Seeing as it's early days yet, I figure I'd elaborate on a couple of my general interests a bit more. And since the World Cup has just drawn to a close, I guess I'll write this post about one of my true passions, football.

It must seem rather unusual that someone as nerdy as myself would even consider taking up a contact sport like football. After all it does involve a great deal of physicality, technical skill and tactical awareness. I must admit I came into the sport very recently, only about three years ago in fact. Before then I was pretty much the archetypal nerd-ish sort: gangly, physically uncoordinated and a total bookworm. I'll also admit that not much has changed since then, but ever since I got captivated by the sport I've been able to achieve a sort of balance.

My Dad had always tried to get me interested in the sport. Even when I was three, I remember he used to sit me in front of the TV with him and say :"Look son, that's football." The World Cup was on that year, and I vaguely remember a couple of names, Maradona, Milla, Lineker. Considering how involved I am with the sport now, it's hard to think my Dad failed to get me interested for sixteen years. So it was an irony that it was the World Cup in 2002 that sparked it all off. Having done much of the pushing Dad seemed to try a more passive approach. He left an official guide on the car seat a couple of weeks before the tournament began. I picked it up and read it, and I was hooked. Even so it was still another two years before I got convinced to join the playground gang.

It's almost a law that footballers always start from the top of the field and work their way down, and I followed accordingly. I started off as a striker, and the initial signs were actually good. I scored twice in my very first game, and nearly did in my second. It actually seemed easy, wait in the middle and stick a foot out when the ball came. But then came a 4 month long goal drought, during which time I worked my way down to become a very poor midfielder, to a fair left winger, to a good defender. I'm still trying to overcome my physical shortcomings as a person and a player, but I think I'm getting better. The best thing about football is physical excersise apart, there's many valuable life lessons to be learnt: how to work and contribute to a team effort, determination to better oneself, how to lose well, and above all, to have fun doing it.

This semester my housemates and I have enrolled ourselves and some friends in the UQ seven-a-side league. This means that for the first time I will be able to genuinely contribute to an actual team. Till now we have spent the last two months playing amongst the local playground groups, learning and improving. There is now a sort of cohesion within the immediate group which I feel will prove pivotal. As is in all great teams, team chemistry is vital. I know that I have a long way to go to be able to call myself truly worthy of this level, but I'm sure as hell determined to try. Injuries aside, and I've had a fair few, I can expect to be able to find much inspiration in this endeavour, and better myself as a player.


*There will be updates on the games we play and I shall highlight our progress as a team in due course.