all that, for this?

Of the assignments I regularly get, soccer is by far the hardest sport for me to cover.

It should be one of the easiest - the games go by relatively quickly and the AP usually only wants one short story, so there's no real deadline pressure.

But because the game moves so quickly and I cover the sport relatively infrequently and I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to the finer points of the game, it's not easy. When something does happen, the action moves on so fast it's hard to pick up who was involved in the play. And because I don't watch the sport often enough, I'm often a few steps behind the play instead of a few steps ahead, which is ideal.

So whenever I'm out covering soccer - especially when there aren't any early goals - I'm always wondering if I'll be able to describe enough action to fill out a story.

I shouldn't worry - because usually the stories are either this long or I get to write a longer story with quotes, and you can always fill out a story when you actually talk to someone.