The first 4v4 soccer tournament of the summer comes with a surprise twist.
We are a U11 team, we signed up to play U12 because the tournament grouping was U10/U11….figured we’d rather be challenged at U12 then blowing U10 teams out.
So the schedules come out….we’re playing U14! They only had two U12 teams so they moved us up to play a U13 team and a U14 team. We aren’t thrilled about this, but that’s the way it works out sometimes.
The Kung-Fu Pandas. I found these animal big-face shirts online, Matthew picked his top three, and the boys voted. We ended up with the Pandas!
Game 1: Against a group of TNT U12 boys. We lost 4-3…we did not come out fast, or quick, or strong, or any of that. They did, they were intent on pressuring us the entire time. So we got down early….but once we learned to deal with that we did well and had some pretty goals. But we could never get back the early deficit and lost by one goal.
Maybe the one notable thing to capture here was the other coach. He just wouldn’t shut up…made every call for the referee, told his boys to do every little thing (run. don’t run. jump, etc.). Just really annoying to listen to.
Game 2: Against the U14 team…our kids are going into 6th grade; these kids are going into 9th grade! And they are big, and we go down 4-0 early. Boys are intimidated by the size and they go by them quickly for some easy goals.
In Game 1 I had told the boys to stay back and jockey on defense; keep everything in front of them. But these U14 kids are ok, but not great, and when we challenge them on defense we can steal the ball. So I tell the boys to switch to challenging them at every moment. And we start coming back….4-1, 4-2 at the half. 4-3 and then 5-3 them….and we score the next two goals to tie it with a minute to left and the game ends that way. A good game for the boys and the parents….the ref comes over afterwards and tells the boys congratulations; he was really impressed by how they rallied back.
Game 3: Lost 7-3 to a U13 team from another soccer club down near Ann Arbor. They were good; they were bigger and better and well, we weren’t ever really in this game.
