Playing soccer over 50

This year I decided to sign up at long last for one of the over-50 soccer teams here in Lexington. I was recruited by my friend YuJin, who has had his eye on me for the last few years (common refrain -- "when is it again that you turn 50?"). Although I've resisted the idea of playing in the competitive leagues for a long time, I finally decided give it a try. It's been a good 20 years or so since I did any real "organized" team play, so I felt a bit rusty with some aspects of the game... in general though it wasn't too hard to pick it up again.

My team is the "Lexington Golden Eagles"; we play in the "New England Over-The-Hill Soccer League" (not a joke, this is the actual name). Our squad has about 17 or so guys; we usually have 3 or 4 subs for each game (a pretty important requirement for playing at this age, especially for midfielders). So far I have been playing forward and center midfield; way back when I played in my 20s it was mostly left midfield, so I seem to have gravitated towards the middle in my old age for some reason.

Here are some photos from the game this morning. I'm the guy with the weird looking headband and sunglasses. The headband is kind of mandatory -- if I don't have something like that my glasses get totally messed up from sweat.

Photos (taken by Ethan, who turned out along with Amy and Lydia to watch the second half of this match):

My team-mate YuJin, playing on the wing:

 

More random photos from the game. Quality of the officiating can sometimes be a bit uneven, as you might expect. Here is YuJin throwing up his hands after being called off-sides (there is no linesmen in these games):

Defensive stalwart Ron:

Heads up-- here it comes:

 

Here is John, one of the guys who plays forward. He's also new to the team as of this spring. This is kind of an interesting shot-- John is pretending that he doesn't entirely have control over the ball to pull in the defender; immediately after the photo he turned and took off down the sideline leaving the defender in the dust. Stealth and sneakiness-- maybe not really a substitute for 20-year-old legs, but it's about all we have.

 

 A cross into the middle-- luckily there was nobody on the other end:

There is a certain amount of pushing and shoving and people losing their tempers in these games, especially in the second half when people are tired (the "grumpy old men" come out). I definitely get more bruises than when I play pickup, but so far (knock on wood) we haven't had many injuries.

We won this match 2-0; I scored in the first half and John added a goal shortly afterwards. Here we are after the game: