We have to admit, Bangkok is more overwhelmed than expected. It’s big and busy and I wouldn’t have thought that there’s still some space to do sports in public. There are public gyms, plenty of stadiums where people can do sports like running and luckily there are tiny football pitches everywhere in the town, not only football pitches with synthetic turf like in Germany but also asphalt pitches under the highway or in some streets where some Thais regularly play futsal. As we saw one of them quite a few minutes away from our apartments we decided to check out that one playing some football.
So we brought Max and Tobi in and played football on the pitch. Unfortunately it was Sunday and we were alone in the cage. Cage? Yes, because it’s like in FIFA Street there. It’s like a pitch surrounded by a five meter tall fence and a tiny tribune on one side. Moreover there’s a boxing ring and a small outside fitness complexes where some Thai ladies do some aerobic every evening.
On the following Tuesday we next try to catch some Thais we could play with once again. We went to the pitch at around 7 pm and sat down on the tribune for a few minutes to check out the skills of the locals. After further few minutes one guy came to us and asked if we’re interested to join the match. We agreed and mixed up with two more Thais to be a complete team.
So it began! Although we never played under such climate conditions as in Bangkok we done quite well. We quickly adapted the way they play futsal and so we surprisingly won the first match. You have to know that in order of the rotations of the teams the first team that scores two goals wins. So that’s why we could stay on the pitch. True to the motto “winner stays”. In the further matches the initial surprise turned into routine. We won the next three matches until a draw in our fourth match kicked us from the field. The air humidity was enormous and so was the sweating. It was insane. Due to the fact that we were only four teams our next matches followed very quickly which didn’t let us enough time to come down. All in all we won about seven matches out of ten which made the Thais look pretty impressed. After about two hours the lights went out. We arranged a rematch for the next, said goodbye and went home.
