Three good games.

I was very proud of all three of my teams this weekend. The Alligators, Red Wings and Red Devils all played beautifully.

The Alligators missed Elizabeth and Cooper but played well anyway. The Red Wings played well despite missing Will and Braden with goals from Owen and Conner (longest! shot! on! goal! ever!) and great play from everyone else. We had especially great play in goal from Kaitlyn and McKenzie.

The Red Devils showed that they are getting into tournament shape with a hard fought game against Coach Echevaria's green side. I'm sure we had more shots on goal than they did but we were a bit unlucky. The kids were really engaged the whole game and I want to especially point out the great defense work done by Samantha and Sam. Bryce had our two goals, including an impressive blast that could easily have carried the goalie into the net with it. Easton was also especially strong in mid and Keegan has probably earned a permanent spot in at striker as he gives Luis a good option on his right to match Bryce on the left. Gabriel's keeper work was excellent throughout.

A note on the officiating:
The Referee from Sunday's U10 game asked all of the coaches to please talk to the parents of our players about the concept of "advantage" as it pertains to penalties called during the game. Put simply "advantage" means that if the Referee sees a handball foul he/she will not blow the whistle immediately because they want to see how things play out. If one team touches the ball but the direction the ball takes is then to the clear advantage of the other team then the referee will refrain from whistling the ball dead so that the second team can capitalize on that advantage. This would also apply to instances of tripping or pushing as we saw in our game this Sunday. At one point late in the game Luis was tripped but, while the referee did see the offense, she waited on making the call until she was certain that our other players involved weren't going to get the ball into the goal. Also keep in mind that with handball calls there is an element of intent that the referee must see. If a player touches the ball as a protection reflex or if they are hit in the hand or arm by a shot that was moving so fast they couldn't dodge it then no penalty need be called. It is very important for the players to learn to "play on" until they hear a whistle. All of the cheering from outside the glass at the last game was great. I assure you the kids hear it and it motivates them, so keep it up and let me work with the official on making sure the right calls get made.

One more game for U4 and U6 on Saturday and then game one of the Tournament for U10 on Sunday. That's 3:30 PM for the Red Devils. See you at practice.