We’ve got the soccer fever. Seems like it started with this year’s World Cup. We poured over stickers and books and players. We found out Nate has a knack for remembering names that might rival his mom’s. And after nine years of persistent bedhead, Jake started caring about his hair. Need I say more?
Once we couldn’t get our World Cup fix anymore, James found a series on the Italian professional team, Juventus. And now we’re almost done with All or Nothing: Manchester City. There’s a lot of “C’mon Ci-tay” being thrown around this house in a cockney accent. Man City is an exciting and suspenseful series with the educational value of many Spanish-speaking players, but also provides a multitude of teachable moments particularly on the ‘f’ word and why Pep Guardiola uses it so much. There’s just something about swearing in one’s second language that never carries the same verboten weight. It might actually be worse if our teachable moments were on the equivalent Castilian phrase– joder puta.
Last Wednesday, Nate returned home from his first soccer practice mopey and despondent. This is the opposite of Soccer Nate who practices his shots and saves on goal incessantly in front of the front door. Anyone looking to pass, kick, block or shoot a ball can always find a willing partner in Nate.
Turns out Nate’s boys’ under eight’s team got their uniforms… a pink and navy striped jersey with matching pink knee socks. Now to be fair, it’s Millenial pink, which is all the rage on Pinterest these days. Needless to say, my childhood story of being on a championship pink basketball team and a winning ride in a pink ’59 Cadillac limo didn’t really hit the mark. The days of “Mama, I like all the colors, even the girl colors” have vanished.
After dinner we had a cathartic team naming rant– top contenders included the Ferocious Flamingos, the Scary Shrimps, and the Spine-chilling Starfish. The Blood-thirsty Pink Pigeons was my personal fave. Adding Blood-thirsty to any pink jerseyed team strikes fear into the hearts of all competitors.
It also helped that we saw an episode of Man City in pink jerseys. Their colors are navy and hot pink and they’re one of the best teams in Europe. Nate’s disappointment seems to be waning just a bit. He emphasized the team name they chose, “the Awesome Panthers. Awesome Panthers.”
We may need to spring for navy socks for everyone.