3-on3 Tournament

I mentioned that I would be playing in a soccer tournament on Sunday...which I did, it was great fun and I'm happy to say that I was on the winning team at the end of the day!

The event was held at P.I.C. (Pacific Islands Club), which is the resort that my friend Carmen worked at when she was in Saipan years ago. She and I stayed here for one night and got to enjoy the water park and we ate the Magellan restaurant, which has an amazing buffet-probably some of the best food on the island. Anyways, registration was at 8:30 to 9 am, and it was a $10 entry fee, which also got you a water park admission for the entire day (a $30 value). There were 54 players, split up by skill level into 18 pretty well-balanced teams. Just from what I saw, the organizers, who also played, did a very good job of making it a fair, anyone-can-win-it day. Our team was by no means the best, but lots of luck and a few good plays made us the winners.

We started off in the first of four brackets, and we played three games in that bracket, all closely together, two in a row at one point. We played both of the first two matches to a draw, and we won the third to get us into the playoffs. Since we played our entire bracket first, which took a little over an hour, we then had over 3 and a half hours to enjoy the park, goof off and watch the others. When we finally got back on the field in the afternoon, we just had a good match up in the quarterfinals, out of the possible opponents. The games were 6 minutes straight through (no halftime), with a three (i think) minute over-time and after that was a 2 minute sudden death overtime, then a penalty kick shootout if no one scored a golden goal. The fields were smaller even than a basketball court, and during the shootout there s no goalie, in fact there is no goalie at all during any of the game, but the shooter must take the PK from the opposite side of the field...about 50 or 60 feet. Our first playoff game went to a shootout, as well as the final. The semifinal game was won by the crowd arguing an uncalled goal, eventually the other team conceded it, and a last minute goal right before overtime ended. The final went into overtime, then sudden death overtime. Then we all did terrible in the shootout, with only one player from each team making their shot. But keeping it tied like that sent it into a sudden death shootout. And they missed their first shot. Our captain Jessie, (or Jetsada) didn't. It was a little unbelievable, but he and I, along with a Korean high-schooler named Joshua, kept insisting that we should just have fun the entire day, and we did.

So anyways, we won a little money, a soccer ball made for playing on black top (street soccer), and a free pass to the waterpark and restaurant. Then we all got to enjoy the waterpark for as long as we wanted. It also was a wonderful way to get my ego-fix! Haha, seriously, it always feels good to win something, especially in front of lots of people. And it makes the whole integration process a lot easier because everyone got my name from the announcer, and all I had to do was answer the same questions over and over again!

I am sore. Yes, I will use the Arnica-ointment and pills. Yes, I stretched, and I will ice the sore spots too. And I am relaxing. And using reiki. And I will probably go get a massage from someone too. You can't beat $25 for an hour massage! But I will be sure to tip generously!