Family Forum / Parenting / Mothers / December 2007

We faced 26 state champions from Washington, Oregon, Nevada,
Alaska, and Northern California.

It was a wonderful day; briskly cold (33°F with gusting winds of
25 mph whipping across the pitch) and clear, Ol' Sol bursting
brightly while providing no heat.

Game 1 Poorly officiated with strong bias to out opponent -- all
fourteen girls were verbally warned with "getting yellow cards" if
they "continued to push." In the 4th, someone forgot to tell 10 of
the 15 girls to show up and play the entire game... Two games, two
losses within the last five minutes of each game...

<sigh>

In Game 1, we were dominating this team from Washington state,
moving the ball effortlessly about the field. They had _one_
player that could move the ball but never gave it up so when we
hit her with a three-v-one, she lost it 100% of the time.
Suddenly... No one covered her and she popped five quick scores -
every minute left - and the girls were stunned.

During my post game wrap-up, I asked them what happened and the
ten on the field simply shrugged and said collectively that they
"were tired." It's possible...

In Game 2, we again scored two goals within the first ten minutes;
then proceeded to _dominate_ this team from Nevada... The coach
was -screaming- at his players... But they never gave up. During
the second half, they came out gunning and shot 24 times at
Daughter-unit Beta. She stopped 21. Final score 3-2.

Again, the same ten that stopped playing in the previous game were
playing during this shooting gallery. I saw them do things that
they hadn't done since the beginning of the season.

Final assessment: 2/3 of the team are done playing this season.
The other five will play in Spring but the ten are already looking
to Christmas and softball season. <shrug>

Game 3 was against the team from Sacratomato and was simply more
of games 1&2.  The ten simply didn't want to be there or playing
but their parents shuttled them to the match amidst many
complaints and great gnashing of teeth. The remaining five girls
wanted the win but since I won't penalize non-play by benching
players there was one quarter where the four were in together and
Fate had it "supporting" each other. That's when the two goals
happened.

We owned 80% of the games with controlled passes, open field
dribbling, multiple shots-on-goal... We simply "gave up" in the
final quarter.

The _best_ post game comment was provided by the opposing coach;
he asked to speak to my girls. His succinct comment was, "You
owned us. You should have won today's match. If a couple of you
had been first to the  ball, we would have lost for sure. That's
why first-to-ball is so important. Thanks for the match, Coach."

I didn't have to say anything more after that. I doubt the 10 that
gave up realized the significance of his commentary. These are the
same ten that couldn't care less on who or why we play sports.

As keeper, Beta was shot on a total of 38 times, stopping 31 of
the shots, broke up three set plays, and blocked one PK. As my
center
forward, she set up three shots on goal, one leading to an assist.

Daughter-unit Alpha worked as right mid throughout the three games
and prevented almost every play from coming through her zone. This
resulted in plays moving over to my weak side defense (left mids
and defenders)
which coincidentally is where all the scoring took place...

It was a rush. I'd do it again (well, there might be a few
changes) with the same team!

The Ranger