The Soccer Packs of Liralen Li

There are two main teams as of November, 1997. The Red Herrings and the Red Door Ale House. The first is the more competitive, but also more relaxed and high-skilled team, younger in many ways, and still with ties to the times when the members played soccer in college. They're very well characterized by being intensely competitive on the field and very, very relaxed and friendly while off it. The latter is older, a smidge wiser, but a bit slower and with a number of people that joined so that they could *learn* how to play soccer with a team, so they're not as skilled, which can be both good and bad. They are wise about what's important and what isn't and, as a team, have walked away from games that were just stupidly dangerous when the referee just threw away control of the game. They're mostly people who are competitive and aggressive off the field and burn some of the excess off in a friendly game.

Note that I don't really give any last names, this isn't really so that they're anonymous in any way, it's actually more because I normally don't know the last names of anyone. We need the first names in order to communicate on the field, but I have no idea what last names are on the most part.

The Red Herrings

Patrick

Our present manager, who makes sure that everyone comes or that enough people come to a game. He's the hub, in many ways, of the team, and is the one that tugged John and I onto the team when he needed people. He's a very balanced player, able to go into nearly any position and do well there, and while he's lost the step he had in college, his ball-handling skills have only improved, and he thinks things through really well. He's solidly built, long, straight hair, soft voice.

Greg

The shooter of the team, he nearly always plays striker, unless we're far enough ahead that he feels that he can best help with the defense, then he plays center defender. He's highly motivated, great speed, good ball handling and a shot that would sprain my wrists. He shows up early to all the games, plays as someone that truly loves the game, and is even tempered, humorous and fun. He also has a very deep desire to win, which shows up an interesting times, and is the one that taught me that if you play the game well, you'll likely win, too. So while it *is* 'how you play the game', if you play to the best of your abilities, then you really should win.

Michelle or sometimes just 'Shell

She's very mild mannered looking, slender as a reed, brown hair, with a nice smile. She's also really fast, and has great ball handling capabilities along with that envious ability to take the ball around defenders, which I have yet to touch. She is really, really nice, and awesomely skilled, she's played since she was seven, and it's evident in her skill set. She likes to play up front and does really, really well up there, imaginative offense and a great combination with Greg, as the two of them play together really well, giving the ball to each other, and each of them taking the shot when it's appropriate. She's very much offensively oriented, and has the ball skills to do that very well indeed. I am grateful when she plays halfback as she does do the right things to back me up and get back when I can't, to cover someone that gets by me. I have a special affection for her as she's, most often, the only other female that shows up. It's good to not be alone.

Yura

The fireplug of a player, he's short, blond, solid and aggressive. He's not usually that talkative, but a good communicator when he's around me, and he can see that I need it. Excellent skills, again, and incredible reflexes. He's also tenacious and fun, and good at handling bad passes from me. He's small, so he makes up for it in pure hustle, so it's always gratifying when he comments on my hustling because I know how much he puts into playing.

Terry

Terry's built mostly like I am, tall, solid girl with blonde, curly hair; but she's also blazingly fast with good ball-handling skills. 'Shell usually plays left forward, Terry usually plays right. They both drop back to half back if there aren't enough women and they're playing because they both have the endurance and ability to run the entire game and do what they need to do on attacks and still get back to help the defense. Her ball handling skills are also pretty awesome, and she's good at getting around people with a few moves of her own. She's not quite got the same control Michelle has, but she makes up for it very well by being more aggressive on the field. Sadly, she got hurt a few seasons back, and also got busy, so isn't playing with us for a while.

Eric

Is very tall and very nice. He's also really fast, really good at defense and occasionally takes runs up to do a hard offensive hit as he has the ball handling skills with which to do that. He's good about telling me what to do and good about being nice to everyone and very good at chasing someone down, taking the ball away from them, and then turning it back up field completely under control. Recently (as of 12/97) I think he has a cold or got hurt or something, as he hasn't played the latter part of the winter season.

The Littler Eric

He's fairly new to the team as of 12/97, but he's quiet, slender, brown haired, brown eyes, good ball handling skills, and good up front and is very unselfish with the ball, i.e. he passes well to everyone. He's also really, really fast, and sometimes wears bright pink or purple instead of the maroon some folks show up in so I like to pass him the ball as he's really easy to spot in a rush.

Erin

Highly motivated, very fast in a short area, great reactions, and utterly solid ego because he has to decide *now*, all the time. He's a great goalie. Good at coordinating the back line and yelling at us when we're out of place, and utterly excellent at being in the right place at the right time and taking absolutely no shit from the attackers that are coming at him. He's also loud, boisterous and really, really keen and takes great care of his girlfriend, including bringing sleeping bags for her to bundle up in when she comes to watch games.

Jeff

New to the team as of 12/97, he's one of the folks that came from the disbanded Friday night team. He's a rock solid fullback, pretty quiet, sometimes, but really good about backing me up when I get into trouble and he trusts me enough to go off after a ball if I lose them, and trust me to get the *fuck* back to the center to back *him* up if he loses them a second time. It's rare to have someone just slide into the backline and be able to key off his actions immediately, but he's managed the no mean feat quite handily. I enjoy playing with him a lot.

Jojo

Another new to the team as of 12/98. She started soccer when she was about 26, too, so doesn't really have the small ball skills, yet, but she's enthusiastic, tries like crazy and runs her heart out. She's fast, tenacious and doesn't know when to quit. I like her a lot. She's also funny and wise, and it's fun to just talk with her, sometimes. But I like her heart.

Mike

Mike's not that fast, but what he doesn't have in speed, he makes up for by knowing what it is that one should do. He's a natural coach, in some ways, able to analyze folks' game and show them how they could do better. He's also pretty patient about explaining things and I think I've picked up at least half a dozen moves and thoughts and things to do from him that aren't intuitive on the field, but are extraordinarily useful. He has fairly good skills himself, and usually finds a way to be wide open for a pass, so he's nearly always a good outlet.

The Red Door Ale House

Paul

He's the guy that brought us onto the team from a Friday night 30 and overs team. He likes to play right wing, has good speed, good control and a great cross; but he's just now learning how to drop a pass back. He's laid back, fun, and an outdoors type that went with John, Ellen and I on the rafting trip down the Rogue River. He's witty, fun, and smart and does investment stuff for a living. Not for Paine Webber. *grin* He's patient and interesting and has a really cool, solid trap for just about any ball that gets to him.

Rosalind

She plays defense on the other side of me, and is sweet and marvelous and fits her name very well. She's also solid as a defender, getting her body in the way of others and a tireless runner. She's fairly new to the game so it's a lot of fun to watch her learn and be tenacious to make up for what she doesn't know. She owns 'Bear', a burly dog that loves to play with Fezzik, run circles around him and then get him to chase her. Good exercise for Fezzik.

Ellen

Ellen and John and I actually go way, way back, to the first team that John played for when we first moved up to Seattle. She's actually a neurophysicist who does interesting experimentations on rat brains. Her life is a lot like mine, i.e. work, sleep, soccer. She's articulate, funny, and very keen and plays a mean fullback. She's *fast*, experienced, and just hates it when someone scores on her side, so she simply insures that they don't. She's one of the folks that taught me that it's possible to *think* while on the field and that, worst case, speed will make up for everything. She's also an artist, as far as I'm concerned, at getting offensive players to just lose it with her, as she's always in their way, always pressing them, and always tenacious about taking their plays away. She's also the one that taught me how to do the necessary foul, the ones that will take away a 'sure' goal and not endanger us for another one.

Monty

He's on the NT team, a program manager, so he always comes to games in a rush, from work, even when they're 9:15 games. He also wears a brilliantly yellow sweatshirt, now, with the Windows mouse pointer icon on his chest, and, unfailingly, people seem to shoot right for where the pointer points. He's probably the best goalie I know of, other than for Michael Baker, who kinda gave it up after a near-collision of his head with a goal post, as he *knows* the angles and can talk his defenders into position with no doubt. He has great reflexes, loves the position, and willingly sacrifices his body repeatedly for the ball. He's cool. He's also lots of fun to talk with and just got a Husky teenage pup from the shelter that runs around in wild circles.

Bob

Is tall and lanky and lean and laconic. He often plays center fullback and kinda squints at me when I get too frantic. He's fast, long, long legs, and learning his ball skills, but he's steady and always manages to get between them and the goal, somehow. He's cool and solid and emotionally stabilizing. He's also got a golden retriever named Lulu, whose main passion is chasing a ball, so is a great dog for Fezzik to chase and get winded with.

Michael

He's our main finisher. He's intense, wire thin, and fast. Great skills, cool intensity and he's learning how to pass. *grin* He still plays with the ball a bit too much for my taste, sometimes, but has the skills to pull it off most of the time. He's getting better, though, and is learning to hear when people get open and there's three or four people on him, and he's apologized to me, a few times, when I've been on wing and yelling loudly. He's actually very nice, and is getting even better about passing now that Gretchen is also on the team and she's the one yelling for the ball.

Gretchen (Bear)

She's great. Just started a few years ago, but she's fast tenacious, vocal, and fun. She's the one that keeps calling me 'Blue Raspberry', and she's really loquacious and frank as all get out and really, really, good about always running to the ball and getting into a play. Even if she doesn't always know what to do when she gets there, often her simple presense is enough to turn the ball over. She's a voracious learner, too, drilling a few new possibilities before every game, it's fun to watch her absorb techniques and then try them out on the field, and just keep trying them so that she eventually succeeds at them. I love her style.

Amy

Amy astonishes me. She started about a year ago, and was a regular bicyclist so she has incredible stamina. She knows her limitations, as she doesn't have many ball skills and has no defensive training, but she knows she can run, run, and then run some more, so we let her loose in the mid-field and she uses those legs to get into the middle of a lot of plays. She's funny and fast and tenacious once she knows what she's doing, and so I send her after everyone that comes in, to delay them, at least, before they get to me, and more and more, as she gets more and more experience, she's just taking the ball away before they get to me. So it's a good thing, all in all.

Joseph

He's the long-legged boyfriend of Amy, and he's actually the one that brought her along one day when we were desperately short women. He's got great skills, astonishing speed, and he's also learning how to pass, and doing much better at it. I'm ashamed to admit that I thought, at first, that he wouldn't pass to women, but it turned out he wasn't one to pass to *anyone* as he had good enough skills to get by most teams, but as we, as a team, have moved up levels, he's really had to learn how to pass, and is gradually getting better at actually hearing people that talk to him. Before, it really wasn't that he didn't *want* to pass, he was just so concentrated on the ball he couldn't see or hear who to pass to. So we're all learning with that.