2012 Fall Sports Report: Soccer

After what can only be described as a breakout dominant soccer season last year, Michael moved up a division to the fifth/sixth grade level.  In a little pre-season backroom maneuvering in which one team was disbanded and the players distributed to the two remaining teams, Michael was snagged by his coaches from two seasons ago.  They like him and appreciated his work ethic and talent, but I don't think they fully appreciated how far he had come as a player in the intervening year.  The only question was whether returning to the younger side of the division would slow him down.

The answer, emphatically, was “no.”  Reunited with several of his teammates from two seasons ago, Michael quickly found a place for himself as a top forward on the team.  Among younger players, strong players are marked by their ability to dribble through other teams.  At higher levels, the ability to see the field and make passes starts to become the hallmark of great teams and players.  Michael has the all-around game; he has a big leg and power with both feet, but he also has better passing instincts than most players his age.  Michael quickly fell into a rhythm with several of his teammates where they looked to pass to each other as they moved down the field, and all of them could finish with skill.  The fact that Michael was one of the younger players was no longer relevant.

The season had its ups and downs, and started particularly poorly because the first two games were against teams that, it turned out once the season is over, were by far the best teams in the league.  Once we started playing teams that were more evenly matched, our boys held their own.  They scored some high-scoring wins, some tight wins and losses, and two absolutely thrilling draws.  In one game, our boys played most of the match with their backs against their own goal, fending off a relentless attack and unable to break out to set up an attack of their own.  They went down 2-1 late in the game.  Somehow, though, in the last ten minutes, our squad started to dominate the run of play.  Michael and a couple of his cohorts had multiple open runs down the field and several shot opportunities.  Still, despite close plays, they could not manage to put the ball in the net.  With the referee glancing frequently at his watch, one of our guys delivered the ball to Michael on the left wing.  He sprinted down the field, cutting to a stop at the corner of the penalty area to clear the defender who was pursuing him.  Spying a teammate drifting toward the far post, Michael delivered the ball into the goal area.  The ball did not go exactly where he wanted, flying too close to the goal for his teammate to reach it.  However, in a happy accident, the ball was struck with enough pace and in just the right location to skip past the keeper and into the far corner of the net.  The players' (and parents’) joy was immediate and genuine.

The kid celebrates with style

The opposing team was only able to kick the ball off before the referee blew the final whistle.  That draw was every bit as good as a win.

(The end of that game saw a remarkable and disappointing bit of gamesmanship by the other team.  Having scored late to go up 2-1, a player on the other team delayed the kickoff by intentionally untying and re-tying his shoes to run the clock down.  It was what could be called a savvy move, but for youth sports, it was a bit over-the-top.  When Michael scored his game-tying strike, the same player sprinted into the goal to retrieve the ball and dashed back to the center circle to try to restart play before time ran out.  He was the other team's best player, and his behavior in the two post-goal moments showed clearly that he knew how to manipulate the game clock.)

The final game of the season was a wild, full-field affair, with close goals, long-range goals, near misses, dramatic saves, and good play all over the field for both teams.  They kept Michael bottled up for most of the game, but in the second half, his coach encouraged him to be more aggressive in making runs at the goal.  That was all he needed.  In one beautiful sequence, he retrieved the ball near the half line, deftly dribbled through the other team's best defender by deking him with the outside of his foot, then finished the play with a slick left footed pass to a trailing teammate who put the ball in the net as the keeper came out to challenge him.  That brought the team back to a 4-3 deficit.  Only minutes later, he was involved in a corner kick that saw one of our kids with the least raw talent getting a rare taste of life in the forward position poke the ball past the keeper for the game-tying goal, once again at the death. The game ended as Michael was on yet another run toward goal, using his head to pop the bouncing ball behind his defender where he chased it down to prepare for a cross just as the whistle sounded.

There is something pure about the natural drama of sport, whatever the level, that is a joy to those who are lucky enough to be there to see it.  The honest and unrestrained glee of little boys, whether they are five or 15 or anywhere in between, is worth the hours spent on cold, wet Saturday mornings.  There are no agents, media, Twitter accounts or performance-enhancing substances any stronger than Capri Sun to get in the way of the raw emotion that comes from the purity of achieving team goals through individual effort and talent. 

To cap off the season, Michael's coaches chose him to be one of three players from our team to play in the All-Star game.  He had the opportunity to play for men who had coached Kelly in volleyball several years ago, and they remembered Michael as the little brother who ran around playing pretty impressive volleyball for a second grader.  He proved his mettle, even as one of the few fifth-graders on the field in the All-Star game, by scoring a goal in his team's victory.

On the season, Michael scored seven goals, fully 25% of his team's output, with a like number of assists.  Although baseball remains his favorite sport in general, he loves playing soccer most of all.  He even turned down an opportunity to step in with the tournament baseball team for a weekend in the fall because it would have caused him to miss one of his soccer games. 

 
Any time you find something that gives your kids confidence in any area of their lives, you embrace it.  Soccer was essential to Kelly as the source of identity and confidence even as a young girl.  Michael tends to carry himself with more self-assurance in more areas than Kelly, but even for him, soccer holds a special place in his life.  We could not be happier for him.