Saturday, January 23, 2010

End of Soccer For the Year

So the kids had their end of year soccer tournament today.  Well, more precisely Jacob and Aleena did.  Nalin was sick and missed her game.  She wasn't happy about missing it, but she was up a lot last night throwing up and coughing.  Tim took her to the doctor this morning.  She's fine, just needs to rest today.

The tournaments were round robin, each game consisting of two ten minute halves.  The two teams with the best record in the tournament in each division would play each other for the championship.  Since Tim went to work, I sent Yaow back home with Nalin, so I bounced between games. 

I don't remember what Aleena's team's record was, but they made it to the finals.  They played a good game, but came up a little short.  Aleena and her teammates took it all in stride.  They were happy with the second place medal and the soccer ball they received.

Truthfully, I didn't know what to expect with Jacob's team.  They started off the season struggling to win.  They seemed to be improving as the season went on.  Their coach and his son left ISB at the end of last semester, so one of the fathers took over coaching duties last week, and due to his unavailability, another one this week.  Jacob also struggled at goalie in the beginning of the year, and made a lot of progress as the season went on. 

After the five round robin games, Jacob's team was a strong 3-1-1.  They played really well in all the games.  Their loss was somewhat mitigated by the fact that they had only 8 players, while the other team fielded a full 9.  Jacob did a really solid job at goalie.  After they finished their final game, there was one more game being played between the team they lost to and the team they tied.  If the team they lost to won or lost by more than 5 goals, then Jacob's team would be in the finals.  If not, those two teams would immediately rematch.  Fortunately for us, the right team won, and Jacob's team was in the finals.

They played really tough in the championship game.  Jacob played goalie for one half and striker for the other.  He gave up a goal in the first half, but stopped many many more.  In the second half, as striker he was so close to scoring, just missing.  The final score was 2-1 in the other teams favor.  The kids were a little disappointed, but they really did a fantastic job. 

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