Hey all. It's been awhile. Have I missed anything in the past 30 pages? I don't think I'll be catching up.
Work has been brutal (new customers/co-worker vacations/increased role/blahblahblah) and I was in Tulsa last weekend for a soccer tourney.
Warning - Really really long soccer weekend recap:
First match:
My daughter's team always starts off tournaments slow, so I told my daughter I'd give her $5 to get the first goal of the tournament. First game kicks off and my daughter starts on the bench. She's looking ticked off, too. Five minutes go by and no goals were scored. She gets subbed in and proceeds to score a hat trick in 5 minutes. After each goal, she looks over at me with a big grin and holds up an open hand signalling that she wants $5/goal. We win. I tell her she gets $5 for the first goal, not every goal. She shrugs and says "I tried."
Second match:
We play one of our club teams from Arkansas. We control the game from beginning to end but can't put the ball in the net. Five posts were hit, but none went in. With maybe two minutes left in the game, a defender comes streaking up and crushes a cleared corner kick into the back of the net. Pandemonium ensues. We win 1-0.
Third match:
We face an Oklahoma team that won their previous two games 6-0. It's 28 degrees out with a steady wind of 19 mph and gusts up to 30 mph. It's miserably cold. The opposing team is huge and physical. Our girls are getting two-hand shoved to the ground without a whistle. We go down 0-1 quickly before we know what hit us. Our goal kicks are barely making it out of the box because our keeper is kicking the ball into a tornado every time. Five minutes left in the half and we finally get a counter. Our fastest player streaks down the sideline and launches a shot that their goalie can't corral. Our midfielder crashes and ties the game at 1.
Second half starts. We now have the wind. The possession swings in our favor but we can't get a clean look. Ten minutes in, one of our girls gets her feet tangled with one of their players and gets called for a foul just outside the box. The. Only. Damn. Foul. Of. The. Game. It was a complete hose-job. They take the free kick and it deflects off one of our players that was trying to clear it and goes into the net. We go down 1-2. The rest of the game, the opposing team sends every ball out of bounds to kill time. Their coach was encouraging them to do this, too. Really bush league. We end up losing 1-2.
Semifinal match:
We ended up earning the wild card and playing the winner of another bracket with a chance to advance to the championship game. Again, we controlled the possession and number of shots but can't hit the net. We hit 3 posts in the half and their keeper made two really nice leaping one-handed saves (which is pretty rare for their age). We end the half tied at zero.
Second half and the girls are on the field ready to go. Problem is the refs were nowhere to be found. The girls are standing on the field in position for five minutes before one of our parents goes into the tent to tell the refs to come out and start the second half. Meanwhile, on the field, the greatest moment of the tournament happened. One of the girls started to do the 'floss' (it's the latest dance move, google it if you need to). Then, one by one, all of the girls on both teams are out there dancing while waiting for the refs. The girls on the bench started dancing, too. It was a great reminder that despite all of the other BS, we were still watching 10 and 11 year old girls.
The refs eventually came back out. The parents applaud. Then had to return to the tent because they forgot the game ball (SMH). We dominated possession and shot attempts again, but no score. The game wound up ending in a tie. Then, according to tourney rules, they played two 5 minute overtimes that also were scoreless. We ended up going to penalty kicks and, keeping up with our trend, we hit the left post, the right post and the cross bar and lost in PKs.
No championship game for us, but since the final game wasn't taking place until 6:30 Sunday night, we weren't overly disappointed to leave Tulsa before 8pm.
It was a lot of fun for our first travel tournament. Hopefully, we can pick some warmer weather next time.