Well, this year's soccer season has finally come to an end.  My daughter had an amazing season.  This was the first year that they played actual positions including goalie, kept score, and had a tournament at the end to determine the winner.  My daughter is one of the shortest and youngest players on the team, but she had the most powerful kick on the team - all the other parents talked about it.  She was also unbelievably tough - she would get right up front when the other team was throwing or kicking the ball in, often blocking it so the other team couldn't get it and sending it back up the field, and even head butting the ball.  It was a lot of fun to watch.

 

Her team, the Hot Shots, lost their first game of the day in penalty kicks.  It was 1-1 at the end of regulation time so for the first time all year they went into penalty kicks - five apiece.  Talk about pressure.  The other team made 3 penalty kicks to our 1.

 

Later in the afternoon, the girls played again to determine who would come in 3rd place and who would come in 4th.  It was nerve racking!  Our team kept the ball on their end most of the game, but their goalie was good and blocked shot after shot.  Finally, with less than five minutes to go in regulation, my daughter scored!  It was one of her best goals of the season too as she had taken the ball halfway down the field and followed it up.  They blocked her first shot on goal but she followed it up and drilled it right in.

 

Of course, just to make things interesting, the other team came back and scored against us in the last seconds of the game.  This time the penalty kicks went much better though.  My daughter was also one of the kickers of course and drilled hers right over the goalie's head.  We ended up winning by one penalty kick!

After the game the girls were given their third place ribbons and I was happy to see how proud they were even though they did not come in first place.  She had a wonderful coach and a really great team this year.

 

Yeah Hot Shots!!!!