No football this weekend (Matthew’s team won without him; Cpher’s did not) as we travelled west for the last soccer tournament of the season.
Game 1: A 2-1 loss to the Tigers…we could have played this game a lot closer to home instead of all this way away. Suzanne took a lot of pictures from this 7:30 am start. Tied 0-0 at the half, we scored first (off of a Matthew assist), had a great chance for another goal (Matthew just missed) and then it was all them.
If there was one thing this boy did well (and he did many things well this weekend) he hit some simply masterful free kicks. This one, for example,
He served it into the box, it fell right near the back post and our guy had a great header opportunity that the goalie stopped. He did this again in the second game of the day. Just some pretty free kicks…
(wish Suzanne had zoomed in more. But like the dawn sun against the trees..)
(more trees, more sun, a ball high in the air)
How do you score a goal, or how do you create a goal? You move, with purpose, off of or away from the ball. And this boy, on this goal, ran from his own end and changed direction to end up where he was clearly open for the ball….
And, when you watch the video (if you watch the video) you’ll see to two things. A) Matthew as he runs onto this ball looks back to see what his teammates are doing and B) Better seen in this picture than the video, this goalie is not positioned very well.
It is not the best pass that Matthew ever makes…but it is just enough to the right place, and we score.
Click on the picture above for the video
The field for both games on Saturday was THE WORST FIELD I'VE EVER SEEN MATTHEW PLAY ON. Which is quite a statement. The tournament 'draw' is that the turf fields and lights and over at Olympic Park across the street there are 6 turf fields that look awesome. We were stuck on this field that wasn't mowed, had lines that were barely visible (or not at all) and a goal that was on a hill! literally you had to come up a 2-3' rise to get to the eighteen for the one goal.
(I am ready for the ball!)
(not sure if this is the same sequence or not though….he was asking for the ball at his feet and got it in the air?)
This was a corner kick for us….and I’m glad he is going up for it but he does not get it…that Tigers kid just nails the ball out of danger.
Game 2: Lost 3-0 to St Croix (MN). Man, there isn’t a whole lot to say about the next two games…really, the biggest thing I’ll talk about is Matthew’s style…
If you look at the pictures above, you’ll see some of Matthew’s teammates wore pink under armour to be cool like the NFL and everyone else does and support breast cancer month. We stopped at Dick’s in the break between games and it became a MUST HAVE item…
(drizzled during the first half….but, it was warm (68 degrees) so no real complaints)
Game 3: Lost to FC United (IL) 4-0. They were good, we were not.
