My Wednesdays went as they normally do with me picking Baptiste up from soccer practice around 18h00. Atypical of me though, I left town immediately after maman got home. Andréa had a recreational soccer match that night in Les Pennes and I wanted to watch. There was a huge traffic jam on the way to Marseille. I guess a ton of people don't know how to drive in the rain here because there must have been four accidents just 1000 meters apart. It was hellacious!!! I feel like I didn't move for about an hour. It was semi-perfect timing though because when I got to Andréa's apartment dinner was ready. He surprised me. He had made one of my recipes that I had showed him last week. It was my citrus chicken--Chicken breasts marked and boiled in orange juice, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and soy sauce. This was one of my favorite dishes to make in college because it's so simple and yet it tastes so intricate. Andréa's version was very good, but very different. I'm more of a vinegar-forward type of person--it must be that Carolina BBQ that I'm missing ;-)
Andréa and I headed out to Les Pennes shortly after dinner with his roommate Flora. Traffic was not the same on the way out of town. We got to the soccer court in about 20 minutes. Once there, I got settled into a stool and Andréa grabbed me a draft beer. All sports fields have beer, coffee, and liquor here--even at kids' events. I'm surprised fights don't break out as often!
The court consisted of 3 youth-sized fields--two outdoor and one somewhat covered by a tent. I was viewing the middle court from the inside where it was completely warm and enclosed [with a bar]. Recreational soccer in France is done much differently than what I'm used to in the states. In the states, A. There's no bar, and B. You always play on regulation-sized field even if it's just practice or rec league. When it was time for Andréa to play, he walked onto the turf with 11 others. All 12 of the players are split up into teams at random and they play until the end of their time slot.
My boy did well. His team was in the lead for awhile but in the end, the other team took the win by 1 point. The goalie on his team kind of sucked. There was also a kid with a nose-bleed and Andréa almost got into a fight with a guy that is always calling fouls on others but is always kicking and tripping other players which are penal fouls if I remember correctly. Andréa kept his cool though. His best friend and I being there might have had something to do with that.
To me, these players played far too rough for a recreational match. But in the land of football, you can never be too much of a fanatic...
Andréa and I headed out to Les Pennes shortly after dinner with his roommate Flora. Traffic was not the same on the way out of town. We got to the soccer court in about 20 minutes. Once there, I got settled into a stool and Andréa grabbed me a draft beer. All sports fields have beer, coffee, and liquor here--even at kids' events. I'm surprised fights don't break out as often!
The court consisted of 3 youth-sized fields--two outdoor and one somewhat covered by a tent. I was viewing the middle court from the inside where it was completely warm and enclosed [with a bar]. Recreational soccer in France is done much differently than what I'm used to in the states. In the states, A. There's no bar, and B. You always play on regulation-sized field even if it's just practice or rec league. When it was time for Andréa to play, he walked onto the turf with 11 others. All 12 of the players are split up into teams at random and they play until the end of their time slot.
My boy did well. His team was in the lead for awhile but in the end, the other team took the win by 1 point. The goalie on his team kind of sucked. There was also a kid with a nose-bleed and Andréa almost got into a fight with a guy that is always calling fouls on others but is always kicking and tripping other players which are penal fouls if I remember correctly. Andréa kept his cool though. His best friend and I being there might have had something to do with that.
To me, these players played far too rough for a recreational match. But in the land of football, you can never be too much of a fanatic...
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