Shaming my Nation With Each Missed Kick

I have joined a womens' football (soccer) team last week, and I am shaming my nation with my subpar skills twice weekly at practice. While in my youth I played quite a bit and was rather good, the last time I touched a football was 13, and in the intervening years I focused on running, which though requiring less coordination, I still managed to injure myself, necessitating 4 knee surgeries over the past four years.

The two teams of women, one of teens and one of 20-year-old practice, once a week at Tishreen, Damascus' biggest sport club, and twice at a field out in Kafer Souse. When I first heard about it from Maureen, a Chinese girl learning Arabic here, we were under the impression that it was an informal lot of women playing together. Instead, the teams represent Damascus in nation-wide tournaments and are traveling to Dubai in a month for a tournament. They are actually quite good.

The first practice the coach asked us if we had ever played before. Maureen isn't bad, a credit to China, but between my slowness and lack of skills America's already questionable football reputation has only suffered further.

While fierce on the field, fighting about calls and injuring their best goalie's ankle today, off they are really nice and have promised trips to the mountains in spring. Nobody seems to mind my shittiness, and both they and the coach even seem disappointed by my inability to join them Saturdays as well (conflicts with English teaching).