Hitting the pitch for some Saturday soccer
I spent a little bit of time on the pitch this past weekend watching my niece play soccer with her travel team. In the past she has played on a community team, so this is a bit next level for her. I was interested to see how she would handle the added challenge.
It was a pretty beautiful day when we pulled into the fields at the YMCA down in Flint, MI. I used to come to this YMCA when I was younger, but I never got the chance to explore the property that it sits on, we mostly spent our time inside the building for things like lock ins.
The soccer fields sit back behind the building in a large open area that looks like it is made for several different use cases. Along side the open area is a wooded area that I learned contains a disc golf course if I had more time and my discs, I might have thrown a quick round.
Sadly, my nieces team ended up losing 2 to 0. I was actually a little surprised by that score. In the community games I have seen her play in, they often don't keep score, and when they do, it's usually a pretty high one.
The kids are still learning the fundamentals, so seeing a score of 7 to 10 isn't that uncommon. Even though they are still really young at this level, the game actually felt like a real game of soccer. The kids still have a tendency to flock to the ball, but it wasn't to the extreme that you see in other youth leagues.
There is a pretty big airport just down the expressway, so it was kind of cool watching the jets make their approach from time to time. We weren't there more than an hour and a half, so we didn't get to see too many, but the ones we did see were cool.
The kids played two 30 minute halves, which was nice versus the 45 minutes that we are used to.
My niece didn't start the game, but eventually she came in to play defense. You can see here standing along the line here waiting to be substituted in. She is the shorter girl on the right. One thing I will say is that she needs to toughen up a bit.
She isn't very aggressive on the field. She seems a bit hesitant like she isn't sure what she is supposed to be doing most of the time. The coach was good with her and tried to help her know where to go.
The coach from the other team really seemed to know his stuff. I will point out he had an accent that was either UK or Australian in origin. My guess would have been Scottish, but I'm not great at stuff like that. Anyway, he was very encouraging to the girls and it was fun just to listen to him talk. Easier to understand that @raymondspeaks for sure!
Although she isn't very aggressive on the pitch, she is darn cute.
She ended up playing goalie for the whole second half of the game. She did end up letting one goal through, but the girl who scored it seemed to be a really proficient player. She had some really great saves the rest of the time. I am super proud of her.
She did struggle a bit with knowing whether to throw the ball or kick it after it had been out of bounds. She also wasn't always sure where to place the ball before kicking it.
I think a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that none of us really grew up playing soccer. It's probably kind of hard for her parents to teach her since they don't really know either. I sure as heck wouldn't know what to tell her.
She has to rely solely on the coach and when you probably only practice once a week, it is hard to pass all that knowledge along.
I am sure she will learn the skills over time if she decides to continue playing after this year. It's just funny, because she is so timid on the field, but she has two brothers at home and she rough houses right along with them. I just expected her to be a little more sure of herself.
I still don't know all the rule about off sides, so maybe she got whistled for that once and it has stuck with her. It's almost like she is avoiding the ball at times though. That or she gets lost in her own thoughts and doesn't realize she should be running towards the ball when an attacker is coming at her.
It was still a great day and like I said, I am very proud of her. This was a big step for her to play on a travel team this year. She's a rock star as far as I am concerned.
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