soccer

There are a few events every year which I'm privileged to be asked to photograph, and one of them is the annual Souls and Goals soccer cup, a soccer match between priests and seminarians in the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

This soccer match is held on a (usually very cold) night in November, at a stadium with less-than-stellar lighting. For last year's game, I rented a Nikon D500 (D500 review here, and used it with my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens (roughly 300mm equivalent on the D500 body). It was very nice, and the focus system on the D500 (borrowed from the penultimate sports DSLR, the D5) is second-to-none.

But I wasn't thrilled with the low-light performance on the D500. And I wanted to try something new this year. So I rented monster lens—the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR II:

The 'Souls and Goals' soccer match is now in its third year! The Kenrick-Glennon Seminary Lions will battle against the Clergy and Company team (comprised of a bunch of priests and a few friends, like me!).

The game will be held at St. Dominic High School on Thursday, November 5, with a kickoff at 7 p.m. The game is free to anyone, and concessions will be available. More info is available on the Souls and Goals website (with a fresh new design for 2015).

I'll be playing in goal again this year (as part of the 'and Company' on the Clergy side), wearing my Vatican-yellow jersey! The Seminarians won the past two Cups—we'll see if we can pull off a victory this year!

Update: Photographs from the game were posted online by one of the game's photographers: 2014 - Souls and Goals.

Yours truly, sitting down on the job. Image from the St. Louis Review.

It's almost time again for what is now an annual tradition—the 'Souls and Goals' soccer match in St. Louis, where the seminary soccer team will play against a team of 'clergy and company'; last year's match was a close game until late in the second half, when the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary Lions took a 2-0 lead and with it, the cup.

[Update: There is now a simple website where the latest information can be found: Souls and Goals.org.]

On November 7, 2013, there will be a soccer match between 'clergy and company' (archdiocesan priests, a bishop, and some of their friends) and the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary Lions (the seminary's soccer team) at St. Dominic High School.

The match is free and open to all the faithful in the Archdiocese, and will be a friendly match with concessions, some special visitors, and prayers for vocations.

Details:

Today I played goalie, sweeper and left defense for the KGB Lions Soccer team, but we lost by quite a bit. For the past two weeks, I haven’t been playing quite up to snuff—mostly I’m getting caught out of proper position. Our team has the spirit and the will to win, but we need a little more time to ‘get in the groove.’ We’ll get it down soon. I hope :)

In other news, I’m going to work on my Ethics exam now. Peace.