Call of Duty: Football !

Yes,

I am back again in the football market. This time with a group of English mates playing for the "Strongest" team.

We adopted Real Zaragoza's away t-shirt. For some strange reason, we are called the "Strongest", in honour of the Bolivian football team. Notice in the picture the shin-pads that I have to wear. At the first match, I was stopped by the referee who asked: "Where are your shin-pads?". I said "I do not need them". He said, "this is England mate, you better put them on!". He was right.

Since September 2006 we play every Tuesday evening in a tournament. We are doing enough to keep ourselves busy and entertained. The results could have been better, but hey, "The Strongest" is used to play at high altitude ground, and Hull is at the sea level (just another excuse for the team performance). Anyway I am a top scorer! . I celebrate like Bebeto and people ask me to stop cheering up (jaja).

The summer training was fun. We trained every Sunday at a park nearby where I live (Pearson Park). We trained with a lot of people from the Arab countries, Iran, Kosovo, Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. Some of them are very friendly and very skillful (no wonder they like the Brazilian coaches). After a while we did not train with them anymore, we spent half of the time arguing who should be in which team. It is like Dis-United Nations (DUN). The other thing is that the level of injuries was increasing, so maybe we were in the wrong place.

Football is still my passion, I enjoyed it a lot, makes me feel connected to my close friends and keeps me a bit fit. And the wife is also happy as I am doing some sport!

JR