The Official Sport of Planet Earth and Ypsilanti

I've started playing soccer at Frog Island park, Sundays and Wednesdays at 5:30, with friends and random acquaintances. The number of players (as little as two on a team, as many as five) varies as wildly as their respective skill levels (ranging from rank amateurs to amateurs worth ranking), but it remains amicable enough that even someone 10 years out of practice (like I am) can enjoy themself.

When things get too competetive, I tend to quit because it's no longer fun. Thankfully, this is not the case. Players are swapped between teams as necessary, and half the time we don't even keep score. It's hard to take things too seriously when you're playing on half a field and using orange cones.

One of the things I like about Ypsi is that you encounter all kinds of different cultures without even trying. Quite regularly our dicking around is overshadowed when the actual field (we play off to the side, near the amphitheater) is taken over by actual teams who want to play an actual game. Thus far its either been Latinos, (Guatemalans, I think) or West Africans (from where I have no clue).

I am aware that soccer is the most popular sport the world over, but these happen to be the two groups that immediately come to mind think of when I think of it. Ypsi's local leagues would only be made more complete---in my head at least---by the inclusion of drunken Scotsman.