Who's still playing?

[caja-dglh]

Good luck with your recovery treibeis . Ankles are horribly complicated things and it is good they are being very careful with your recovery, even if it means eating gruel for a while.

[ad hoc]

Glad it's going to plan, even though it obviously was a bad break if you're still in till Monday

[imp]

treibeis [Considers terrible gag about using one crutch to stand on and the other to play mini-golf, then decides against it.] Anyway, hope you're back on both feet soon - take it easy when you're cheering on Jogi's Jungs on Tuesday night.

I can't pretend otherwise - after playing on Monday I was knackered for the best part of two days. No muscle pains, but I was stiff and tired. I need to tell myself that when an attack breaks down, I don't need to track back and defend every single time, not being a 21-year-old midfielder any more. Plus, no other fucker tracks back, why should I? It was programmed into me. Someone should psychologically profile players according to the position they play. Forwards are lazy and egotistical, defenders are authoritarian sadists. But midfielders? We're attention freaks, we have to be in the game the whole fucking time, either demanding the ball or trying to take it off someone. Real pains in the arse.

[treibeis]

Glad it's going to plan, even though it obviously was a bad break if you're still in till Monday

No, it's a Weber B fracture, which, apparently, is among the five most common (I almost wrote "most popular") bone breaks in humans. A doctor mate of mine reckons any surgeon who's ever picked up a scalpel can sort out a Weber B fracture during his mid-morning tea break (weil, almost).

I think, as caja-dglh says, they're being cautious now so that I don't have to come back in a month with a load of follow-up problems.

[diggedy derek]

Am I the only OTFer who has injured another OTFer playing football?

[diggedy derek]

Damn, that would have been good for the 'two truths, one lie' thread.

[imp]

Am I the only OTFer who has injured another OTFer playing football?

That's a story I'd like to hear.

[seand]

Still playing 5/6-a-side twice a week at 45. When I approached 40 I thought I’ll give it one more year, one more year… now I’m thinking I can do another decade or so. Monday is a weird one, the age profile was generally 35-50 but a few times we had to draft in sons and assorted friends, so now it’s typically 3 or 4 lads in age 18-25 and 7 or 8 lads in their 40s. Hard to know what the youngsters get from it some times, but it’s a good laugh, competitive but friendly with no bullshit. Wednesday is a bit more intense- strictly 5-a-side on a small court. Everyone 35-50ish and a lot of players who would have been serious players 20 years ago (unlike me).

Fucking live for it.

[treibeis]

[ typically 3 or 4 lads in age 18-25 and 7 or 8 lads in their 40s. Hard to know what the youngsters get from it some times

I could never work that one out, either. I could understand blokes bringing their sons along when the sons were 15 or 16, so they could get accustomed to men's football while safe in the knowledge that Dad's mates weren't going to kick the shit out of them, at least not at the beginning. But blokes in their mid-20s playing with 50-year-old has-beens and never-weres just ain't roight.

[lambers]

I used to be one of the mid-20s people playing with a bunch of 40ish year olds (introduced via someone in a regular work game). In my case, I enjoyed playing friendly games but wasn't that interested in playing competitively and I didn't know enough people my age who wanted to do that. On a more selfish note, it was also meant I was one of the faster players on the pitch, a real rarity in my life.

Nowadays, I haven't played for about three years. Since I moved to Hampshire from Wycombe (about 2014), I've struggled to find a similar group and my work doesn't organise anything. I did find a six-a-side team for a couple of years, but then some of the players moved away and others lost interest which led to a break-up, and me lacking that group again. Once I feel a bit more Covid comfortable, I might try searching for another group, I'm far too docile in my lifestyle now.

[imp]

There was a bloke in the pick-up game last Monday who was much younger, fitter and better than the rest of us. I was wondering what he was getting out of it. I started to get really annoyed with him, but when I tried to foul him once all I got was a knock on the knee for my pains as he glided past me and set up a 1-2 before scoring. Had to catch myself and calm my inner demons down (they only ever surface on the pitch, and only since I was in my late 30s when I started picking up yellow cards and, eventually, my only red at the age of 45). Just hope he decides to seek out a more challenging group and lets us huff and puff around on our own.

I told them I was only coming this week if Scotland win, so "probably" wouldn't be there.

[RobW]

Another entertaining match last night. Nobody quite sure of the score, but we're claiming a high scoring 7-7 draw. At one point it looked like we were going to get battered facing two sprightly guys in their early 20s up front, and the blues went 4-1 up. I got quite irate at the lack of tracking back (we were also missing our best defender), but remarkably we got back with one and despite conceding, were always quick to respond ourselves. We soon kicked the youngsters enough to slow them down and a late flurry made it 7 each and we even missed a sitter to win it late on. Exhausting game in the heat, not helped by our lack of discipline in keeping a shape.

[pebblethefish]

Forwards are lazy and egotistical

I was about to argue that we're not lazy, we just want you less talented types to have something to do as you grub around getting the ball for us to show you how the game was meant to be played, but then realised that that might not help me rebut the second part of your description.

[1974ddr]

I was about to argue that we're not lazy, we just want you less talented types to have something to do as you grub around getting the ball for us to show you how the game was meant to be played, but then realised that that might not help me rebut the second part of your description.

Sounds about right though

[beak]

Fucked it off aged 28/29 or so, having moved to the Netherlands. The club culture is so ingrained here I couldn't find a nice informal kickabout and instead got invited to train with the thirtieth-or-so-XI of a local club (SDZ for any of our (ex-)Amsterdammers). Spent a couple of hours getting absolutely battered for pace by a man twice my age at least, thought fuck this, and never went back.

[RobW]

As mentioned in the England/Germany thread, we are supposed to be playing tonight at 7pm. Just hope the game is done and dusted within 90 minutes. I'll be sporting the new sponsorless Lincoln shirt, so our team will be bound to lose.

[RobW]

As mentioned in the England/Germany thread, we are supposed to be playing tonight at 7pm. Just hope the game is done and dusted within 90 minutes. I'll be sporting the new sponsorless Lincoln shirt, so our team will be bound to lose.

Thanks to Kane's second we managed to pay our tab at the bar and get across to Coram's Fields, some more quickly than others. I had managed 3 pints of Guinness, my colleague 4 pints, plus a shandy, whilst others that joined us pre-match managed a couple. Only one of our team did not drink. You'd think that might give him an advantage, but no, he seemed to be as shit as the rest of us.
A rare game on the top pitch as it seemed we were the only people daft enough to consider playing football the same night as England v Germany. Four of our rival team, 'The Blues' also had been in the pub and on occasion it showed as they attempted shots from ridiculous angles, 30 yards from goals. They did however have the not so secret weapon of three people in their 20s who presumably did not imbibe alcohol before the game.

Anyway, we lost about 7-1, and I managed to fuck up Spanish goalkeeper style by letting a tame shot bounce under my foot - I think I got the last touch. A win for The Blues, but a game that will forever have an * next to the score. Last game of the season in 2 weeks, thank god and then we turn our attention to playing football and cracking ankles on Regent's Park against a group from the Royal College of Physicians.

[elguapo4]

Back when I was still playing, some of our club entered a summer 5 a side league every Wednesday in the local astropark complex. One game coincided with Liverpool v Milan, "the miracle of Istanbul" . As we didn't have any fans of either team ,we were the only side willing to play. I remember getting a phone call that morning asking "are you sure you'll be there? ". Eventually, the other team blinked and gave us a walkover, it turned out that we were the only side,out of about 40, who were willing to go ahead.

[imp]

Played tonight, second week running. First result - no injuries. Second result - I'd been feeling in a shit mood for several days, didn't feel like going out, but playing tonight, 8 v 8 on a half field with no one giving a toss about the scoreline, lifted me out of the slough. Never under-estimate the power of physical exercise on the mind.

[gjw100]

I played 5/6-a-side once evening a week until the age of about 55 (so 6 years ago). Gave up because the old knees were increasingly intolerant of the harder surfaces, but also because we had an influx of newer players who changed the dynamic of what had previously been a friendly session. Tackles got rougher, there were heated arguments most weeks and the whole atmosphere was nastier. I just thought fuck this, it's not fun any more and stopped going.

I last played 11-a-side 15 years ago. My son's team quit junior football when they were all 16/17, having been together from the age of 6, and joined the local men's Sunday league. A couple of the parents also signed on (both of whom had played for Tonbridge Angels and Tunbridge Wells in their younger days) and for three seasons until half of them went off to University they carried all before them, being younger, fitter and more skilful than most of the pub and works teams they were up against. In their first season there was one weekend where six of the boys were on a school skiing trip so I ended up playing left midfield to make up the numbers. I did OK, but the biggest thrill was playing in the same team as my son, something that I never thought would happen.

[imp]

Very nice, gjw100. The last game I played in the US was for the teachers' team at the DC German School against a combined boys/girls First XI, thus playing against my daughter for the first and only time, which was great fun.

There are two born moaners in our old men's group, but no one pays them any attention. Guess what, they make loads of errors too. In the veterans' teams I ran in the US, I told any serial whiners to either shape up and shut up, or fuck off.

[imp]

Last night, for reasons that make no good sense, we took on the club's U19 team, 11 v 11, on a full-size pitch. Of course, they were merciless and we got absolutely creamed. This was the team I coached when they were aged 13-16, and they've inevitably got bigger, faster and better. The difference between a half-field and a full field at my age feels like the distance between strolling into town and hiking the Appalachian Trail. And when you get pressured from all angles and lose the ball, your confidence sinks and you start hoping no one passes to you. Came home knackered and went straight to bed.

[RobW]

Anyone else still playing? It's our fortnightly 7/8 a side game at Coram's Field tonight. Recent matches have been good (as I think we've won), and I even managed to score a header from a corner the other week. I think getting back to the gym and running has helped my performances immensely. I even got a compliment from a colleague last time, which was a first.

[EIM]

I've been playing once or twice a week. Still enjoying it, and I've remembered how to trap a ball, which has been a plus.

[imp]

I've been really enjoying it too so far this autumn. Playing on an artificial surface possibly makes anyone look like a good player, but my passing quota is definitely way better than it's ever been. I've also never pulled a muscle when playing on artificial turf.