Soccer at It's Best

This past weekend Sydney had a soccer game. She has a game practically every weekend but typically it's not like this one. This one was different because they actually had to try to win. Her soccer team, Spirit, has been playing together for 4 years and over that time have learned to play together very well. This season will be there last at their current skill level, 4 girls on each team and no goalie. The goalie rule can be debated because most teams they played against used a goalie to try to keep the scoring in check. It usually kept the score from going into double digits, it's been a good strategy for their opponents but has not kept them from coming out on top. Sydney also has a great coach.

This week they played a team that was also undefeated and gave Spirit one of their only loses last year. They are just as good and also have a good coach. Actually I don't know anything about their coach except he wears the same hat he's worn everytime I've seen him. I think that means he's pretty serious about his coaching.





Me and Kiley sat out on a blanket as we took in the game. The girls got plenty of advice from the sidelines which came in handy a couple of times that I noticed. "move to the middle", "defend the goal", "kick it into the goal". I would say the parents have learned the game as well as the girls playing.

After the first quarter they were down a couple of goals. A little in shock but not freaking out. They've been behind before and come out ahead but it took a lot more work than usual. They actually had to run and play defense. The lead changed a couple of times and there was some debate over who was leading over the course of the game, since there is no scoreboard and it's easy to lose track. In the end Spirit scored a final goal in the last few minutes of the game. We were very excited and some of the sideline cheering for Spirit led to some ugly glances from the girls on the other team directed at the parents. It's all part of the game, right. :) In the end everyone shook hands and parted with great sportsmanship. It was fun fun fun. Sydney scored a huge goal and blocked a couple of key shots by the other team. Even so, I think we were more excited than she was. She was just out there playing the game with her friends and having a great time.



Good job SPIRIT.