Tales of Soccer and Eating

After rounding up some people to play soccer with, I found 3 teams throughout the week with which to ply my trade. The first was a team called the Pirates, who were made up mostly of British expats, and whose team chant after scoring goals is simply, "ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGHHHH!" After going down initially 2-0 on a 25-man Japanese army, we rallied in the second half to win 9-2.

Next was a local team on Sunday called Central Park, and we were soundly crushed by a much younger team made up mostly of Chinese high school students. Seeing as how our defense consisted of standing in one spot while assigning other teammates to "mark up" on an opposing player making a dangerous run in the box, the end result of 5-2 was unsurprising.

Finally on Wednesday was a mid-week game played on a bumpy grass field against another team of tenacious Asians ready to run all over the place; I've since developed a strategy of going BALLS TO THE WALL on every tackle and it has paid off well, as no player has dared yet to try and take me off the dribble.

The fields where we play are decent for field turf, although a 1 PM kickoff in 90+ degree heat coupled with extreme humidity leaves me gasping for air like Arnold from Total Recall after he gets exposed to the Martian atmosphere.

One positive effect from playing so much soccer is that it leaves me with a tremendous appetite. My only criteria for choosing food at one of the random Hawker Centers rests squarely on whether or not they also sell beer, and so I found a nice spot near the mall at Clementi.

Roasted veggies in oyster sauce, broiled pork belly, spicy curry chicken soup, rice, and a Guiness all for about $10 USD. The dude at the stall gave me two bowls of rice because I guess he figured there was no way all that food was for one person hahaha...