We did three soccer games today. Charles and Corwin had morning games and then Corwin had a second game in the early afternoon. We also had to go to a wedding in the late afternoon, but that’s another post.
I went to Charles’ game and Corwin’s second game. Mom caught Corwin’s early game and her report was that Corwin’s team dominated and Corwin played well.
Charles’ game was not so good. There was a good turnout but it didn’t really help on the field as they lost 0-3. At least the scores aren’t pathetic, but still I think the team has scored exactly one goal so far this season. That’s not so good.
Charles had an OK game. He was goalie for the first half and was scored on twice. I thought he should have been able to stop them. Charles, however, was very upset and broke down in tears. The referee called the quarter and the coach and I tried to calm Charles down but eventually just had to leave him to recover on his own. He did noticeably better the second quarter and wasn’t scored on again. He was offense in the third quarter and had some good attacks. He played defense last quarter and did well at that.
I don’t think the team is that untalented compared to the other teams, but there’s a definite lack of team work and aggression. Charles had some good attack runs but he would end up going in solo which he’s not quite good enough The team seemed to think the opponent’s goal box was off limits and wouldn’t go in unless they had the ball. Charles did better at that but it wasn’t enough. Even worse, at one point Charles was tripped and got a free kick from just to the side of the goal box. He had a good kick but he was the only person from his team on that side of the field. Even with all the time to set up the kick, no one, not even the other offense, came across the midfield line. Sigh.
Still, I need to work on Charles to not crowd teammates with the ball (it doesn’t help to hover 2 feet behind the player with the ball). Maybe, with some work and luck, they’ll score again this season.
Corwin’s second game was against a girl team from a local town. They had coordinated outfits so there was a bit of concern but the boys managed to keep the upper hand. It was fairly close, though — the girls gave them a lot of trouble before succumbing 3-1. The team definitely seemed more in the game than last weekend.
Corwin played OK, I think he might have been a bit tired after the first game. He made some good stops but had trouble with some of the girls blowing past him. Unusually, 2 of the boy goals were on basically solo drives downfield. Unfortunately for the girls several of the boys were simply faster than any of their players But the girls played hard until the end. Afterwards they stood in a double row with arms raised and touching to make a little girl arcade they let Corwin’s team run through to celebrate the win.
My favorite moment was during an attack by one of the boys. He let the ball get too far ahead and one of the girl defenders kicked at it but missed completely. The other defender let out a “oh cr*p!” but managed to run over and kick it out of bounds before the boy could follow up. The girls seemed a lot more chatty with game talk while playing than the boys.
The boy goalies were playing very aggressively. At least once the boy goalie collided with and ended up rolling on the ground with one of the girl attackers. This almost came back to haunt them — fairly early in the game the goalie came out to stop a girl attack from the right and she blasted it by him. Only luck stopped it from rolling in for a score because there was literally no one in front of the goal to stop.
The girl goalie had a leg on her. At least twice the boys just let their goalie stop the ball, it landed so far back. Although it was a very windy day, this was cross wind so that wasn’t helping her.