Football Fanatics

Boys and their football annoyed me today. Not an uncommon occurrence. There’s always something going wrong – and I don’t mean injury-wise. 

Ahmed M refuses to be goalie. As a protest he goes and lies on his back in front of the goalpost and pretends to be sleeping. When he does get the ball, he never passes but tries to impress with his footwork. And then misses! 

Ahmad O is the big guy. Relies on his size and bullying tactics. Forfeits a free-kick-potential-goal by deliberately kicking into his opponent to inflict pain. Worth more to him than the goal. The victim, Ahmad E, after having recovered, starts chasing Ahmad O around the field and pretty soon they’re at each other’s throats. 

The big guy and the reluctant goalkeeper

Ahmed M2 walks off the field crying because nobody wants to pass to him. 

Ahmad A also ended up crying because I made an “unfair” call which allowed the other side to score. My unfair call was that the big guy didn’t have the right to play goalie for 5 seconds to cover his handball mistake. (They may sometimes switch goalies but have to call it. He called after the fact!) 

As for Ahmed S, the only time he got his foot to the ball, was to score an own goal. He said to me afterwards – it shouldn’t have counted because it was an accident. 

The annoying part is that the whining doesn't end when the game ends. They never ever accept defeat. It’s always unfair!!! Told them I thought they needed to do some growing up before I would allow them to play again. Now we know why the Asian Cup final was between Japan and Australia. And why I don’t bother to watch the Middle East play.