Missing Out

So the day finally came. I knew it would be here eventually, though I tried to convince myself it would never come to this. I put it off as long as I could, but I could not deny it any longer.

The day came where I chose soccer... over my family.

Okay, that's a bit more dramatic than what actually happened. It's not like I abandoned Cleo to go to a futsal game. The US National Team was playing a World Cup Qualifier in Seattle. Despite being a HUGE national team fan, I've never seen the Nats play and my friend Chris got tickets!

Except... it was on a Tuesday, a day semi sacred to me and little C.

If that wasn't bad enough... it was also on mine and H's anniversary!

And I chose soccer.

Now, before I get tarred and feathered, it's often said that men in families only communicate their love through their shared interests. For my father and I, it was soccer and comic books.

My love of the Nats goes back to 1989 and a Paul Caliguri goal that booked the US back to the World Cup for the first time in over half a century that made both me and my father, both soccer nuts, feel like there was hope in this country for the sport we loved. Sure, it's kind of silly to put so much stock into a game, but this was back in the day where they made jokes about soccer being un-American and that people who liked it were commies. For guys like my dad and I who were passionate about soccer, being able to dress up in the Stars and Stripes IN ORDER TO support soccer was a vindication.

Someday soon, I'll just take her with me.

I remember vividly that my father bought a Soccer America magazine that had all of the US players for Italia 90 profiled in it like trading cards and I had them all memorized! In the years since, we would sometimes get together to watch the Nats play on TV and often talked about the team, especially in years like this leading up to the next World Cup. When we couldn't get together, we sometimes would call and stay on the phone while we watched the same game.

So when the tickets went on sale a week after my father died it was a balm upon my soul for me to buy one. (To be fair, I didn't realize it was on a Tuesday and H forgot that June 11th is our anniversary when she cleared me to buy them.)

Because I had to work on the 16th, we really didn't get to do much for Father's Day this year. But in all honesty, getting a free pass from my family to watch the US win and go to the top of the Hexagonal... to feel that my father's spirit was with me watching Altidore score a goal... well, for me, Father's Day was June 11th this year. USA!