Gameday...from Lea

So here I am... back in the Euro Cafe, the only home a bagel knows here in Granada, having been asked by Mary to contribute to the blog and I've noticed that some clever person (probably Mary, let's face it. she's the brains behind this whole operation) has added the subtitle "An ongoing adventure in Granada, Nicaragua" to our Soccer Without Borders blog. This delights me for two reasons... one, because I especially like titles that included (theoretically at least) a colon. and two, because this is my second trip here to volunteer with SWB and that's exactly how this project feels for me, like an ongoing adventure that just continues to get bigger and better for everybody involved! It is just incredible to gauge the progress the project has made in the last year. La oficina is a fantastic space all our own that is truly expanding the limits of what the project can accomplish. I must admit how absolutely breath taking an experience it was to watch that office fill up with girls at our movie night last Friday, to see it packed to capacity, to see the excitement in their eyes and to know that this isn't just something we want for them anymore, but that this is something they want for themselves. There are lots of other examples of how much progress soccer has made in the last year here in Granada, but unfortunately we can't take credit for all of them (try as we might..).

Our friendly game against the Nicaraguan Women's National team on Sunday is a prime example. Long time readers of the blog will remember the hilarity that ensued when Mary, Molly and I went to practice with the National Team last year in Managua. Not to disparage a program that obviously lacks the physical and tactical resources we're accustomed to in the States, but that practice was ridiculous! After "warming up" for 45 minutes doing laps around the field in the baking Nicaraguan sun, working on such imperative technical skills as chest-heading and heading the ball with your temple (how do you say dangerous in Spanish?), the team worked on crossing and finishing from the flanks, forgetting entirely to switch sides at any point in time so as to practice with the opposite foot. Then the team finished practice with a short, 10 minute, full field scrimmage. Phew. What a disaster I remember thinking that practice had been. Not only did they have no understanding of how to structure or run a practice, but their field and equipment was no better than what we were working with in Granada! The silver lining that day though, and there always is one, was the promise and the raw potential of those undeveloped athletes.

On Sunday, they delivered on that potential. Gone was the dilapidated municipal stadium, replaced by a brand new, if still entirely unfinished, National Soccer Stadium. Gone was the sun bleached surface whose dust storms could themselves be used to confuse and disorient defenders, replaced by a state of the art turf grass field (though to be completely honest with you, the little rubberized pellets were also similarly sun bleached, rendering them ostensibly into tiny little rubber rocks that played a truer bounce, but were no more forgiving should you have the misfortune of falling or sliding), and gone was the ragged, disorganized gaggle of girls I had met the year before, replaced with a team, proudly wearing their national team equipment, and pulling an offsides trap on me! (the nerve!) We played them to a 3-0 score, in our favor, and it was evident throughout the game how much they can still improve on. For instance, Zoe, our standout central midfielder from Penn State, scored on a beautiful shot from about 25 yards out when she noticed the keeper was off her line. I can't say for certain, but my guess is that the keeper was so far off her line because she's rarely, if ever, seen a player with the strength and the power to take a shot from that distance. they don't exist yet in Nicaragua and the national team, though they compete through the CONCACAF region for a berth in the Women's World Cup, doesn't often get the opportunity to play top flight talent. They don't have the money to travel, and the top teams are still relatively hesitant to spend their time and money traveling to scrimmage a developing program like Nicaragua. With time, practice and better exposure however, this team can continue to build on the dramatic improvements they've already made. and even if I'm their competition, I'll be cheering for them!