Week 8/Week 9 Soccer News and Notes

There was a very poorly communicated time change on the 3-year-old's soccer game this weekend, resulting in us arriving at the field an hour early Saturday. Which worked out well, because if you ever have a chance to watch a bunch of three-year-olds who you don't know play soccer, you have to take it. (Same goes for reading about it, I'm sure.)

Once those games were over, the girl took the field, and dreams of her all-girls team ever facing another all-girls team have pretty much been extinguished. (Seriously, you can't find five other 6-and-under girls in the town and lump them together just for fun?) Two weeks ago, they faced the probable Brazilian men's 2018 team, and last week we believe it was the Germans. This week it was probably just the local high school team.

This team is clearly getting better. I'm convinced that if they ever faced five girls of roughly equal experience levels, they'd at least come within 10 goals. They move with the ball better than they ever had, once in a while they connect on a pass, and sometimes they'll block a shot. But then they get pushed out of the way by boys who have spent half their lives perfecting the stiff-arm. 

However, she has mentioned she wants to play in the fall, which is good news! She doesn't totally hate it yet, so we have something to look for.

I missed the second game because of the scheduling change and had already agreed to work the concession stand. My fearless correspondent, who doubles as my spouse, reports that the boy scored just once, and into his own net, so we've experienced a setback. However, on the plus side, he showed some emotion out there, bawling audibly when his teammate took the ball away from him and scored a goal that was rightly his. Sometimes soccer with three-year-olds is like playing with a bunch of wide receivers. (Holy smokes, I just linked to a book written just as I was old enough to drink.) Also on the plus side, the boy very often comes home with a jersey dirtier than his sister's. Usually, though, that's because of ketchup or chocolate syrup.

One quick note on the concession stand, if you take nothing else away from anything you've seen here, take this: Always volunteer for the concession stand toward the end of your kid's respective sports season. All you have to do is collect raffle tickets and tell people "we're all out of that," and they can't get mad.

On the way to the car after the games, big sister said, "That was awesome!" I put my arm around her, told her how proud I was of her, and to keep practicing and getting better, but then she said, "No, the concession stand. That was more awesomer than the soccer." She definitely has some avenues when her playing days are over, in public relations, marketing, or food services.