[lookout123]

The game this week was a hard fought affair. I had all my kids back and so did the other team so no excuses about missing players or anything else. The game had a real ebb and flow to it with my kids getting out in front early. Lil Lookout took exactly :23 seconds to put the first one in the net. The kids are really getting comfortable rotating through the positions now so whoever my two forwards are move out to the right and left of the net and let the midfield (usually lil lookout and company) move up the middle and either knock the ball in or pass to the sides for the tap. They're really doing a good job of passing in front of the net.

The other team has two kids that recently moved over here from a crosstown club. They're twin 7 year old boys who just play hard. Usually clean, but always hard. I've never seen 7 year olds who can so discretely tug on shirts and shove other players off the ball. Not skills I want to encourage, but those players will do well as they get older. Good passing, great shots. Those two did a great job of running my kids ragged.

The game was a real shootout with goals being scored every time you turned around. My kids were up 9-7 with just about 10 minutes left but the other team was really getting the best of us in terms of possession and my defense was getting flustered. So I moved my strongest kid into the goal, my strongest defender as the only other player on our side of the field. Lil Lookout was set to roam just on their side of the centerline and the other 4 players were told to just attack the goal constantly and under no circumstances were they to drop back on defense.

From that point on the other team just didn't know what to do. The first shot their keeper blocked he punted the ball downfield as his team moved to attack. I had, effectively, four forwards who just stayed near his box. My one defender beat the other team to the ball and waited until they got close to him before passing the ball right over them to lil lookout who collected it, dribbled up, drew the keeper out and passed the ball to one of our forwards for the tap in.

After the second time scoring in that fashion the other team quit attacking entirely and my kids just passed it around in front of their goal taking shots when they could.

The twins' dad had taken over coaching duties for the week as the normal coach was out of town. He was livid. I didn't even know how to respond when he said it wasn't fair to play like that. Seriously? All I did was tell my kids to attack and shift them away from our own goal. how is that not fair? It was a gamble in that they could have very well overrun lil lookout and my one defender to score at will. The gamble worked, that's all.

Anyway, the only reason this story was worth telling is the sight waiting for me when i turned away from the furious father. While he was yelling and I had been helping my keeper out of his gear the kids had already gathered together, done our usual tradition of cheering the other team's name, and were shaking hands. The dad may not get it, but the twins picked up great sportsmanship somewhere, they shook every players' hand and went out of their way to shake mine and congratulate us. I stood there listening as both teams mixed together and congratulated each other, not just on the win, but on specific plays or highlights. Gave me that warm fuzzy feeling that yes, the kids are learning the important part of the game.