Hello again, everyone. I just finished a hellaciously busy week at work. The past five days I have listened to and evaluated approximately 70 student speeches, conducted over 100 four minute one-to-one speaking tests, written a final exam, and entered the semester grades of over 200 students onto a Korean government website. Oh yeah, and I managed to squeeze in a game of soccer yesterday.

I gave up a goal, but my team won 3-1. Concerning the goal, one of the fun things about learning a sport (or anything, for that matter) from scratch* is that you experience something new nearly every time time you do it.  Until yesterday, every shot that came at me was some variety of power or touch, high or low, deflection or point blank. I thought I had seen them all.  But I was wrong.

Though I have a long way to go to become a real asset to my team (my goal kicks, for example, while steadily improving, are still complete shite), the one “weapon in my arsenal” is a fearlessness toward throwing myself in the mix to get the ball. I’ve got the raspberries and bruises to prove it. As the nuances of positioning and timing have become more instinctual, my confidence has grown. You might even say I had become a little “cheeky” in front of the net. I slowly began to think, “I’ve got this game by the balls.” (In a manner of speaking.)

Yesterday’s conceded goal provided a needed dose of humility. We were playing a group of high school students. Though the students have a considerable advantage in conditioning (the little bastards never tire), the teachers are physically stronger, savvier, and more skilled (with the exception of one or two very talented student players). I approached the game with a mindset of, “No punk high school student is going to score on this goal!” (Note: The students are not really punks. In fact, they are good kids. It was just an expression of my cheekiness.)

But then it happened. Our team was leading 1-0 and the game was entering the final ten minutes. I grew increasingly comfortable, at one point thinking, “This game is in the bag.” Not more than two minutes later, one of the students found some space about ten meters in front of the goal and fired off a shot. The ball had good pace and started off to my right, but close enough to me that I wouldn’t have to dive for it. I instinctually lunged to my right to block it, but instantly realized that the shot was like what we call in baseball a “screwball”. It kept hooking back to my left. It was the first time since I started goalkeeping that I had seen a shot like that. I tried to stop my momentum and lunge back to left, but it was too late. I managed to get my hands on the ball, but not enough to deflect it to safety. The ball flew comfortably into the back of the net and the score was tied 1-1. Oh, the humiliation! Fortunately for my soccer self-esteem, my teammates quickly rallied to score two late goals to win, but the deed had been done. I was humbled.

One extra tidbit from the game to throw your way. We play these games during the students’ dinner time, so there are usually around 300 students watching the game. There was one moment during yesterday’s game when I tried to direct one of my aforementioned crap goalkicks to a teammate on the right side of the field but ended up shanking it over the sideline. I knew it was bad as soon as I hit it and, briefly lost in the moment, expressed displeasure with my effort. “Oh shit,” were my exact words. The sound of laughter emanated from my right. I looked over and saw about 30 male students sitting in the concrete stands with smiles on their faces . They were not laughing at my kick - they’re much too polite for that - but rather the fact that I had (so naturally) used profanity. They looked at each other and, giggling, repeated what I had said. “스캇쌤 ‘Oh shit’이랬어**…hahaha.” For the next two minutes I was entertained by chants of “oh shit, oh shit, oh shit”. I felt a tinge of embarassment that I’d unwittingly given the students license to swear, but mostly it was pretty funny.

*For those who haven’t read earlier posts, I played soccer for the first time in my life less than three months ago.

**Scott said, “Oh shit!”.

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