What both creates and solves all problems? Time. Once again I am humbled by the silliness of worrying. The student loan debacle will work out somehow and all my worrying and stressing was pointless. Some nervousness can be creative, with an energizing focusing effect, but then there is the negative type of worry, that distracts and hinders positive action. Competitive running has given me lots of experience with different levels of nervousness. I think it helped me to do the variety of ridiculous tasks in a small amount of time to end up with two jpeg files small enough to send over my dialup internet while still containing all forms, signatures and certificates I need to submit to my bank.
Saturday was spend cleaning the stadium, nearly 6 hours picking up trash, glass, sweeping and replacing the bleacher benches that had been broken by angry drunk boys/men. The stadium looked good by the time we were finished, but my legs were a big sluggish on Sunday just from spending that amount of time standing and sweeping and pushing wheelbarrows etc.
Sunday was the pre-season "independence cup" final. I was assigned to man-mark their best player, a big fast guy with good skill. It became a delicate task after I earned a yellow card early in the game for a dangerous slide tackle on offense. In self defense, if I had gotten the ball I would have scored because I slid inside the offensive as the defender was desperately clearing the ball from his goal line, so I think the yellow card was worth it. Their best player was loosely assigned to a right flank position, but he really roved all over the field. I marked him out of the game, and may have been part of the reason he got so frustrated he eventually earned his second yellow card (for yelling at the ref) to get thrown out of the game. I only had one really good offensive opportunity, an option between a poor angle shot and a cross over a defender to the far post to a wide open teammate, but I somehow screwed up the cross, too much finesse rather than just kicking the ball. A few other balls were sent for me into space, but I didn't have that extra spark of speed to get around the defender and catch them before they rolled out of bounds.
The stadium was filled if not packed. The local tv station came, and there were loud speakers set up, the flag raised, and even walked out onto the field with kids like professional teams do. It was an even game, but my team finished a few early opportunities, then we relaxed and started passing and moving for each other while the other team just got more frustrated. Ended 4-1, their one a penalty kick which our fullback earned by being a little slow to get forward after a corner kick, keeping a player onside which he was not marking, and so a desperate slide from behind caught legs rather than ball.
After the game I was awarded the mvp award, but I do not deserve it. I got it only because I am "the American", "Our volunteer". My teammates were happy to see that I knew I had not earned it. I tried to give it to the real mvp, our captain, but he said "if it is truly mine, then I give it to you as a gift. You will undoubtedly earn it someday, and on that day most likely will not receive it, so take it now and earn it next time". Said like a true captain.
After the game I was interviewed by the tv station, didn't really understand the questions, but just said that we had played well and won. Yesterday I could not figure out how to switch off the cable and onto the antenna to see myself on tv, but all of my students and teachers saw me and said that my Ukrainian wasn't too bad.
