Technically, the fall season really kicked off on Monday with a visit to Grandville for a scrimmage. Matthew did not go; we stayed home and went to the first day of football practice. The team won 9-2 or something crazy like that so the decision not to drive 170 miles round trip for a scrimmage was probably a good one.
Yesterday was the TNT Friendlies…two 30-minute games against other teams in the club. Matthew’s U11 Red team played the U12 Red team in the first game….
Decided to try using Suzanne’s fancy camera to take video for this game. The verdict is mixed on this…the video is ok (not as good as the video camera), I have to take the camera off of the auto-focus setting or that’s all you hear in the background. That could be a good thing with what some of the other parents say during the game…..
We lost, 3-0. I wish we would have looked better as a team, but, we did not. That’s ok. They really controlled the game and that was not ok. I thought Matthew played well….to me at least I can see what his working on soccer all summer and staying in shape has done…he’s a lot more active in the field and doing what really needs to be a focus, moving away from the ball.
In the picture above, he is sprinting upfield on a breakaway….Zane does pass the ball to him but it’s behind Matthew, not in front, so Matthew had to slow down and gain control….allowed the other team to get back and that was the end of that break….
Another head ball…this one happened pretty quickly, I was impressed he got his head down and then used his head to not just deflect the ball but to get it over to Zane to keep possession….
The Red team won against the U11 Red girls later, so, that was good. We were long gone by then, off to football. Matthew fulfilled his soccer commitments by playing goalie for the White team against the U10 Red team before we left…..he has been very enthusiastic about playing goalie and did a good job and had a good time, no goals scored on him. I had to text Suzanne and tell her that he was absolutely booming his goal kicks (not the punts, the ones you take from the ground)….he was easily getting them into the other half of the field with a lot of height.
