If you love the European junior football, soccer, Helsinki Cup - link
here - has been your thing during the past week. And tomorrow is THE crown for the week. But my heart weeps - as any sports parent can understand from the following...
My Main Man K was playing there and I can tell you he played a fantastic tournament with the team; they won their group without any losses - and with a pretty decent goal
ratio. They got all the way to the semi-finals, that is playing for a place in the finals but then the nasty side of these tournaments stepped in:
The pitch was very small and hence the more skilled team (
with good conscience) was not able to use their benefit and drawed the game.
Well, to keep the schedule it means directly penalty shots which is never, ever a sportsman way to finish a game but that's part of football today. They had won one other penalty shoot out in the tournament, but now mrs Fortuna was not on their side and they need to "settle" with bronze medals.
Not bad to be in top 4 out of 72 teams - not that far from the crème de la crème of their age group...!
The finals and the medal ceremonies are tomorrow and also the bronze medalists are expected so that's where I'll be tomorrow morning. Smiling!
Still few words about the time before the semifinal;
I was nervous. Perkele I was nervous. Even more nervous than ever before my own games - and I've had them all the way up to the top level in the Finnish basketball league. I guess the main issue was that I had no control what so ever to the game. I've been coaching my son in both football and basketball for years and helping out coaching my daughter's basketball team, but that's piece of cake as you can sense the team's temperature, mode and readiness to the game - and influence it. When you are at the sideline, it bugs me a LOT to sit back and enjoy.
Referring to what I wrote earlier, it is not helping that I put myself into the performance of my own games 120% and now that I'm on the sideline without influence, I am emotionally in 120% but as I should be a silent partner it makes me suffer.
When you add on top of this the following facts, it's no wonder that there is sometimes a bit of extra discussions;
- I hate unfairness, even if it's based on the referee's mistake
- I really hate incompetent, casual and negligent behaviour towards players who put in all they have. And when this comes from the person who in most of the cases is the only person being paid on the pitch, it just simply is unacceptable. And unfortunately I have seen it a LOT both playing and coaching - and also nowadays being a fan. 90% is just not enough!
- I have opinions, and I am not shy to share them. Hence in case of the above, it's difficult to let the bad performance go. And as I'm not in a position to handle it properly via coaching sessions, an instant feedback feels better even if it is not coming in the heat of the moment. Despite of the fact that one should let the players, coach and the referee do their job as particularly the referee is always right...!
Yes, I love sports in all of it's forms. Even when the almost nude ladies are sunbathing and rolling on the beach, getting themselves sandy... Yep, that's sports too!
Go sports, go K, go me, let's sweat and enjoy it!!!
PS Tomorrow - or most of you today - Saturday is the
finals of the Helsinki Cup. If you are in Helsinki, why don't you go there to enjoy a moment of fresh air, sports feeling and some enthusiastic football - that's different from what you see on TV!
PPS Honka is playing a home game again next week both on Thursday and on Sunday, check it out from
here.
