On Friday night I returned to the indoor soccer court after a few years off. My team is called either "Exhausted" or "Knackered", I can't remember. We played a nameless team in blue, and came back from well behind to win 7-6. When I first played years ago in Melbourne, we played six a side, in an indoor cricket net, with a small leather ball, I think. I don't remember it that well. After I gave up outdoor soccer I played for four or five years in a indoor comp on a basketball court, with a soccer-ball-sized tennis ball, if you know what I mean. Very light, bright green and fuzzy. It was six-a-side in quite a large space, and goalies could roam about if they wanted to.
My new team play in an indoor cricket net at Bellerive. It is four-a-side, and the goalie is confined to his little semicircle. The other three have a lot of space to cover, and because of the net, the ball never goes out. So it's like squash, with added tackling and less breaks. It goes for 40 minutes and I was gasping for oxygen after about five. I had a couple of longish stints in goals which helped me recover a little.
I felt like I fit in to the team OK, scored a couple of goals and really enjoyed it. The referee was very professional and that makes a big difference to me - I used to waste a lot of energy sounding off at the feeble refereeing. One of the younger guys on the opposing side was the dead spit of a boy I played soccer with at high school - it occurred to me later that it might be his son. Spooky.
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