Wynken's World Cup

The World Cup is in full swing, but here in our little corner of U12 we had our own Soccer Tournament. Wynken's team took first place during a very hot weekend; the boys played beautifully together - finally gelling as a team: dribbling, solid defense, and touch passes resulting in goals.

We only play house league, so we don't play with the elite teams, but the boys worked really hard to learn the game, and managed to beat some better teams. Our goal is to learn to work as a team and develop good sportsmanship in victory and defeat. Their final record was: 8-1-1 and undefeated in the tournament.

Wynken was so excited he said, "I'm going to treasure this for the rest of my life." I found his trophy by his bedside as he fell asleep tonight.

You know what? Go ahead and enjoy it, son.

Blynken Soccer

Today was a three ring circus; it would have been five, but we kept the toddlers home. We had three overlapping soccer games, so we called in the auxiliaries.

The girls are new to soccer this year, and I really thought that Blynken would like it the least. Today was her team's third game, and up to now they have been getting creamed.

But to my delight, Blynken has had the best attitude of any of the kids. After a spectacular 12-4 loss, she came off the field beaming, "I had a lot of fun, Dad."

For today's game, she asked her coach if she could play goalie for the first half so she didn't have to run as much. And lo and behold! the other team didn't score at all for the first half. She's never done this before, but apparently takes direction well and was aggressive to the ball. The game ended in a 2-2 tie which is fantastic for her team.

Maybe it was a fluke, and we haven't seen how she deals with getting scored on, but maybe we have a budding goalie on our hands. In any case she gets an A+ for playing that Blynken soccer with a good attitude.

Goooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaal!!!

The Americans just handed undefeated Spain their heads in the only sport that has global currency: futbol -- or soccer to you and me.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — The United States stunned top-ranked Spain 2-0 Thursday night on goals by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey, advancing to the Confederations Cup final with one of the Americans' biggest soccer victories.

Now they will play defending champion Brazil or host South Africa on Sunday in its first-ever men's final at a FIFA competition.

In international circles, this is huge. Americans generally suck at soccer on the world stage. And since Spain hadn't been defeated in 35 straight matches, our chances were pretty slim. A 2-0 shutout is pretty definitive in competitive soccer.

Lucky? Maybe. Time will tell. In the meantime, it doesn't hurt to gloat just a tiny bit.

Gooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaal!!

Let The Games Begin

Wynken had his first soccer game of the season this past weekend.

Last year was ... a learning experience. The boys tied this game 1-1, but his team was kinda outplayed and that might be a harbinger of the season to come.

That's ok, since the point is to learn teamwork and good sportsmanship. The team jersey is red, Wynken's favorite, so they're the Hot Tamales, natch. The coaches are solid and not crazy - hey, bonus.

Now if only it would stop raining, they could practice and get the exercise we signed them up for.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.