In the hot sand, soccer is never 'a stroll in the park' .
By: Rainer Sabin - The Virginian Pilot June 9, 2008 - Virginia Beach, VA
In soccer, there is a certain level of fearlessness that a defender must rely on to do his job.
One unlucky bounce here, a missed tackle there and suddenly the other team has scored. Eddie Pope knows. He marked some of the best strikers on the planet, shadowing virtuosos like Oliver Bierhoff and Alessandro Del Piero in the most pressure-packed situations imaginable.
But for all of Pope's intrepidness, he is not about to spend his retirement playing beach soccer.
"I'm too old to do this," said the 34-year-old Pope, a former U.S. national team player who's now the director of player relations for the MLS Players Union. "This is not something you feel like playing in and just jump in professionally. You have to be fit, in shape, strong and know the game. This is definitely its own animal."
Beach soccer is a simpler version of its more popular ancestor. Skill beats strategy. Improvisation trumps planning. Quick bursts of energy win out over endurance.
"It's a very physical game," said Joe Ruddy, the coach for Hampton Roads Soccer Council Elite.
That was apparent during the U.S. Open national final of the North American Sand Soccer Championships on Sunday at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. In HRSC Elite's 3-2 victory against SoCal Beach FC, players waded through hot sand, blasting shots that thumped against the crossbar or were parried away by the goalkeepers during three periods of end-to-end action.
And, like regular soccer, there were slide tackles, collisions, dives, complaints to the referees and trash talking. But that's where the similarities ended.
Due to the unevenness of the playing surface, there were no buildups or clever passes made through wide gaps of space, as commonly seen on grass fields. Instead, both teams resorted to an aerial game. The keepers threw the ball to their teammates at the other end, midfielders lofted crossing passes to the forwards and defenders protected the goal by using their heads.
"When it's on the sand, you never know what divot it's going to fall into," said HRSC player Josh Nolz, the tournament MVP who played soccer at Virginia Wesleyan. "It's a more skilled game."
Nolz set up HRSC's first goal when his shot from midfield ricocheted off the right post and landed at the feet of Caleb Hill, who punched it into the net. Later in the match, Nolz's blistering shot on a free kick sailed into the top-right corner of the net.
All the while, Pope was developing a new appreciation for a game that he knows is not for the faint of heart.
"Beach Soccer is not a stroll in the park," he said. "If you want to do this, you've got to be serious about it."
