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Football World Tour, Part 1 | | Posted on Monday 25th of February 2008 12:51:34 PM by Brian Fobi | | The view from the pitch was pretty spectacular. On a large plateau overlooking Yaounde, a long, uneven, asymmetrical and dusty clay soccer field stretched out for 70 yards. Lined by palm trees, the field had six-inch deep dried puddles, rocks the size of small cats, and red dust everywhere. There, in the heart of Cameroon –perhaps Africa’s premier football nation- I did something that I hadn’t done in all too long.
Though I watch soccer religiously and write about it regularly, it has actually been some time since I last laced on a pair and played. It was no small thing, then, when they finally called me onto the field of play. The game was rough, with tackles and infractions enforced sporadically at best, but the pure unstructured joy of the game was far more reminiscent of something you might see on an inner city playground than what witnesses in the thousands of youth league games that take place on any given weekend.
I suppose that I played midfield, but it wasn’t as though an observer could discern a clean 4-4-2. When I wanted to get involved, I pressed forward; when I got tired, I fell back; when I got the ball, I tried a move beyond my skill level and properly either dispossessed or tackled right onto my backside. I wish that I could tell you that I scored a goal, but on my one clean shot, I scuffed the ball completely, send it six feet wide of the palm tree that marked the left post.
The next time someone asks me why American football hasn’t lived up to its potential, I’ll remember my pickup game in Yaounde. Under the too-watchful glare of a coach, creativity does not have the space to shine. If more American children learned the game as informally and raucously as they do in Cameroon (or indeed, the beaches of Brazil, slums of Paris, or tight alleyways of Madrid and Roma) then America might actually have more of the kind of creative, ballsy and attack-minded player used to charging at defenders.
Like all aspects of American soccer, I suppose that the pickup game will grow and develop in time. For now, far more people immediately think to grab a ball and hoop it up when looking for impromptu sporting entertainment and exercise, but as the sport grows in popularity, one can imagine that soon, in the barrios of Los Angeles, the suburbs of Seattle, or inner-city Cleveland young will be practicing their Eusebios and step-overs, a fact which will hopefully one day translate into greater international success. |
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