I am excited to announce that I have finally figured out what I want to do with my life.\u00a0 A recent birthday means I am eligible for early Social Security, so it\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n
My new career is really going to be two careers.\u00a0 Bilingual daughter Abby has drawn my interests to all-things Spanish.\u00a0 So I plan to be a professional soccer player during the \u201cfutbol\u201d season.\u00a0 More than likely this will take me to Europe, perhaps with Real Madrid or Manchester United.\u00a0 I see myself as a Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo type.<\/p>\n
Then in the off-season, I\u2019d like to try my hand at international Latino singing star.\u00a0 Picture a cross between Enrique Iglesias and Marc Anthony.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to have to drop a few pounds and buff up.\u00a0 Women around the globe will be drawn to me, but Pam knows I am ever-faithful.<\/p>\n
Okay, you\u2019re thinking I\u2019d better stick with my day job.\u00a0 But I have become a fan of those things.\u00a0 For a kid who grew up on polka and baseball, Latin music and soccer are fun, invigorating, and a little bit mysterious.\u00a0 We are just back from visiting our daughter in Spain where Abby is going to graduate school.\u00a0 There I was immersed in these things, along with the sangria.<\/p>\n
Son Ezra also gets credit for piquing my interest in soccer.\u00a0 He played a few summers with the New Ulm Soccer Association.\u00a0 The coaches and parents there were patient with me as they tried to explain offsides to this old dog.\u00a0 I came to enjoy the games even if I didn\u2019t understand the subtleties.\u00a0 In baseball I know the corner infielders shade the line late in a tight game to prevent an extra base hit.\u00a0 I have no comparable knowledge of inner soccer.<\/p>\n
Abby and I went to see a La Liga (the Spanish professional league) match when we were there.\u00a0 FC (Futbol Club) Barcelona is one of the top teams in the world.\u00a0 Camp Nou Stadia is a legendary venue in soccer, the site of many historic matches.\u00a0 It is like getting to see a ballgame at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n
The capacity is 100,000.\u00a0 We were in the cheap seats, but even up there the atmosphere was intense.\u00a0 Here in America, it seems half the fans at sports events are looking at their phones.\u00a0 There, everyone was watching closely.\u00a0 Till halftime, when everyone gets up.\u00a0 Good luck going to the bathroom then.<\/p>\n
The match ended in a 0 to 0 tie between Barcelona and Getafe.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always liked a pitcher\u2019s duel in baseball, so was not disappointed.\u00a0 There was a lot of up and down and some good scoring chances.\u00a0 Several times the crowd let out a collective \u201cAWW!\u201d as a shot went just wide.<\/p>\n
Despite my time watching soccer at the New Ulm fields, there was much I didn\u2019t understand.\u00a0 Play would stop, and I was the only one of 100,000 who didn\u2019t know why.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t understand what led to a free kick and what was ignored.\u00a0 I know you can\u2019t purposely trip an opponent, but with that many athletic men kicking at a ball, how does that not happen?\u00a0 Often a player would turn to the referee with his hands out asking for a foul to be called.\u00a0 In that way, it was like every incomplete pass in the NFL nowadays.<\/p>\n
There are a couple of soccer pitches near Abby\u2019s apartment.\u00a0 (The field is called a pitch.)\u00a0\u00a0 They are on a bike-walk path that runs along the Mediterranean Sea and beach.\u00a0 I like Sleepy Eye\u2019s lake trail.\u00a0 But this is a little more exotic, and I went there whenever we had free time.<\/p>\n
I stopped most days to watch practice or a game.\u00a0 The players ranged from children to high school age.\u00a0 Adults played pickup games in the evening.\u00a0 Up close, the athleticism, skill, and grace of the players is clear.\u00a0 A good player maneuvering the ball is striking.\u00a0 It is a beautiful game to watch.\u00a0 The constant movement and flow of action with both sides seeking advantage is alluring.\u00a0 There is something attractive about the spareness of it: a ball, two nets, a piece of ground and \u201cLet\u2019s play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soccer shares elements with other games where a ball or puck is propelled toward your opponent\u2019s side.\u00a0 Basketball and hockey, even football are relatives.\u00a0 In each, momentum, positioning, and controlling space are important.\u00a0 The good players anticipate and have a sense of the play that will develop.\u00a0 Wayne Gretzky famously said, \u201cI skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have friends who roll their eyes when I bring up soccer: \u201cPaint drying.\u201d\u00a0 I might have thought that in the past, but now I find myself wanting to understand the attraction.\u00a0 It is wildly popular around our planet.\u00a0 An estimate is that 265 million people play, an astonishing 4 per cent of the world\u2019s population.\u00a0 It\u2019s like there\u2019s a party going on and I want to be invited.<\/p>\n
For whatever reason, the U. S. veered in a different direction.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that might not shift.\u00a0 Seventy-five years ago, our most popular sports were baseball, boxing, and wrestling; the NFL was barely known.\u00a0 Unfortunately while the world\u2019s best players in baseball and hockey want to play here, our best soccer players for now go to Europe.<\/p>\n
As friends approach retirement, many want to travel.\u00a0 I assume along with that is an interest in other people and how they live.\u00a0 There are many ways to know another culture: work, religion, art, food.\u00a0 But the games people play belong on that list.<\/p>\n
There is a well-known quote about baseball by the writer Jacques Barzun.\u00a0 \u201cWhoever wants to know the heart and mind of America<\/em> had better learn baseball.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Since that was written in the 1950\u2019s, other sports have taken up some of baseball\u2019s prominence.\u00a0 I think the essential truth survives though.\u00a0 And in wanting to know the heart and mind of Spain and many other countries, it is good to learn \u201cfutbol.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am excited to announce that I have finally figured out what I want to do with my life.\u00a0 A recent birthday means I am eligible for early Social Security, so it\u2019s about time. My new career is really going to be two careers.\u00a0 Bilingual daughter Abby has drawn my interests to all-things Spanish.\u00a0 So …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 19:05:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105603,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105602\/revisions\/105603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}