The Start of Soccer

This Saturday was our introduction into the world of Saturday morning sports. Leo had his first soccer game. His team is called the Gators. It's for ages three and four so we barely squeezed Leo in. We're not going to mention that he'll be five in a few weeks. We're hoping he can be some sort of ringer. 

 I told both boys on Friday that we were going to go to Leo's soccer game the next day. Gus said, "No Le-lo soccer ball. Gus soccer ball." And then he continued to remind me about "Gus soccer ball" the rest of the day. "Yes, Gus," I told him. "I will remember to bring a soccer ball for you too!" But now I've figured out that Gus calls the actual game "soccer ball" like baseball, basketball, football. So he meant he was going to play in the game! 

So here is Gus on the way to the soccer ball field. He ended up crying most of the time because he was so upset that he couldn't play. 

We had no idea a soccer game for 3-4 year olds would be like watching a Tom Hanks movie--we laughed; we cried. Well, the parents laughed and the kids cried. 

The other team was clearly made up of nine year olds who were just small for their age. I mean, they actually knew which way to go! And when they scored within one minute of playing, Leo was pissed. He put on his angry face: 

Here he is explaining his plot to his teammates: it involved some paper that he was going to set out as booby traps. I'm not kidding. "We need paper!" he kept insisting.

Luckily, other kids from both teams had emotional outbursts.

I like this one. It looks like this kid Dante (who was pretty good) is talking strategy with his Gator teammates. 

Here's a video of Leo almost making a goal. There was a better play (not caught on video) where Leo assisted in an actual goal!

But alas, it was not enough for the Gators to prevail over the Tigers. 

But the important thing is not whether you win or lose; it's if you think you won. And that's what Leo thinks. He also thinks he scored two goals. I'm not going to tell him the truth. He might set a booby trap for me.