Field of Dreams

The world's biggest footballing tournament is almost upon us. No, not the world cup but the Carlsberg National Fives competition held every year in Salthill Co. Galway. We're bringing a team over from Glasgow this year to partake in the football/drinking/general mayhem. There's over 130 teams entered this year and the organisers have opted for a purely knockout competition so we've got to try and win a few games and not do all that travelling for only 15minutes of football. Really looking forward to it (despite the 3 hour bus trip from Dublin) and Galway is always a good spot to enjoy a few alcoholic beverages.

I'll try and keep the blog updated with our progress.

Women's 10K

The Glasgow Women's 10K took place on Sunday and I, like nearly every bloke in Glasgow, was there to proudly cheer on my better half as she crossed the finish line. It was an amazing turnout with over 15,000 ladies taking part in the event. It was a very well organised event and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was quite touching to watch a few husbands/fathers get a bit teary as their loved ones crossed the finish line. Spurred me to think about entering a few of the events that are happening during the summer especially now the football season is over.

Last game of the season

After a rather unsuccessful season (W-0 D-4 L-16) in the Strathclyde Evangelical Churches Football League it all ends on Tuesday night with our last game of the season. Despite our very consistent losing streak, I've really enjoyed playing 11s this year so I'm hoping the team continues after the summer or that I can get a game with a team a bit closer to glasgow.

Here's hoping we can end the season with our first win on Tuesday night.

Some world cup news

Eriksson names his squad.

Alex has a the brazillian squad list.

Morientes dropped from the spanish squad

Totti (injured) makes the italian squad.

Winding down before it all kicks off

The Champions league final has a lot to live up to after last years magnificent come back by Liverpool and 2 cracking cup finals on Saturday. Liverpool are getting a reputation as the comeback Kings and its all down to the main man Stevie G. Yes, Liverpool were lucky to win and yes, West Ham were the best team overall but you cannot deny Mr. Gerard and his mates their glorious victory and declare it anything other than a magnificent game. 3 dodgy goals from West Ham, 3 belters from Liverpool, a shocking 90 mins from Reina but redeems himself in the extra time and penalties, the players looking like walking wounded as they hobbled up to collect their prize. Its games like that that make me want to run outside and kick a football and its games like that that mean I'll still be enjoying myself when I'm up to my knees in mud, playing god knows where in the West of Scotland and (on current form) losing by a handful of goals. Roll on the world cup.

SFSFSFBBB

The title may look like a random collection of letters but it is in fact the acronym for a very useful phrase: shitfuckshitfuckshitfuckbolloxbolloxBOLLOX!!!. This is the very phrase I used as I woke up late last night lying on my sofa with an upturned bottle of Corona in my lap. A quick smell check confirmed that the puddle I was sitting in was indeed beer and not the result of a sudden attack of incontinence. The shout of expletives was because our nice and still relatively new sofa was looking a bit soggy and not smelling the freshest. A combination of football early on Saturday morning, a coupe hours of work and a poker gathering meant that I was shattered by Saturday night and promptly conked out with bottle of beer in hand as soon as I sat down.

On the brightside, it's probably a good thing I don't smoke.

A Realisation: I'm getting old

My 11 a-side footballing adventures brought a rather unwelcome realisation on Saturday. In an effort to help shore up a rather leaky defence I volunteered to fill in the left back spot rather than play in my usual left wing role. I suddenly realised this was a definite indication of my increasing age. No longer could I consider myself a pacey young athlete tearing up the wing against older opposition. No, now I was an experienced old-codger putting in a shift at the back. I was actually pretty happy with how I played in left back considering its not a position I've played in too often and considering it was the best team performance we've put in in a while I think I'll be happy playing there for the rest of the season.