Soccer Saturday 3-7

My brain has been in a fog lately so I haven't had the motivation to blog. Let's see if I can remember how Saturday's games went.

First up was Adam's game at 9am. He started out as goalie and no one scored on him. The ref was one of the worst we had. The lack of calls and the calls he did make just didn't make sense. Adam ended up scoring two or three times. He said it was two, but I thought it was three. It was a rough game but we still came out with a 6-2 win!

John had referee duty at 9am followed by his game at 1030am. I was only able to make it over for the last quarter of his game due to Sara's game being at 1015am. Thankfully all our games were at the same soccer complex. I walked over to his soccer field and was told to go away because they were winning. I know he was just joking but I walked away anyway. I watched from near the parking lot and the team held up nicely. Jacob took a shot on goal and it bounced off the crossbar. He drove the ball up a second time but got too far up and looked for a drop instead of trying to take the shot. They ended up losing the ball and it went all the way back towards their goal. They ended up with a 3-2 win! Their first win all season.

Sara frustrated me during her game. She is more of the chase the ball kind of player, rather than playing her position. The other team had a player in the front the entire game that just waited for the ball to pass our last defender (there is no offside in u8) and it worked for her almost every time. They also played two defenders back by their goal which gave us pretty much no options for scoring. Sara finally started listening and playing up in the front, where she was supposed to, and waited for the ball instead of running back towards defense every time. It almost resulted in a goal but she missed. We ended up losing like 4-1 but I was proud of her for finally playing her position.

Kadie's game wasn't until 3pm so we went home in between games. She only played two quarters and didn't score. The referee was frustrating, she even told the coaches to tell the parents to stop talking about the play calls from the sidelines. There was only once I made a comment prior to that and it was only that this is u10, so the girls do not get a redo on throw-ins. If they lift their foot, the ball gets turned over to the other team. And when I made the comment it was in favor of the other team. I still wasn't able to bite my tongue and I wasn't making direct comments to any of the referees, just in general as if I was watching a sport on tv. The game was a close one. We scored first, then they scored. We scored two more times making it 3-1. Then they scored, and we scored again. They scored a final time in the 3rd quarter which made the whole fourth quarter intense. The girls played hard and they had some amazing passes to keep the ball in their possession. We managed to hold them for a 4-3 win!

Lexi and Jacob had two games last week, on Tuesday and Thursday. Jacob played in the game on Tuesday which resulted in a 1-0 loss. On Thursday he wasn't able to play due to not knowing he had to attend tutorial prior to the game. He wasn't happy about it but it seems he learned his lesson since he made sure to attend this week so he could play in their final week. He also missed the first week of games because of his grades, which he is working on. Just wish he would put more effort into his schoolwork, but that is a whole other blog post. Anyway, Thursday's game ended in a 0-0 tie and went into a shootout. They took the first shot and missed. Then we missed, and they missed again. We missed a second time. We both missed on our third and fourth tries. They missed on their fifth shot, as well. Our fifth player took their shot and scored! Had we missed we would have went into a second set of 5 but that final shot gave us the win! They played again last night but I wasn't able to make the game. They finished the game tied 1-1 and went into a shootout again. This time we came away with a loss. The kids really like playing for the middle school. It was a just for fun type of league but it is much more relaxed with the rules. The kids can go out there and be aggressive and the players actually know what they are doing. It's fun to watch but at the same time, frustrating when there is too much shoving. Last year Lexi was hurt by a member of another team, and this year a kid grabbed her arm during a game. She is a pistol though and doesn't take any crap. She puts up a fight and isn't afraid to shove a boy back. I love watching her play co-ed, it is where she excels. Playing on an all girl's team can get frustrating when half the team just doesn't care or doesn't know what they are doing or are afraid of getting run in to. She is not afraid. It is also the only time her and her brother get along. On the soccer field they are teammates... at home they are worst enemies LOL

So there you have it. A pretty good week of soccer, if I do say so myself. So proud of my kids and their ambition on the field... now if they could just be as proactive with their school work and chores, I would be super happy ;)