ok so me and my buddies are playing around this past saturday. now we're not exactly pro level, but we're decent. so along comes this guy who asks if he can hit around with us. we say sure thing. he then proceeds to absolutely destroy the ball like we've never seen before. i was playing keeper and was afraid to get anywhere near this ball...he was hitting it so hard i thought i would break an arm if i tried to catch it. it was unreal. the power, the sick curves he was getting on his strikes. so we ask him from what planet he came from...he says he used to play on the jamaican national team!!! we had humble pie for lunch that day. just thought id share.
doesnt really suck, if anything it showed us what a REALLY good player can do and inspired us to try harder. it gave us a newfound appreciation at how skillful pros are....watching them on television doesnt do that calibre of play any justice. his name was greg ...or craig. i just imagine that if this guy from the jamaican team (granted, not a top level team by any means in world leagues) was this good, i can imagine how unreal t.henry or ronaldo (both of them) must be in real life.
thats why i siad it sucks because if he was that much better than you and theres a cahnce he wasn;t a top level pro then imagine how much better the good pros are then you. its kind of depressing to know that there might not be a chance youll even be as good as a jamaican international
Would've been Craig Gorden, I think. I looked through all thier teams, there was Zaidie or whatever, and Gorden.
Yeah i'm thinking so too, UNDER 17 WILSON Keith BATTISTE Sheldon WILSON Keith THOMAS Alex STEWARD Keveral STEVENS Shane SAILSMAN Loren FRASER Sean KELLY Keith STEWART Reinaldo BENNETT Anthony BRYAN Eshaya GORDON Craig WHITTAKER Allien BROWN Kingsley RICHARDS Dwayne KING Kevin CHAMBERS Dane WOOLERY Deshaun http://www.thereggaeboyz.com/profiles/ Can't find a picture of him though.
Funny story. That is always the way it is when experienced players see a pick up game and wish to join in. However you can be as good as the professionals. It takes time if you are still a youth player. If you are older out of high school or college....then don't worry, you should probably have your mind on other pursuits.
damn lucky bastard, shoulda gotten his autograph or something man, invite him for a drink at your house!!
I've had the pleasure of playing with Jimmy Conrad and Richard Mulrooney. Jimmy tried to sneak a short corner on me when I was guarding near post. I saw little birdies chirping for about five minutes. Richard played on my team. When he passed to me, the ball would come to my foot like a magnetic attraction. They are both a great deal of fun to play with. I can only image when they get their "game faces" on and really go all out. I coach women's soccer, and we've had as guests to practice Keri Sanchez, Michelle French and Betsy Barr. Incredible touch on the ball.
Its really fun watching or playing with someone who is actually GOOD at something. My son is playing high school and the new coaches are both ex-Nigerian National team members and ex US pro players. Its fun watching them participate in the team scrimmages and making HS seniors who are pretty good, look like bumbling idiots It sure is humbling and also gives you respect for the guys they go against when they play that must be that good defensively to NOT look like fools and can stop these guys.
I had something similar to this happen to me, me and me mates and my brother were playing down the recreation ground near me and this lad was looking rather bored just watching us so we asked him to join, and he started popping all these wild over head kicks that would fly in the top corners, from nothing set ups. After asking who he was and him telling me a name that was far too long to call when you wanted the ball we decided to call him 'Scissors' he was from Portugal and played for some team there, but now lives in Middlesborough and we've stayed good friends since then. Ps. i think his name is Luis Simó Osvaldo Caputet, the spelling is probably wrong, that's how it's said, the names might be in the wrong place though lol
I think I told this story before, but oh well... My 7v7 indoor team a few years ago had a member of the Liberian national team and formerly of the French Ligue 1 team Bastia on our team for most of a whole season. The guy walked onto our team at our only practice before the season started (he was just there, we got lucky) and we weren't a bad team, we're not half bad players, but this guy OWNED us all, wearing untied timerland boots and warm up pants. It was ridiculous. He wasn't much for passing, but when he did, it was pretty good. Scored a lot of goals in the season, as you might imagine.
I once played with Ron van Nistelrooy, the brother of Ruud van Nistelrooy. He was amazing, but probably not anywhere near the level of his brother.
i've had a couple of coaches who were pro. one played in peru and the other played in adelaide, west ham, and the australian u-20 team back in '86. they both easily took 5,6 guys with ease. it's very humbling to play with people who are that talented and didn't become famous... it makes you realize that pro's don't actually 'suck' if they can't play at that level.
sometimes, the difference between a star and an average player might be just some luck and a few chances. Of cuz there is some skill difference involved; esspecially vision. Sometimes a player can be as good as a star pro skillz-wise, but the difference lies in the on field vision and decision making process. And then again, there is this "LUCK" thingy-catch the eyes of some right people, the right clubs; can't stress this enough. Its a coo experience u sharing with us, tho! ^^
I would kill just to meet with a pro player, or even like talk to him on the phone. I'm jealous of all of you. Austen
My local complex was run by a bunch of British guys that played in the pros (don't know if it was SPL or EPL) and they always seemed like cocky bastards. Then all of a sudden they just left, all of them and there were like 15 of them. Then some Turkish guy named Karim took over and apparently he played pro in Turkey, just like the other British guys he was a cocky bastard but at least he was very helpfull. One time Clint Mathis came back home to play a friendly with his old club team and he just dominated them.
the one in peru, his name is cesar ociel bustamante. i don't know if he ever made an official appearance in a league game or anything, but he was there. he named his team .... sporting cristal of course. then we bought the official kits from 2001 in short and long sleeve. too bad the tam split up and he stopped coaching. he is by far my favorite coach.
i played with joao pinto in the sporting junors he was amazing at the age of 13 i was nowhere close to touchin him but unfortunately im here in the u.s i broke my leg in training but now i 32 and till this day i wish i didnt it was an amazing expirience to play with todays stars
