🏏 Thursday night five a side football at Mehdipatnam and nobody wants to be goalkeeper

We started a Thursday night football game in March, 9:30 to 10:30, on a small rented court behind a function hall. It costs 1,400 rupees for the hour split among whoever shows up. Some nights it is ten people, some nights six, and once it was just three of us kicking a ball at a wall. The problem is the goalkeeper. Nobody wants to stand there. It is the only position where you cannot run, and the court floor is rough concrete under a thin layer of artificial grass. Last month Adil dived for a shot and lost skin from both elbows, and he went to work for a week in full sleeves. Since then we rotate every five minutes, and the rule is that the person who just lost the ball in midfield goes into goal. That rule has made everyone play more carefully, which is funny. People who used to try three step dribbles now just pass. Our best player is a 19 year old who works at a mobile shop, and he complains that the rule ruins the game for him. Our weakest is a 41 year old uncle, Mansoor, who runs like he is carrying shopping and somehow scores twice a night. He just stands near the post and waits, and the ball finds him. I have played cricket all my life, so football is new to me at 34. My knees tell me about it every Friday morning. Still, I would not skip a Thursday for anything now. We are thinking of adding a second night so people who work late can join. Does your group keep one fixed day or move it around, and how do you decide who stays in goal when everyone refuses?

Our group in Tolichowki kept Sunday mornings fixed for two years and it is the only reason it survived. We tried adding a Wednesday once, and within a month both days had six people instead of ten. For goal, we ended up paying a college boy 200 rupees a night to stand there, split among everyone. Sounds silly, but nobody has argued about the keeper since, and he enjoys it more than we do.

Rough concrete under thin grass is why nobody dives, and I don't blame them after Adil's elbows. We bought two cheap pairs of goalkeeper gloves and padded shorts from a shop in Abids for about 900 rupees. Shared kit, kept in someone's car boot, and people complain a lot less now.

Every five a side game has a Mansoor. Ours is a retired bank clerk who has never once run back to defend.

Making the person who lost the ball go in goal sounds fair, but I would try it the other way once.