Go Futbol!

It's 4pm on a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon here in Fes, what else is there to do but play ball?!? Futbol that is [soccer to all you Americans :-) ].  To be completely honest, I am not a very good soccer player, in fact, I can't even remember the last real soccer game I participated in.  Nonetheless, they agreed to let me play (Ha, their first mistake!)

Today's game was a re-match between the youth and adults.  Walking in to the match I had no idea just how big of a deal this was to everyone, but people came out ready to play hard, cheer loud and win.  People came with homemade signs, the team lines were clearly drawn between the Lighters and the 'Mature' People.  After checking out the competition I decided to side with my people, the 'mature people,' mainly because the youth appeared to be quite numerous and the adults won last time.  (I figured if anything my lack of skills would hurt the team more than help.)  

I believe we played 4 quarters supposedly 15min each, but I wasn't the one keeping time.  It was an intense game where everything seemed to go quite quickly.  Unfortunately there were a few causalities of war (who now have very cool battle stories, sorry Heather!) and numerous bruises, bumps and scrapes along the way.  

The game was certainly intense with the majority of the points coming early on in playing time. If I am remembering correctly, the adults took the lead first with the youth trailing behind racing to try and get into a rhythm. By the end of the 2nd quarter they had found it and we went into the half time tied up 3 to 3. Returning in the 3rd quarter the adults decided to mix the game up and sent in an all female offense (there weren't enough ladies to cover the whole team). We played hard, but were unable to penetrate the youth's defense (ie, their goalie). However, it was not for lack of talent, for we undoubtedly had plenty. The men took over in the 4th quarter confident that they could bring about the victory, but alas, they failed miserably... and by that I mean that no one scored. The game then shifted into overtime where the teams were paired down to 6 players playing five minute intervals until a goal was made (they had some fancy name for this, but basically it was sudden death!). During the course of play there were scares on both sides of the field, but ultimately the youth's defense waned and the adults headed in for the kill. The game ended in triumphant victory for the 'mature' people who maintained their position of honor as victors of the field!