K5 Soccer

Soccer season is on us again, and as much as I dislike the dang sport my oldest is again an active participant.

There's a huge difference between her play from K4 to now. Last year she was three going on four and had a short attention span, no head for the game, and not a chance in hell of her little legs keeping up with the big kids.

Now she keeps more or less attuned to the action at hand in both practice and in the game. She runs just as fast as most of the kids, tho' not as fast as some, and seems to genuinely enjoy herself this year.

Alas, on offense she's not very good. She still hasn't grasped how/where to move the ball and really can't anticipate the play before it happens.

But as a goalie . .

The girl can play.

In the first game of the season she blocked seven of eight shots on goal, including some wicked scrums where I thought she'd back up or risk getting hurt. Not my girl! As soon as that ball approaches the goal she's right up on it, risking life and limb to shut down the play!

(one time she went down to one knee to stifle the ball right as it was about to be kicked. She grabbed it, got up, and promptly threw it in play - right into the head of an opponent!)

The next week (I missed it because of work, naturally) she shutout the other team for two periods. Then she was lifted and natch, her replacement gave up the winning goal.

Would it have killed my wife to count the shots-on-goal for her absent husband? Apparently so :(

Best quote: the mother of the second goalie yelled 'put YaYa back in' when her son let the goal go by.

This last week we played the same team that wallopped 'em last year, the all Spanish speaking, insanely loud and flamboyant team that turned the game last season into a world cup match.

[my mother gets irate when I say that, as her other grandkids attend that school, but I don't think anyone at the game last year would disagree with that assesment. It was NUTS]

The wrong team won again- but they failed to play any girls in the co-ed game, so let's see their win stand up to an 'anonymous' complaint to the Archdiocese - and it was a shellacking.

Midway through, with the score 5 -- 0, they finally put YaYa in the net. The other team turned it up a notch, as well they should, given that I overheard a mother say, with no sarcasm, 'oh good, they're putting in the super goalie'and she fared well.

Final tally for her time in the net; six saves, two goals allowed, one of which was bunk. The other team was out of bounds and our coach protested, but injustice abounds in K5 soccer. . .

What I enjoy most about watching her in the goal is the way her mind comes alive. She's so stiff on offense, but as goalie she'll slide to either side of the net when the ball is still halfway down the field, anticipating the play to come.

I've even heard her yell at her defenders to 'pay attention'.

Not bad for a girl that ended last season being called 'the worst goalie ever'.

Not anymore baby, not anymore.