From The Sports Desk – Tennis Quad Number Four Edition

 

The preseason team rankings are out:

Last year’s state tournament finish is in brackets; not sure if we can step up yet…it is hard to tell with the injuries going on right now.

Speaking of injuries, Henry, part of the #3 doubles team, has mono.  So that means Kevin is now paired with the other #3 doubles player, Denton, for this quad.

Getting annoyed with the coach…he’s not submitting the scores to the paper!

Match 1:  Beat Birmingham Groves (you can see them in the standings above) 6-2, 3-6, 10-2.  Really put them away in the tiebreaker, at one point the score was 2-1 and they rolled off the next 7 points.

Match 2:  I was wrong; the coach has decided to experiment with the doubles line-ups with all of the injuries going on….Kevin is playing #2 doubles with Parth.  Lost 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) to Forest Hills Central (again, see above)

Parth may be the only kid I will flat out say is not a good match for Kevin…..and that’s not Parth’s fault, it’s just that Kevin isn’t really a ‘power’ player, and neither is Parth, and having two of them on the court at the same time leads to the other team overpowering the two of them.  Denton, in Match 1, and Nikhil, in Match 3, all have some ‘oompf’ behind their shots and it is a better match of skills.

I guess the thing to really write about is what I texted Suzanne during the match…”really really REALLY impressed by Kevin’s service game in his two service games.  This is a good team and he is killing it.”

I’ve never seen Kevin overpower a team with his serve; heck, at times, he’s completely struggled to get his first serve in.  Not in that second set, he had multiple aces and they just couldn’t effectively return his serve at all.  Really hope that the rest of the season brings this about more consistently.

They should have won that second set….I can’t often say that Kevin’s partner let him down but in this game, Kevin’s partner let him down.  Just never recognized that the other team was cleaning up on his 2nd serve and never adjusted.  I will say that some of this is on Kevin too….he should be telling his partner to stop the soft-shit and hit his first serve…so what if he double-faults?  They are losing all of those points anyway.

Match 3:  Paired with Nikhil at #2 doubles; won 6-0, 6-4 against Northview.  Went down in the 2nd set 0-3 after Nikhil goes into this major slump and hits every ball long or out of play.   Very weird…..

Adham isn’t back for another week or two I think…..Henry has just started mono and isn’t going to be back for another week or two.  Really hope things settle down with partners soon. 

Competition gets easier for a while; they start league play and that means matches after school.  I think there is a quad or two on a Saturday though in September.

Animals Of The Forest

 

The Christopher story…..only half-edited.

“One day an otter named George was bathing in a small shallow stream. George’s mother called George to come back to his sisters Jennie and Zoey. His mother was teaching them how to catch fish. George was fabulous at catching fish but Jennie and Zoey weren’t. George’s mom wanted George over by Zoey and Jennie to help them fish and to keep a closer eye on all of them.

In the dark forest behind them stood a Canadian moose. The moose’s name was Mike. Mike was part of an agency called Animals of the Forest, a group of talented animals fighting to keep animals safe. Mike was looking for new agents when he noticed George catching fish and helping his sisters. Mike contacted the agency and told them about George, how he helped his sisters, and how he was an amazing swimmer. The agency accepted George. Mike ran out of the dense forest and offered the job to George.

George was excited about the job, but it made his mother wonder how she would take care of Jennie and Zoey by herself. George promised her when he wasn’t working he would come back and help. His mother wanted him to be happy so she let George accept the offer. George turned to hug his mom when he noticed a speeding peregrine falcon diving toward him. Mike looked up and recognized Agent Sarah.

Mike yelled, “Sarah! Stop!” She flew down and landed on one of Mike’s antlers.

“I want you to meet our newest agent, George,” Mike continued.

Mike and Sarah heard Tom’s howl, the howl meant come back to the camp. Mike introduced Sarah to George after that they told that Tom was a wolf who was in the high council along with Sarah. As they walked into the camp they saw other animals hurt and that needed help from the evil giant spider named Coda. As they walked father into the camp they saw a lizard that who was a spy for the team. The lizard’s name was Nicole, Nicole was a spy who went in to Coda’s lair and hid in corners and reported what she saw. Another member of the team was a porcupine her name is Megan she was the person who gets all the data and tells Mike, Tom, Sarah, Nicole, and George what Coda has done recently. George walked into a tent thinking it was his but it wasn’t. George was looking at the stuff on the table. George stopped and noticed an eight foot tall shadow was over him. George turned around and saw a grizzly bear. George tried to talk to the grizzly but the grizzly tried to smash George. George was too small and nimble so he didn’t get smashed. Tom came running in and told Jordan that George was a friend not an enemy. So a week went by and the team had been practicing hard to fight Coda and on the 49 of November they will go to the liar and try to stop Coda. As they approached the liar Coda wasn’t there so they walked in to the liar. It was dark and sticky. As they walked in Megan ask Sarah to fly around the liar. Sarah flew off and never came back to the team. Jordan asks Nicole to put on her night goggles so she tried to but there was no power in the cave. They kept walking until they found Sarah tied up in a corner. Tom untied her and she said “watch out.” All of a sudden George was missing. Coda walked out of a huge hole and pounced on Jordan. All the Animals were shocked. Coda smacked Megan into a hug rock. Mike tried to ram Coda but Coda jumped and dogged Mike and pushed him into a long wide hole. Sarah tried to fly but Coda cut both her wings. Coda said “Mike, Megan, George, Jordan, and Sarah all gone who’s left Tom and Nicole.” Tom tried to run around Coda and tried to bite him in his leg and he did. The bite hurt so bad that Coda kicked Tom off into the distance and broke two of his legs. Coda couldn’t see Nicole because she was small and it was dark. Coda heard thousands of spikey rocks falling above him. That’s when Jennie woke up because bass spiky fines kept stabbing her when she tried to catch them. After the lesson Jennie told Zoey about her dream and then Zoey and Jennie told the whole neighborhood about the weird and bizarre dream.”

From The Sports Desk – GR Crew Cup Postscript Edition

 

Just Matthew and I head west on Saturday morning for the first two games of the tournament; Mom had some work and wanted to reclaim some of her weekend for something other than soccer and at times it is unfair to Cpher to be dragged along on these all day adventures (I could see the receipts for purchases for Cpher hit the email boxes and knew he had to be having a good day!).

Game 1:  Every bit the blowout I thought it would be.

You could tell from the first time the teams took the field; we were spread out all over the field and they were bunched up near the center, that this would be an ugly game.  But they hung in there for 10 to 15 minutes until we punched in the first goal….and the second half was just a shooting gallery.

Matthew had the first goal….click on the picture below for the video:

(pretty happy with that goal, one touch, and then a shot (off of the bounce!) with his left(!)…)

Coach Stu says: “Boys were a little sloppy in possession and didn’t move the ball from side to side as quickly as I would have liked. We did some nice things individually on the ball to open up the field, however we were a little close to each other when we had the ball and did not stretch the opposition. We were vastly superior to the opposition in speed and skill and at times this made us a little lazy both on and off the ball. Some of the the goals we scored were fantastic ones and we showed some ruthlessness I have been wanting to see. We must build more out of the back and be more patient with our build up play! The distance from centre backs to midfielder and to strikers must be increased when we have the ball. Overall an ok start to the tournament but I would I feel we could have played a better BRAND of Soccer!”

Game 2:  Hot in the afternoon….and I wonder if that contributed to a lackluster effort by the boys.  Lots of standing around and we only won 2-0 when it seemed to be clear we could have and should have won by more.

Matthew split time in this two games between center back and center mid…..not as much playing time as last tournament though (we were at our full roster, 17, instead of 14).  Did not start, for the first time, in the second game but have no reason to think anything of it. 

Wish he, like his teammates, had been a little more active during the 2nd game but I can understand when you are back on defense against a team that can’t get it out of its own end that you might not be that active….

Coach Stu says: “Well we talked about creating more space and getting the fullbacks involved much more in the attack and creating chances from the wide position. Although we did create chances and score from the wide position we did too much individually today. The boys were hot and tired and sometimes when the weather is like this you try to make things happen quickly to conserve energy. However this ends up doing the exact opposition. The longer you keep the ball and the opposition runs the easier it is, the more turnovers the more you have to transition back and the MORE tired you become. The boys must become more patient with the ball and show a better understanding of when to keep the ball and when to attack. There spacing between players in all positions was not good enough in this game and this made it very difficult to build through the thirds of the field.”

Game 3:  Sunday morning, the whole family (except Kevin) was deployed for win-or-go-home day.  The last game of bracket play will determine who moves on.  Lakeshore has beaten Thornapple 9-0 and Birmingham United 6-1 so they advance if they win, and they advance if there is a tie.  Wish we would have punched in two more goals Saturday afternoon!

Turns out it didn’t matter; we had this game the whole way.

(Suzanne took pictures, of Matthew and of the team, while I did video)

Seems like the pattern is wear all blue on Saturday and all white on Sunday.  Except when the other team shows up in white…and you are designated the home team.  Then you have to switch.  I am not a fan of the all-whites, so, was happy to see the blue and white show up.

(when he played, he played the entire game at center mid.  the team ran about even on playing time in this game as well.)

(thought the boy played good, not great, in this game.  He had his moments…our second goal came after he had slid in and stopped the other team from getting out of their zone…a pass and a shot later we were up 2-0)

(I think the 2-0 score line is deceiving….Lakeshore, like Birmingham, could hardly get the ball out of their own end)

(the ground was very hard on this field…the field on Saturday morning and later today was wet and spongy)

(so he misjudges the bounce here)

(Matthew does take a fair number of the corner and free kicks.  He hits this one pretty well and the kid you can just see darting forward behind the four white players almost gets on it for the goal…the goalie does a nice job of coming out and getting it though)

Coach Stu says: “Much better then game before. Like all Lakeshore teams I have faced they are fast and always play a high line. So if you draw them in you can penetrate in behind with our even faster players. We did this to reasonable effect during this game however we missed a few very good chances. I was happy, generally, with the spacing of the team however we still turned into trouble to many times especially the Centre mid and Centre back positions. The fullbacks and wide mid’s must do a better job of opening up and demanding that these central players open us up! Overall a professional job of not allowing them too many chances and playing well enough to win.”

Game 4:  On to the semi-finals….this is why we came to this tournament, to play the better teams and we draw the hosts…who won the Jr. State Cup last year.

You could say this score line is deceiving; we, at times (like the entire first half!) couldn’t get the ball out of our own end.  But, for all of that, I think we counter-punched nicely in the second half and really had a few opportunities to tie it up late.  They are a good team….we are better for playing them.  just need to understand that when we are under pressure that we can’t just kick the ball…we need to pass the ball and keep possession

I do like watching how Matthew can back-heel the ball and how he uses that move, and a few others, to get by people.

(heading the ball out of danger)

Maybe the biggest takeaway from this game is something that started happing more in the early game on Sunday.  ( C ) has a pretty strict policy; no coaching from the sidelines…one warning and then you may be banned from the sideline.  And so the sideline is a different place than we are used to….pretty quiet, mostly encouraging talk.  That didn’t happen so much on Sunday….a few parents started yelling at the kids to watch things and then more than a few parents started yelling at the kids to pressure the ball in the second half (we were laying back pretty good).  Turns out that the coach wanted them ‘not’ to pressure the ball.  So I expect the coach to have a meeting or send an email soon reinforcing that policy.

Coach Stu says: “When you play the State Cup champs you have to have a game plan and you have to have a little luck. Unfortunately with me showing up late, running may I add, just at kick-off we were going to be short in at least one of these categories. We talked briefly about lines of engagement (areas of the field to press or drop). However we just went out with a ‘standard’ plan and hoped the boys had enough in the tank to work the opposition. After about 1 minute it wasn’t working and we were one down I gave the boys about 20 minutes before I switched up the formation and ‘HELPED’ them out with some tactical switches. We weathered the storm and create two good chances of our own.

At half time we agreed on a plan. Low pressure and 3 central defenders, this was to help eliminate the threat from crosses. Try to keep it tight till 10 minutes to go, then we would go at them! Well as Mike Tyson once said everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face and we got punched very quickly in that half! We conceded from a cross, which was disappointing as could not get the marking right at the back! We made another tactical switch to 3 holding midfielder and only engage at the half way line (unless the 3 second rule applied) and this worked ok until the players became exhausted. With ten minutes left we made our final switch of the game. Full backs push on, three strikers centrally and go long! Unfortunately with not having time to show this before the game I had to do it with my boys on the bench and they waited a few minute to get on which hurt us. We caused them serious issues with this and scored and should have gotten two more goals!

Overall I was pleased with some of what the boys did. As they get older we have to adjust tactically to what others are doing and play low pressure and high pressure. We showed some signs of doing both at times and this was pleasing. However we were just too tired to counter attack in this game and the tactics didn’t work when we won the ball back!”

 

(the tournament…the other semi-final has the scores reversed)

Coach Stu says: “Overall, a pleasing pre-season tournament with plenty of positives and plenty of things that we must improve on! We must learn to space out better as units of the team and we must move the ball a little quicker! I learnt a lot about the players we have and a few things about the system that we play and how to best utilize our players. Although it was disappointing to lose the game we did I think it will be good for the boys in the long run to learn from the mistakes we made!

Seven games in…we’ve given up 3 goals.  I guess I can live with that!

The End of an Era

 

I had to go back and look in the blog archives…and I really can’t identify when exactly Christopher started seeing Mrs. Chapin.  I can see a post in September 2009, the start of third grade, discussing a disconnect between his testing scores and seeing that the school was going to be providing help, and that jives with our recollection that towards the end of third grade we started to seek out a tutor.

So, Spring of 2010 to the Summer of 2013.  Three plus years of mostly 2x a week visits that came to a conclusion last Monday.  Kind of sad….but happy for Cpher that he’s done a lot of hard work and seems to be where he needs to be.

In hindsight, I wish I had a picture for every time the ‘look’ of the front of the house changed…different wreath on the door, different landscaping…there have been a lot of changes here.  A lot of Cpher and Dad discussions on the way to and from this door too….will miss that car time.

Laurie and Cpher finishing up edits on a story Cpher wrote this summer….the story in it’s post-edited form will appear in a future post.

Cpher reading the card that Laurie got for him…

Laurie also gave Cpher a thesaurus, a dictionary, and a few books.  I’m beginning to suspect these might be presents to torture me!  More on this later….

Always a little bowl of snacks and a glass of water next to Cpher when I would come and pick him up.

Reading one of the books on the way home, 100 things about animals or something like that….one of the other books was an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader….and that has led to a lot of “Dad, did you know…” and “Mom, did you know…” statements! 

He brought the thesaurus on the trip to Grand Rapids for the soccer tournament.  Took the book out to the games, and would look up words and then try to figure out whether he could use them or not.

See!  For example, I think he looked up ‘woman’ and was asking us about ‘matron’.  We advised him that not many women would care to be called matrons! 

We’ll see how language arts go this year….I need to put a call into Kinawa about that…we have the schedule of classes for next year and we have a question or two….maybe I will do that now!

Iphone Photo Dump – Batman Edition

 

    

Cpher’s latest obsession?  Batman.  The Batman, the sidekicks, the villains, the whole deal.  He’s watched all of the movies (including an Adam West Batman movie we found on Netflix), he has gobbled up the cartoon DVDs at the library and has made his way through quite a few comics as well.  Cpher has heard about the new Batman/Superman movie (with Bat-Affleck) and has made it clear to me that I am to update him on all developments and rumors!

And has the Batcase and the Batshirt as well!

One of Cpher’s purchases in the back-to-school-days.  Seams on the outside!  He loves it, and every time he wears it I make sure to tell him multiple times a day that his shirt is on inside out.

Summers bring trips to JNL for lunch with Mom…..this is one of the highlights, getting to play table tennis after lunch.  Next year’s trips to have lunch with Mom should be a little different since, most likely, there will be another boy working as an intern at JNL as well.

The boys took this dog to the last day of the Ox Roast tournament a few weeks back.  Unlike her big brother, Wiley won’t go completely crazy when presented with another dog in a 1/4 mile radius, so, is somewhat manageable.  But she was definitely not used to all of that ‘newness’…..and she was sacked out on the floor, on the couch, anywhere, for most of the rest of the day.

Many boys have brought home seeds in cups…only Matthew has ever achieved a half-decent result.  He was dutiful in watering, dutiful in transplanting (until near the end, where this plant should have been in the yard instead of the flower ‘pot’ it resided in…which meant some serious sway due to weight and an untimely end a few days after this picture).

But he did get a nice sunflower out of the deal!

From The Sports Desk – Ann Arbor Tournament Edition

 

So, the wounded Chieftains, down one #2 doubles player (strained back) and a #3 singles player (heat stress), head to Ann Arbor for an 8-team (I’m not sure) tournament.

I predict….pain.

I drive Kevin and two of his teammates down Friday night…they are staying in a hotel due to the early start.  Adult family won’t be in attendance…this tournament came up on short notice and we were heading to GR with Matthew. 

Kevin, at least, will be partnered with Parker all day.  So maybe something good will happen as the chemistry improves…

Match 1:  Pretty much summed up by Kevin’s texts “We play Ann Arbor Huron in the first round.  Predicted score, 6-0, 6-0”.  “My prediction came true.”  Dad – “Sorry”, Kevin “Don’t be. It’s exactly what I expected to happen”.

Match 2:   Lost to Portage Central, 6-4, 6-2.  For a tournament, there aren’t a lot of different teams here, but, at least this loss was better than the the one on Friday….and

Match 3:  Beat Holland West Ottawa, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.  That’s a whole lot of improvement!  Kevin, when asked, had absolutely nothing more to share about this match other than that Parker and he won.

From The Sports Desk – Tennis Quad Number Two Edition

 

Back at it Friday with another quad….we’ll see if the results make it to the morning paper or not.  No pictures either….the morning was devoted to getting our assigned food to the quad (2 Panera bagel packs with cream cheese, 30 20-ounce bottles of Gatorade, and a double-double-batch of the patented sausage cheese balls and I never got the camera in the car to even contemplate picture taking.

Match 1:  Lost to Forest Hills Northern, 6-3, 2-0 (injury default).  Adham comes up grabbing his back in the second match and it is obvious he is in a great deal of pain and can not continue.  We’ll discuss the long-term ramifications of this after the match summary.  The short term effect is that Kevin has to find another partner for the rest of the quad….and worse yet, the team can’t juggle the line-up mid-quad….one of the two varsity alternates is going to have to move up to play #2 doubles for the rest of the quad.

There is nothing good that can come from the rest of today’s action

Match 2:  Lost to Holland West Ottawa, 6-2, 6-4.  Paired with Parker, who I thought played well, but it is awfully hard to just jump in and play with any kind of chemistry.  They played a lot better together in the second set than the first. 

Match 3:  Lost to Portage Central, 6-2, 6-2.  And in what to me is the crazy coaching move of the day, Kevin plays with the other alternate Alex.  Didn’t think Alex played as well as Parker, and that may have been the competition too…..but it is the same deal as the 2nd match, it is only near the end of the 2nd set that Kevin and Alex begin to show any kind of chemistry or awareness of what each other is going to do in certain circumstances.

So what does this injury mean?  Well it means that the tournament in Ann Arbor tomorrow is going to be ugly, and I just can’t believe that Adham will be able to go on Tuesday…the only thing that is going to make that injury better is rest.

And if he misses the next week that is ok….the league season hasn’t started yet.  I hope that they settle down on one partner and let Kevin and that boy try and make a go of it….and they most likely will rack up a whole bunch of losses while that happens.

But, if the injury is something that is going to take much longer to heal….well, some unpleasant choices might have to be made.  If Adham is out 3-4 weeks, can he realistically come back in late September and be in shape to play and have any team chemistry with Kevin?  What would the team do at that point; leave Kevin with one of the two alternates?  Keep them at #2 doubles  (and basically sacrifice any points from #2 doubles at states….because it is iffy that this partnership would beat our #3 and #4 teams).

Ugh.  Hope Adham is better soon……

From The Sports Desk – Tennis Quad Number One Edition

 

(updated with pictures, a title change……and a small change to a key word for search-engine avoidance)

The boys tennis preview was in the paper this morning.  And, instead of taking the paper, scanning the preview in, and then posting it, I have found a cleaner way to get the print from the paper to the blog

(part of me is a little cheesed about this; Kevin is the only returning starter that is a senior that is not mentioned, and other teams in the area routinely list six players or more in their write-up.  Oh well….)

So the first challenge of the year appears early; the #1 doubles team, Steven and Ritwik, aren’t here today so Kevin and Adham have to step up and play at #1.  This quad has two state champions from last year, Ann Arbor Huron was first in Division 1, Ann Arbor Greenhills was first in Division 4.  Rounding out the competition is Grosse Point North, a Div 2 opponent.  No box score in the paper this morning though, so, I had to grab the team scores from other places…

Team Scores

1. Ann Arbor Greenhills 1-1-1
2. Ann Arbor Huron 3-0
3. Grosse Pointe North 0-3
4. Oke-mos 1-1-1

Game 1:  Lost to Ann Arbor Greenhills, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (9-7).  I left in the second set when they were down 3-0 and missed quite an ending.  Thought that they were very competitive (that’s what the score says too!).

(there are supposed to be new uniforms this year, maroon top, white shorts)

Kevin?  Thought serving was better, his first serve looked a lot better.  Not nearly as consistent on his serve as I would have hoped.  Ground strokes and play seemed better too, but, as is to be expected for the first match of the year, also a bit inconsistent.  We’ll see how it looks in a week or two or three I guess.

Game 2:  Lost to Ann Arbor Huron 6-0, 6-1.  The two kids that whupped up on Kevin and Adham?  State Champs at #1 Doubles last year.  Not much more to be said here.

Game 3:  Beat Grosse Point North 6-4, 6-4.  Back to #2 doubles for this match, and that’s good, since it is the only one that may possibly matter….results against Div 2 opponents are used to determine seeding for the state tournament.

(I took the first three photos, Matthew came down to watch one game and took this one….it is the only one of his set of photos worth keeping!)

From The Sports Desk – GR Crew Cup Preview

 

Another weekend, another tournament.  Next weekend we travel to Grand Rapids to play in the same tournament Matthew played in last year, albeit with a different team.

There are a lot of teams in this tournament, 14 in this age bracket.  That means four divisions and semi-finals and finals if you do well. 

Game 1:  Happily, we are slotted into a bracket without one of the three other teams that I would call ‘good’.  And happily, we don’t start too early on Saturday morning…8:45 am for this game.  That will still require a 6:45-ish departure from Casa de Graystone….

         

This game could be really ugly…..I don’t think Thornapple is very good, they are from a small town near Kalamazoo, and I think they are going to get pounded.  A perfect chance to be ‘ruthless’

Game 2: 

     

A step up in competition for Saturday afternoon’s game, this time against Birmingham from over near Detroit….but still, I think we should win pretty easily.

Game 3: 

         

Same story Sunday Morning…..a better team than Saturday morning, this time from over near Grand Haven…but still, I think we should win pretty easily.  If I had to guess, we were given one of the four ‘seeds’ in the tournament, and that has led to being in a bracket without an equal or better opponent.

Game 4 and Game 5:

         

If we advance from our bracket, and we should, we will face the Crew in the semi-finals.  They are ‘the’ team in Grand Rapids, they won the Jr. State Cup last year, and the whole reason for playing this tournament was to get a chance to play some of the better teams.  Like Crew.  And like Canton, who would most likely be the opponent in the final.  If we advance. 

From The Sports Desk – Inner Ninja Edition

 

Headed out Saturday morning to defend the Ox Roast 4v4 soccer title. 

Saturday:  Started out our title defense against the St. Johns Heat. 

It’s 6-1 at the half, and a 8-2 final. Both SJ goals were off of penalty kicks after two pretty dubious hand ball calls against us…..but it is hard to argue bad refereeing when you are up by a bunch of goals.

Like this picture…it is probably the quintessential Matthew, ball at his feet and is already looking up field to see what he can do with it before he has it settled….

Game two is against the MV Lions….never heard to them, so, we walk to the field and the coach and I say ‘hi’.  This is their first 4vr4 tournament and first game ever.  Uh-oh.

We win 8-0.  We score a goal after removing a kid after hitting 7 goals and having the mercy rules start.  Apologized a bit to the other coach (he was pretty irked with his kids) and said they got a bum draw for the first game, and the rest of the day would be better (and it was…they lost 3-1 and tied 2-2).

Hard to say how Matthew played in these two blowouts…he did just fine but there wasn’t anything really notable to report.

The last game of the preliminary round is against Toros Locos, a team of ( C ) kids from the A and B teams.  We do not look good, Matthew does not look good at moments on defense, and we walk away with a 2-1 win.  Could have scored a lot more but did not….could have had a few more scored against us I guess

    

(scores and standings)

Sunday:  We are seeded first, so, we get a bye to start the day.  First game of the knock-out round is against SJ again.  And kind of like Saturday, we drill them.  4-1 at the half, 7-1 final.  Matthew has a booming rocket of shot for a goal and then another one where the refs and Matthew swear he didn’t cross the forbidden ‘arc’ to score the goal but all you could hear afterwards was a SJ parent whining about it.  Didn’t really matter….

The final is a rematch with Toros Locos.  All kinds of kids and parents have come over to this field to watch the game.  We score first, but they score the next two, and we score again to go to the half 2-2.

Tell the kids I haven’t really seen a great game, or even a great half, from all of them at the same time this tournament.  They pull it together and we score the next three goals, the last on a Matthew penalty kick, and we win 5-2.

I had Matthew on defense most of the tournament, but, in the final, had him out at midfield for the first 6 minutes of the second half.  Did well…helped to settle the team down and get back to more quick passing.  Had some nice assists while out there.

(speaking of Matthew as a midfielder…)

(the champions, the Inner Ninjas.  At least this year they had trophies!)

Oh yeah, the other part of the weekend was we played and hung out on the fields near the tournament hq….we’ve never have really done that before.  So, lots of music in the background and, especially in the blowouts, more than a few dancing moments on the sidelines.  Henry and I are groovin’ during the second half of the final (way too nervous in the first half to screw around). 

But when they were playing the Spice Girls as we were getting our trophies and all of the normal pictures were done?  Oh yeah…….