The boys had their first tournament in a long, long time today. I decided not to have them playing in any tournaments last fall after the next level up took every single one of my eight year-olds following two stellar years of soccer excellence. I’m happy to report that they’re tearing it up at the next level, but it was really a crippling blow because I was left without a single regular member of the tournament team to demonstrate our tactics to the six and seven year olds making the transition from the regular team.
Last fall, in the one tournament before I cancelled, they did well in losing every single game without getting blown away. Today, the same group of kids won two games, lost two (including a 3-0 loss to Blue, one of the two professional teams in the area), and tied one. We would have won at least three if I’d been managing to win – we were up 3-0 in the game we tied before I put the little ones in – and the best part was the way they responded in the last game against one of the better teams.
They were tired and demoralized after playing four games and tying a game they should have won, so they just fell apart and lost 2-0 to a very unimpressive squad in the fifth game. I chewed them out, reminded them that they are not big enough or talented enough to win if they don’t play smart and with discipline, and they responded by going out and putting on a textbook clinic. I once counted six passes in a row before our midfielder put the ball into the net; another series of three passes that bisected the field twice didn’t end in a goal but provoked incredulous gasps from the opposing team’s parents.
Even though we didn’t score against Blue today, we created more chances, outshot them and will beat them in six months once our attackers learn not to drill the ball directly at the keeper. Amusingly, two of the fathers happen to be executives of large corporations and they were so excited about the results that they announced their intention to sponsor the team and provide the boys with new uniforms, warmups and whatnot.
This is the Machine, version 2.0