Soccer on Saturdays

Saturday, September 12 was Zahra's first official soccer game. She plays on a U6 (kids under age 6) AYSO team called the Purple Butterflies. The team they played against on Saturday was called the Green Butterflies. (All the parents thought this was pretty funny.) As to be expected, the game was chaos. Slightly organized chaos, but chaotic nonetheless. You could see the girls sort of understood what was happening, but there certainly wasn't a lot of coordination. They don't keep score in this division, since the kids are still learning how to play, but if they did, our team would have definitely lost. The score was at least 5-1, maybe 4-1. They also don't have goal-keepers. The kids just try to get it in the goal, defending the best they can without actually having someone stay there and do typical things like pouncing on balls or scooping up a ball before it has a chance to enter the net. The girls on the other team seemed taller and more athletic than our girls, but overall, it was just kind of fun to watch, no matter what level the teams were at.

Zahra seemed upbeat and excited throughout most of the game. She kind of avoided the masses when a bunch of girls would be gathered around the ball, but she definitely kept up with wherever the ball was at on the field and would kind of stay near it. I think it will be especially fun when they understand things a little better. After the game, she expressed that she enjoyed it so that was fun to hear.

Here are a few of the girls lined up during the practice they had right before the game began.

The team sign

Waiting for something...

Running down the field...

And yes, she sat down, on the field,

right in the middle of the game.

However, luckily, this digression was brief

and soon she was back up again and running around...

A little one-on-one coaching from Dad...

Throwing the ball back into play...

And congratulating the other team at the end of the game.
(Nice to see good sportsmanship developing early on.)