It was a big soccer week in lookoutville so this will come in two parts. This first part will be my usual bias free
review of the week's game. The second part will be a father's unadulterated bragging.
A couple of my players' parents who are really into the game but not quite as developed as LL have been asking how LL learned to do this and how to do that. I've always replied the same way - Lil Lookout loves the game even more than I do and spends every minute he can with a ball at his feet - all I do is introduce some proper technique. Well, after repeating that for the eleventy-eighth time I offered to work with a couple of them an additional day each week. Monday I grabbed Lil Lookout from school and met B, C, and C at the club. I worked on some individual skills with them and scrimmaged. So basically this group of four had to listen to me piss and moan about the need for clean passing and opening lanes for 3 hours instead of their usual one hour practice each week. It showed in the game today.
I fully expected to lose today's game but knew it would be a good fight. We were playing one of my friend's teams and he is stacked out with 3 club level players and a solid cast around them. I started with LL in the goal, B up front on his own and 3 midfielders. B scored twice last session. He scored 2 in the opening 5 minutes this week. When I switched Lil Lookout from keeper to his central midfield spot with C and C on his flanks and B upfront it became a flat out demolition. The keeper from the other team is the absolute best keeper i've ever seen under 10 years old - he's awesome. The way these boys were passing, the poor keeper didn't know what to do. LL scored twice with his left foot and once on a backheel before I moved him into defense for the rest of the game. The passing was amazing all the way around. Even my two new kids who really don't have the slightest clue ran hard, fought hard, and moved the ball around. The final score was 10-5. The game was a bit closer than the score would show and it was a lot of fun for everyone to watch - parents from the other team were happy after the game and made sure to come over and congratulate my kids on a game well played.
LL scored 4 of the points, but was responsible for some good assists too. It really wasn't a one man show - he just has a nose for the goal. A great game from every single kid.