Two for Two

Saturday - America 2:1 Tormenta
This was a good game for us, although our defense struggled a little early on. Tormenta didn't have a full squad, which I find incredible, considering they were playing against us. I would think they would want to beat us into the ground, not give us a chance to pick up points against them. Thankfully it wasn't a particularly nasty game--games against Tormenta generally aren't, at least not to the level of Independiente or Pumas. Judging from what I've seen now so far, I think the Saturday champions will, unfortunately, be Independiente. They bring a really strong squad on Saturdays, with a lot of ability to get forward and finish chances.

Sunday - America 4:1 Pumas
The score really should have been America 5:1 Pumas because the ref failed to see the ball go over the line while in the keeper's hands. We moved the ball really well all game--Pily got forward a lot at right back, which really helped our attack, and she also got back to help on defense. I also think moving the ball quickly helped keep tempers calm--fewer chances for people to get physical with each other and spark a fight.

In the end, I think we'll be in it to the end on Sunday. I know we're better than Independiente and Pumas. I think we can take it to Rey de Francia with a full squad. I think the only team that really stands in our way is Tormenta. They are a much stronger team on Sundays than on Saturdays, and they are much more difficult to play against.

It's been a long time since America last won a championship. I think we have the ability and the mentality to get it done this season. Arriba la America!

America 3:3 Tormenta

If there was any more confirmation needed that our team is ready and willing to challenge for the championship this season, it arrived yesterday. Tormenta, along with Independiente, Rey de Francia, and us make up the "big 4" in La Liga Independiente. Tormenta are far and away the best, boasting a roster of girls who play in the state youth leagues, on high school varsity teams, and college squads at the DI and DII levels. For years, we haven't been able to get close to them.

Yesterday, we went after them with more pace, more power and more determination than I think we've ever had before. We gave up an own goal early, but fought back to 2-2, then took a 3-2 lead when Ruby hit an absolutely *amazing* shot from about 20 yards out. I can't tell you how quality of a strike it was--outside of the right foot, slicing into the back of the net before the keeper could even move.

In the end we gave up a late goal, but it was clear they were pissed that they couldn't just steamroll us like they used to, and I know they'll be worried with the knowledge that, come finals time, they won't have an easy path through to the championship.

We've been through some real ups and downs as a team, we went through a few seasons where we didn't even qualify for finals. But I think right now, we're hitting a peak of sorts. We've got a great mix of players, a real commitment to working hard and backing each other up, and everything just seems to be clicking.

Arriba la America!

America 4:2 Independiente

This was a long time coming. After several years of just losing out to Independiente in both summer and winter seasons, we faced off against them with a full strength squad and came out on top. It's only the third game of the season, but I'm pretty sure it will go down as one of the most gratifying. We exposed Independiente for what they are, a two-person team, and we played our own game, rather than letting them play theirs. Everyone worked hard, kept their heads down and didn't let a couple goals against us get us down.

Onwards and upwards. Arriba la America!

In between seasons

Winter football is over, at least for me. We left the Saturday Mexican league after a fight two weeks ago that our opponents instigated but which we somehow came out of with more red cards than they did. The league director wasn't willing to adhere to the league charter which states that any team which starts a fight in the pitch is immediately expelled from the league, so we forfeited the rest of our games and made a decision to leave the league entirely. This summer we're just planning to play in the Ecuadorian league on Sundays, which will free up our weekends for more time to hang out and do stuff around the cities, maybe go out on Friday nights.

It's nice to have a break, give my knee a rest and do some bicycling to keep in shape without putting so much stress on the joint, but I have to be honest, I'm already itching to get outside and start the season.

When losing isn't quite as bad as it usually is

We played Tormenta this weekend, easily the best team in the league. I've always had mixed feelings about them even playing in our league because they are basically a club team that trains together and plays at the state level, and they just play in our local league on the side. The rest of the teams, including ours, are made up of women who are generally older, have full time jobs, and don't have time to train between weekends. They're a bunch of bratty little teenagers too, but that's another story entirely.

On Saturday, though, we got about *this* close to pulling off what would have been a huge upset. We scored about midway through the first half, and for most of the rest of the match we put them under pressure and didn't let them have time on the ball to look for passes or shots. We were even able to get some of our own runs going, which honestly almost never happens for us against Tormenta. We also didn't let them push us around, which I thought was really important, because in the past, we've let them bully us into backing off.

In the end though, it took all of one lucky shot and one own goal for them to beat us. We created more clear-cut chances than they did (Mayra, Ellen and Sabina all had good looks at the net), but we didn't put them away when we had them, and they had one shot that bounced off the underside of the crossbar and might or might not have bounced inside the goal line. An own goal is an own goal, they happen, that's football, and considering the way we played, I'm not complaining at all. They know they got away with a less than deserved win, and when we face them again in finals (which we will, we always do *cough* league politics *cough*), I think we have a real shot.

Onward and upward. This is my eighth season with this team, and in eight years, we've won one championship. I think it's about time for another.

Futbol

So near the end of our match last night against San Lucas, we get a free kick in our opponent's end of the field (it's a smaller field, indoor, with walls, almost like a hockey arena). Normally Sabina takes those, but she had scored a ton of goals already so she let me have at it. As I stepped up, she says, "El angulo" which means "the top corner." Of course, what do I do? I slice it at about hip level right at the keeper. Two minutes later, we get another free kick, and this one Sabi takes, puts it away in the upper right 90. I was kind of like, "Oh, that angulo" and we had a laugh about it. Later, I got a goal off a kick-in from out of bounds, with my left foot, which I was pretty proud of, and the best part of the whole night was that Sabina put herself 17 goals clear of the other challengers in the race for the goleo, so hopefully she'll take home that title.

Match report

One of the best matches the team has played in a long time (that I've seen/been involved in). We played a team called Club Joma, and to give you an idea of who they are to us, if we are Liverpool, they are Aston Villa or maybe Arsenal. They are very, very good, and we have generally tied or just barely eked out wins against them in the past.

Tonight, it's like we were all on fire, every single one of us. Things were just flowing and even when we were under pressure, it just seemed like we could bend as much as we needed, but never break. Lupe, who is basically filling in as our keeper because Sonia isn't reliable, was insane. She moved like a varsity keeper or better. Sabi scored three screamers (and I mean screamers, it was like seeing her way back when I first started playing with the team) and assisted the fourth, and together, she and I really held the midfield, didn't let Joma get too much of a game going. Cecy was tough as nails on defense and the other girls all put in some really class work on offense and defense. I think if we had played with this kind of intensity against Tormenta, we might have sneaked a win.

As it is, it was just awesome to see how we could play when we were really on top of our game. I think this bodes well for the impending start of finals, and even though I just got back, I really want us to aim for the championship, knock Tormenta or Independiente off their perches. I want me and my teammates to be the ones sweaty and sore and tired as fuck, celebrating with the trophies and the medals at the end of the season.

Match report

We played a team called San Lucas last night, and really, the most difficult part of the match was trying to distinguish between their yellow and white jerseys, and our yellow and blue ones.

Our main focus last night was to get Sabina as many goals as we could, because she's in contention for most goals scored (as she almost always is) and the games against weaker teams are a good chance for her to rack up some extra goals.

In the end, she scored six. I netted two of my own, one with my right, a high floater from midfield, and the other one with my left, a sidefooted finish from close range. To be honest, neither Sabi nor I were having particularly good nights in terms of finishing. There was one sequence where she and I kept slamming volleys off the boards, trying to put them on net. We must have hit about six or seven before the ball skittered out of bounds. It was kind of funny and kind of frustrating.

Best moment of the night, though, was when we had come back from scoring a goal, and the other team lined up to take the kick off. Since the field is small, you can have a shot from kick off and have a decent chance at scoring. So one of the girls from the other team, a defender, stepped up to take the shot. She plays with us on Sundays, but with San Lucas on Saturdays, and she's got a wicked boot. So Sabi and I are standing there, and Sabi sees her coming and mutters, "Chingue su madre" at the same time that I mutter, "Oh, shit." We have a quick laugh at that, and then of course I get hit square in the back and Sabi has a good laugh at my misfortune.

Next week we get Club Joma, the team that rounds out the 'top four' in our league. There's us, Club Independiente, Tormenta, and Joma. Depending on how things shake out, I think we will be fighting for third with Joma, so this is a pretty important match. Joma are good, but I know they aren't as good as Tormenta, and we held our own with Tormenta until pretty late in the game.

Me myself, I'm just happy to be back playing at full speed and full intensity. Football is pretty much my lifeline, the one thing that I can always count on to make me happy, and it's just a game that I play for an hour every week, but I feel like I'm so fortunate and lucky to have even one source of complete and total happiness.

Long overdue update

Well I guess it's safe to say that this blog has fallen by the wayside. My last post was sometime in the summer of 2009, well before I left to do a teaching stint in Spain, and a lot of things have happened since then.

Most notably, I didn't stay the full year in Spain like I was planning to. To make a long story short, small-town Spain is not very kind to people of non-European descent. This manifested itself in me not getting served at the bread counter in the supermarket, the pharmacist telling me to "get cleaned up" before I came back for a prescription, and people making derogatory remarks about me on the street. While I absolutely adored the kids I was teaching and the school I was working in, my contract only allowed me to work twelve hours a week. If I had been working thirty or forty hours a week, I might have stayed, because most of my time would have been spent working and not dealing with people outside the school. As it was, I made the decision to come home at Christmas. It wasn't an easy decision, but I do believe that it was the right one.

Coming back home, I knew I was walking into one of the worst job markets in a long time and I was prepared to face a long period of fruitless searching. I was very unlucky to have just missed out on a opportunity at the Taiwanese Consulate in Los Angeles when I left for Spain (they actually called me for an interview, but the interview was the day before my flight to Madrid and I didn't think it was appropriate for me to interview knowing I had to leave in 24 hours), and I confess I was a little blue knowing that I could have been working in Los Angeles the past four months instead of enduring racism in Spain.

However, I received a huge, *huge* stroke of luck when a family friend called with an opportunity to work for a local adoption organization. The organization had just received a federal grant to expand its services for adoptees, and they were looking specifically for an adoptee to fill one of their positions. I called the organization that same day and, upon speaking to the project manager, realized that I knew her from my previous work with Children's Home Society and Family Services. I went in to talk with her/interview a few days later, and after about a week received confirmation that I was indeed hired, and all we had to do now was wait for the grant money to come in.

At the moment, we're still waiting, because the government, like any good bureaucracy, is taking its time in getting things off their desks, but I've been in to the office to do some work that will count as volunteer time, just to get things moving so when the money finally comes in we can hit the ground running. The job itself is a little bit of everything, from website design and maintenance to answering phones and making copies. The goal of the program is to create a resource network by adoptees for adoptees, the underlying idea being that adoptees understand themselves better than anyone else, and that we benefit from connecting with other adoptees.

I'm really excited about this job, excited not only because I practically walked into it and because it happened right when I needed it, but because adoption is something that I've thought about and reflected on a lot, and I think this is an amazing opportunity to help shape the direction of services and resources for adoptees and to put all that thinking and reflection to use.

On other fronts, I'm still playing futbol with my Mexican team. It's been something like seven or eight years now that I've been playing on the same team, and there are only a few of us left from the original squad, though we've kept our name, Club America. I tore my meniscus over the summer and didn't finish the season, but I've been back on the field this winter and had a couple decent runs, so hopefully I will be back to playing full ninety-minute matches soon. The girls, as always, welcomed me back with open arms, and I can't reiterate enough how lucky I am to call them friends and teammates. We may not be the best team in the league, but I like the togetherness we have and the sense of loyalty.

I've set myself a goal of writing for at least half an hour every day, in some capacity, whether it's blogging or creative writing, so I'm really going to make an effort to keep this blog updated more regularly.

3-match weekend

...and two goals, so I feel pretty good about the weekend, on the whole. Especially since my first goal was a half-volley that went like an arrow right into the lower left hand corner, and I had missed a shot like that earlier in the match.

I'm starting my first of two volunteer positions today. Mondays and Tuesdays I'll be working with Chinese immigrant kids, tutoring English through the Chinese Social Service Center in Richfield. Wednesdays and Thursdays I'll be working as a food shelf translator at the Catholic Charities Branch I food shelf in south Minneapolis. The best part of both of these positions is that I get to use both my Chinese and my Spanish.

A quick word on the Liverpool front: there's a press conference scheduled for later today, and it has my stomach in knots because I'm pretty sure the conference is going to address the ongoing speculation about Xabi Alonso's future. He traveled to Thailand with the squad, so I'm hopeful that means Rafa is still playing hardball with Real Madrid, but anything can happen. I just really don't want to see one of Liverpool's top midfielders go to Real Madrid. He's like the antithesis of their big-money, showman's mentality, and I think he's much more respected and loved at Liverpool than he would be there. I hope he stays, I really do. *Fingers crossed*

Match report v. Independiente: 2-2

Futbol this weekend was like a study in contrasts. Saturday we played a team that's just starting out and they were short players, so we won by a lot. Then Sunday, we played Independiente. Our relations with them are strained at best, in large part because a number of their players used to play for us. Matches against them often end up in lots of cards and/or out and out fights. We were all braced for a tough--and ugly--match.

We actually started the match short two players, and from the first minute we were under pressure. Our sole goal was to keep the ball out of our net and hope against hope that we could hang on for a 0-0 tie. At Cecy's direction, I was running all over the place trying to cover the midfield and keep them from getting long shots on net, and by halftime we were all dead tired, but we had a 0-0 tie in hand and were feeling pretty good about it.

Second half, more of our players showed up, and we eventually got some chances on net, one of which Casa converted. Then Independiente evened it up on a defensive mistake. Late in the half, Sabina took a shot that ricocheted off one of their defenders and eluded the keeper into the back of the net. We held them off until the final minute. Then they got a corner kick, and as soon as it floated into the penalty box I instinctively knew they were going to score. End result: 2-2.

In all honesty, we played better in the first half when we were short players, I think in part because we figured there was nothing to lose, we were already at a disadvantage, might as well go down swinging. Unfortunately, by the time we reached full strength in the second half, most of us were already beat from the first half, and I think mentally we let up too. But we're hardly professionals. For me, it just felt good to play a hard-fought match and come out of it feeling pretty good about both my own personal play and the play of the team as a whole.

More futbol and interviews

Futbol this weekend was a little scrappy. On Saturday we won handily, but the coach of the other team started saying stuff to Cecy as we left the field and Cecy reacted in kind. On Sunday, we played this team who were just all around bitchy and yelled at the ref for everything. Plus they couldn't handle going shoulder to shoulder in the tackle, so when I went in for a tackle, the girl I stripped the ball off of kicked me in the back of the ankles. I appealed to the ref (successfully), and the girl was like, "Well don't push then." Later, I went into another tackle the same way and the girl tried to shoulder me back but ended up falling over. She and her teammates started yelling at the ref that I was pushing (which I wasn't, if you play football you know shoulder to shoulder is legal), and after that, every time I got the ball the other team was aiming for my ankles. The upside is that we won the game 2-0.

Today I had an interview with Catholic Charities in Minneapolis. I'm hoping to volunteer as a Food Shelf Translator at their south Minneapolis branch, where about half of the families who come in are Spanish-speaking and often have limited English ability. Assuming the coordinator I talked to today can get ahold of my references this week, I should be able to start fairly soon. I don't think it's a huge commitment, around 2-3 days, 4 hours a day, but it's good work, a chance to work on my Spanish, and it's something to do.

Other than that no real news. A quick update on Adriana, my injured teammate. She's home and recovering. A couple of my teammates went over to see her this weekend and said she's in a good mood, though worried of course about paying the medical bills. Like many Americans, she doesn't have medical insurance, so this will be a huge stress, but the most important thing is that she recovers well.

A Hard Weekend

On Sunday afternoon, we were to play Tormenta in the Ecuadorian league. It rained off and on all day, and when we got to the field, it was very slick. Our coach warned us to be careful, as the field itself isn't in great condition anyways, and the rain just added to the danger of turning an ankle or knee.

Not fifteen minutes into the match, Adriana, one of our defenders, went for a tackle on a running opponent, lost her footing and slipped. It would have been a non-issue, except she caught her cleat in the mud. I had just stripped the ball off our opponent when the ref blew the whistle to stop play, and it took me a few seconds of seeing my teammates' behavior to realize that something very bad had happened.

When I reached Adriana, I saw that her left foot was turned at an awkward angle and there was a bump under her sock and shinguard that wasn't supposed to be there. She was yelling at Vanessa, our coach, to fix it, to do something, but there was nothing any of us could do, since none of us are trained medics. Sabina yelled for someone to call 911, and Vanessa did. Later, she told me that rationally, she had known she had to call 911, but it was like her brain had stopped functioning for a moment.

It wasn't until the medics got there and cut off her shinguard and sock that we really saw how bad it was. It was like her foot had disconnected completely from her leg and the only thing holding them together was some skin. Later we found out that it was only her shinguard that kept the bone from actually breaking through the skin. Everyone was really shaken up and emotions were running really high. It didn't help matters that the other team, Tormenta, were standing around laughing and joking like nothing was wrong. Some of my other teammates claim they heard them making snide remarks and deriding the whole situation. I heard nothing. But I did see them laughing and smiling, and both Romina and Sabi commented on it as we were standing there watching the medics wrap Adriana's ankle in ice. Romina wanted to know "Why the fuck are those bitches smiling?" and Sabi added, "There's nothing funny about this." Tormenta aren't known for respecting their opponents, and while I know there's no love loss between our teams, I don't put it past them to make snide remarks, even in such a serious situation.

I didn't really realize how shaken up I was until I got home and was able to kind of process everything that had happened. I guess I kind of got on auto-pilot and just started doing whatever needed to be done--gathering things up, making sure my teammates were okay, etc. It took awhile for it to sink in just how bad the whole situation was, how bad the injury was.

Vanessa called me last night to let me know that Adriana had had surgery to put some screws into her ankle. The dislocation had been fixed the night before, but there were still some broken bones that needed to be repaired. The big concerns now are how she heals, and how she and her family are going to pay for this. Vanessa mentioned that the league will probably take up a collection from all the teams to help with the costs.

Whether there will be some sort of action taken against Tormenta remains to be seen. No one in the league likes them, precisely because of their lack of respect for other teams/opponents, and the way they acted on Sunday was inexcusable. Luckily (I guess) Adriana's injury was an accident. If it had been caused by a bad tackle, I think there would have been hell to pay.

For now, we're just focused on making sure Adriana is okay and her family has the help they need. So if you have any good thoughts to spare, please send them our way. Thanks. :)

Back in the groove

I played my first full weekend of football this past weekend, and I'm a bit rusty, but by the third game (yes, third), I was starting to find my touch again. I'm playing in three separate leagues at the moment, and the teammates of one of my Ecuadorian teams (Virgen de la Nube Juventus) are trying to get me to join a fourth ("Solo cuando descanses, no tienes que jugar todos los partidos!"). Sounds grueling, but to be honest, I live for these kinds of weekends. The girls are a ton of fun to be around on all the teams, I don't feel at all like an outsider, and for a few hours, I can just play football and be myself.

Finn, a Thai classmate of mine from Taiwan, came to visit me last week. She's going to be starting undergrad studies at UC-Berkeley in September, and she's taking an English class there over the summer, but she had a couple weeks between when she arrived in Berkeley and when classes started, so she hopped on a plane and came to visit. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and talking, which is what we so often did in Taiwan, but we also went over to the Mississippi River and took a boat cruise upriver and went to Lake Harriet to have ice cream and see a concert at the bandshell. Finn is from Bangkok, and she spent the past two years in Taipei. She was used to big-city lights and noise, so the suburban Midwest was a big change. I think she really enjoyed it though, and in any event it was just really good to get together again. Hopefully when Anna goes out there to start her graduate studies, she and Finn can share an apartment. Finn's relatives live right near campus and have a two-bedroom apartment that they're willing to rent out for a very reasonable price.

In other news, getting my Spanish visa looks like it's going to be the hardest part of this whole going-to-Spain deal. It's all paperwork and certificates and official seals, and the word is that the consulates are super strict about every little detail, so if you screw one thing up, you're out of luck. I guess after dealing with various other countries' government bureaucracies, though, I'm not overly stressed about whether things will work out. I nearly drove myself insane last summer with getting my Taiwanese visa and other things, but it all came together in the end and I had wasted a lot of energy stressing over nothing.

Jottings

So the weather is doing this crazy thing where it's reverting to summer again. I've taken to walking to school recently, partly for exercise, and partly to save money. I figured since it's been getting cooler recently, it wouldn't be too bad and I wouldn't arrive at school too sweaty. However, the past two days, it has been unbelievably warm and humid in the morning and afternoon, and only cools down after sunset. Everyone's saying this is really weird and that it hasn't been this warm at the end of October in a long time. I don't think it's quite as bad as it was in August, but it's a bit uncomfortable, especially if you do any sort of exercise.

I played football with the guys again today, and it was really fun and a really good way for me to let off some stress and tire myself out enough that hopefully I'll sleep well tonight. It's interesting, the Taiwanese guys, after some initial uncertainty about me, seem to take to me as well, or even better, than some of the American guys I played with back in LA. There was this one guy today who seemed to make a point of passing the ball to me and to get me involved in the game, and there was another guy who was playing keeper and was giving me instructions just like he would to any other player, which I thought was cool and showed that he respected me at the level of a player. Football isn't that big here, and though there are some pretty skilled players here, I can more than hold my own with most of the guys.

Also on the football front, Liverpool beat Chelsea last weekend, snapping Chelsea's 86-game unbeaten streak at home. It was an amazing game for Liverpool, and I think it really showed that Liverpool are ready for a title challenge this year. They didn't just eke out a win or win ugly, they dominated the second half, made Chelsea look slow and disorganized on defense, and they played some amazing one-touch football in the attacking third that was just superb. And the really awesome thing is, Torres wasn't playing. The fact that Liverpool now have players that can step up and really fill that gap, even when players like Torres and Gerrard are out, is going to be key in making a title run. Right now, Xabi Alonso is really on form, absolutely dominated the midfield against Chelsea, and is really showing why keeping him instead of bringing in Barry was the right choice. I know it's only the first part of the season, but I can't tell you how excited I am that Liverpool are not only winning games, but are playing some real quality football as well.

I literally just stepped away from my computer because the doorbell rang, and guess who was at the door? Two young men from the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints. They were very polite and a little bit bashful because they were trying out their English on me, and I felt bad for sending them away, but I had no interest.

Things are a bit up and down at the moment, the semester is winding down, and I'm definitely in that end-of-term slump that I remember all too well from college, but I'm just trying to slog through and get to the end of the semester with good grades and good standing with my professor, who I'm planning to continue on with next term. We just found out today that we have a fairly long break in the middle of the winter term for Chinese New Year, so I don't know if I'll travel then, or just hang out here and explore the city. Apparently Christmas isn't really celebrated here, which I'm kind of surprised about since Christianity seems fairly prevalent here. But Chinese New Year should be fun.

So that's that. I played football, got a visit from Mormons, and now I'm off to hopefully get some quality rest before my exam tomorrow.

Why I feel like a hypocrite

So it's no secret I love football. I love to play, and I love to watch. I get up in the middle of the night to watch European matches, I scour the internet on Saturdays for streams of EPL matches, and I could talk for hours on end about the game, the players, the managers and so on.

But sometimes I feel like a hypocrite in loving the game so much. Because like it or not, European football is an inherently sexist institution, a realm exclusively run by and for men, and the only space for women is as objects to be admired and lusted after.

Check out this video. Great footage of skills from the Euro Cup 2008. I love highlight reels like that. But what I despise about this video is that it makes women look like dumb bimbos who are just there to be admired for looking good and dressing in really skimpy clothes. On the one hand, it's just sexist. Men are allowed to be skillful and creative and score wonder goals for their country. But women are simply objects for visual admiration. God forbid a woman should have football skill or creativity, and horror of all horrors should she actually show it off in public.

And on the other hand, it makes it that much harder for women who actually know a little something about the game to be treated with any kind of respect when trying to discuss the game with men. I mean, in some really screwed up way, I kind of understand why a lot of guys think women don't know anything about football, because so many women just like the game for the hot guys and don't know the difference between offsides and a corner flag.

But seriously. At times I seriously question why I should support any football club, let alone a big one like Liverpool, if all it does is lend my tacit consent to an institution that reinforces such degrading stereotypes.

Yo Soy Julia Maria

When I first started playing football in the Mexican league, I introduced myself as Julia, with the Spanish pronunciation of the 'j' as an 'h.' I think it confused my teammates because though my name is Spanish, my features clearly aren't Mexican. They took to calling me Chinita, and for the next few years, I was known as la Chinita not only by my teammates, but by spectators and opposing teammates as well. I didn't mind; my teammates knew I was Korean and appreciated that fact, but the nickname stuck, and I rather liked it for its staccato sound and uniqueness.

It was a couple seasons ago that another chinita started playing in the leagues, first in the Ecuadorian one, then in the Mexican. Since she played defense and I played striker, we were often matched up against each other. And after a couple games, my teammates and I observed the same thing: this other chinita was also named Julia. We got a pretty good laugh out of the coincidence, and Cecy even teasingly asked me if all Asians were named Julia.

This summer, I came back from Los Angeles and was told by Vanessa that this other Julia was now playing with us. I met her at the first match and immediately got on well with her. I found out that she's Russian, and her biological mother was Mongolian, thus her Asian features, and we joked about an "Asian invasion" into the Latino futbol leagues of the Twin Cities. But our identical names (and similar features) presented a problem to our teammates, because any time they called for Julia, both of us instinctively answered.

Solution? My teammates christened me Maria, and the other Julia, Lupita. When I'm sprinting for a loose ball on the pitch, they yell "Vete Maria!" and when Julia goes for a header against an opponent, they yell "Fuerte, Lupita!" I get a kick out of it every time, and I know my teammates do as well, and they've persisted in it so much that both Julia and I are starting to respond to our newly-given names. I've put up a token protest, but to be honest, I don't really mind, it's all in good fun.

And really, if you think about it, what are the odds that two women of Asian heritage, both adopted, and both named Julia, would end up playing in the same Mexican futbol league in the middle of the American heartland?

Fin de semana de futbol

Something I've found very interesting in the past couple years playing in the Mexican and Ecuadorian futbol leagues around here is the overlap between leagues, and how playing in one league often leads to playing in another, and then another, and then another, and if you play in more than one league, you tend to run in to the same players time and time again.

Up until last weekend, I was playing for two teams--Club America in the Mexican league, and Virgen de la Nube in the Ecuadorian league. This weekend, one of my America teammates asked me to play with a third team in another Ecuadorian league, Santa Picosas. I agreed, one, because I love playing futbol in these leagues, even if it isn't of the highest quality or skill, and two, because she was desperate for players, and I know how hard it can be to be in charge of a team and not have players show up consistently.

So this weekend, I played one game on Saturday, and two games today (Sunday). We won the first two games, but lost the third, and the really amusing thing was, in the two games today, I ended up playing the same team. For whatever reason, it just worked out that, with Virgen de la Nube we played Gualacero, and with Santa Picosas we played Gualacero. The fact that my team won the first but lost the second simply has to do with skill level. The girls on Picosas are beginners, most haven't been playing for very long, have had no coaching beyond very basic stuff, and considering that, they have a great attitude toward it all. To be honest, I enjoyed the game we lost as much as the game we won.

I read an interview awhile ago, maybe by Fernando Torres, but I'm not sure, where the player was saying that, no matter where you score a goal, the feeling, the joy and euphoria is the same, whether it's on a tiny patch of grass in a backyard, or on the biggest stage under the brightest lights. And truly, I think he was right. All of the girls on these three teams, we're just women with jobs and families and many, many more things to attend to than futbol. But for us, just playing the game is in itself a joy, a kind of escape from the daily grind and a chance to do something out of pure love of and dedication to the game itself. We'll never be great, we'll probably never even be very good, but sometimes I think we get even more joy out of playing than the pros.

Euro Final and Current Events

I didn't actually get to watch the match live because I had my own football match to play, but the first thing I did when I got home was check the match reports. As I was opening up my computer, I was thinking how it would be amazing if Fernando Torres, who hasn't had a great tournament, scored. And then, lo and behold, I opened up BBC's webpage, and it's Germany 0-1 Spain on Fernando Torres' goal. Good goal too, eerily reminiscient to a couple that he scored for Liverpool this past season. Nice through ball from Cesc Fabregas, and Torres just got in behind Lahm and chipped the ball over Lehmann. Class goal, and it brought them the championship. Well done to Spain (though I dislike the coach, Aragones, on so many levels), and well done to Torres, he deserved that goal.

My match didn't go quite as well, though we won easily. I had about five chances on net that I just whiffed, either not enough power on the shot or careened it off a defender's foot. I also ended up with a few bloody scratches on my knees from the rocky pitch. But no yellow cards this weekend. So I guess that's good.

Current Events - Futbol

As per usual, played two football matches this weekend, one in the Mexican league and one in the Ecuadorian league. Did not play my best, I will admit, only got one goal on Saturday and should have had one more, probably should have had two or three on Sunday.

What I did get was a yellow card on Sunday, and I don't think I really deserved it, though in retrospect I can see why the ref gave it to me. The defender and I went hard for a loose ball, knocked shoulders twice, and the third time I wasn't really playing the ball, more the player. Foul, certainly. Card, no way. But as we were walking away, I glanced over at the girl, and I guess she took it as an insult, because she punched me in the arm and said, "¿Qué pasa?" basically a Spanish "What's your problem?" I just walked away, although I think actually I might have raised my hands up in that sort of universal 'bring it on' gesture before I did. In any event, I got a yellow card. In all my years playing club and varsity, I never once got carded. I think in the past five years with the Mexican and Ecuadorian leagues, I've picked up at least one card per season, if not more. A couple were for in-play fouls, but at least one was definitely for mouthing off to the ref. Oops. So much for the nice, docile little Asian girl.