Pro Player Niko Gkionis talks about his 1st Pro GOAL!!
image via RFCL (Check out the guy behind the fence going crazy! So cool!)
Nicholas “Niko” Gkionis is a friend of mine, a special guest Online Soccer Academy player, and has guest blogged and appeared for JMSocccer10.com a few times. Hopefully soon he will become a regular contributor to our blog. Today he talks about making his 1st team start and 1st GOAL with his professional club in Belgium Royal Football Club de Liege. You can follow his season in real time on Twitter. Check back throughout the day because hopefully we will update this post with video of his goal and what looks to be a great celebration! As it should be!
Hello everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well and training hard. I know where I am from in New Jersey this is the most difficult time of year to train because it gets very cold outside but if you’re from Louisiana (lucky for you Jared) I bet you don’t have that problem.
This past weekend for me was one of the more memorable ones of my career so far because I started my first match for my new club and I scored my first goal for the club. It was an incredible feeling to score and go celebrate with the fans. It is a feeling I want to repeat many more times. Anyway, I wanted to give you guys an incite on the build up to my first start including my emotions and feelings.
The past few weeks had been difficult for me because I had not been playing as much and sometimes when you’re not playing you get down on yourself. However, I have realized over the years that eventually your chance will come and so I have just been making sure I would be ready for it. This past week I had a good feeling I would be involved in the match and the coach confirmed it when he pulled me aside after training and told me I would start the match the upcoming weekend. Of course at that moment a lot of emotions rushed through me. I was excited but also nervous because this was my chance to prove myself. I think being nervous is normal and to be honest I am nervous before every game whether it be a reserve game, friendly, or first team match. I have played soccer for many years against many teams and I think Jared would agree that no matter what level you play at the players still get nervous.
Anyway, I prepared like I always do before the match and when game time finally arrived it was a relief because I didn’t really think about it anymore and I just played. The match started off very well for me because within the first five minutes I got into the box and scored! It was a crazy feeling and to be honest I don’t really remember it much now. We were playing away so I just went to our fans who had traveled to the game and we just celebrated!
I played the full match but in the end we lost 2-1. It was very upsetting because we had the early lead and started off the match very well. Nevertheless, I always try to take the positives out of the game so I was happy I was able to help the team and score a goal. The most important thing though is for the team to win so hopefully next week we can convert our play into a victory.
You put in all those hours of training and hard work for your one chance to impress and hopefully I can continue to help the team and show my qualities. I was so pumped after the match that I emailed Jared and I called him Justin! However, I need to forget last week because it is in the past and focus on the next match.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with everyone who reads Jared’s blog and my younger Online Soccer Academy teammates that if you train hard things will fall into place for you. Whatever level you are playing just remember to be patient when things aren’t going your way. Stay motivated and make sure when your chance does come, you take it.
Thanks everyone! I hope to speak with you guys again soon.
Niko
Tags: goals, Nicholas 'Niko' Gkionis, Niko Gkionis, Royal Football Club de Liege
December 1st, 2009 at 11:09 am
Awesome Niko! Congratulations on your goal. Video soon we hope!