Who needs real goals?

Some of my favorite times here on my block are night time soccer games in the street. It takes just a few anxious individuals who want to play to start spreading the word and if enough people are up for it, we can make two teams of about 5 or 6 people each, sometimes more, though that gets a little crowded. We usually play around 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. and the teams have a wide range of players, from the youngest of 8 or 9, to grown adults of 40 plus, girls and guys are split more or less evenly. We use a stretch of our street for the “field” and the goals are each marked by two rocks about 4 feet apart on either end. The sidewalks, with all their obstacles of trees, trash cans, and stone planters and benches are considered in-bounds, but if the ball goes beyond the goals it’s out. The game halts for traffic and resumes after it passes.

 Those who don’t play often pull up chairs to watch, but they have to stay on alert because the sidewalks are fair game if the ball gets kicked in that direction. The ball constantly gets kicked over the planters, which leads to a mad scramble by two or three more aggressive players, who duke it out for possession and sometimes use the walls to their advantage to somehow get the ball back into the street. It can get kinda crazy.

It’s a chance for the young ones to prove they’ve got skills and for the older ones (usually men) to prove they haven’t lost them. It’s good, free entertainment for everyone. I usually play, even if my soccer (“fútbol”) skills aren’t exactly developed. The more I play the less I get the ball stolen from me – which for me is pretty good. I even manage to steal it away from the other players once and a while. The goals are tough to score on, since they’re barely wider than shoulder width and can be totally blocked if the goalie (“portero”) crouches down the right way. The challenge is to lure them out of the goal and get it in behind them, at least that’s the strategy that works the best. If it’s a girl goalie the guys try to intimidate her and trick her with some fancy footwork.

 Some girls are more aggressive than others. A few tend to scream when the ball flies at them or when they get the ball they kick it frantically in a panic. We all just laugh. At the score of a goal the scoring team gives a big shout and the other team groans or yells at the goalie – but they don’t harass each other too much. The best part is that we’re not really disturbing anyone because the whole block is into the game. We continue the havoc until we’re tired and at some point decide it’s the last point. The winning team finishes happy, but winning doesn’t really mean much since the teams always change. It’s just about playing and having fun. You never know when a game might spring up, but it’s always a blast when one does.