We'll get em' next time

The Saturday before last ended with me bleeding, sweating and gasping for air on the ground twisted up like Jim Carey when he fell off the airplane terminal port in Dumb and Dumber. I've been playing for the twelve and thirteen year old team in the Streets Cup and...it's been hard. We've been getting creamed and I've found increasingly wanting to get these guys a win. It was no luck again at the end of last Saturday and I was actually really upset about it but I found consolation in the words of one of my team-mates, 12 year old Victor. As we left the field I said "Victor, we lost" and dogonit if he didn't reply with (the swahili equivalent of) "Don't worry, we'll get em' next time." Sometimes you learn something yourself
Sorry I've been so bad at this blog thing but I'm in the process of doing profiles of players on the team. Thank you so much for reading

KSFc update: Fundamentals..

Well the World Cup is over, siiigh. If I can teach the team to pass like Spain then it'll all have been worth it. I know watching the games was the inspiration the kids could have had to try their best and keep playing football.

After two good practices in the week on Saturday after Streets Cup games we had a chance to watch a local adult club team play a team from Nairobi that has produced a couple big name players in current Kenyan football. It was fun to see what some of the kids will start looking like once they start hitting their growth spurts. Hopefully I will have taught them the fundamentals before they grow completely.

Besides a scare with the field we use (a local school's whose headmaster was being difficult) things are good here. The only thing I could really complain about is this blog. Last time I checked there were only a couple followers. If you ever read this update click you are a follower so I know I'm not just talking to myself.

Next week I promise to add more pictures. I also plan to start putting up profiles of some of the kids so you can get to know them too. Talk to you then

I arrived back safely from the States and things have gotten back into a routine here. All the kids were excited to see me on Thursday and cheered as I arrived (it was a good thing I bought sunglasses so they couldn't see the solitary tear it produced). Both Tuesday and Thursday everyone looked sharped in practise and on Saturday everyone did well in the Streets Cup league games. I even tried stepping out onto the field Saturday to help the under - 15 team. We did well at first, going up on the best team 1 - 0, before my lack of having done any real exercise in awhile caught up to me and they started to kill us.
Have started buying shoes for those who have done the best as far as attendance and effort goes and will continue awarding players in the coming weeks. Only a few of them have shoes and even less have shoes for football so it's exciting. Some of them play in bare feet, some play in regular shoes and some even try and share football shoes (like one will wear the right shoe in a pair and another will wear the left).
I remember reading a bio on Pele once and he was talking about how it was hard, for he and his friends from the streets, to adjust to playing in shoes from barefeet when they started playing in real leagues.
Also keep in mind one player in particular who has starting slacking on coming to practise. I just hope everything is alright for him.
The kid I was talking about last time with the hurt foot says it is feeling better, so that's good.
Anyway thanks for checking in and talk at you next week.