Futsal Fever

I am not quite sure how it got started, but my project teammates started a small Futsal league of sorts. They managed to coerce everyone, including some of our female colleagues, to join in the fun. There are enough people to have 8 teams of about 7-8 people each, and some of the guys probably have not really played soccer before.

Now my last touch of a soccer ball many moons ago actually resulted in a minor disaster, and my right foot hurt for a couple of weeks. Since then, the foot has healed but I had not once played soccer. I was thus, rather excited with the prospect of playing with the guys, especially when I know most of them are as unfit as me.

My team is named “Tedja United”. Tedja being the name of a little eating house we frequent for lunch, which also happens to be where I almost always order Lotong. Lotong Ayam, Lotong Special, Lotong whatever, I have tried them all. Never had so much Lotong in my whole life! And each person in the team had been nicknamed after a dish, mine being (no not Lotong) “Keropok Gratis”, which means free crackers. Yes, they have free crackers at Tedja.

The first match of our “League” was scheduled 9pm between Tedja United and The Green Bears, played at De Futsal. Prior to the match, I jokingly called my opponents Teddy Bears, saying that it will be a walkover. Well walkover it was not. Within the first 10 minutes, we conceded the first goal and already we were all panting from the exertions. One of my teammates, Gregi, a big man about my age, once did a “walk-in-the-air” where his legs were momentarily flailing in the air and he crashed to the ground.

Then came a moment of glory where I managed to chase down a ball down the right flanks. The first touch was not good and I took the ball further than I had intended. Luckily, I managed to turn and quickly looked up in search of my teammates. None were in sight. But by some measure of chance, I decided to kick the ball low to the center, and the next thing I knew, one of teammates had rushed in and planted the ball in the back of the net. The first half ended in a 1-1 draw.

Well, it was a good first half but everything went wrong in the second. I sat out the second half and we got 2 of our female teammates to play up front, because since everyone made it down, they deserve to play. Unfortuantely, they did not get to touch the ball that much, and my team was defending a lot more than we intended. The game ended 3-1 in the Green Bear’s favor.

From this experience, I took back a couple of lessons:

Lesson 1 – Failure to plan is planning to lose.
This is an old cliche, but it is so true. We should have sent in a female player each half instead of 2 in the same half. We might still have lost, but I believe we would have given the other team a run for their money.

Lesson 2 – The way to be remembered is to be better than average.
I was told by a guy from the Green Bears that if I had played on in the second half, my team could have won. Well I am not too sure about that, because I remembered my heart beating like it was about to burst, and I am not sure if these old legs could last the entire game. Why he said that was probably in comparison to my teammates, I was the most likely to cause them problems.

Lesson 3 – Stay fit and healthy. You never know when you need to run.