DOWN WITH PANTS!

My feet still feel a little bit frozen after tonight's 2009 soccer season opener played at Lynnwood High School on a field still covered by an inch of snow from last night's freak snowstorm. My toes were so numb from the slush that whenever my feet hit the ground, it felt like I had peg legs, the only sensation of running coming from what my body felt in my ankles.

That being said, I didn't sweat one bit - it was so cold that even though I was working hard my body was trying to heat itself up and not cool itself down - and for whatever reason I never really ran out of breath. I felt pretty good out there even if I didn't really do much. Whether it's a conscious decision or not on the part of my teammates, they keep the ball as far away from me as possible, or so it seems. It's probably just me not being where I should be to get the ball that is the problem. Either way, I kind of just run around and occasionally kick the ball or take a shot off the butt or whatever is needed out of this anonymous soccer player.

I did actually take a shot tonight and I was within a inch of scoring my first competitive soccer goal. If the ball would've ricocheted off of my knee just a little bit differently or I would've caught it an inch to the side, I'd be celebrating like it's 1999. Instead, it missed by about a half a foot and went into the side of the goal. Oh well.

I've said this before and it hasn't happened yet, but I do feel a goal coming some point soon. It's going to be an accident, some crazy ricochet off of my foot that I didn't intend or a broken play of some kind, but it's going to happen. For this to happen though, I need to touch the ball more than a couple times in a game, we'll have to work on that next week.

By the way, I was thinking about how unique it is for us to be playing soccer in the snow. In cold climates like the Northeast and the Midwest where snow and freezing temperatures are the norm, they don't have outdoor soccer leagues in the winter - which makes complete sense. In California - where I first started playing soccer - if it rained even just a little bit earlier in the day, there was a good chance that soccer would be canceled due to weather. So to be in a place that plays soccer in any and all conditions is pretty interesting. The way this year has gone, who knows what kind of crud we'll have to deal with in the nine weeks. Would we play in a swarm of locusts or if frogs fell from the sky? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.