Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowanian
This seems like a good place to say, that if I ever found myself upset about soccer....I'd punch myself in the dickhole.
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Kids soccer, as much as I hate the game in general, is actually pretty fun. They develop FAST. From a game to game basis you can see them figuring things out.
Same daughter's soccer team is GOOD. They've given up 3 goals all year (zero through the first 5 games), and score something like 5/gm. They've just played together for awhile so they know each other. But I saw one of their girls last week have a ball getting away from her towards the opposing box, she ran it down and does a little pop stop on top of the ball with one foot, uses that foot to pivot over top of the ball, comes down in front of it and in one motion pirouette's to make a pass with her other foot right into the middle of the box where another teammate knew to be heading when she saw the play developing. Bam - right off the far post and in. It was an incredible play.
12 months ago she'd have tripped over the ball.
Honestly my daugher is probably about like Pete's kid - middle of the pack. In that same game she made a real nice move to get through the middle, got it down the sideline, created a clean breakaway and then tripped over her foot trying to change direction and get the ball to the middle. But at the same time, she was a clear tier below average last season and has probably improved more than any girl on the squad this year. She's not with the top 3/4 girls still, but she's firmly near the top of the middle group. And that's been a blast to watch that development this year. I was worried I wouldn't be able to let her move up with this team next year and I'm not concerned about that at all now. Because she just kept improving and that's pretty much the point.
Hell, even playing with her is fun now because she'll forearm shiver the hell out of me to create space and retain the ball. She's just learning how to play. And I really like her coach on this team a lot. Because he's done what he's supposed to do - he's teaching the girls how to play the game. And when you see them out there laughing at some squad they're rolling because it's a new team, he'll sit them down and remind them that last year THEY were the ones getting housed.
I enjoy youth soccer a ton more than I thought I would.