Road to BKK: chasing peak footy form for March amateur tourney

Was about to text my footy coach the other day to ask him about a personal training plan ahead of the tourney and decided first to text my good friend and now open team captain of Farangutans FC to make sure everything was confirmed jic. He told me that yes BUT that organizers are considering doing open tourney next year 7-a-side instead of 11 a side, due to lack of interest from other teams to participate.

Only upside of this situation is that I much prefer 7 a side over 11 a side and I think I perform better the smaller the pitch is, especially now that I'll show up with superb cardio, being able to run the whole game up and down the field. If it's on a big pitch this going up and then returning to defend becomes harder as distance is bigger, whereas if it's a smaller pitch the 'box-to-box' thing becomes much more doable.

Big issue of this change (which is not fully confirmed yet btw) is that with 7 players on the pitch, my chances of getting significant amount of play time goes down.

Like I said, in 2023 we had to forfeit the team for 2nd day of competition due to lack of players, we didn't enter an open team for 2024 and finally in 2025 was the year when, with my friend already as captain, we (they, cuz I was already in LatAm) took a full squad and won the title, but with many ringers.

My friend told me the open team is looking healthy nowadays and is even playing some 11 a side friendlies in Chiang Mai besides the usual 7 a side league. I was thinking I should be able to make it to the starting 11 in BKK, not only due to seniority and because I'm a full member paying my yearly fees (that should give me priority above any ringer) but because not all the guys make the trip down to BKK. Tournament happens right around thai new year which is time off school so many of the guys who work as teachers either go on holidays or go back home, and some just cbb to go down to BKK and choose to stay in the city. But now that the team size shrinks from 11 to 7, my spot in the starting team is not only seriously challenged, but I might struggle to get any significant playtime at all.

I told my friend I'm happy to contribute in whatever capacity and he told me it'll be great to have me 'regardless of the footy anyways' lol. As a clinically anxious individual that struggles with self-esteem and still pictures himself as a morbidly obese child sometimes, I instantly took the 'regardless of the footy anyways' as a red flag and a tell about my chances of playing much. In reality, I'm sure he meant it'll be awesome to see me after 2 years or so for a weekend in BKK, which is what this tourney is all about for 99% of the guys attending.

I think the only team that takes it really seriously is Forbidden City FC from China, that is almost a semi-pro team with a coach, some staff members and a proper structure. They all stay in the same hotel (where gf's are not allowed) and have tactical meetings the night before and no drinking-no partying policies until the tournament is done, or at least thats what I heard. Every other team that makes the trip to BKK during holiday time just uses footy as an excuse to get hammered and spend a fun weekend in one of the most vibrant cities in Asia when it comes to nightlife. Is not rare to see guys throwing up or sleeping it in the shadow in between games lmao.

Challenge now is not to let anxiety conquer me, but most importantly, REMEMBER THE GOAL: GET TO THE TOURNAMENT IN PEAK FOOTY SHAPE. The goal I set for myself was not: 'Win BKK tournament', or 'score 20 goals' or 'get as much playing time as possible', it was to prepare myself to get to that weekend in the best form of my life, and that's where the focus should be.

The guy above is Oscar Washington Tabarez, former coach of Uruguay national football team from 2006 until 2022. He took the job after we failed to qualify for the WC in Germany in 2006, losing in the intercontinental playoff vs Australia via penalty shootout, and not only managed to qualify us for every single WC after that (2010 when we finished 4th, most epic one I remember, 2014 when we got sent home in round of 16 but eliminated England and Italy in group stage and 2018 when we lost in quarter finals vs future champions France, after eliminating CR7's Portugal a round before) and win 2011 Copa America in Argentina, but to bring back joy and hope for uruguayans when it came to our national team, after many years of shame and hopelessness.

He became famous for saying over and over a quote that I never really liked much back then, but now I understand a bit better: 'THE JOURNEY IS THE REWARD'.

This is not a quote created by him, but something preached by pretty much every religion, spiritual leader or wise person all throughout history. Don't chase results, enjoy the journey. Don't focus on the destination, stop by the roadside to enjoy the view, etc.

This is something that after so many years playing poker profesionally I'm slowly starting to make peace with, even though is also hard. I think by now it's quite clear I won't be playing Tritons or SHR events in Vegas and that my narrative in this job is much different, but that doesn't mean is a failure: I get to do what I like for a living, it provide$ for me nicely, and it allows me to have a good lifestlye I enjoy where I can travel, workout, spend time with friends and go on side quests like the one I'm documenting here.

Putting all this in writing is a nice way to see how anxiety ****s with your head, because nothing is confirmed: tourney might still be 11 a side, I might still have a high chance of playing even if it's 7 a side or whatever, but my first reaction when hearing the news was to think 'im ****ed!'. Well I hope this all works to remind myself of what really matters, and that is what I can control: (keep) doing my best effort to get to that weekend in peak footy shape, just like I stated in the OP, everything else and what is outside of my control, well, it's outside of my control lol.

the good thing about focusing on fitness not other results is that 1. it's controllable and 2. it will undeniably help your performance.

Wrote a proper update the other day, and after clickin 'post' it made me verify I'm not a bot, didn't realize, closed the window and boom, gone. So anyway, here are some cliffs:

- Haven't had a proper cheat meal since IDK when, not feeling the need for it, and plan to have two 'mini holidays' on Dec 24-25 and Dec 31-Jan 1st when I'll go out with a poker friend here in BSAS for some drinks and a bicycle ride (look at my avatar, if you know, you know lol), so I'm saving all the calories for a few fernet and perhaps some panettone in those dates
- Pay per kg restaurant I always eat at is closed until January 16th (!!!) so I have to find a similar one or spend a bunch of money ordering helathy and in line with my macros/caloric intake PedidosYa (Argie Doordash)
- Going to Colonia del Sacramento (uruguayan city 1h away from BSAS) to get a new passport done tomorrow, and back the same day. Will get tickets to Thailand sometime around NYE
- Training is on point and going well both with footy and with weights. Because of gym closing or operating in weird hours around xmas/ny gonna aim for some mainteneance work/prehab/core/mobility between basically today and Jan 2nd. Also to avoid getting too loaded for pre season that begins on Jan 6.

IDGAF about xmas but happy new year to ev1 reading this, hope y'all accomplish your fitness and life goals in this upcoming 2026 🚀🚀🚀

Group that I train with has two shifts: mornings (6am to 8am) and my time slot (7pm to 9pm). The coach of the morning shift went to cover for night shift coach the other day and he always do these vids of trainings instead of the low quality pics the other coach takes, so up there you can see a short vid of what we did the other day (mostly the footy part).

I'm the one stopping the ball with the chest and passing it back in the 1st clip, and the one that looks like a spastic circling around an imaginary ball in the 2nd clip 😂. To offset that image, there's a nice 'trivela' pass and a good recovery I did a little bit later on.

That day it rained super heavily from 6pm to 7pm (right before we start) + it was the day before xmas eve so not a huge turnout, still rain stopped right in time so we could train and we had enough bodies to get a proper training in (I been in bad weather conditions before when it was just me and 1 or 2 other guys).

Coach gave us 'homework' (3 sets of 10' jog + core + flexibility) for today 25th because is xmas day so we dont train with the group, but I'll get to it tomorrow cuz gym is closed today.

Had the last footy training session of the year. We did the Navette Test (apparently 'MSFT' in english) and I was 2nd best overall. Many guys didn't show up cuz 1- last session of the year 2- dont wanna do the test lol. Coach said pro level is around 12 min, I did 9:45. Guy that did the most (10:15) is 15kg lighter than me, and been training with this group for over 10 years so yea, not bad at all when put in perspective. But this is a comp vs myself anyways, so for being my 1st ever test like this and doing this good, I'm super happy because it keeps me closer to my goal of getting to BKK tourney in peak shape ��

(I'm so tall I dont even fit in the pic lol)

Gonna do a light and easy upper workout tomorrow sometime within the short window the gym is open (9am to 1pm). Then we having dinner with a poker friend and going out. I think I earned my panettone lol. We going to this club, paid like 70 USD each ticket. I had promised myself not to do more nightlife after a bad experience in Jaco, Costa Rica earlier this year and just cuz I'm over it, but what the heck, it's NYE in BSAS, have some ehmm, uhmmm stuff we'll take lol so **** it, lets go.

This is what I wrote on the OP with my outline for the upcoming months. Let's take a look to see how it went:

August-October: Wrapping up the bulk and playing footvolley in Rio. Started slowly cutting ✅. It all went as planned ��
October-December: Got here around October 15th. Trained with the footy group pretty much every single Tuesday and Thursday so mega ✅. Workouts in the gym are switching indeed to a more footy specific kind of lift (haven't used a machine since I signed up to this gym 3 months ago or so) but still doing arms (albeit always at the end of an upper session, never on their own) so also ✅

January-February: Pre-season starts next tuesday and I see no reason why I wouldn't attend every single session. They'll do the navette test again at the end of it so it'll be nice to see how I improved during these two months. Gonna start doing more prehab-stretching-core ONLY days, no weights. Maybe wednesday is a good day for this as it falls right between the two sessions, but let's see. Weight is on point (like I said hard to get a scale here and too late to by one, but I'd say I'm aroung 87kg sharp) so I can spare some extra kcals to refuel properly. But main focus will be pre seson sessions and be in mint condition for them, looking forward to it ��

March: Gonna get my ticket to Thai in the first couple weeks of the year. Been looking a little bit about how's the situation over there for stuff like: re-open a bank account (mine got closed), renew my thai driver's license (don't wanna pay the pigs 500 THB or having to pay attention of where I drive to avoid them) and some kind of semi-long term visa (like this new DTV thingy) but gonna take care of that probably once I'm there: first 3 months are easy to do with a visa exemption and I'll settle myself once I'm there. If I made it that well for 8+ years when I first flew there back in Dec 2015 with 5k to my name and a dream, I surely can make it again. If so I wish, maybe I just go for the tourney, see all the stuff I didn't like at all when I left and decide to come back to LatAm. But one step at a time, and the more immediate thing is night out tomorrow in BSAS ����

Happy new year to everyone reading this, here's to a great 2026 ��������

Pre-season started yesterday and I did much better than on last year 1st sess when I barely could finish it, which makes a lot of sense, as I got to last pre-season with almost no footy under my belt (think it was 2-3 months between my last footy in Rio sometime in October 2024 and pre-season start in Jan 2025) and this time around I trained pretty much all year round so I have much better conditioning overall.

This is how the whole program looks like:

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After some back and forth with Farangutans captain/friend, decided to get to Chiang Mai earlier, so I'll get a ticket for March 8th flying out of Sao Paulo, BR. I never visited SP and it's the biggest city in all LatAm so I wanna check it out once and for all as I ****ing love huge metropolis.

Gonna give full priority to the pre-season these upcoming 8 weeks so I'll do mainly upper body stuff at the gym with 1 'light' leg day on Saturdays (when I'll also do some cardio prescribed by footy coach).

Really excited now that I'm entering the last 12 weeks ahead of the tourney, not for the tourney itself but to actually see how PEAK FOOTY SHAPE really looks like. That navette test was a very nice indicator that I'm on the right track.

Here you can see me being taken for a ride in a 'rondo'. This happens way more often than I'd like to admit lol. To be fair 2 out of the 5 guys in the outside are at pro level and one of them has been training with the group for decades (and it tells). Always nice to test myself vs the better players of the lot.

Just came back from an appointment with a kinesiologist, been having some slight pain/discomfort on my left hip flexor and wanted a professional to tell me basically what I already know: stretch, stretch and stretch even more lol. She did some tests and confirmed what I alwys kinda knew: my left side is kinda wrecked and I need to stop squatting pretty much completely until I get some more ankle mobility and fix my hips to not lean sideways, in general, but specifically when squatting. She complimented my physique tho and said I have good musculature which is going to help me moving forward for longevity in the sport, just gotta be careful with loaded exercises and improve ankle mobility so my knee and hip don't carry all the weight when running and moving.

Preparation is going great as pre-season is entering the pre-competitive phase (ie: more ball work, less volume in the intermitent runs). I remembered last year's pre season as being terribly taxing and this year I been doing fine, which makes total sense as I'm better prepared.

I weighted myself the other day (not optimal conditions tho, not naked, not first thing in the morning, not the best scale) and I'm at 89kg which makes sense with the way I see myself in the mirror but shouldn't be the case given the heavy amount of training I'm doing and the food I'm eating. Calc'ed the macros and the caloric intake and I should be at mainteneance if not slight loss, so I'm gonna take that independent weight in as 'noise' and focus on what really matters: performance in the pitch, which so far has been great. Also, the coach told me the other day to 'eat more' as I look 'malnourished' lol. So yea, definitely that weight in was just pure noise.

when does the season start?

Tournament will be played Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th of April.

Stay for the weekend of the tournament already booked (through a friend, it was 50 EUR more expensive for me to book from Argentina). Most of the team will be staying at the same place so it'll be nice for transportation, hanging out at the pool, etc. Also Soi 11 which is ����️��

Also just bought these cleats for 70k ARS (51 USD). I only had the short cleats for astro turf but the tourney will be held in grass pitch so needed a pair. Wearing them inside the house now just so they get looser. Also not sure if it works for footy/fitness trips but I'm aware of the trend of posting shoes b4 a poker trip in here for good luck so I might as well try it, right?

Flying next weekend to Sao Paulo and on sunday to Thailand. Always glad to go to the country I called home for so long but also always a little bit anxious about a trip like this to the other side of the world. Not complaining, is the life that I chose and choose daily!! LFG ������

glgl

tyty, looking forward to it!

We finished the pre-season the other day and I was one of the few to hit 16 sessions out of 16 for a perfect record, super proud I managed to do it. I built my weeks around tues-thur training and made sure to move commitments and grind sessions to the other days of the week so yea, quite easy to achieve a goal if you give it high priority and plan around it.

I can tell the improvement and I'm really looking forward to test my newly acquired form and conditioning vs my teammates in Chiang Mai when I play my 1st training session with them next wednesday. This week is my last week in BSAS and will train tonight and thursday with the footy group. Then I have fri-sat-sun (until midday) in Sao Paulo and will probably hit 2-3 'light' training sessions at the airbnb's gym, perhaps one decent cardio on saturday, let's see. Had a date planned for SP but it looks like it's not happening and as much as I'll try to find a dinner/drinks date on the apps for the weekend, might not be the easiest with the time constraint, will do my best tho so hopefully I have that to do and only train 1-2 days lol.

Last training session past thursday I almost end up in jail 😮

That's the area of the park where we train. Number 1 represents where we leave our stuff and hang out bef/during/after training. Number 2 represents where we all go pee and number 3 is where 3-4 police motorbikes were stationed (I thought they were there due to a footy game taking place at Monumental stadium, which is slightly further up the road, but no, they were actually running a small checkpoint).

So I get there on thursday, change to my footy gear and proceed to pee on the tree we always pee at. When I'm wrapping it up one of the policeman on the checkpoint approaches me and starts talking very aggresively, telling me I'm a disrespectful POS and how do I dare to pee right there in front of them. I nod in agreement and apologize telling him he's right just to get him off me, but he requests to see my ID so we walkt together where the rest of the guys of the footy group were. As I hand him my ID he keeps on ranting about how I'm such a disrespectful SOB and how if a woman walks by and see me peeing there she can put a report and get me arrested for 'exhibitionism'. After briefly checking my ID (he didn't even realized it was from Urguay as you'll find out later) he tells me that if I don't wanna be taken to the precint for exhibitionism then I'll have to sign a paper being a witness to a motorbike detention they just performed (I found out later that in Argentina every police intervention requires two civilians to witness it). He allso tells everyone else that one more person needs to sign the paper to make it 2 witnesses. One of the guys give him his ID and then the coach starts giving the cop ****, telling him there's people shitting all over the park, smoking crack, ladyboys working on the other street and why TF he has to bother us that we're just doing sport and not bothering everyone. This gets the cop even more heated up and keeps on calling me disrespectful and how I commited a crime. I get all worked up too and tell him to stop talking **** and how it's very obvious that he just needed two witnesses and he found the weakest link to get them, cuz obviously if he came to ask the whole group for 2 people to 'snitch' on some randoms we would've said no. Then he looks at me, hands back the ID to the 2nd 'witness' and tells me I'm detained for exhibitionism and for running my mouth on a police officer LMAO

I was super ready to call his bluff and go like: 'ok take me to jail' cuz it was very obvious he was just bluffing, he was not going to abandon the motorbike thing he was doing to take me to jail, but one of the guys that works for the PD intervened and told him we'll help him. So he brings his ID and both me and him walk towards the checkpoint to sign whatever papers the police want us to sign. Once we are there and I sign the paper they ask for my address and when I tell them I'm staying at a rental apartment the guy realizes I'm from Uruguay and he takes me to the side and starts questioning me about what I do there in BSAS, if I'm a registered alien or just on holiday, bla bla bla. Then this guy that works for the PD tells him to stop breaking my balls and shouts to the rest of the group that was baffled staring at the whole situation, for one of them to bring his ID. So suddenly I'm let go and the two other guys sign the paper as 'witnesses' and we're off to train.

Super annoying, weird situation. I think I played it too nice from the beggining, I was just trying to be done with that asap so I chose to recognize my mistake and play by the policeman game, when a better approach would've been to tell him what the coach told him: everyone shits in that park, streets are full of trash, there's people smoking dope, what the **** do you want from me? stop breaking my balls. Of course is easier to realize the optimal line after the hand was played, and when you see a city police approaching you with a gun and a stick yelling at you is easy to play your B-game and fall into his trap.

So yea, all in all I got 16/16 pre-season sessions but last one was almost a no-show due to being locked up lmao.

Already well settled in Chiang Mai. Found a condo in the same building I used to live before moving out, slightly more expensive and smaller but love the area (near convention center) and really wanted to get everything going ASAP to be able to grind and focus on footy without having to waste any time figuring out anything.

I played twice with the lads since arriving but 1st one was quite shite since I got mad food poisoning upon landing. I thought it was sushi and sashimi but the friend I ate with was fine. Talking to my therapist she told me it could've been somatization of a nasty and very intense break up I went through right when I left BSAS, don't really wanna get too much into that but it sucked/sucks.

Yesterday was much better and I can tell all the work I did in the pre season is showing, cuz game was almost over (we played 2 hours) and I was still running like the first few minutes. I do notice though that there's no physical work that can change my nasty habits with the ball on my feet lol, it sucks to be all hyped up and energetic and an older guy with 20% your fitness level outclasses you in a 1 on 1. Is not that bad tbh but yea, there are some things you can't get despite how much and well you train your stamina, fitness and all that, when it comes to a sport like footy.

We been invited to play an 11 a side league here in CNX starting 2 weeks after BKK tournament. Because it's played mainly on weekends and I grind a lot then I'm not sure how much I'd be able to play. Also I'm at my lowest weight ever (82.5kg!!!, ripped AF and like I already said, fully optimized for stamina and footy) so a part of me, the aesthetics one, really wants to do 12 weeks or so of heavy lifting and a tiny bulk, but let's see, first the tourney and then I'll decide based on results (if we win it I might step back from footy for a bit) and how poker is going as well (if I run super good I might naturally want to step back from the grind a little bit and missing some friday/saturday sessions for footy can be ok).

Flying to BKK tomorrow around midday. Tournament confirmed with 7 teams: saturday is round robin format, 25 minute games, and sunday top 4 teams play semi finals+final/3rd place game and bottom 3 play round robin for 'silver' cup.

Air pollution in CNX has been terrible this last week and that means we didn't play together. TBH my preparation since getting here has been pretty shite, it feels like I 'wasted' the peak I gained during the pre-season I did in BSAS. I wanted to come here a few weeks before the tourney to be able to play with my teammates and get used to thai weather and all that, but I think if I do this again next year, GTO play is to fly TOPS one week before and just stay in BKK and meet everyone down there, taking advantage of the top tier footy training I have access to in BSAS.

But wcyd, I still managed to play footy 1/week since arriving and did also 1/week intermitent running on the treadmill so not super bad (+ gym workouts, quite specific for footy performance). Doubt all the pre-season work goes to waste for 3 weeks of sub-optimal training anyways, is just that I won't be at full peak like I was when I left BSAS exactly 1 month ago.

Weekend looks like this:

FRIDAY- Fly around midday. Check in around 2pm, eat something and go to the gym for 5-10' of cardio to loosen up, mobility, some light/reactive plyo work and stretching, nothing too crazy, basically just to move after the flight and be 'active' right before the tournament. Afterwards it'll be dinner with the lads and back to the hotel, I'm not going out (nor drinking) that night.

SATURDAY- Hotel breakfast and go to the tournament (BKK Patana School in Bang Na). Come back after we're done for the day and go straight to an ice bath place in Thong Lo and then dinner with the whole team at Palm's in Nana 8pm (we booked the whole 2nd floor for the whole squad). Gonna get food but not drinking, focus still on footy.

SUNDAY- Hotel breakfast and go to the tournament definition, hopefully to play the semis and win the whole ****ing thing. Afterwards go back to Nana where we'll stay, shower and yes, either go out to celebrate the title or to drown the sorrows in alcohol. Not sure how my energy levels will be after two full days of footy and with the inevitable 'comedown' after months of preparing for an event that will be over, but probably once I'm there with the lads in that part of lower Sukhumvit I'll be in night mode.

MONDAY- Had a ticket to return to CNX that same day after lunch with some poker friends, but another friend invited me to go watch Thailand vs Timor-Leste friendly game in Nonthaburi so will forfeit the ticket back, go to the game and crash in his couch. Returning to CNX probably on tuesday, or perhaps wednesday, let's see, not in a rush to come back given how shitty the air is outside and that I played a lot of poker since getting here so I won't feel like I'm missing out on much.

I'll do a final update to wrap up this journey once I'm back in CNX in a few days. After all these months of preparation now is finally time to shine. If I had to guess, I'd say there's still 10-15% to optimize to actually get to my 'peak footy shape', but this is as peak-ish I ever been footy-wise, so the goal of this blog is achieved: now whatever happens within the pitch (hopefully we trumping everyone and bringing the trophy back to Chiang Mai for 2nd year in a row) is a win.

Good luck!

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Alright, so as promised, full update of how BKK Tourney went.

We had something like 15-16 players, including 3 russian guys that came from Phuket and played with the team last year, and a couple guys from Chiang Mai that we usually dont play with but joined us for the tournament. Also the goalkeeper was a thai guy that played last year with us (apparently he was very good last year, this one, well, not so much).

Games were 25 minutes long, no breaks, and first round was a round robin (OPEN GROUP) where top 4 teams made it to the OPEN CUP and bottom 3 to the OPEN PLATE (7 teams total). First day (saturday) we played 4 out of the 6 games of the OPEN GROUP and 2nd day we played remaining 2 games of OPEN GROUP + OPEN CUP.

FRIDAY

I got to BKK around midday and checked in to the hotel where most of our guys were staying (Soi 11). Hanged out by the pool drinking [U]mate[/U] and aroud 8pm went for dinner to this place near Soi Cowboy where captain's meeting was held to do the draw for the tournament. This was limited to 2 players per team (captains) but we decided to go there anyways as it's a big bar/restaurant and just hang out. Thing is after meeting was over everyone left, so there was a big buffet table of food available and no-one to eat it, which made our dinner. It was not the kind of pre-tournament dinner I had in mind but it worked alright (chicken fingers, carnitas, mac and cheese balls, mini pizzas, etc).

After dinner I went back to the hotel to sleep early but was so full of anxiety I had to take more than my normal dosage of clonazepam + zolpidem just to be able to sleep, crazy.

SATURDAY

Our first game was 9.30 so we had to leave the hotel around 8 to get there in time and properly warm up and get ready (tournament was held at an international school in Bang Na). But of course we got there close to kick off and had to rush to change and get in the field, didn't even have time to take a proper team picture.

GAME 1: Farangutans FC 0-0 GAS Singapore
I started as right back and played decently. This was the worst team of the open group and the only point they collected in the whole tournament was vs us lol. We had more chances than them and played quite well but being the 1st game we were rusty and unprepared, so it was what it was.

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Pic from that game. I played with #42 all the time with FFC because my usual go-to is #13 but it was already taken, and #420 is not possible as only 2 digits fit in the jersey lol

GAME 2: Fox Football Vietnam 0-1 Farangutans FC
Also started as right back and played almost the whole game except the last 3-4 minutes. It was looking like another draw until one shot on target was blocked by one of their defenders with his hand, Luis Suarez style, and we got a penalty kick that ended up in the back of the net. Solid game, and as a defender is always nice when your team doesn't receive any goals.

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Two pictures of that game that had me involved. Still not sure what the ref called, think it was that after the sliding tackle (perfectly legal) I held the ball in the feet from the ground which is 'retention'. I just like to protest, wcyd.

GAME 3: Farangutans FC 1-2 Forbidden City
Also started as right back. We started ahead and after one mistake by the GK (ball was going out, we yelled to him it was going out and yet he tried to pick it up and ended up conceiding a corner kick that resulted in their 1st goal) and another one by one of our CB (miscalculated and jumped too early to clear so ball went over his head and landed on their striker feet) we lost in the last few minutes of the game. Painful to lose as we were the better team. On paper, they were the best team (they fly from Beijing and play this tourney every year since it started pretty much + compete in 11 a side tournaments in Beijing often and have a proper team structure with coaches, clubhouse, etc) but on the field we outplayed them, is just that if you make 2 silly mistakes on a 25' game then you get punished.

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One of the few times I carried the ball forward to the end of their pitch and played a cross to our FW. Not going up top enough and just focusing on defensive duties was probably the thing that costed me the place in the starting 11 later (spoiler alert)

GAME 4: GAS Bangkok 1-1 Farangutans FC
Started once again as RB. We went ahead with a header from our 2nd option RW late in the game, and in the last ball of the game literally, they had a free kick right outside the box and their player chipped it, our GK thought it was going to be a cross so he stepped out and when he realized it was on target it was too late to back track and it went in right above his head and thru the middle of the goal. All on the goalie this one. He was very sorry and apologized. I get it, we're all amateurs, still we were quite unhappy considering that now our chances of making top 4 were at risk not only given our position in the table with just 5 points after 4 games, but our morale low as we made silly mistakes that costed us points in the last few minutes of last two games. But that was a wrap for saturday and it was time to head back to Soi 11.

I was planning on going to an ice bath place in Thong Lo but this year for the 1st time they had one ice bath in the spot of the tournament so got in there for just 100 THB. Did something like 2' and I'd like to think it really helped with recovery.

That night we had team dinner organized by our captain at a restaurant at Soi 18 iirc which was quite nice, pretty much everyone showed up, not only open team players but masters and vets too. After it was done we all went back to our hotels to rest as we had a big day ahead and all 3 teams had chances of running deep (+45s were the best on day 1, winning every single game and playing great footy).

SUNDAY

GAME 5: Saigon Stars 0:1 Farangutans FC
Once again, started as a RB. This was vs one of the direct rivals and after we beat them and seeing a few other results, we were already qualified to OPEN CUP, only position was left to be seen with one last game from the group yet to be played.

GAME 6: Farangutans FC 0:0 Saigon Saints
Last game I started as RB. The other team was already qualified as 2nd regardless of the result, and we were also in but if we beat them we made it thru as 3rd having to play them again in the semis a few hours later. It was quite low intensity game as both teams were thinking already of the semis. I went out around the minute 15' and then went back in for the last 3-4 minutes when one of our CBs wanted a sub. I don't usually play CB although that's probably my best position (don't really have to go up top and just closing your zone is enough + I'm one of the tallest guys in the team which is super neccesary when you play CB), but went in anyways. Made a couple silly mistakes when clearing (tempo and timing are massive in big fields and if you don't time your clearence right you might end up looking like a fool with the ball going right above your head, as it happened twice ) and wrapped up the group stage with a poor image. I was happy with my performance as RB and I think that when CB called to the bench for a sub I should've let someone else go in, but the will to play was bigger than any strategic thinking or team politics so ended up blurring a quite decent performance with those two silly mistakes in the last few minutes of the game.

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Me clearing a ball on that game (one of the few that actually worked out lol). Our 2nd kit is nicer than the white one imo.

Standings after Day 1 of the tournament. Semi finals were 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd.

We had something like 2.5hs break between our game and the semi finals. Both days there was a big buffet for everyone that showed up regardless if you played or not. I had plenty of carbs (bread, pasta, rice) and chicken both days, but more on the 2nd day as our rest was longer, didnt wanna get super full and then have to jump into the pitch a few moments later.

Right before the semi final game, captain came and asked me if I would get mad if I don't start for the semis lol. No, of course I wouldn't get mad. I don't think it was those mistakes on the last game, but mainly that shuffling players around, there were 10 players (GK dont count) that were better than me in our team, so it made sense to put the strongest possible side in and get someone to do RB that has also 'more football' in him than me. But is hard to know what would've happened if I don't **** up on those last 4-5 minutes of the last game. There were a couple times our FW told me to go up top more and play more crosses but I think instinctively I was scared of going up and then leaving a hole in the back so I played it too safe and focused too much on closing my sector which is ok but if you're playing for the tourney you gotta do more than that. So all that compounded and I had to start the semis from the bench.

SEMIFINALS: Farangutans FC 1-0 Forbidden City FC
Like you saw on the standings, they finished 1st on the league phase and like I said, they are probably the biggest 'institution' from the whole tourney. They also had a massive squad with 20+ guys (some played masters and vets too, but still, more of them came from Beijing than from us that we just had a 1h flight from CNX which is something to commend).

I went in to my usual RB position at some point during the game, and sometime around minute 10-15' we had a free kick in our favor that ended up going in on a similar fashion as we received one at the end of the last game of day 1, sweet karma. Being a goalie in 11 a side pitch is not an easy task.

After the game we were ****ing hyped and I felt we could easily take the tourney down. Saigon Saints had won their game vs locals and organizers of GAS in what was an interesting upset so we were feeling even better about our chances. And also, we were the defending champions, having won the thing last year.

Our veterans lost on PK shooutout in the semi final and ended up 4th after losing, yet again from the penalty spot on the 3rd place game. And sadly the masters after doing an amazing tournament lost the final, YET AGAIN, on a penalty kick shootout 😡 .

So it was on us to take at least one gold medal back to CNX. At first they said final would be 30' long divided into 2 halves of 15' and we were ready for that, but during the game and after we saw ref's were not concerned we asked one of the linemen and they said 'no no, 30' straight'.

FINAL: Faraguntans FC 0-2 Saigon Saints

Right before the game the other team was doing pre game drills and warming up while we were watching the masters play. I didn't put too much thought into this and didn't think it was on me to organize something similar although after so many training sessions with the group in BSAS I knew very well what to do in order to walk in the pitch in peak mode, but having a captain and some guys that played pro in our side I just felt it was overstepping to come up and say: 'hey guys, maybe we should do some kind of warm up like the other team is doing?'.

As soon as the game started you could tell a difference in physicality from both sides: we were knackered, they were peaking. First 10 minutes we pretty much didn't crossed our half and were ran over by them. Then we had one header on the bar that could've easily changed the course of the game, but right after that they scored the 1st goal.

I went in shortly after that, this time as a LB subbing one of the russian guys that played quite a decent tournament. Being one goal behind now we just had to push forward and try to score. In a corner kick I had a dead ball on their box and put it on target but super softly and their goalie picked it up easily. Then, right around minute 18 or so, with most of the team pushing for the draw, our GK once again ****ed up by rushing out the box to try and get to a long ball first, sweeper style, but the Saigon guy beat him to it, dribbled past him and scored with an empty goal. GG, WP.

I shook hands with all of the guys in the other team, congratulated them, and when walking to our corner where all the subs, masters and vets were waiting for us saying stuff like 'chin up boys' and all the encouragement words you can imagine, I started to feel this thing growin in my chest that I knew it was tears building up. Knowing what was coming I walked to the other end of the pitch right when Saigon was getting together and singing their own version of 'When the Saints Go Marching In' in celebratory style and while muttering 'that should be us, that should be us!!' I pulled up the jersey over my face and break up in tears like I haven't done in a long time (making sure it looked like a normal gesture and not what I was trying to accomplish exactly lol).

Hard to explain how an amateur footy tournament can mean so much to me but this thread is a good testament of how important football is in my life, and how much I prepared for this moment. It's impossible not getting that far and feeling like **** after losing the final. We latinos are passionate and feel everything more than other nationalities imo, and this is no different, especially when you consider how important football is for us. But this is not just about being latino or not, but mainly about how much I prepared for this event and wrapping it up, even if it was with the cup, it was a moment of closure that stirred up a bunch of emotions in me.

After a few moments I was fine and ready to go back with our guys to receive 2nd place trophy and get that well deserved beer (didnt taste a drop of alcohol for 2 weeks or so before the tourney).

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My first beer in weeks

Then a DJ came in and most of the teams stayed for a few hours doing beers and processing everything that happened. DJ was nice enough to accept my request and played some Bad Bunny to have some latino presence in the house. After that we went back to Soi 11 where we went out for a few more beers and food. I just had a chicken parma, one coke zero and went bad to the hotel as I was destroyed and craving for a nice night of sleep.

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So now, let's wrap up this with some final assesments of how everything went:

GOAL ACHIEVED: I did get to the tourney at my peak footy shape

That said, I know this is not my ABSOLUTE peak, and I have 2-3 more years of growth in me if I optimize a few things. After that, at 37-38 is very likely that I will start to see a decline in my physicality, stamina, etc, but until then, I think I can improve if I keep training with these guys in BSAS and playing 11-a-side regularly (we starting a league next week here in CNX, so I'll play that until I leave Thailand sometime in aug-sep).

I did feel a little bit tired (heavy? sluggish? not sure what the right word is) and not going up top often as requested probably was because of this. That said, after the pre-season I did (and the 2-3 months of consistent footy training before that with this same group in BSAS), there was no way I was not ready and in a good enough physical shape to perform that and much more. There were guys in worse condition than myself that played in midfield and ran the whole game with a great display of strenght, speed, etc.

Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was playing on cleats and not astro turf shoes (really!) or maybe it was my head playing it too safe and not wanting to risk conceiding a goal on my flank of the field (or maybe a combination of all of those), but in this upcoming 11-a-side league we'll enter, this will be my #1 priority: playing as a true RB going up and down, up and down, just closing my sector is not enough.

There's also some kind of residual mental clutter in me that still pictures me as this fat kid that can barely play, so maybe that heavy weight on the legs is that part of me pulling backwards and not allowing me to give that extra 20% to perform at my absolute peak. In the BSAS training group there's this guy that trains with us who is a psychologist that always says at the end of the sessions when we do intermitent runs that always is your head giving up first, not your actual body, and that if you push you always have an extra % available. So maybe what was lacking was just my head telling my legs to go and to push, despite the heat, besides everything.

FUTURE

After I leave Thailand in aug-sep I'll go a few weeks to Lima and then back to BSAS to repeat the cycle once again: train over there all summer and fly to Thailand for next year's tournament. One thing I will change tho, is arriving later and not going to CNX at all.

My idea this year was to go to CNX first as it was 2 years since I last played with the lads and wanted to showcase my newly acquaired form to try to clinch my spot in the starting 11, and know some of the new faces before the tournament, but both those things after only a few months since I leave and the new tournament are not neccesary this next year.

Also, my biggest fear materialized this year, and that was leaving BSAS in peak shape right after the pre-season, and then not maintaining that form after landing in CNX. Because it's smoky season up here during that time + ppl not wanting to risk getting injured right before BKK, we barely played on the month I spent here before BKK, so I feel a lot of the work I did with the group in BSAS was lost in that time. So I'm thinking next year I'll fly one week before the tournament just to have enough time to adjust to time difference, heat (which coming from BSAS summer is not that steep) and be ready to play right away. If needed I have a friend whose a coach for BvB Thailand Academy and can arrange a couple private sessions with him just to have a few touches of the ball and whatnot, but probably just coming a week before tournament starts and doing a couple cardio sessions or something is enough to reach next year tourney in peak shape.

One area of concern is injuries, and even though I been quite lucky so far in that regard (knock on wood), I started to feel some pain on my hip flexors sometime around february, and yesterday at the first training session we had since BKK I felt a lot of pain (especially on my right flexor) when shooting/passing.

Previous experiences with this kind of pain and a consultation I had with a physiotherapist in BSAS as soon as I started to feel slight annoyance when stretching or doing split squats, tell me it's just tendonoitis due to an increased volume of training + prolonged missuse of hip flexors due to sitting too much, squatting too heavy and playing footy too hard for so many year (+ age, of course).

But like I said, I had tendonitis before (left patellar, right shoulder) and as scary as it feels at first, after a few weeks and some corrective exercieses (in this case stretching of the hip flexors + strengthening of glutes + ankle mobility) I'll be ok, maybe even better than before (antifragility baby!!). Still, something to keep an eye on.

So this wraps up this thread. It was nice to finally do a blog here on twoplustwo (as dead as it is nowadays) and to track this journey publicly for a few months. Like I said I'll keep on this journey of trying to conquer new levels of performance in the amateur footy realm but from now on will be done in private.

I'll close this with a picture holding 2nd place trohpy. I always thought being happy about a 2nd place was mediocre and sad, but in the amateur world, after going through this journey and preparing for all these months, getting a team together, flying from all around Thailand (and the world, like it was my case), wearing our matching kits, showing up two days in a row and playing 8 games, ending up as the 2nd best team is not that bad and is celebration worthy. Like Uruguay's coach Oscar Tabarez used to say during his 16 year tenure as the national team head coach: 'the reward is in the journey' (and if you wrap up this part of the journey with a nice plate trophy, then even better!)

Thanks for following! Vamo arribaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

What a great write up - well done on the tourney performance and fo getting yourself in good shape

It does seem like a lot of effort for one weekend though - can you really not find a team to play for over a season?

It does answer the question and you know your overall life situation better than me.

I will just say this though - I played semi pro rugby til age 28, when I moved from London to Sydney. While my career took off and I loved my life here without the structure of training and games and all the sacrifices that went into it, I really regret not re-starting the game out here. I missed it for many years…the structure, the camaraderie, the competition, the feeling of being special etc etc. Nothing else in your life can fully replace it IMO. I still train every day and am still fit etc, but it’s not the same

I’m too old now but my pov would be to play as much sport as you can while your body allows

Agreed brother, that's the plan indeed!

Once again thanks for following and best of luck in your fitness journey