Photo submitted to Times Observer Mason Mohney possesses the ball for the alumni men’s team in the annual Over and Under 200 Soccer Match held in the heat at War Memorial Field. The alumi (or “old”) men neat the current (or “young”) men, 2-0. The younger girls beat the older girls, 6-0.

It’s soccer time again and I plan to bring balance to the forces.

The annual Over and Under 200 soccer game is tonight (in the past for you readers).

It’s often talked about as a Warren alumni game, but I prefer the ‘old’ vs. ‘young.’ Did I mention that ‘balance’ is not always good for one side or the other? The Jedi were winning and thought balance was a good goal.

At 200, the average age for the 11 players on the field would be 18.1818. I could be put on a team with 10 15.41-year-olds and still make the ‘over’ cut.

There won’t be people that age on my team.

They’ll all be much older… like in their early 20s. Or at least 18.

And they will all be good… much better than I ever was. That’s too bad. I would like to have picked up more soccer skills when I was playing.

I consider myself a pretty serious soccer fan for an American.

I’ve been to an MLS game.

If I’m flipping channels and see Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, or even MLS, I stop flipping.

I go out of my way to watch the World Cup. Every four years I get excited about watching teams from countries that I couldn’t pick out from a map with four guesses.

But, even with the World Cup, I would rather play a competitive sport that I play than watch one that I enjoy watching. I would rather watch football than play it. But I would rather play a decent volleyball or soccer or softball game than watch any sport.

I’m not missing a lot of games to play soccer. That happens once a year.

My teammates might prefer that I go away and watch a football game. I hope they’ll be understanding until someday when they understand.

I still have the competitive spirit. I want to get out there. I want to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and all that. At the same time, I’d rather lose a well-contested game in which my team and I play (relatively) well than win a snoozer.

I was a ‘good’ soccer player 30 years ago. That was based on general athleticism, tenacity, size, and there not being any particularly good soccer players against me.

But my old advantages don’t always serve me well now.

The skill level has far surpassed me. There are some very good soccer players around. I played, so I know somewhat more than “make the ball go in the goal in front of you without using your hands.” But I don’t match up well. Adults that are still playing soccer have far more skill than I. The 13-year-olds, heck, some 10-year-olds, have more skills.

I’m no more athletic than anyone I am likely to see in my once-a-year soccer game.

Size is no longer my friend, although I admit that I enjoy the benefit from not being pushed around by quick little people.

That leaves tenacity. I still have that. I stubbornly want to win the moment.

The problem with that is, if I use it in a contact sport at my age and nimbleness, I basically become an angry wrecking ball — kinda slow, bigger than the other stuff around, and lacking the quickness, skill, and will to avoid crushing things.

Yeah. I try to play that one down.

There is another thing working against me. All those good soccer players have better excuses to be in the game. I have to weigh my desire to play against their ability and interest in playing against former teammates or doing the thing that they do. I have one argument in my favor there — balance.

For years, the ‘Old Boys’ have won the game.

I’m on their team.

Brian Ferry has been a Times Observer staff writer, photographer, and occasional columnist since 2006. He has been into sports a lot longer than that.