It's the beauty of the game

One of the things I liked about my schooling life was the football (soccer) matches. I always went to the field to watch the football games. It didn't matter if I was alone or with friends, it was just nice to watch the guys playing their game. Sometimes I even sat on the hill overlooking the pitch to watch them train. I guess it was the atmosphere that I liked, and the fact that when guys play football, they are oblivious to the world. They're just playing the game they love for the sake of playing and they won't even know you're there watching. So their true colors show. Especially in team sports. You get to see which of the players really have skill, which ones really want to stand out, which ones like to show off, which ones think they're awesome but they're really not. Which ones keep their cool while playing, which ones let their emotions take control of the game. It's really interesting. Basically, when guys are playing ball (be it soccer, football, basketball), I noticed that their personalities really show in the game. And that's the thing I like to observe. I really respect those really calm, skillful players, they're a pleasure to watch. There's something sort of exciting yet calming in watching a match, when you understand what's at stake for the players. And at the same time, you learn a lot about a man's pride when you watch a game from start to finish.

A woman can learn lots of things if she watches a man's football game. If a team really understands one another, and the trust is there, it's beautiful to watch cos each person can anticipate the other's moves, and everything just falls into place. But it's rare to get that type of thing unless you've been playing for years together. Even the big teams, like the English Premier clubs or even a country's national team may not have that type of gel holding a team together. It depends on how well each player can adapt to his teammates' individual skill and personality. It's nice to watch a team that understands each other. But I haven't seen that sort of team play for a long time now.

I used to know a girl whose bf was on the same football team as my bestfriend, but she never went to watch him play. That was a shame really cos she missed out on that part of his life that was very important to him. She missed out on an opportunity to understand him better. Cos the way a person plays on the pitch tells a lot about their personality, and I think if you can see that, then you'd be able to understand that person better off the pitch. Anyway, I remember her bf saying to me that he wished she'd come to watch him play cos it would make him feel proud to have her watch. So the next day, I met her in class and I asked her to come watch. She said she wasn't interested in football, and even if she went she wouldn't understand what was going on. I said it's okay, just come and watch. She said she'd get bored. Alright, so I tried, I thought.

Well, those two broke up due to other reasons, and many, many months later, like maybe 2 years later, she finally came to the stadium to watch her ex-bf play in the finals. And I think when she watched him play, she finally understood what he was playing for. Why they needed to win. Why he had to play well. Why he had to get his teammate's respect. Why he didn't have his teammates' respect, etc. I think if she had understood all of this better before, she would have been a much more supportive gf, and they would have been a happier couple.

A man's pride is an important thing. Cos it's a lot like a woman's pride. You know, playing a game well will make you proud no matter if you lost the game. Just knowing that you played really well and your team played well, and that your opponent deserved to win because they were better will make you feel proud of yourself. Now if you had a partner (as in gf/bf/wife/husband) that would feel proud of you because he/she knew you played well, then it's really good. If that person knew you played really lousy, and wasn't so proud of you for that, but encouraged you to play better next time, then that's even better.