Let the Games Begin

Boo had his first soccer game of the season last night.  Wow, what a great time!

His uniform this year is orange and black and the team chose the name “Mustangs.”  Mustangs is a good name, but it has nothing to do with the color of their jerseys.  My suggestions were the Pumpkin Heads or Orange Julius, with the battle cry, “Hail Caesar!” Alas, my suggestions were voted down.

Here they are, waiting for the game to start.  They’ve got nifty player’s benches on the sidelines this year.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Boo is not the smallest person on his team this year.  I have to admit that I worry about him and his size because he’s a boy.  But it looks like all the eating and sleeping he’s been doing all summer has caused him to keep up with his age peers.

What did surprise me was his increase in athletic ability.  Athletic ability has never been his strong suit and for his first two years of soccer, nobody was all that good so it didn’t matter.  The next two years saw the increase of the skills of his fellow players, but he was only OK.  He had a real stick-to-it-ness, though, and a happy go lucky spirit that made his team mates like him.  His best skill was his ability to charge at an opposing player and cause them to panic and kick the ball before they were ready.

This year he started the game at center half back, in a slightly different line up than I’ve seen before.  His job was to play offense when his team had the ball, defense when they didn’t and to be ready on the left, right and center at all times.  In other words, he was to run like crazy.

(He’s on the right in this picture, looking like he’s running on air)

That boy was amazing.  Wherever the ball was, there was Boo.  He wasn’t a ball hog, though, and passed to teammates who were open, and fell back to receive passes when he wasn’t needed.  He would come from out of nowhere to take control of the ball.  At one point the opponents had the ball and were running towards the goal.  Boo came running from behind, down 3/4 of the length of field, overtook the player with the ball and stole it.

During a lull in the action, the coach called out,”Boo!  Are you ok?  Are you hurtin’?”  Boo shook his head, but the coach pulled him out for a breather.  Other than those 5 or 10 minutes, he played the whole game.

Check out this great picture I got of him.  What a game face!  Go ahead and click on the picture to enlarge it and be scared of that face.  How would you like to see that charging down the field at you?

The first game tied at 1-1, not that we’re keeping score or anything.  But it’s good to open the season with a non-loss.

Here’s Boo coming through the Victory Tunnel of Parents.  We should have those at the Olympics.

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