Daniel Gomez

Connie Douglas
UWRT 1101-105
16 November 2014
Strikers
This observation was conducted at Strikers, a place with nine soccer fields where soccer
fanatics join together to play. Strikers is located next to North Mecklenburg High School, on
Alexanderana Road. I go to Strikers every Monday and Thursday night to play a friendly match
for one hour. The players that get together at Strikers to play soccer are all motivated to win and
do their best in order to win. There is a variety of players here. You find both males and females
of all ages playing here with on objective in mind, winning.
Strikers is owned by a Scottish family, and it is opened for about four hours at night each
day from Monday through Friday. There are a total of eight fields at Strikers. Seven of the fields
hold up to twelve people and the eighth field holds up to sixteen people. The researcher sees that
five of the eight fields who are occupied by the Strikers League Teams. The Strikers League
Teams are teams who consist of children from the age of fourteen and below. The teams coach
was inside of the field conducting practice, and preparing their team for the game they were
about to play on Saturday. The other three fields are occupied by adults who are playing a
friendly game. All of the games that are held here by adults are friendly games; they are called
adult pick-up games. Even though the games all of the adults play, there is a huge amount of
competition that goes on between the two teams that are on the field. Both team seems to want to

win the game, and all of the twelve players on each field seem extremely motivated to do their
best and leave everything on the field.
The soccer fields here are numbered form one to nine, and the researcher is currently
standing outside of field seven, which is located in the right hand corner. There are three
Hispanic guys near field six, which is located right next to field seven, smoking cigarettes. Many
of the people near fields six and seven seem to be bothered by the smoke and the smell of the
cigarettes, but nobody is saying anything to them. As more people start arriving to field seven
and getting ready for the game that is about to begin soon, the three guys that were smoking put
out their cigarettes. A few minutes before the game starts, players from both teams start
gathering around the field. There are now twelve players who are standing outside of field seven
waiting for it to be time for the game to start. The two teams are a little distant from each other.
Each team is talking about how they should play this game in order to beat the other team. Both
teams come up with strategies and discuss who is playing what position in order to do their best.
Some of the players on one team tell their teammates about the skills of the players on the
opposing team.
The game starts by one of the teams kicking the ball up into the air towards the opposing
teams goal. Once the game is underway both teams get their game face on. Both teams are set
up nicely. One team, Team A, has one goalkeeper, two defenders, one midfielder, and two
strikers. The other team, Team B, is playing with one goalkeeper, three defenders, one
midfielder, and one striker. At the beginning of the game both teams look pretty even and both
teams look extremely motivated to win this friendly game. Competition and the desire to win
seem to be the biggest factor in this intense game. Team A is the first team to score a goal and
they all celebrate it with the midfielder who was the one who scored off an amazing volley.

Team B does not look to happy and they are more motivated than they were before to score a
goal and tie the game up. Team A is playing a whole lot better than Team B and they start
getting cocky because they are up by four goals. The defense in Team A starts to slack off a little
and Team B starts to make a comeback. Even though Team B is losing by four, they are not
giving up and switch their formation to play with two defenders, one midfielder, and two
strikers. This new strategy works for Team B and they tie the game up. Even though Team B
gives it their all to win this game, Team A ended up winning by just one goal.
After the game is over, twelve more people gather around field seven to play their game
which starts at eight and ends at nine. The researcher decided to ask a couple of questions to one
of the players from Team A. the researcher asked the player why he was so motivated to win this
game. His response was that he does not like to lose and that even though it was a friendly game,
he was going to do everything he could and play to the best of his abilities to win this game. He
also said that his team always wants to win because of how good it feels to win a game. The
person who was interviewed packs up his stuff and leaves. Since it is cold outside, people are
wearing gloves, hats, and five out of the twelve players are wearing jackets. The people that just
finished playing gather their stuff and go to their cars while talking to each other about how the
game went and what they could have done to improve as a team. The losing team is happy that
they got to play, but they are not too happy about losing. Even though it was a friendly game, all
twelve players gave it their best. The parking lot is almost empty compared to how it was earlier.
Surprisingly, all of the nine fields are either occupied, or about to be occupied by another twelve
people for another game. Clearly weather does not really affect whether or not people will play
soccer or not.

On Thursday, everything was almost the same as it was on Monday. The parking lot is
full which makes it extremely hard to find a parking spot. As time passes, some adults start
leaving with their children after the practice session is over. Finally there are a few open parking
spots for all of the other adults who will be playing at soon. Once again, the parking lot is full
and people start gathering around the field where they are going to play. The teams that are about
to playing against gather around field nine, which is at the top left corner. One of the teams
consists of six males who are Hispanic. Four of them are wearing white shirts, and the other
three are all wearing Barcelona jerseys. They approach the field while speaking Spanish and
enjoying the moment. The other team consists of five Hispanic males, and one Caucasian female.
All of the twelve players seem extremely happy to be here but also have a competitive look on
their face.

Motivation
Even though Strikers is a place where friendly games are held, everybody plays to the
best of their abilities and try to win the game. Players here are motivated to leave everything on
the field for the one hour that they play. Motivation is an internal energy force that
determinates all aspects of our behavior, it also impacts on how we think, feel and interact with
others. (Amateur). Soccer is growing as a sport in the whole world.
According to FIFA survey of 2007 , 265 million male and female players in addition to
5 million referees and officials make a grand total of 270 million people or 4% of the
world's population-who are actively involved in the game of soccer. (BOIXADOS).
Without motivation or love for the sport, there would be no purpose in playing a sport. All of the
players here are all aiming for the same goal and that is to beat the other team and be able to say

that they are better than the team they just played. Some athletes choose difficult tasks, they
consistently try to do their best, and they persist when adversities appear in learning new skills.
Without motivation and competiveness in sports, there would not be much to play for and the
game would not be as fun as it is. Motivation is a dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon that
can be manipulated, to some degree at least in the pursuit of superior sporting performance.
(Amateur).

Works cited
Amateur Soccer Players And The Phenomenon Of Motivation. Sport Journal (2014):1.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
BOIXADS, MERC, et al. "Relationships Among Motivational Climate, Satisfaction,
Perceived Ability, And Fair Play Attitudes In Young Soccer Players." Journal Of Applied
Sport Psychology 16.4 (2004): 301-317.SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 16 Nov.
2014.