And here's the real proud papa. LL has been invited to tryout for a few club teams in the past and I always nixed the idea for different reasons, but mainly because I want him to have fun with the game and not add any stress to the kid. For a 6 year old the kid worries more than I can explain. Anyway, on Thursday I got a call from the club director. He reminded me that the outdoor competitive season was over and indoor club started this weekend. Because of some mixup with the age guidelines, his '01 (birth year) team only had enough to field a team with no subs. He asked if I'd let Lil Lookout play with them. I told him their practice night is a problem for us, so it probably wouldn't work. He insisted that I worked with LL enough and the kid was obsessive enough that he could play even without practicing with the team first. I thought that was complete BS, but told him LL would play with them this week at least so he'd have time to find someone to play with them full time. My main concern was that LL really wasn't developed enough to hang in that league and he'd get discouraged.
This morning Lil Lookout played his first competitive level game immediately after our rec league game. He was really nervous about not being good enough. I assured him that he was, but that he had to understand he wasn't going to dribble circles around these players and he'd probably play defense for a few games until he got used to the speed of play. With nervous energy filling us both I left him with the coach and went to the other side of the field. It is really hard and nerve racking to quit being the coach and just be dad. I have more time to be nervous about my kid instead of worrying about 9 of them. My nerves spiked when I watched the coach send them on the field and he didn't put LL in defense as expected. LL in his first competitive game ever got pushed into a Left Winger spot. All 3'9" and 41 lbs of him. Right footed and all - just chilling on the left wing.
The other team was definitely bigger and they came from a much more prestigious club than ours - with a reputation for high quality. They knew what they were about and set to work. They had our kids down by 2 within 5 minutes, but it didn't matter - our kids were passing well and moving confidently. I found out that LL wasn't a last minute addition to an established team - NONE of these players were used to playing together. That being said they looked good. LL is pretty fast and good with the ball at his feet but tends to think he can go through anyone - which he can in rec league - but here, the kid was making pin point passes and popping some amazing switches. He kept receiving the ball and moving down his left flank and putting great passes in, but their keeper was good and was blocking everything. LL got subbed out and I found out later that the coach had to tell him it was ok to shoot - he didn't have to pass every time. duh! So he puts LL back in and the kid has a new spring in his step - he starts making these awesome little cuts into the inside of his marker and blasting the ball in only to see it saved. He had an amazing left foot shot blocked and you could see in his reactions that he was getting discouraged at his inability to get anything past the keeper. Then the other team committed their 5th foul. In indoor 5 fouls results in a Penalty Kick - but it is different than outdoor. It is essentially a 1v1 with the keeper and the kicker. The kicker can just shoot or can dribble first. It isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. I couldn't believe it when the coach told Lil Lookout to take the PK. He just stood there and stared at the ball while the ref set the keeper in place. When the ref blew the whistle, nothing happened. LL stood there with his foot on the ball and didn't move. Then the keeper charged him and LL waited til the last second before breaking to his right and neatly rounding the keeper to tap the ball in. I couldn't believe it - the kid just scored in his first ever club game! This is one proud papa. He just turned around and strolled back to the center with this little smirk that said, "shoot, you haven't seen nothin' yet". And the little turkey was right. The coach switched him over to the right wing (which fits a right footer more naturally) and LL really stepped up his game. I couldn't believe how his close control has improved. He was threading the ball between two players and shooting for the corners in stride. He would win the aerial ball, not by trying to outjump his bigger opponent, but rather he stayed on the ground, watched to see which way they would head it and just beat them to their own ball once it hit the ground. He was on fire. In his first club game he scored a hat trick and had two assists! One of his goals he created entirely on his own from midfield as he snagged the ball and raced to the goal with defenders on either side of him sniping at the ball, he got to the edge of the box, neatly stopped the ball on a dime - cut right around the defenders who had overrun him and blasted the ball into the roof of the net. His third goal, was much more mundane
- when he found himself caught up against the end wall with no angle to shoot, he faked going backwards, took one step right and blasted it in through the keepers legs.
His team won the game 6-4 and it was a REALLY fun game to watch. Parents from both teams were good spirited in their cheering and the kids played awesome.
In all honesty, I knew/know that Lil Lookout is above average for his age in the game but I really didn't think that he'd step into competitive play so smoothly. After the game I found out that the team our kids just beat was a year older and a tier 1 team. That means that at their club they are the "A" team for '00 players. Very impressive win boys. Very good day my boy.
Papa wishes he had just 10% of his boys talent and skill with the ball.