Football is one of the most popular sports world wide both
to watch and play. I am not talking
about the wimpy American version with helmets but the European version. Every Saturday afternoon, there is a weekly
SLB employee game. The island has
several actual football fields. The two
grass fields leave a lot to be desired but small artificial turf field is the
perfect size for 5v5 games. We usually
have enough people to field 3 teams and just play a round robin style. If you score you stay in, and the loser
switch. Once my manager and the other field
engineers (FE) came back from off-shore and days off, I had a way to get
there.
Once again, I was the only female and needless to say the
locals don’t really expect much skill out of the American Expats. They pretty much assumed I wouldn’t have a clue
and would be useless. Little did they
know that although I hadn’t played in 5 years, I had 14 years of playing
experience. I spent almost all my high
school career as a defender so needless to say the first one who tried to show
off by dribbling around me found himself without the ball. I stole it right out from under him and
passed it to a teammate who put it in back of the net. With that I had just proved I wasn’t useless.
A several games later was where I really earned my
stripes. I was playing striker for me
team and one of my teammates over shot a pass and I decided that I keep
going. The keeper bobbled the ball and I
managed to put it between his feet and scored.
I speak very little Spanish but I do understand enough to know that the
keeper took a fair about of crap over getting scored on by the female. About two games later I managed to score a
second time, it was off a pass from a team mate so it wasn’t as embarrassing
for the goal keeper.
The real amazing part of the whole experience was the next
week at work. The local staff wasn’t
unfriendly but it was clear to me that I was still an outsider. After soccer, they got a lot friendlier and
seemed much more relaxed around me.
Over the next week, I was asked pretty much every day if I was planning
on playing the following week, and was told by both the soccer captains that I
was going to be on their team.
I wish I had some pictures but was having too much fun
playing to bother with my camera.
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