15 Things Only Soccer Players Will Understand

Now that the women’s world cup team is doing so darn good, I wanted to bring back this post! Go team USA!

When you grow up playing soccer, it becomes a part of who you are.  With the year-round soccer seasons, there ends up being so many things that only people who grew up playing soccer can relate to.  These top 15 things bring me back to my childhood soccer days and make me miss it like crazy!  To all you former/current soccer players, I’m sure you’ll be able to relate.  Feel free to hover over the image and share with other soccer lovers to bring back some good memories!

15-things-only-soccer-players-will-understand

#1. Orange slices at halftime.  You always got excited to bite your teeth into those cold orange slices after running around in the grueling heat.

#2. Huge gallon water bottles.  A simple water bottle is just simply not enough water.  You need a JUG and fill it up with ice water.  I swear water tastes better out of those things.

soccer-water-jug

#3. Weekend hotel adventures. When you have a tournament on the weekend and get to stay with your teammates in a hotel, there’s nothing better.  Staying up late, goofing off with your teammates, playing in the pool, finding cute boys on other travel teams at the hotel, eating junk food and playing hours and hours of soccer.  There’s NOTHING better than those nights and no time you’ll ever bond more with your team than those hotel nights!

#4. The ol’ shin-gurad tap-n-spin. When the ref would ask you to tap your shin-guards before each game.  I swear I had that tap with my cleat and spin to show the bottom of my cleats down pact – I could do that move in my sleep.  Not to mention, that’s when you’d always giggle to each other when every ref would butcher the pronunciation of your last name.

#5. Being better than everyone when it was soccer day in PE. – no further explanation needed.

#6. Pasta parties.  After practice, you hop in your cars and follow each other over to the designated pasta party house and stuff our faces with pasta because, you know, eating pasta the night before a game is what you do!  Carb load it up!  Shout out to all the parents who welcomed us into your homes to host our crazy group and cooked enough food to feed us all.  Now that I’m older, I can’t imagine hosting a pasta party with 20 crazy, dirty, sweaty soccer players with a grumbling stomach. Props to you, pasta parents!  You win!

#7. Soccer T-Shits take over your wardrobe.  You get a free soccer t-shirt from all these cool tournaments you go to, and how dare you throw any of them away since you worked so hard for them.  Eventually, your entire wardrobe is soccer t-shirts and you’re not one bit mad about it.

#8.  Using your feet to kick the ball when playing all other sports.  I mean, it comes natural.  If a basketball comes to my feet, why not just kick it to where it needs to go.  Sometimes our feet work better than our arms and no one could pull this off other than those who grew up playing soccer.

#9. Knowing the pain of a soccer ball.  When you’re playing in freezing weather and get a soccer ball to the thigh, you can relate to that terrible STING feeling.  You’ll also be left with a crazy imprint of a soccer ball on your leg to show off to your friends later.

#10. Missing Spring Break.  All of your friends get to go on fun high school spring break trips and you have to stay back or you’ll get in trouble by your soccer coach.  Spring break is obviously less important than soccer practice *rolling eyes*.

#11.  The terrible feeling of missing a PK.  That moment when you’re in overtime and miss a shot in a shootout.  That’s one of the worst lows you can feel.

#12. Tan Lines.  Do I need to say more?  Okay yes I will because this was the worst.  Playing soccer every day in the summer can create some TERRIBLE tan lines.  There’s nothing worse than going to a high school dance in an adorable cute dress and having ghostly white shins.  Not even a spray tan can even them out.  They are there to stay.  You can always point out the soccer players when it comes to an event like this!

#13.  Collecting patches.  Nothing was more exciting than playing a team from a new state and exchanging patches afterwards to add onto your ring of patches.  Clip your ring of patches onto your soccer bag to show off how many great teams you’ve played and places you’ve gone!

#14. The shinguard stench.  You didn’t even know your body could produce that type of odor until you pull out your shinguards from your bag a couple days later.  Only soccer players can relate to that stench.

#15. Pre-Wrap headbands.  Pre-Wrap isn’t only for wrapping your body before taping an injury, it’s the easiest way to make a quick headband.  Rip off a piece, sweat all over it & throw it out after.  I swear these were the best “non-slip” headbands I could find. Genius!

XOXO

Erin from LiveLifeActive.com

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