Week 2 found Alyson much more prepared to play soccer. She arrived at the soccer field ready to play. She initiated triangle passing with me and the coach’s older daughter Chelsea. She had a great time doing the practice drills with her team. She wanted to do everything slowly, but she was getting the hang of it. Unfortunately, only three of her teammates showed up, so they really needed her to play the whole game. When coach called the kids together before the game started, he told them he needed them all to be sharks and go after the ball (they play a game called Sharks and Butterflies during practice). Alyson replied, “I want to be a butterfly!”. Have I mentioned she wants to be a butterfly when she grows up? 🙂
During the game, she decided she no longer wanted to play. She wanted to play with her own ball, not go after the single ball on the field. She stood resolutely on the sidelines and clapped for her team. I told her she needed to stop the red shirts from scoring a goal. Her response? “I want them to get a goal!”
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/999494[/vimeo]
This is how she spent the second half of the game… in the middle of the field… playing in the dirt. She did have one good stop when the ball ran into her, but other than that she didn’t even attempt to make contact with the ball during the game. Huge progress this week though.
Brandon had another great game. He had an awesome stop at goalie – he caught the ball under his chin. I didn’t get a picture of that one, but here’s another great stop:
He also had a great goal. It’s fun to hear the parents on the sidelines murmuring, “Wow, Brandon’s fast”.
He zooms across the field and is fantastic at being in the right place at the right time, getting open, and calling out to his teammates to pass to him.
Unfortunately, Brandon got hit in the eye by the ball late in the game and wasn’t able to finish the game. He’s fine though.
