Soccer roots (part 1)

When I was a young child, four to five years old, I can remember wanting to play soccer and wanting to play goalkeeper. When I finally got to play organized soccer, at around 10 years old, I immediately went for the keeper position. I loved playing the position, but that soon changed.

I ended up on the best team in the area and I soon despised my prominent position as first keeper. Being the number one keeper on the best team meant I saw very little action. In fact, most games were shut-outs. Not because of my keeping skills, but because there were hardly ever any threats on goal. I got in terrible trouble one game because I actually sat down at the top of the penalty box during play (the ball had not left the far quarter of the field for a good 15-20 minutes).

I was a great keeper at that age. I had extremely fast reflexes and could read players well enough that I was rarely fooled on the direction a player was shooting. I stopped almost every PK taken against me and I was otherwise scored on rarely, if ever. The combination of instincts and athleticism meant it was effortless at times. Kids at that age couldn’t kick hard enough to overcome my skills (though I know that would have changed in time).