We are now two tournaments into our 8 tournament schedule. This past weekend we played in Tucson. While I will admit to enjoying my weekends spent on the fields more than I thought I ever would (and this is for a multitude of reasons, one being the great group of families we play with, and the other being that our other two kids are still enjoying it and are not bored out of their minds, or resentful of having their time taken up by their sister's soccer schedule), I must say I'm not sure I am cut out for this.
The Bandits made it to the championship game. They played an AMAZING game that was still scoreless with approximately 3 minutes left. Coach had pulled everyone but Gabrielle back to defense to make sure the other team could not score. He yelled out across the field, "You're by yourself up top. Create havoc up there and score me a goal!" (Prior to this, I'm not sure she even realized she was alone at forward.)
Her team made a couple of amazing passes, and sure enough, there she was, sprinting to the ball with the opponent, beating her to it, leaving her in the dust, and approaching the goal with nothing between her and the keeper. She took her shot and...it was wide by about 18 inches. When the game ended a minute later, there she was sobbing, shoulders shaking, head in the coach's chest. (I'm tearing up again typing this). It was HEARTBREAKING.
He calmed her down. The game goes to penalty kicks if it ends in a tie and he told her he needed her to be ready. We lost on penalty kicks. And there was our keeper, crying because she had let in 3 PKs. And there were our shooters crying because their PKs had not gone in on the opponent's keeper. I wanted to sit down and cry with all of them. I was so proud of all of their effort and heart, and all they were was disappointed. I just don't think I'm cut out for this.
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