Getting Nutmegged by a 12 year old...

Here's the groups before we start playing

The little kid in the brown shirt is the one
who Nutmegged me...they call him Kaka
(named after a Brazilian futbol player)

Before I start talking about what getting nutmegged means, I have a confession to make to my American friends.

Now that I am outside the US, I have already made the transition of calling soccer by its international name of football or futbol and calling the American version American Football. Don’t get me wrong, I really like American football or else I would not have stayed up till wee hours on a Sunday night to watch the Super Bowl (for my friends who are not in the US here’s a quick description of what Super Bowl means http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbowl). I didn't dislike either of the teams but was glad that New Orleans won it.

This little kid just wore an over-sized basketball
jersey with no pants

Talking about Super Bowl, it’s funny how the television stations are sensitive to their audiences. When ESPN was advertising for the Super Bowl here in Liberia, they called it the greatest sporting spectacle in American Sport, rather than calling it the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. I thought it was funny.

Anyway, going back to talk about being Nutmegged, here’s a video from You Tube that shows what it is.

Random Action shot

Basically, it’s a move in futbol, where a player passes the ball through an opponent’s leg and then goes around that opponent and continues with the ball. For anyone who has played the sport, they know that’s it’s the most embarrassing thing to go through.

The dude in sky blue shirt on the ground
is the one who severely injured his ankle

So...I will man up and say that as I was playing futbol with my buddies today I got absolutely, unquestionably nutmegged by a 12 year old…pretty embarrassing to say the least but the fact is that these kids are just pretty amazing with their skills. What’s even more astounding is that most of them play either barefoot or just with socks on. Most often, there are no boundaries so they will chase the ball anywhere; trees, stumps or practically any other obstacle is not going to stop them. The tackles are full blooded sans the play acting of professional players which is pleasing to see.

Another Random Shot

A few days back one of them had a nasty ankle injury and he was in tears so much so that we had to carry him home. Just a few days later, he shows up to play barely being able move his ankle and then play passionately for 2 hours non stop. It just moves you to see them play so passionately. There are no rewards, no scholarships, no leagues, no soccer mom’s, no snacks after the game, no material benefits for playing this passionately at the risk of injuring themselves. They just play for the fun of playing and just playing as kids. It’s amazing to see the purity they play the game with.

Celebrating a goal

2 hours later...even my short were soaking with sweat

The one thing that does put me to shame is the physique of all of them. I hate it when they decide that to avoid confusion one team needs to play bare. They all have six packs and it does give me a bit of a complex but hopefully playing with them I might even get one (dreaming here).

I guess its fitting that I am writing about the kids and futbol because I was having email exchanges with my good friend Ken Dillard (who is a Jsox coordinator for Bridgestone America’s). He is planning on visiting Liberia in March for an audit and he put forward the idea of bringing some futbol gear when he comes (Yeah…JSox auditors also have a heart and are not always a pain in the ****).

Docs operating on cleft lip

A Nurse at the Firestone Medical Center
performing pre-surgery checkup

I thought of putting the idea out here on my blog to see if anyone has any used futbol gear (balls, shoes, socks, jerseys, etc) that’s collecting dust. Trust me; the kids here would love…ABSOLUTELY LOVE to have anything. We have our own Firestone ships going back and forth between the US and Liberia so shipping wont be a problem. Ken has also offered help in collecting the gear. The President of Firestone Natural Rubber, Dan Adomitis was also totally supportive of the idea. So if you have any used futbol gear you want to send over for the kids, please let me know. The kids here would truly appreciate it.

Well, tomorrow is a holiday here but planning on biking in the morning so time to get some rest (or rest my body as they say here). I am going to close this edition of my blog with some pictures and comments from a project that CSI (Children’s Surgery International) just concluded here in Liberia. The Firestone Medical Center here hosted the volunteer doctors from CSI to perform cleft lip, cleft palate and other surgeries and treatment for underprivileged children in Liberia. Glad that Firestone was supporting the project.