The Beautiful Game

I started my day sorely dissapointed because my tennis match had fallen through and it was such a beautiful day. So I decided to take another walkabout. What a great decision that was. I encountered another beautiful DC phenomena. There are a series of “semi-pro” soccer matches that take place all over the city. I was stumbling along 13th Street when I ran into this one at Cardoza High School on 13th and Florida, NW. Now, I love soccer but this, like the papuseria, was like visiting another country. I had encountered an El Salvadorian soccer league. There is a $5 dollar entry fee but the kind gentleman allowed me to enter without charge. He must have been fan of PoP. At any rate this league features 16 teams and they play every Sunday at Cardoza. Which is fitting because they certainly weren’t Olympique de Marseille. But they did have an awful lot of heart. Plus there were two refs to make it very professional. The match that I saw pitted River vs Alianza. Spanish was spoken freely and there was also El Salvadorian delicacies available for purchase. Once again, it was like entering another country and it was fantastic. The players come from all over DC and I’d say there were about 100 people viewing the game from the stands. I saw more injuries than beautiful passes but there were moments of brilliance for sure. So if you like soccer or are just looking for something new to do I can guarantee you this is worth $5. And in the end River defeated Alianza 1-0.