Not even 6+ inches of blowing snow could stop the 2020 Surly Boot Soccer Tournament on Sunday at Allianz Field. 31 teams (1 team postponed at the last minute) played on the frozen, snow covered tundra, or whatever was under that snow and ice. Later in the day, the snow stopped and the sun came out, but it was still windy and cold.
The action started at 10 am. It was cold, snowy and windy with reduced visibility. Or so I heard. I was still digging out my driveway when the matches started. Team names were creative – Frozen Arse-N-All, Scored Last Night, Unreal Madrid, Flying Loons, MN Untied and the Never Nudes to name a few. The matches were 20 minutes long with 5 players on each team and played with a soccer ball. No goalies were allowed, although there would be occasional shouts of “No Goalies” to remind the teams to not linger in the goal. The teams were coed and were required to wear boots. The pitch was mostly fast, considering it was packed snow and ice with a few dead spots – large holes or possible pot holes, I couldn’t tell. I arrived around 2:00 pm and watched a few matches. With the small field size, the action was constant and scoring was fairly frequent.
