Next, Kicking The Ball Will Be Considered Offensive
on December 1st, 2009 at 4:54 pmEverybody is a wiener! (spelled correctly)
Some years back, I stood at the edge of a field in Mexico City watching my older son play soccer.
The contest got my blood pressure going. I couldn’t help but yell an observation or two. “What’s that?” I barked after witnessing an errant pass. I guess I was a bit loud because my wife whispered over my shoulder: “Down, tiger.”
These days, in a Los Angeles suburb with tree-lined streets, I watch my son play and don’t even call out his name. I never say a critical word, and rarely does any other parent. Instead, there is much polite clapping and repetition of the phrases “Nice try!” and “Good effort!”
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During my first youth game at a South Pasadena field, I stood behind the goal and whooped “Yes!” when my son’s team scored. A moment later, the referee walked over to me and said in the polite but stern voice of a good cop: “You can’t cheer if you sit behind the goal.”
I must have looked perplexed, because one of the moms sitting next to me explained. “Yeah, that’s a rule. They say cheering intimidates the goalkeeper.”
The little soccer hooligan inside me wanted to say: “Of course it does. That’s the whole point!” (more…)
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