Shinjinsen

They’ve been counting down to this weekend for ages now, and each time I asked any of the Ichi Nen Sei or Ni Nen Sei football club kids how many days during the last few weeks, they’d reply eagerly and quickly.

Shinjinsen, the Rookies Tournament, where dreams are shattered and heroes, made whilst the older kids buckle down to more tests. Nanachu’s plucky little band of smurfs netted 14 times and picked up three yellow cards in the four games on the way to the final today and it was brilliant to behold. They all played their socks off, and were clearly playing the best, most fluid football, a really confident passing game. They looked like real footballers. In between games they pulled each others’ shorts down and fucked about.

I was on the sideline with the cheering unit, the younger club members who didn’t cut the mustard sharp enough to make the squad. The first games yesterday, they were a shambles, but hilarious. I have never experienced such apathetic cheering and today looked like it wouldn’t be much different, as a dozen or so smurfs ambling round the pitch and into position with no particular hurry after the game had already kicked off. But it got better and the volleyball girls and the tennis girls came along and cheered too.

And they got to the final and faced Fuzuoka Chu and lost 0-1. I was sure we were going to win the whole thing but the team was out-muscled by bigger kids and never hit their stride with their game.