What Were We Thinking???

In mid-April we traveled to Louisville, KY for a soccer tournament. There were five teams in our bracket which in tournament terms has pros and cons. It means you have to play each team in your bracket one time and the team with the most points after playing everyone is the champion. There is no advancement to the semi-finals and no championship game.

The only good thing about it is that you are guaranteed four games no matter how well you do in a tournament.

So, our first game – unbeknownst to us or anyone else - ended up being the championship game.

Game #1 - Unlucky

Oh yeah – the other things about the tournament…It was raining. And muddy. By the time we got to play our first game, four other games had taken place on the field. Needless to say, the center of the fields were one big mud pit. At certain points in the field, the ball would hit a puddle and stop. The ball was wet and muddy too. The girls would run their cleat over the top of the floating ball trying to pull it back, but half the time, their cleats would just scrape a layer of mud off the top of the ball.

The girls worked hard. Just walking through mud baths was hard work and our girls were doing everything they could to lift the ball into the air to get a good cross. And once they did get it in the air, the wind took it. The opponents got a shot off a corner and shot off a penalty kick. Our girls just couldn’t seem to finish. The mud really seem to hurt us. Not an excuse… I know they played in the same conditions. But our girls over ran a lot of balls.

I don’t know what everyone else thinks, but I can’t wait to see the girls play them again. On our fields. On a sunny day. I’m sure the game won’t end 0-2.

Game #2 – Win

The second game of the day, the fields were worse, but the rain and stopped and some of the puddles had soaked in. The mud affected how we played for sure, but the other team really had trouble. I know we would have beat them anyway, but I don’t know if we would have beat them 7-1.

Game #3 – Win

The first game of Sunday was fun – at first. We scored in the first couple of minutes… then the girls scored a lot more… and then some more. The only thing super exciting about it was the Lefty Lucy – our left-footed defender – got a hat trick. It comes with the territory when the coach makes you drop the ball to the defenders every time you gain possession. So good for you Lefty! A hat trick is hard to do during any game!

Game #4 Tie

Well, our opponents were rough. (We like that.) The ground was dried out enough, but because of all the mud the day before we were playing on a big patch of dried up, cratered dirt. It was reminiscent of a soccer field that you would see in a documentary about an African orphanage. Anyway – the fields weren’t the best. The balls were bouncing kind of crazy. It wasn’t’ ideal. The parents on the other team weren’t ideal either. They were RIDICULOUS. One of our girls, I don’t remember which one, collided into another girl. The girl from the other team cried a little – very little. The parents started squawking that our player had “hurt their player on purpose.” On purpose? Are you kidding me?? (See previous posts – if it had been on purpose…. Well…. You know.) Anyway, we tied. We probably should have lost, but we didn’t, we tied and we were finalists… (Ask Lefty Lucy’s about her best defensive play ever during a penalty kick. Way to go again Lefty!)

Game #2.5 – BEST GAME OF THE WEEKEND!!!

If you keep up with the blog, you know that SM3 and I always create a game for the girls to play in the hotel. This time, with the help of MPIC and GoalieGirl’s mom… we topped ourselves – BIG TIME. We watched several episodes of Minute to Win It and we modified the games so that the girls could do it.

We started with stacking cups. It was pretty easy for most of them.



Then we went on to having solo cups that they have to blow off the table with a balloon. It was funny watching the girls blow up the balloons and then using that air to push ten cups off the front of the table.


Some girls had trouble!


Others didn't!

Next up was canned money. We had cans set up with pennies and they had one minute to arrange the eight cans from least to highest amount of pennies. (It was hard!)

Then M&M blow – They had to pick up an M&M with a straw, carry it to another table and drop it in a cup. (Amazingly, some girls really had trouble!)

Then in teams had to move a soda can from one table to another after threading a piece of pasta through the tab with their mouths and having their partner catch the other side of the pasta. HILARIOUS!!






Siblings played against siblings too!!

And for the last game, the girls had to put an Oreo on their foreheads and without using their hands move it down their face into their mouth.


You've got a Minute to Win It - Let's Go!


Winner!!!


WOO HOO!!!



Some people had better luck eating the cookies!


Siblings Compete Again!!


These two chocolate lovers got the cookie EVERY TIME!


It was so fun! Another soccer team was staying in the hotel and they became our studio audience - oohing and ahhing - basically marveling at our complete and utter awesomeness! We even got one of them to “guest play” for us!

The good news: Everyone loved the game! But what on earth were we thinking? How on earth are we going to top that???