after monday nights training, i found new confidence in the facilities here in the dr. that however was to be short lived. for starters, those who know me realize it takes a lot to get me upset to the point where i am mad. usually i take things for what they are and i do realize that i am in a country where wealth is not common and the facilities suffer because of it. but i made a lot of changes to come down here to play, ditched my family on thanksgiving, missed out of opportunities to see my best friends, all of which i have not seen since august. the last thing i want to feel is that i have been cheated on a chance to perform well.
the field was no more than hard, dry red clay, every save consisted of a glove cleaning to remove the collection of dust so that i would be in a position to catch the next ball hit my way, and again, every dive was followed by a slow return to my feet and a feeling of F****************************************ÇK!!!!! if you understand what i mean (and if you have not noticed yet, that was the first time i have used caps in any blog so far so you i hope you understand the anger behind it) after about 2 hours, a slow trickle of young players not arriving for upwards to an hour and a half late, and players who could not understand simple sequences of drill...i grew angry. not just red face pissed off, but a few more minutes i am sure i would have turned green and someone would have made comics and movies about me.
i was glad to understand that the coaches saw the same thing that i did. they realized that i had become frustrated due to the entire situation and they addressed the issue with all the guys after practice. i decided that i needed to address my issues with carlos, the man behind the try-outs. i expressed my disappointment in the facilities and though i understood that we had to work with what we had, i was upset because i was not in a situation to play the quality football that i was able to. besides monday nights training on the turf, my level of play has been sacrificed due to the facilities. i did not feel that it was fair that i had made the adjustments that i had to come here and not be given a chance to play on a quality pitch in return. i explained to him that even though the other keeper preferred the dirt since he was used to it, i said that was why he was not anything more than a middle third shot stopper. what i mean by that was he could only save the balls that were in the middle third of the goal and he was forced to make saves much like keepers do in the indoor style, leading with the feet and very poor technical abilities. i told him that if i were recruiting him for college soccer that there was too much work that needed to be done to break him of his bad habits to give him a spot on the team. in his defense, it is not his fault, it is the cultures fault. he is forced to play this way because it is the only way to protect his body.
i am a very technical goalkeeper and i would much rather do as much as i can correctly and let up a goal while saving my body than to form the bad habits that go into the style the other keeper owns. maybe it is thick headed of me, but i take pride in the fact that i do things the right way and i have worked hard to develop correct form over the past nine years of training.
at the end of the talk, i was pleased to hear that both carlos and the river plate trainer, who noticed my displeasure in the days training as well, were in understanding of the situation. they were not using these trainings as a means of analysis and know the level of my play from mondays training and my video. they also understood that i posses a certain amount of skill due to the fact that i played in austria during my study abroad trip. they also expressed that there was something to be said for the fact that i had come this far to try-out. in all, i believe now, that fairness will be had in the end and i will grow through these situations.
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