Pohang Soccer League and Me

#42. Koreans think that anti-bacterial spray fixes everything when someone gets injured.  You get smashed in the knee during a game and it starts to swell up.  Spray it.  That'll fix it all and you can magically go back to the field to play.  Nope.  We're not at Hogwards.  Not how it works.

#43.  Koreans love the name Laura.  My co-teacher (the other Jen) has played in leagues here before and is called Laura by the other Koreans.  She corrects them but it doesn't matter.  They think Laura is a beautiful name.  She learned to accept it.  So any of you out there who is named Laura and hate your name?  Come to Korea and Get ready to be worshipped. 

#44.  When Koreans are being competitive they laugh.  They laugh loudly.  It seems like whoever laughs the loudest is the most competitive.  They probably get a better workout from their laughing than the actual sport itself.  A guy runs into you hard during a critical moment in the game when you could have gotten your team the winning goal?  Americans would be pretty angry.  Koreans just start giggling like school girls and run away. 

Monday night was my first soccer game in Korea.  I haven't played soccer since I was 8 years old.  There is a picture of me out there somewhere in yellow jersey and shin guards smiling in front of a soccer goal.  I had no idea how to play.  I liked the ball, liked the jersey, playing with my friends and the orange slices at halftime.  Running wasn't my thing (and still isn't) so I didn't excel in the sport.  Needless to say that was my one and only season.  Now look at me. I'm a member of a Korean soccer league and play every Monday and Thursday. Who would have thought?    Sure as hell not me.

So I play on a team of foreigners against a bunch of Korean men.  Our team consists of 4 guys and 2 girls.  We also got to have a Korean be our goalie.  The team we played against  had 6 players including the goalie.  Now anyone out there who knows basic addition understands we were up one player.  Well there's a reason.  According to Koreans 2 girls are equivilant to 1 man. Yea.  That actually happened.  Didn't like that very much. What I did like was wiping the field with them at the end of the game.  Try telling me again that i'm worth half of a man.  Ok well to be fair (I) didn't do much butt kicking.  I did my best to block shots, play defense (which consisted of me running around like a chicken with its head cut off) and to get the ball to my teammates.   For my first time in 15 years I think I did a damn fine job.  I can proudly say that WE kicked their tiny little Korean butts.

The field we played on is probably about half the size of a regular field.  This made the running part easier but made it really congested and confusing.  Add to it the fact that the opposing teams don't speak the same language and you've got quite the interesting game.  Lots of those favorite hand gestures.  Koreans have amazing footwork but not the best speed.  Our team was about average on both so we did quite well.  My goal was to not make a total fool of myself and to not get injured.  I epicly failed in both areas.  I ended up with a bloody nose and a killer cleat imprint on my knee.  When I went down after getting smashed in the knee (which happened WHILE saving a goal) I wasn't even remotely mad.  I looked at my knee with pride and just KNEW that it was going to look awesome the next day.  Boy was I right.  I look totally bad ass.

Lets just say that now I understand why soccer players wear shin guards.