{"id":787,"date":"2013-07-13T04:55:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T04:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deegardner.com\/new\/?p=787"},"modified":"2013-07-14T05:24:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T05:24:16","slug":"football-football-football-i-really-mean-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deegardner.com\/new\/2013\/07\/13\/football-football-football-i-really-mean-soccer\/","title":{"rendered":"Football, Football, Football, I really mean soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s odd in my life I have been eased into soccer. \u00a0I played soccer one year when I was in 4th grade. \u00a0Then my cousin David was playing in Sacramento when we moved there. \u00a0My chemistry teacher in high school was the soccer coach. \u00a0Then I started watching my brothers play on club teams, and then in high school. \u00a0It was fun to watch and I started to realize this was one of the biggest sports in the world. \u00a0All over the world kids grow up knowing only about soccer. \u00a0They don&#8217;t play basketball, baseball, hockey or volleyball. \u00a0There are small pockets of these sports around the world but they are not that big of a deal.<\/p>\n<p>When my daughter Paige started playing soccer my wife started getting into it. \u00a0A couple of years ago we started getting free satellite and we had access to all kinds of soccer. \u00a0We started watching Barcelona play. \u00a0Lionel Messi was amazing to watch, and then we started seeing other players that I had heard about. \u00a0Rooney, Christiano Renaldo and then I began to learn many more. \u00a0Diego Forlan, Mezzit Ozil, Danny Alvez, Iker Cassias, Ibrahimavic, Van Persie, Chicarito, Marcello, Cesc Fabragas, and others. \u00a0I started to learn about teams and managers(coaches). \u00a0I also learned about the leagues and tournaments. \u00a0Once I got a decent job, we even bought some season tickets to our local club here in Salt Lake, RSL (Real Salt Lake). \u00a0I know now why they call this the beautiful game. \u00a0There are big egos, big money, and fanatics that behave very badly. \u00a0However, 99.9% of the whole deal is beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I wish that I had the exposure to soccer when I was eight. \u00a0I wish I could have been inspired with the vision of what soccer in the US would become. \u00a0I could have been part of it, not just the admiring spectator. \u00a0I am now drawn to the game.<\/p>\n<p>This morning started with going to Paige&#8217;s Impact Cup, finals game. \u00a0Her team had earned the right to play in the finals because they beat a much better team. \u00a0They lost in the finals, 0-2, but they played hard and it was fun to watch. \u00a0I shot video of the game and you can see that online.<\/p>\n<p>Then we had the opportunity to watch the USA soccer team play Cuba. \u00a0USA won 4 -1. \u00a0It was a double header and Costa Rica played Belize. \u00a0That game concluded with Costa Rica 1 and Belize 0. \u00a0Costa Rica should have had more goals, there were several misses by inches, and the goalie for Belieze was brilliant.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing I had to deal with today was my Leaf. \u00a0I got it back from the dealership. \u00a0I had problems a couple of time charging on public chargers. \u00a0It would charge for about 1\/2 hour and then quick charging. \u00a0I took it in, the dealership gave me a loaner car for a couple of days and they got it fixed. \u00a0 \u00a0It&#8217;s nice to have my car back. \u00a0 I really enjoy it, it&#8217;s got some pickup because the electric motor is much better at getting the power from the engine to the wheels. \u00a0I am hoping the technology improves and we will be able to, in the very near future, be able to drive exactly like gas cars. \u00a0In the first month I only saw 3 other Leaf&#8217;s on the road. \u00a0This week I saw five. \u00a0I am sure there will be many more on the road soon. \u00a0It&#8217;s nice now because charging is free in most places.<\/p>\n<p>Until tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s odd in my life I have been eased into soccer. \u00a0I played soccer one year when I was in 4th grade. \u00a0Then my cousin David was playing in Sacramento when we moved there. \u00a0My chemistry teacher in high school was the soccer coach. \u00a0Then I started watching my brothers play on club teams, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-journal-entry","7":"entry"},"modified_by":"D. 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