The highly anticipated soccer cards have arrived. Right of the bat we started with a big investment. 16 packets with 6 cards each, and the album to store them in. We did not know the total amount of cards we needed to fill up the album, so it was a bit of a gamble. Of course Alan wanted his very first personalized album to be complete so there will probably be quite a number of weeks where card trading will be a big part of the football training.

We will have to keep our fingers crossed to see if Alan is inside one of the little bags. If not, we are hoping to get at least some of his friends, or at the very least a few people from his team.

Well, Alan got lucky, a teammate got a repeated Alan, and gave the extra card to Alan, so he started out with his own card before even opening his first packet.

The first match of this pool was played by Alan at home against the team from Muelle Grande. Unfortunately, they lost this match, but Inter Colonia was certainly not without chances. Maybe this time we can grab the victory?

It was a fun match. A goal from Pablo, Alan’s friend. A goal from Aimar, another friend of Alan, and a goal from Alan himself. Fantastic — for us, the game was a success. Unfortunately, the opposing team also scored. No less than 8 goals! So unfortunately, the result was a loss of 8 – 3, but it was an exciting match nonetheless.

An away match! A very tough one this time against the number one team on the list.

Unfortunately, we lost 10 – 3. We started the game well again, just like last week, with a 2 – 0 lead, but the opponent fought back and eventually secured the points easily with a 10 – 3 victory. It was noticeable that it was a bit of a ‘dirty’ match. During the match there was a lot of kicking and pushing. It’s no surprise that the opponents are in first place. Other football matches were more like a game, but this one was more of a battle for victory.

A home game! A tough but important match, because if Inter Colonia wins, they secure second place in the standings, which offers a view of the cup that can be won at the end of the season.

Unfortunately, we lost 4 – 5. We started the match really well, with a quick 0 – 2 lead, but the opponent fought back and managed to win by a single goal difference in the end. However, Alan scored two goals, so for us it counts as a victory in a way.

We win again! 1 fantastic goal by Alan. A very exciting game. We started 0 – 2 behind. Soon after we reached 2 – 2 tie. Then 2 – 4 behind and eventually we managed to win with an impressive 5 – 4.

The supporters/families got organized and we were all dressed in team colors. Win!

We win again! The first match was lost, but ever since we are winning. Alan scores almost all matches, and he dominates the game. He is fast, he looks around and sees opportunities, he scores, but also helps others to score. Overall I’m starting to warm up to the game.

Win! Our first win.

Lost! I was never a big fan of football. Even though both my parents were trainers, and my brother played pretty well, the only reason I visited the few games I did was to collect grass for my rabbit.

With Alan this changed. In the beginning the lost a couple of matches, some resulted in scores like 35 – 0, but now the team found their place in the competition, and the matches are more equal. Too bad, we did not win, but Alan did score a goal!