From networks to nets: IT specialist plays football with local team

WIESBADEN, Germany – Although still not quite as common in the United States than in the rest of the world, soccer is widely considered the world’s most popular and universal sport. And, of course, most everywhere else, it’s known as “football.”
For a military brat growing up in various foreign countries where his dad was stationed, it was a sport that provided continuity across borders and a way to acclimate locally for Shawn Goodwin, IMCOM-Europe IT project manager with G6 here.
He first started playing at the age of six in the streets of Turkey with the kids in his neighborhood, has played in Italy and now in Germany. As such, Goodwin feels it’s significant to refer to the international sport correctly.
“I feel it’s important to call it by its proper name for where you are out of respect for the sport,” he said. “In Italy, I always told people I played calcio, and here in Germany I say football.”
Since arriving here this summer from USAG Italy, Goodwin has joined a local team in the area, SG Wildsachsen, where he starts at left winger. Through the seven games he’s played, he’s scored five goals and has one assist, helping lead the club to an 8-1-4 record and fifth place in the 16-team Kreisliga B Main-Taunus league.
“I joined Wildsachsen because I met one of their staff playing in the European Defenders cup,” he explained. “You can play anywhere; you just have to try out or be scouted.”
“I have been playing competitive my whole life,” he continued. “I played in high school, college, Italy after college, took 10 years off, played in the UPSL (United Premier Soccer League, a semi-professional and pro-development league in the United States and North America) with Fort Bragg team, played again in Italy, and now in Germany.”
His current club has had multiple American players over the years, “so they are very welcoming and accepting,” but with most of the team being able to speak very little English, he’s trying to learn German as fast as he can with the team practicing twice a week and games on the weekend.
“The most eye-opening is the style of play here being very different from Italy and the U.S. – the American style is very aggressive, it’s more contact and closer to an American football style,” he said. That could be why he’s suffered five concussions over the span of playing, a fractured wrist, a broken ankle, and small-grade tear in his quad muscle.
“Italy (style of play) is the opposite,” he continued. “It’s kind of a dramatized style with every play trying to be a spectacle. Germany’s play style is a system that’s very structured, making it very easy to pick up and grasp how teams play.”
The structured style helps at this stage of Goodwin’s career – “I’m 33 years old; I would consider my age to be leaning toward the older side because the average age is usually 25-28.”
He also likes how the team is engrained into the town. “I got to experience the town Kerbfest by being in the parade for the team and meeting all the town folk. Being able to share that experience with my family was awesome because it’s something my son will probably never experience in the U.S.”
Goodwin summed up his passion for the game by noting “it’s welcoming to all. It’s the freest game in the world – all you need is a ball, that’s it. It has taken me places I never would have expected and is how I have met some of my best-kept friends.”

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