Aly's second soccer game

Well today we had our second soccer game. It was early at 9:00 a.m. which meant we had to leave the house by 8 as the coach wanted all the girls there at 8:40. I made sure Aly went to bed early and had plenty of rest. I was hoping this would help her be more of an active participant in the game.

Here is a picture of Aly stretching with her teamates. Do you know they only have seven girls on their team? Plus they play two games at a time so three girls are on one field and three on the other. This only leaves one sub. Well today one of the girls didn't make it till half time so we didn't have any subs. Aly wasn't into playing that long. She gets frustrated running after the ball and not making a goal. In her own words she says, "Mommy there are too many kids on the field. I just want it to be one or two other kids. It is too hard to make a goal."

The second half of the game was really tough again to get Aly to go out on the field. We also notice that if we are close to the sidelines trying to cheer her on or helping to ref the lines, Aly turns her emotional play on with us and tries to get out of the game. So we found it better to sit back in our chairs and keep a distance.

You know if her team was larger I might consider letting her quit soccer. But with only seven girls if she quit there would never be a sub. Plus there is the whole thing about seeing a commitment through. She wanted to play and we paid quite a bit of money for her to join. So in the meantime Daddy and I will sit down and the coach will take Aly by the hand and try to encourage her to play.

Perhaps over time she will find her groove! Perhaps with us standing back more it may help her too....only time will tell.