It’s been a few days and I have much to report. The third game of the season was yesterday
and unfortunately we lost, 2-0 to Vasby United.
Vasby was a good team and they are now top of the table with three wins
from three. ESK on the other hand is at
the bottom with 0 points from our three games.
It doesn’t get any easier as our next game is against the 2nd
place team in the current table. I won’t
go into the game but the match report is on esk.nu. I played the full 90 but didn’t really create
any chances. I made plenty of runs and
got a few good passes but overall the match felt kind of like a fitness
session, with me running back and forward with not much to show for it.
Anyway going back in time, April 30 was payday! Unfortunately I didn’t get paid. I’ve talked to a few people and everyone
thinks this is an awful thing, but I still haven’t been able to find someone
who can give me my payment. I’m not
worried though because my Pennsylvania tax return came in! I’M RICH!
And by rich I mean I have a small amount of disposable income. Maybe I’ll use my newfound riches to start my
apartment decoration.
May 1 was moving day for Daniel. Being the good friend that I am, I offered to
help him move. Long story short we went
to a couple of places around Stockholm collecting Daniel’s stuff for his
apartment before moving it all in to his new place in Enkoping. I took a couple of pictures to show the trip,
but I’ve since realized that there’s only two and they don’t really convey the
trip so well. The first one is the
moving truck we rented. It had a
motorized back and the photo is of us learning how to use it. We did well and by the third stop we were
pros! The second picture is of the SEB
bank building is Solna, Stockholm. I
mentioned the building before from an earlier post so I thought it would be
cool to actually have a visual to go with the description. Another landmark moment in my European
adventure was my acquisition of a bicycle!
One of our stops was Robert’s house (his actual house, not the one in
Enkoping) and there we found a bike that Robert is loaning me for the
summer. It’s a really nice gesture from
Robert and his family and it saves me probably $150 because bikes here are not
cheap. It’s impossible to find a new one
for less than $200 and difficult to find a used one for less than $100. Thanks to Robert though I paid nothing and
now I’m the coolest kid on two wheels in Enkoping!
That’s all for now folks. Once again it’s back to the drawing board for our next match on Monday. We’re at home so it’ll be a good chance to get some points and really get our season going. I couldn’t sleep after the game because my mind was too focused on things that maybe I could have done here and there to change the outcome. One of the few stresses that goes along with being a professional soccer player is that when things aren’t going well, it’s easy for negative thoughts to consume you. At 24, I’m the grizzly veteran of the squad and as such I’ve seen more seasons start poorly than I care to mention. However, I’ve seen most of those seasons turned around so I know not to panic. I worry though that the younger players may not have that discipline. I don’t know all of these guys’ backgrounds, but some of them this may be their first ever three match losing streak. It’s not easy to get over losses and you never get comfortable with losing, but how we bounce back is going to say a lot about our team. If we can get playing well, then we have a really long string of winnable games that could put us in a very good position in the second half of the season. I’m no leader in this team, but I will definitely try to set a good example for the other guys, young and old.
I’m off to go curtain shopping now. I went to sleep at around 4am last night and
by 5am the freaking sun was starting to come out. It’s only a matter of time before I can’t get
any sleep without my windows being completely covered! See you all next time!
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