I was up in Portland this afternoon for the first in a season of Men’s over 30 soccer games I’m playing in. I played well in the opening 15 minutes, notching a couple assists before pulling my left hamstring and sitting out the rest of the half. I played as a gimp for about 30 minutes of the second half but was unremarkable on the whole.
The good news (other than our 3-1 victory) is that I’m a very good fit for this team as a checking forward. Everybody else runs away from the ball, so I just curl back to it, and voila, look who gets the pass. That plays to my strengths of holding the ball and distributing, so if I can stay healthy for the season, I should put up some good numbers and have a lot of fun. The having fun part being, of course, the more important of the two.
As for right now, ice and Advil.
The Steelers open their seasons tomorrow against the Patriots, but I was pleased to see all the other teams in the newly formed AFC North lose their openers today. I particularly enjoyed seeing Cleveland lose 40-39 after a defensive penalty (guy throws his helmet in celebration because he thinks the game’s over) allows the opposing side to kick the winning field goal. (Even though time had run out, games cannot end on a defensive penalty.) Steelers are atop the AFC North and they haven’t even played a game yet.