Fall U12 Rec Soccer Recap

As I mentioned in my last post, Team Golden Eagles got second place in their division and their tournament. U12 rec soccer is a bit different than U8 and U10 soccer. When girls reach U12, many of them decide to either move on to academy or decide to stop playing altogether. There are a few like Bri that want to keep playing rec. The teams are larger, so with less girls and bigger teams, there is no way to play teams only within a particular Y. So this season, Team GE played teams from two other Ys as well as playing a team from our Y.

I talked about our first game a couple of weeks ago, and we won that game. I got pretty sick during the season, but somehow I managed to get to every single game for Bri - even when I wasn't feeling well. When I started feeling better, I offered to be team mom for the season.

 I won't go into detail on each and every game, but I will talk a bit about our second game. The second game was against a team we had met (and lost to) in the tournament a couple of times...

 This team has a reputation for extremely rough/dirty play and they are the toughest in the league. We'd gotten beat up by these girls during tournaments before - and now we had to face them regular season. These girls are really good (well, I'd say 2 or 3 are really good offensively, their goalie is great and their defense good), so they really don't need to resort to being rough. It's frustrating for me to see this team dominate and win season after season and never get pinged for rough play by the Y. There are never any consequences for their actions and this is what they are learning. Oh well.

The girls knew what they were facing and went in there with their heads held high. Here is Team GE warming up for the game...

The Golden Eagles put up a really good fight. The girls only allowed them to score 2 goals when they usually score a lot more against other teams...

GE lost 0-2. The good news - the play wasn't super rough or dirty, so we hoped they had turned a new leaf (found out they really hadn't when we got to the tournament). Sad about the loss, but the girls were happy with their performance...

We had a big gap between our 2nd and 3rd games. A team from another Y that we were supposed to face before our fall break cancelled on us. We rescheduled for later in the season - and they cancelled again. We never ended up playing them regular season (again, there was no consequence for the team cancelling twice and never rescheduling - that's the Y for you). Instead of playing 7 regular season games, we only played 6. We did end up facing them in the tournament.

When we finally got to our 3rd game a couple of weeks later, we were back at our home field. Bri was happy about that...

So here are a few pictures over several weeks of the girls playing. They won every game they played the rest of the regular season (the first below is of Bri after she scored a goal)...

Three videos - one of Bri's footwork, one of her trying to score a goal and one of her kicking the ball back into the game...

 Team GE even played their last regular season game in the pouring, cold rain...

You can see how our girls ranked after playing all the regular games and the team that beat them - and the other team somehow managed to get all of their games played (and not sure why some teams only played 5 games, unless they just didn't record them)...

Then it was tournament time.

This is how dark it was when we headed to the field on a Saturday morning in November...

We went to a ball field we had never been to before. It was really pretty around there - especially with the trees changing...

Team GE had three games scheduled back to back (an hour in between each). It was going to be a long day. It was really chilly when we first started, but then it got unseasonably warm by the afternoon.

The girls were ready for the first game (against the team that cancelled on us twice)...

Team GE won 4-2.

In between Game 1 and Game 2, I finally managed to get the team together for a team photo...

Here is Miss B warming up for game 2...

The girls played hard in game 2 and won 4-0...

After the 2nd game, Bri was hot and tired...

Game 3 was scheduled for noon and it was against our biggest rival - of course the last game of the day. The rival that had not been scored on the entire regular season. And our biggest rival only had to play 2 games that day since they had one they played the night before. Unfair advantage? They played at 8AM and had a 3 hour break. Our team on the other hand was exhausted. Since Team GE had won their first two games, the girls had already made it into the final scheduled for the next day (so technically GE didn't need to play the last game). But, the girls didn't want to walk away and forfeit and decided to play tired...

I told Bri that it was highly likely that Team GE would not win because of being so tired. But I did tell B it would be pretty cool if someone from Team Golden Eagles at least scored on them - even once. After playing two games and being so tired, Briana ran down the side of the field in that third game and scored the most gorgeous goal against them. It was high and in the corner and the goalie couldn't do anything. Everyone on our team erupted! I was SO proud. I was literally shaking!!! I wanted our girls to score - I had no idea it would be Bri! Bri was the first to score in the game. Dang I wish I had taken a video of it!!!

And then the play got ugly by the other team. One of the girls on their team purposely punched one of our girls in the face. She got fouled, but she wasn't pulled from the game. And then the same girl was lightly bumped by a girl on our team and purposely flung herself on the ground like she was hurt for the ref to see. I was right there and saw her do it. It was a total performance. This is what I am talking about when I say "ugly play." The ref bought it of course and our girl was fouled.

Golden Eagles ended up losing 4-1, but the 1 point that was made by GE was made by my gal!

We had some celebratory cheese dip afterward...

We headed back to the final on Sunday at 4PM. We were playing our biggest rival (that beat us regular season and the day before) - AGAIN. Ugh. Coach Javier had to work and sadly could not make the final, so Coach Shannon took over and asked Doug to assist. Here is their strategy session...

Our girls played so hard and clean (and all I cared about was that none of our girls got hurt)...

 The other team got two lucky shots in that day and GE actually had one goal go in, but the ref messed up and said it didn't count. It ended up being 2-0. At one point in the game, Bri got tangled up with a girl from the other team, fell down and hurt her leg, so B limped off the field in tears (not due to dirty play thank goodness). She was ok though.

2nd place finishers!

Here is Coach Shannon handing out the medals...

Coach Shannon quickly handed out Team GE's medals as the rival team watched. And then we watched the other team get their medals. The coach on the other team decided to give big lofty speeches about each and every girl on her team, and our team had to sit patiently through it. My opinion - it was quite rude. We are not members of their team and long speeches should have been pushed to another time. But honestly, it just solidifies everything I said about that team previously. 

All smiles and happy with 2nd place...

Bri and Ella - superstars!!

Our amazing Golden Eagles...

Since Coach Javier couldn't be at the last game of the tournament, he set up a friendly scrimmage for our girls against an academy Friday evening...

It was COLD!! But, the girls pulled out a win 3-0.

We all headed to Yogli Mogli for some celebratory yogurt...

Coach Javier giving a speech to the team...

He handed out plaques to all the girls. Here he is talking about Bri. He called her the "Road Runner" because of her speed and how she runs back and forth all over the field...

Here is amazing Team Golden Eagles...

The girls (and coaches) worked really hard this season. So, so proud of all of them!!

(I am officially done talking about soccer for a while!! Thanks for hanging in there!!)