Nicolai proudly took the field today as a member of the US National Amputee Soccer Team in a match against Team Zorros de Sinaola. Kick-off was at 6PM in Mazatlan’s Estadio Teodoro Mariscal stadium in front of a crowd of over a thousand mostly Mexican fans. The match was televised on national television, filmed by two documentary crews, and photographed by at least four newspapers not to mention this proud father. It would be nice to see this level of interest in the US and I believe Nicolai will have a role in making that happen. The Mexican team left the locker room highly inspired after learning that one of their teammates had fallen into a coma the night before. He had practiced with the team 10 days earlier but the bone cancer which took his leg was now threatening his life. The Mexican team struck first at the ten minute mark bringing the crowd to a frenzy and capturing the early momentum. Sixty seconds later, Nicolai, the youngest member of the squad, dowsed that momentum when he scored a beautiful header off a corner kick. Shortly before the end of the first half, Dan Broome, the oldest member of the US team and World Cup veteran, scored on a direct kick making the score USA 2 – Mexico 1. This proved to be the final result despite several near goals for each team during the second half. Nicolai played exceptional soccer and will clearly be one of the team’s standouts. More importantly he was the consummate ambassador for his country and his family displaying great courage and competitive spirit tempered with compassion and humility. I could not have been more proud of him. After the game we learned that the Mexican team had nick named him “correcaminos” which means the roadrunner (a bird which can run at 20 mph). Nicolai said it was nice to be the fastest player on the field instead of the slowest, referring to his experience facing two-legged opponents for his entire soccer career.