Use Your Head, Not Your Feet

A young woman, not older than 30 years of age, sat in the stadium in front of her father talking in a very passionate manner, gesturing, screaming, smiling, stressing out over the game she was watching. Her grandfather seemed at least 70 years old; he sat in front of her with his back towards the players on the soccer pitch. A white and red walking cane rested on the man's lap to show his age... No; his eyes, they did not look straight at his granddaughter, it was a blind man's cane. He was off by a couple of seconds in the game due to his grandchild's effort to keep up with the game by narrating, but the important moments he could easily infer from the ambient noise of the stadium. Goals, fouls, penalties and referee complaints he would eco what the stadium would tell him. 

At half time he sat beside his granddaughter to comment on the game as she sipped on water to prepare her throat for the second half in a packed stadium. The second half brought a better game, and with it an away goal... You could see from her gestures and his face that they both feared the worst for their beloved soccer team: a home game loss.

Costa Rica's National Stadium

Final 5 minutes of the game, the referee did not call a penalty foul. The woman, her grandfather and the stadium yell in anger as they feel the game is about to be stolen from their team. They stop shouting quickly as the home team recovers the ball shortly after and moves forward aggressively... A corner kick is awarded in the last 2 minutes. The old man and his grandchild hold hands in an evidently soccer-intended prayer, it's now or never...

The kick hovers over the players towards the furthest pole of the goal, a defender heads it out to the fortuitous feet of a forward player just outside the goalie area... The stadium STANDS and in an effort to control the outcome yells with their hearts "SHOOT!!!!"

The stadium Roars into a unison of happiness and relief as the ball goes in the net and scores the equalizer. The woman and her grandfather melt into each others arms as though they're choking out each others happiness... Game over, tied game 1 to 1. The stadium applauds the home team's effort at the end to save the result from loss to tie and slowly people make their way out.

The old man and his personal narrator stayed behind, probably to wait for more people to leave and make it easier for the blind grandfather to walk out. As they waited, it was he who was speaking to her, just like at half time, analyzing what went right and wrong in the game. All I managed to hear as he put his arm around her shoulders was "well, you can't win them all, right?".

She drank water as I last saw them looking back from the doors of the stadium as she helped him get up and ready to go home.

I love soccer, for the magic that it creates when people forget everything else going right and wrong in life and just enjoy the stress that the game on  the pitch entails. 

And I miss my soccer - passionate grandmother...

I never went to the stadium with her but countless times I sat with her at home to hear her scream at the players to try and remind them through the TV screen that:

"soccer should be played with your head, not with your feet"