped old fogeys like me catch our breath. 10 minutes for an entire match may not sound like a long time, but consider the fact that on a normal-size field, you have a bit more space to walk or jog in between plays. The 6-on-6 field, however, is about 1/4 the size of a normal field. And you have to basically sprint the whole time since the action really never stops. You're either trying to get in position to get the ball or trying to keep someone else from getting it. Each field had a "ref" who watched for rough play and kept track of the score. Pretty informal, but it seemed to work really well.
Sort of an action shot...
We played 4 games in the morning, and won our pool. And I scored a goal in the first game!!! Woo!!! (And, if a girl scored a goal, it counted as 2 points!) We had 3 matches in the afternoon, where we won one on penalty shots, and lost the other two. But we ended up coming in 4th out of 40! Not too bad. Last year, the team came in 9th, so Rebecca and I decided that we are the main reason they improved in the standings. If we do say so ourselves...
All in all, an excellent day. Now I want to start playing again! :-)
Teamwork
Silly
Three very silly men attempting the haka at the end of the day, in honor of Rebecca
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