After a two-year winning streak, we knew we were bound to lose at some point, we were hoping it would not be against our archrival.
The beauty of losing is that it makes you dig deeper into yourself to understand what you are made of. It allows you to contemplate life from a different perspective than winning does. I am not breaking new ground here; for example, Pat Conroy wrote about it much better than I did in his My Losing Season, a great read!
There is always some regret: I should have done this or that, should have trained more on this or that. But at the end of the day, it is still just a game, and one of the teams will lose.
Maybe because introspection is not the prettiest thing to do, to dissect a soccer game, the post-mortem, what did we do wrong? What did the other guys do right? When you win, there is no need to go that deep into your reasons for winning, you can celebrate!
Yes, there is more to be learned from losing than from winning, and all that humble pie stuff, it still hurts. Now we must go back to the drawing board, back to training, and back to basics. I can’t wait to start training again. Next season we will win.
The US seems obsessed with the concept of community, but with a few exceptions, it is a country notably devoid of community. Technology, i.e., smartphones and social media have killed whatever remnants of community the car and consumer centric society had not killed. It is up to us to build community, and it is a slow process that requires time and patience.
Community building is something I am rather keen on. Something I love to do. The first few minutes of our soccer team practice are always devoted to team building -sometimes with the most basic of games: name games; the other day I was shocked to learn that a new player did not know the names of all his teammates. Then we play team-building games, getting the players to know and trust each other. The result? We play better, so we won 4-1 against our Miami rivals.
Of course, there is much more to it than teambuilding, there are skills, and strategy, psychology, and game day decisions. But the key is to start with the basics, a community.
So, do not complain about the lack of community, build it. At every opportunity you get.
Why is football (soccer) the leading sport in the world? Why is the World Cup one of the most watched events in the world? There are a few factors, which might surprise my American readers.
Yes, football is low scoring, but that is part of the beauty of it, each goal is precious and celebrated. American football has a weird scoring system which devalues each score. Basketball averages 70 points per game, so unless you have a final basket deciding the game, the final score is not so dramatic. Also, since the court is indoors and relatively small you cannot have a massive audience. A major tennis final might also be exciting, with each point going back and forth.
The low scoring factor also makes for suspense. A winning goal might come at the last minute -literally! (For example, Andres Iniesta’s World Cup winning goal at the 2010 final)
We also have ties, but that is only on league games, not cup, and not championship games.
All it takes to play soccer is a ball, and some are even made from plastic bags. This means that children even in the poorest neighborhood or village play soccer.
When you become a football fan, you will follow your team in all their competitions: national league and cup, and if your team is any good, in their European or Latin American championship (Champions League or Libertadores). You will also follow your national team in their continental and world tournaments (Euro, Americas or World Cup). This team is made up with your country’s best players regardless of their club affiliation. In football countries you basically inherit your allegiance from your parents. I remember my father taking me to the Bernabeu stadium in cold winter afternoons. However, there are exceptions to this rule with even some Madridista (Real Madrid) and Culé (Barcelona) marriages!!
I am passionate about soccer. Although I never played enough to be a good player, I have always loved it. I got the opportunity to coach in 2005 and I have been coaching on and off since.
We recently played our Fall game against the Miami seminary in Miami. Since we won both games last year, we were a bit sleepy for the first half, moving the ball around but without decisive finishing. 0-0 at half time. We had to wake up and we did, scoring three goals. By the end of the game, exhausted, we allowed a goal. 1-3 is a good result, and I am super proud of the boys.
The players did not order their shirts on time, so the old players played with our traditional red and white (Atletico de Madrid, Athletic de Bilbao) (not a fan) shirts, while the new players who did not buy their shirts had to play with temporary (red) shirts – fortunately the refs were ok with it if they were not blue. You will notice this in the photos, grrrr. Speaking of photos, cred. Jonathan Arias.
The most important lessons in life you learnt as a child. One of those lessons was do your homework, do your work. There is no substitute. You might be able to get away without doing your homework once in a while. But if you want results, you have to do the work, put in the hours.
Last Spring, we lost the soccer game against our eternal foe, Miami’s St. John Vianney 3-4. This year we put in the work week after week. We practiced with dedication and enthusiasm, we even organized a scrimmage against a local team. We put in the work. The team was diligent and conscientious about practicing, not easy when you have a ridiculous grad-school workload, but they did it.
The result?
With only a few minutes to warm up and settle in after our drive to Miami (the referee, hired at the last minute had things to do, come on, this is Miami), our players -minus one of our forwards who suffered an accident travelling down (he is fine, just a sore neck)- jumped on to the turf field.
We won 0-6. Victory is sweet, revenge even better!
Congratulations to the team, Assistant Coach Josh, the faculty and staff that made the game possible, as well to our phenomenal photographer Dylan McKay!
St. Vincent de Paul is a graduate School with only 120 odd resident students, so we do not have a formal athletic program. The guys do sports, but on their own. Except for a once a semester soccer game against the St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.
Last year, due to Covid we did not play. This year seeing a need, I volunteered to coach the SVdP Shepherds.
I have been coaching (on and off) for 17 years. At this point what I enjoy the most about coaching is building the team, working first on communication and trust, then on skills, technique, and strategies and all the other bits necessary to succeed as a team.
What a pleasure to return to the field, to work with the guys at skills that we do not teach in the classroom.
Unfortunately, we did not have a lot of time to practice, but we did the best we could.
We lost the game 3 – 4, but I am really proud of the men, we played a far superior game, we played as a team! But halfway through the first half while we were winning 2 – 0, we lost steam, we lost our shape, and the Miami guys took advantage of that. In the second half we came back and scored the third goal, but it was too late.
I was blessed to have a student volunteer as an assistant coach! Misho led the warmups, worked with our goalie, and helped to organize practices, helped me with strategy on game day, what a blessing!
All in all, it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to start preparing next year’s game!!
PS: The initiated will notice our colors are red and white stripes. This is our traditional kit, and in NO WAY my decision. I would have been fine just wearing plain all white 😉
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