Order Horizon

Post-Season Soccer Report

Corwin had a post-season soccer game today against a 7-8 grade team. Corwin’s team was mostly 6^th graders with a few kids in 7^th and 8^th and a couple of 5^th graders. They also traded one of their 6^th grader regulars for his sister, who is a grade or two older.

The game started out well. The other team seemed to be better at pushing field position but Corwin’s team had better running attacks, although they were taking their shots from fairly far out and the opposing goalie didn’t have much problem stopping them. The other team was much of a grinding attack and had several very close attempts where really only luck stopped the score, and some other where only a last second heroic effort made the difference.

At half time the game was still scoreless, but a good game with lots of good plays. Corwin helped out with some good returns and one of the last second saves (using his body as a block) but he missed some plays he could have had if he’d just run a bit to get in position. Overall he just seemed not really in the game, even more lethargic than normal. Perhaps his busy schedule had done him in.

Early in the second half there was a corner kick by the opponents that was caught by the goalie, then dropped so that it rolled in to the goal for a score¹. That was extremely dispiriting for the goalie and apparently for the rest of the team as they just seemed to lose it. The opponents started dominating field position and ground out a couple more scores from the pressure. Corwin’s team was just getting out played, until about 5 mintues before then end when they managed to rally and put a lot of pressure on the opponent’s goal but sadly did not manage to actually score. Still it was good to see them play hard until the end, even when behind.

Favorite moments —

• The triple thrown in. The other team had a throw in but messed up. So Corwin’s team got a throw in, which they messed up. Finally the other team got it right.
• Our goalie had some very close moments.
  • The opponents had a penalty kick which was kicked in to the goal but called back because the referee hadn’t blown the whistle. The re-kick was weak and easily stopped.
  • The goalie jumped up on one shot and managed to touch it just enough to make it go over the cross bar to avoid the score.
• Jack repeatedly getting trapped by 2 or 3 opponents can calling out for help.

¹ Corwin tells me that the kick actually curved in very nicely so it wasn’t a drop, but a bobble.