A couple weeks ago my friend, Eoghan, called me up and asked me what I was doing this past Sunday. He was putting together a team to play in an upcoming Futsal tournament and needed a few players. Futsal - Portuguese for "futebol de salão" - is basically indoor soccer played with a smaller field and slightly heavier ball. I had never heard of Futsal before but after he explained it to me, I told him I was definitely in. I hadn't played soccer in years but I love playing it. Our name? TEAM RAMROD!!

The tournament was two weeks from when he called so we decided it would prrrooobably be a good idea to have at least one practice before then. He told me they were having one the following Friday so I said I'd show up. When Friday came around I took off right after work and drove the hour to Kitami for the practice. It was at a school gym where a group of regular guys come to play recreational futsal. Eoghan and another team member, Ben, usually go and play with them every few weeks. There were six members on our team: Eoghan, Ben, Justin, Me, Ben's Japanese friend Daisuke and his friend Take. Daisuke and Take were part of the staff for the tournament so they were the ones who told us about it. During the practice we thought we would be practicing together as a team, but before we knew it we were split up randomly among three teams and pitted against each other. We wouldn't be able to play together but I would still be able to learn the basics.

Futsal only allows five people on the field at a time - including the goalkeeper - and during our practice we rotated players after each goal. Once a goal was scored the goalkeeper would rotate off, another would go into net to be goalkeeper and a substitute would come onto the field. We played two hours of King's court where winner stayed on and the matches were five minutes each or until a team scored two goals. The goal posts were made up of two pylons with big padding propped up behind to stop the ball. The soccer ball is made deliberately heavier in order to discourage raising the ball above waist height and encourages players to focus more on passing. The field consists of lines so the ball can go out of boundaries. When this happens the opposing team simply sets it on the line where it went out and kicks it back in. It was fun and refreshing to play after so long and the two hours flew by. We definitely weren't quite as good as the other Japanese regulars, the best players probably being two junior high students! This ended up being the only practice we would get before the tournament.

We had to be at the Centre where the tournament was held by 8:30am on Sunday morning. It would turn out to be an early start to a long day. We thought it would be elimination style where the losing teams are out right away. With our makeshift team, we figured we'd be out of there by noon! When we got there, we looked at the tournament schedule and realized we actually had three games that day at 11:15am, 2:30pm and 4:40pm. There were also four different leagues with 4-5 teams competing that day with the A League being the pros, B League being the amateurs and so on. We were in the D League - the "fun" league - or as Daisuke put it, "D is smile, A is not smile". We were playing against teams like "Scratch" and "Fuzz" so with a name like "Ramrod", we fit in perfectly.

After checking the schedule we claimed some seats in the bleachers overlooking the gym and sat down to wait. While we were looking around, it dawned on us how serious this tournament was. Literally everyone had track suits, soccer shoes, matching uniforms and jersey numbers! We had a motley collection of uniform colors (we had agreed on black but Eoghan showed up entirely in red) but even our uniforms weren't enough. We learned (while we were there) that we had to have knee-high socks, shin pads and shorts without extra pockets. Fortunately, Daisuke had plenty of extras to go around so he lent us the socks, shin pads and even lent me a proper pair of shorts (mine had extra pockets). The other thing we noticed with this tournament is that the goals were proper 3x2m soccer nets and each team had an actual goalkeeper with different colored jersey and gloves. Each match consisted of two, 13-minute halves so we decided we would rotate goalies for each half. No one was particularly keen on being goalie so I said I would take the first shift.

Our first game was against Team Scratch which was a fairly young team around our age. We were the first match of the D League so we weren't sure how this team compared after watching numerous A and B League matches (including an insane kick from the corner of the net where the player was two feet off the ground, horizontal, doing a scissor kick and managed to score a goal... in a pink uniform! It was the most amazing goal I've ever seen). The first half of the game went pretty well. Luckily Team Scratch were at the same level as us so we were able to hold our own. I managed to make a few good (lucky?) saves and we kept the ball in their zone most of the time. Unfortunately, by the end of the game we weren't able to pull out a big win and lost 3-1. We were pretty pumped about our performance though and vowed we would do better in the second round.

We had over two hours to kill before our next match so four of us (minus Daisuke and Take who had to referee the other games) plus another JET who came out for the day to cheer us on, June, went out to get lunch. We drove into downtown to a Mos Burger, the Japanese equivalent of fast-food. We gorged ourselves on mos burgers, chili burgers and fries (some of us more than others) for more than an hour before deciding to head back. When we got to the parking lot we realized someone forgot to close Ben's car door after they got out (*cough*Justin*cough) and it had been completely open the entire time we were at Mos Burger! This being Japan, of course nothing was stolen, even though his iPod was in complete view. Also of course - this being Japan - no one took it upon themselves to close his door either!

We got back to the Centre with half an hour to spare before gearing up for our second game of the day. This team was older than the first one and were a lot bigger and more scruffy (I love that word). I liked being goalkeeper from the first game so I gladly volunteered to stay in again for this game. I had to wear a different color jersey than the rest of the team so Daisuke, with his staff connections, went into the back room and got me a pink #9 pinny. Nice! We were playing really well this game and managed to outplay them for the most part. Our one and only goal was by Daisuke off a brilliant rebound from a penalty shot. Even though we were playing a little better, the other team were also playing really well and we ended up losing this game 4-1. If anything, we were pumped to do even better in our last round.

Right after this, Justin had to leave us to go to his viola practice. There was only an hour to go until our third and final game so I quickly dropped him off and made it back with time to spare. I had rushed for nothing though because they were running late and there was still an entire game before we were up. Our team member, Take, had to go and ref the next game so he asked me to switch my shorts with his. He had to have only pure black for his referee uniform and the pair I was wearing was (coincidentally) the pair that Daisuke had lent me. We discretely switched my pair of shorts and his #11 shorts up in the bleachers and then he went off to ref the game directly before ours.

With Justin's leaving we were down to five men, the bare minimum, which meant that we all had to play for the entire next match. When the game before us finished I wished the guys a "Ganbatte" and volunteered myself into net again. Just before we were lining up to play, Take realized that I was still wearing his shorts so he motioned frantically to me and said "change, change". He wanted to switch shorts again because I was wearing his number. I said, "What? Now?!" We were standing in the middle of the gym with the other team gearing up to go and tons of players watching from the bleachers. I also had my bulky goalie gloves on too so I wasn't exactly keen on stripping down in public. I asked him if it was alright if we kept on the shorts we had (which is, you know, what anyone would prefer) but he kept insisting. The other team was ready to go and the coaches were waiting for our team to line up so I said "Alright, fuck it", took off my gloves, dropped my shorts (while he simultaneously did the same) and tried to minimize the amount of time I had to stand there in the middle of the gym in my boxers. After (what seemed) a long time, we managed to switch shorts and then were finally ready to go.

Our last opponent of the day was Team Fuzz, the only team we played that had proper uniforms. The match started out evenly with the ball going back and forth between both sides. They were the first to score a goal off a sharp angled kick from the corner. We rallied and pushed back but we weren't able to get the ball into their net. They scored on us a second time... then a third... then a fourth. These guys were quite a bit better than the other teams. By the time the first half was over we were all exhausted and were glad to hear the whistle. The other team realized we were getting tired and that I wasn't as good as they thought. During the halftime they were talking and I was pretty sure their game strategy was "Kick the ball in the direction of their net and it will go in," which is pretty much what went down by then. Soon after the start of the second half we gave it our best and tried to score at least one goal but their keeper was too good. They scored on us a fifth and sixth time and by this point the game was pretty much decided.

At one point when I had the ball in hand (after it went out behind the net), my teammate told me to kick the ball so I punted it towards a player on the other side of the court. This earned me a whistle from the ref because I forgot that you aren't allowed to punt the ball. They gave me the ball back so before kicking it again I set it on the ground, which also earned me a whistle from the ref and.. a yellow card! I was being given a penalty! I learned later that this isn't allowed in Futsal either - BUT - dropping the ball and kicking it after one bounce is allowed. I would call that splitting hairs, no? The two referees conferred (probably after looking at our empty bench and the score) and decided to be lenient. They gave me the ball back and said to play on. I guess it's better to learn the rules before a tournament, huh. Whoops!

We ended up losing 9-0 but, hey, at least it didn't go into the double digits! We didn't feel too terrible about losing this badly because we literally had no practice as a team (other than our previous two games). It was also my first time in net. We still had a lot of fun though since we didn't have that high of expectations in the first place. But, playing in this tournament made us all want to do even better in the next one. This tournament is held four times a year and the next one is in March so we're hoping Team Ramrod will make another showing in three months. I really want to learn how to goaltend properly now too so I may have to invest in a pair of shoes and gloves. There's a practice this Saturday that I'm hoping to go to and one every following Saturday so maybe after a bit (or a lot) of practice, here's hoping we do better in the next tournament!