The Beautiful Game

This past weekend our family's conversion from urban to suburban was made complete as the boys each began their soccer careers. They are playing in the local YMCA league and both of them are very excited. Charles is not actually that interested in the details of the game, per se, but is happy to be running around, sometimes even in the vicinity of the ball (Or maybe he's just relieved to be out of karate). Joseph, on the other hand, is fully aware of the task at hand and was zipping all over the field trying to score a goal.

At their level, it is co-ed, they only play four to a side, don't use goalies, and don't keep score. Well, except for the psycho coach of Charles' opposing team, who was way too into the game. You always hear about the cliche of overbearing coaches/parents, but you never imagine it might happen to you on your first Saturday. In this case, Charles played against a team that apparently had been together "for years," which I took to mean "two," since the kids were only 5 and 6 and soccer begins at 4. They must have scored at least 20 goals with the coach screaming things like "PASS TO THE OPEN MAN!," "SPREAD OUT!," AND "WE HAVE TWO PLAYERS IN ONE QUARTER!" Meanwhile, our team was struggling to grasp concepts such as 'which way to go' and 'not to pick up the ball with your hands and throw it.' Near the end of the game, when a freak corner kick came up for our team (we had rarely been on their side of the field the whole game, let alone near their goal), the coach started yelling for his 5-year-olds to "GET IN YOUR WALL, MAKE THE WALL!" and lined up three of his players in a wall at the near post. Meanwhile, our player was concentrating on just being able to make contact.

Here are the boys all geared up


And Joey trying to get his teammates ready for a kickoff

And more action shots of Joey