Futbol

After getting our soccer legs underneath us through futbolito, we were invited to play a couple games of actual futbol by my friend Brayton's host father, Gustavo.  Some of the guys we played futbolito with were nice enough to run around with us on the field below, and considerate enough to mix the teams fairly, with Hondurans and Americans playing together.  All in all, we Yanks held our own, even contributed at times.  They were clearly better than us, (as will happen when both you and a soccer ball come out of the womb at the same time) with one guy hitting the cross bar on a shot from midfield...  Over the course of the two games, we probably tallied a third of the goals scored, though generally set up by good play from one of the Hondurans. 

The field on the side of the hill, Yuscaran

The main purpose of these matches with and against real soccer players was to prepare us for the big PC showdown, Business vs Water/Sanitation!  Bright and early one Saturday morning, Business gathered in the plaza in Yuscaran to catch the bus for Danli, two hours away.  After a quick meet and greet with the competition (it was really good to see them after a month apart!), we geared up to play.  I'm not sure how he did it, but Rojo managed to lock in a two hour slot for us to play in the local stadium.  Some of the Wat/Sanners, living in nearby El Paraiso, returned the next day to watch a pro match that was televised nationally from the same stadium!  Clearly, what we were about to do would be a disservice to the stadium, its caretakers, and those who have played before and will play after us, but we gave it a go. 

Catching Wat/San off-guard, Business came firing out the blocks and upheld serious pressure for the first ten minutes of the match, primarily through Che's relentless bursts down the right flank.  Wat/San's defense stood tall however and we were unable to gain the upper hand.  As the game progressed and the heat increased, we all slowed down a little bit and substitutions came fast and often.  Wat/San seemed to be the fitter of the two sides and were able to capitalize on our exhaustion, through a goal from Eric.  Quick side note - Eric did happen to play D1 college soccer for four years in college.  None of the rest of us had played serious soccer in a long time.  Just throwing that out there.  To be fair though, it wasn't just a match of Business vs Eric, the Wat/San team was quality through and through.

We quickly recovered from that goal though, and your's truly, after botching two very simple attempts early on, was finally able to sneak the ball past Roy to tie the match up.  That only seemed to ignite a fire under Eric, as he quickly replied with a rocket of a shot from 30 yards out that got the better of our goalie, Cruz.  In 15 minutes, three goals were scored.  Wat/San made some strategic shifts in positions and clamped down on D for the rest of the match, ending up 2-1 winners.  Besides Slater's hilarious uncalled-for slide tackles throughout the match, the game was played how it should be (minus the necessary skill level for the most part) and friendly beers were had afterwards.  All in all, a great success for all involved!

Wat/San - deserved winners

Business - how ever could we have lost?!

Inspired by the camaraderie generated from this match, Brayton came up with the genius idea of having regional challenge matches between Peace Corps groups in Central America.  The main idea is to have a team made up of PC Honduras volunteers team play against PC Guatemala, PC Nicaragua, PC El Salvador, etc.  Beyond that, we'd like to make it a true cultural exchange.  Say PC Honduras plays PC Nicaragua in Managua.  Besides the inter-PC match, we would also like to bring a local Honduran team to play against a local Nicaraguan team, organize host family stays, etc.  Many details yet to be ironed out, but interest seems to be there on several levels: players, observers, and higher-ups.  More to come as this idea takes shape.