Soccer: What Makes Me Coming Day?

There is a unique kind of smell when you walk onto a soccer field, a fresh, reminiscent of spring kind of spell. A smell of polyester and sweat. I like that smell.
I walked onto the field. To my left, a sea of green and yellow fans cheering on our opponents. To my right, friendly figures wearing black and gold. Most soccer player will tell you that every team has a different style or tempo. Some play fast while others play hard. Some play clean while others play dirty. Soccer has this ineffable quality about it, that certain nature that I find hard to describe but what keeps me coming day after day. Perhaps it’s the electricity that sends sparks through us we run fast as lightning or the feeling of smoothness and continuous motion as the ball
gracefully flits from player to player, becoming a game of ballet. The referee whistled and before I knew it, the game had started. My opponent’s forwards were fast, pushing the ball forward with impressive speeds. The ball was moving around their feet as if there was a magnetic force pulling it towards them. Closing the distance, I moved in for the push, and punted the ball forward. With the ball in my position, my team and I became gears, seamlessly connected. We weaved and bobbed through defenders, to swiftly, powerfully, move toward the goal, leg outstretched and laying the ball softly within the post. A wave of intense glory sparks through me like a shooting star. But these are just the veneer attractions of soccer. The real pull of the game comes to us in other ways. It comes from the bliss when you and a teammate combine elaborate passing to set up a good score, slapping high five as you run back down to set up defense. It stems from the eye contact across the field, knowing instinctively what your teammate will do. When that tacit communication exists, the game becomes easy. The most satisfying part of the game becomes our collective goal. In no other sport is the sense of team so instant and frank. The lack of our collaboration is felt as strongly as its occurrence. Teamwork can be communicated, sketched, outlined, but it never comes that way. But that slap on and that look across the field, that’s where teamwork comes from and that’s what I look for every day.