3/29 #5
The drama of soccer is over for the day... and I mean DRAMA.
The team playing against my daughter's team had four people show up (we had seven), so we held out two of our players for substitutions and their coach played goalie--with the understanding that he would play easy. He didn't and made saves that no 10-year-old would ever make, plus he cleared his kicks to the opposite end of the field. After he was admonished by our coach and the ref, one of their players got sick and had to leave the field. So, our team sent two players to the other side and our coach took over as goalie as well. The game ended in a tie.
But the real drama occurred with my son's game. The coach showed up, so I played an assisting role. Before the game, I spoke with the coach of the team we played last week and he asked if we needed any players for our game, as he had his son and two of his son's friends--all of whom are in the same age bracket--with him. In fact, at the time, they were filling in empty spots for a team of older boys because that team was down players and it was good practice for the younger ones (who, also, are fairly tall for their age). As we only had four players just before the game started, we asked the coach of the other team if we could bring on the other players and the other coach agreed. Just after the game started, one more player for our team appeared, so we we had eight players to their nine.
The game commenced and while the other team scored the first goal, we followed up with
three in a row, with two of those
three coming from the players we had borrowed. The other coach became upset and complained to the ref that it wasn't fair. We suggested that we trade one of the visitors with a member of their team, but one of the parents commented that they had seen the boys playing in the older game and wondered if they were even of the right age bracket. Unsure of what to do, the ref asked that
three visitors to quit the field, leaving us with five players--four on the field and one in the goal--with no substitutions. In the first 10 minutes of the second half, the other team scored five goals and the boys on our team were ready to drop in the 85-degree weather. We asked for a water break, but the ref said no because we had passed the half-way point in the half. At that point, without letting us know, the other coach sent out two of his players to play on our side. It was a nice gesture, but it was a little late and our players were a little confused as to who these guys were (never mind that they had not been assigned a position).
As the final whistle blew and our coach was calling our team together to congratulate the other team, the director of the league (having been apprised of the situation by the father of one of the boys kicked out of the game for being too good--he was the coach of the team we played last week) walked on to the field and called the two coaches together as well as the ref. I quickly pulled the boys away from that conference, got out a cheer for the other team, and had them line up for handshakes with the other players who were belatedly assembled by one of the other dads for the requisite "Good game" ceremony.
In all, I don't think any of the parents were happy with what happened, nor do I know what transpired in the coaches conference. What I do know is that, for my son's game at least, "recreational" soccer suddenly became very competitive. Wow.
...Oh well, see you all tomorrow...G'night Treefam!
