I got to see most of both boy’s games today. Charles went on the field at 9AM and Corwin at 10:15AM at the side of town. I ended up a little bit late but still in the first quarter. Corwin didn’t see much action, his team totally crushed the opponents, at least 10-0. The coach tried swapping in weaker players or ones who didn’t normally play offense, which was nice in one sense because two player who had never scored a goal at this level did, but still, it was so bad that eventually the coach had to tell the team “do not kick at the goal”. One of the kids who normally plays offense but was sent back to midfield to keep the scoring down took to stopping attacks by booting the ball from just the other side of the middle line back to the goalie box. One time he managed to put it in the goal from back there. I think that’s when the “no kicking at the goal” command was sent out. For the last quarter, Corwin’s team had literally only the goalie on their side of the field.
Corwin got put in on offense for a while and he did some attacking, but that requires running and hustle, two things that are not really Corwin’s “thing”. He did have some good returns while he was playing defense, but that was rare because of the lack of action on that side of the field.
The best incident, though, was near miss that bounced off the cross post. A bit disappointing but it made a cool sound.
Charles and his team did well, finally winning a game 3-2. The kids seemed to be playing better. The goalies actually picked up the ball some of the time. There were a lot more kids, enough to have 3-4 out at a time, which kept the kids fresher. There was also a kid who hadn’t played the previous games who was aggressive and skilled, scoring two of the goals. This meant also meant that instead of solo attacks, they’d go over two or (occasionally) three at a time which makes a big difference. I think the other team had fewer good players, who have a big impact on a game at age.
Because Charles was playing defense most of the game, he got a lot less action and didn’t run nearly as much. He did a good job on defense and a few saves, getting the ball away from the goal when the goalie was confused about the whole “hands” thing. On offense, Charles scored a goal, driving down by himself against 4 opponents, blasting and weaving through them. He was blocked on his first couple of kicks but persisted until he broke through the last two defenders and popped it in.
Best of all, the parents finally got organized enough to have snacks after the game. There were no snacks for the first two games, which just compounded the effect of losing. Maybe they’ll think they only get snacks if they win. Hmmmm.