3-0

At the start of the season we had two games on the schedule for this past week, but one team's school never opened this year and the other game got rained out. We also lost a practice on Monday due to weather, so we had not actually played a lot of soccer since our last win. I was not really sure what to expect tonight other than difficulties and we had a few of those.

Two of our players (including our best defender) were ineligible for tonight's game and a third player was literally pulled from the team right after school when mom received a not-so-great phone call from school today. That left us with 10 players for the game. SO, nine piled in a parent's car, and my van and my wife's van (driven by my cousin who's our nanny for three days while Kate is gone). Our last player hopped in his dad's truck and left before we did, BUT we got to the game before he did.

We started the game - and played most of the first half - 11 v. 9, but you would not have known we were down 2 players the way we controlled the ball for the first 20 minutes. The downside to our crazy schedule/conference this year is that we have to drive 25+ minutes for games like this. The upside is that driving 25+ minutes pits us against some of the smaller schools with less kids (and smaller kids). Our opponent tonight could easily have passed for a U12 or U10 (without their goalie).

The field was also unlike any I have ever seen in that it had a mound right outside of the goalie box on one end that actually created a cliff with a gradual incline of a good foot or two. It made for some interesting attacks in the first half when we were going towards it. Playing down 2 players limited our offensive efficiency but we did manage to knock one through to take a 1-0 lead for the first time this year.

Right before halftime our 10th player (and one of our two leading goal scorers) showed up. At half time it was still 1-0. Our late arriving forward wasted no time in the second half making up for his absence, scoring twice in the first five minutes to push our lead to 3-0. From there I shuffled our line up a little to give some of our fullbacks an opportunity to get some shots on goal. One of our girls scored her first goal ever (and also our first goal scored this year not by our two forwards). A few other players got a LOT of good looks but missed every shot they took. I tallied somewhere near 20 shots that we put on goal.

Defensively, I gave our keeper 7 saves for the sevn balls that rolled up to his waiting arms. Not much excitement for him and our defenders, but otherwise a good moral booster for our team. Actually, a few kids are starting to get a tad bit cocky now that we are 3-0. I have tried to remind them that we have three conference games left in the next 9 days (against three schools larger than our previous opponents) and that we have not won anything yet, but there's not much you can do when you are dealing with pre-teen egos. For now though, we are enjoying the longest win streak in our school's two year history of having soccer.