5-a-side Soccer

That's right my friends, I have joined a 5 a side soccer team. Well actually I am a founding member!!!! This may turn out to be an important factor when we go on to win the Mastercard Beijing Club Soccer League (division two). Or when they realise i'm rubbish and try and oust me!!!

The team is truly international. They consist of:

Me - obviously
Kang - an Australian guy who used to work at my school, but has since landed a very sweet job in an international school teaching P.E
Aubrey - a Dutch teacher, who also happens to be Kang's boss.
Dave - A Glaswegian science teacher
Rio - An Australian Tennis coach - no-one really knows him, or even knows why he's in the team, but hey, its China, randomness is the only way.
Antonio - A Spanish science teacher.
Josh - An Englishmen who occasionally turns up, gets into fights then disappears for a few weeks

Individually we are weak, but together, we join forces to become the irrepressible - 'Get the beers in'

I should point out that the Mastercard Club Football comp is not some mickey mouse operation like the Tempe indoor I used to play.

Firstly, its outdoor. The pitch is FIFA approved synthetic grass (the you know the really cool stuff that is like little plastic blades of grass).

Secondly, they have real referees and monetary fines for yellow and red cards. Its rumoured that a red card will see you suspended for 1 week and fined upwards of 300 yuan (AUD50).

Thirdly, because most of the teams are expats its like a world cup every week. Italians playing dirty and sneaking wins in the last minute, Chinese diving, and Russians threatening to kill people's families... its bloody great!

So, now that I have clearly explained that the comp is serious, you won't be surprised to hear that in order to join the comp we needed to play two trial matches to have our level assessed. After the trial matches we quickly sent off a late entry form for the paralympics 5 a side comp, but unfortunately, whilst the organisers felt for our situation, they explained that firstly a team must consist of 8 members from the same country, and secondly being unco-ordinated is not yet considered a disability!! HA! bureaucracy gone mad!

After the trials we were placed in the South League division two.

By some miracle (some of the other teams are suggesting by design) we are a better team than the trials showed. We have since played 4 league matches (we play double headers every Tuesday night!) won 2 and lost 2, we are sitting in 5th place in a comp of 8. Sounds bad but we are only 2 points off second place, and in fact, 2 wins tonight will see us move into second place!

to quote escape to victory, "Hatch, Hatch, we can win this."

Oh did i mention that last week, it was pouring with rain, and we only had 4 players!!! we managed to hold the very fancied Italian team to 1-1 right until the dying moments when they got a lucky goal (always the way, bloody Italians!) and then we absolutely poleaxed a Chinese team 4-0.

Stay posted ladies and gentlemen, because I can sense a league win for 'Get the Beers in'.