Too old for this

I always tell myself that.

But it does not stop me from doing it year after year. I need a new sport that could keep me fit without the physical devastation that soccer (football for non-Americans) wreaks on my body.

Sunday. 9 a.m. It is already sweltering. My team, Santa Fe S.C., will play Clarkstown S.C. in a match.

I have a sick feeling in my stomach, a premonition that we are about to take a beating.

Although we’re in first place and Clarkstown, in a down year, is mid-table, it is going to be a fierce match because Clarkstown needs to make up ground and every game between us is a civil war. It does not help that we have just 11 players, no subtitutes, while they have four on their sideline.

The match starts and is tense but even until late in the first half when Clarkstown breaks down our midfield and scores a magnificent goal. We respond by arguing among ourselves, yelling at each other, and criticizing. Second half begins. We have the better of play for a spell. We grow desperate, pushing forward.

I challenge for a ball in the attacking third but the other player beats me to it and, in the ensuing tussle, I lose my balance and I get a kick flush on the mouth as I’m on the way to the ground.

I lay there on the ground holding my mouth as I feel a warm gush, my own blood, go down my throat and spill out through my fingers, which I’m clasping tight over my my mouth. Worse, I hear crackling sounds in my jaw.

Refree stops game. A multitute of voices comes at me:

“Do you know where you are?”

“Michael, how many fingers am I holding up?”

“Can you stand?”

“Can you sit up?”

“Do you know where you are?”

“Shut up!” someone finally yells.

Someone shoves a bag of ice in my hand, which I put tight over my mouth.

I get up and go to the sideline, washing blood out of my mouth. Game resumes and Clarkstown scores two quick goals.

I go back into the game when refree determines I’m no longer bleeding. I make no difference in the game. The game ends.

Ignominous defeat for us.

Wracking pain in my jaw. My teammates are angry with and at everyone, including the referee, who is quite good, and the other team for their fierce display.

Simply put, anything that could be kicked, or punched, the Clarkstown players kicked and punched. Besides my jaw, there’s a lump the size of a golf ball on my left shin and my right ankle is throbbing. The immediate problems are my lips, which feels like they’re in 10 different pieces, and my jaw, which feels like it’s broken but isn’t. I drive home and quickly swallow Ibuprofen.

I’m a lot better today than I’ve been. I guess, in the end, it looked a lot worse than it actually was.

On the field, I bled a lot. The pain defied the ibuprofen. My jaw still crackles now when I move it but that too is better than it’s been. Each and every tooth seems to be sore. I have not been able to eat anything without using a straw.

More importantly, I did not lift weights or do any running yesterday or today. But, in the morning, I will lift and run a little. On Thursday, I will lift more and run a little longer. On Friday, I will do my hardest work. I will do some light work on Saturday.

On Sunday, we play the Teaneck Masters.

'Ronnie'

I’m told it’s difficult to do, mistaking a transvestite for a woman, which is what Brazilian soccer star and World Cup hero said he did recently. Now, he may have a hard time facing ridicule from fans and opponents.

Ronald, still only 31, has battled weight problems and injuries in recent years. He’s in Brazil in fact rehabilitating from what he hopes is not a career-ending injury when he ran into his current problem.

(Sebastiao Moreira/European Pressphoto Agency) André Luis Ribeiro Albertino, a transvestite prostitute picked up Monday by the soccer star Ronaldo, holding a paper in São Paulo, Brazil, that says, “Ronaldo loses girlfriend and cries ashamed to Mama.” Ronaldo told the police he tried to send Mr. Albertino and two other prostitutes away when he discovered they were men. Prostitution is legal in Brazil.

What I can tell you is this, they don’t come any more powerful, skillful, and graceful as Ronaldo was in his heydays. A diminished figure now, you still see flashes of the greatness when he steps onto the pitch. Who knows the true circumstance of Ronaldo’s liaison with the tranny. But being gay should never detract from Ronaldo’s accomplishment, or his ability to still dazzle the world as a soccer player.

Here is the coverage in The New York Times:

Soccer Star’s Misadventure Leaves His Fans Smirking By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO and JOSHUA SCHNEYER, May 4, 2008
RIO DE JANEIRO — In a city famed for sexual tolerance, the men who shine on the soccer field are held to a different, more macho standard.
Continue reading “'Ronnie'” →

FOOTBALL-GAME FIGHT ESCALATES INTO MELEE; POLICE CALLED TO CLIFTON STADIUM

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 18, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A dispute between a Bloomfield coach and a Clifton football player boiled over Saturday into a melee between players at a game between the freshman teams from the two communities high schools, according to witnesses.

Details of what occurred at the Clifton High School stadium were sketchy, but witnesses said the players scuffled after the traditional postgame handshake.

Pete Colesano, a Clifton Board of Education member who attended the game, said the melee lasted about 15 minutes and that police were called to help restore order. Colesano said a coach for the Bloomfield team attempted to assault a Clifton player and the scuffle followed.

Chet Parlavecchio, varsity coach at Bloomfield High, said there had been an “incident,” but denied that the Bloomfield coach tried to assault a Clifton player.

Parlavecchio, who was not at the game, refused to identify the coach allegedly involved, but said the coach was consulting a referee, not intending to assault a player, when he left his bench.

“If a coach of mine went after their player, there is no excuse for that and he would be dismissed right away,” Parlavecchio said. “We were on their 10-yard line, ready to score. It was a good football game. They are undefeated and we were ready to pull an upset and all this happened.”

Gerald Robinson, 16, the Clifton player who reportedly was the target of the Bloomfield coach’s anger, traced the dispute to a play late in the fourth quarter.

Robinson said that after the game, players were beginning to shake hands when the Bloomfield coach started running after him. “One of my teammates said, `Gerald, look out. I turned around,” Robinson said. “There was a big riot on the field. Everybody was fighting.”

Robinson was uninjured, but Bobby Capo, 14, a teammate who intervened, was struck on the helmet by the Bloomfield coach, according to Capo’s father, Kenneth.

Clifton High School Principal Robert Mooney and police Sgt. John Zipf both described the incident as minor. There were no serious injuries and no one was arrested.

Clifton won the game, 26-14. The varsities of the two schools are scheduled to play in Clifton on Thanksgiving Day.