Soccer Finale

So, today was a very sad day for Spencer. It was the finale for the School Soccer Tournament.

There were a total of 8 teams today. It was broken up into 2 groups. There are 4 teams in each group. They played each team in their group. That was 3 games. They won two of the games, and then tied in the last game. That put them in first place in their group. And with those games, still not one score made against Spencer.

Then it was the semi final match. It also ended in a tie. But this time, it went to a shoot out. After the 5 team mates kicked, it was still a tie breaker. So it came to sudden death. It was a nerve racking 5 minutes for this mom. But Spencer prevailed and his team came into the finals.

The finals..........for first place or second place. The game was a very good one. Lots of action, but no scoring for either team. The 2nd half of the game seemed to go longer. And then I noticed one ref signaling to the other ref that time was up. But the whistle never blew. I saw him make this same gesture three times.

Finally, someone called last minute. At that point, the other team scored. I thought Spencer's team would have one more chance to tie it up, but then they called the game. Spencer just cried. As well has his team mates.

Normally, one would be so thrilled to get 2nd place. It is a great accomplishment. the tournament started out with 15 teams.

But, they have a trophy that the winning school gets to keep for the year. Our school has won it the last two years. And if you win it three years in a row, you get to keep this trophy forever. So there was lots of pressure on these boys to win so the school could keep this trophy.

Spencer cried all day long. I felt so bad for him. There are so many what ifs. I mean, if the game had ended when it should have and it gone to a shoot out, would Spencer have been able to come up with the win for his team?

Goalie is such a stressful position for a mother. :)

Here are some shots of Spencer. Some are during the shoot out and others with the 2nd place trophy.

School Soccer Tournament

Today Spencer had the School Soccer Tournament. The school team has been practicing all year for this one tournament. It started out with two big groups of boys who wanted to be on the team. After 4 months, they cut half the boys. Then in March, they cut the group again. Finally in April, the boys found out who actually made the team to go to tournament.

Today, It lasted all day. And they played a total of 6 games. Each game was 10 minutes each. Spencer's position was Goalie. This is a position he normally does not play on the city league. He usually plays defense. But he loves Goalie and really wanted to play that position. And he was the best in the group.

Out of the 6 games, his team won 5 of them. The 6th game ended in a tie. There was not one goal scored by the other team. Spencer was able to shut them out, with the help of his team mates a few times. He did a fabulous job and it was so fun to watch him.

His team made it further in the tournament. They will be going back and playing again tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day. They are hoping for a first place finish. But there are some really good teams that are coming back tomorrow.

But Spencer was real funny today when he came home.

First he was telling me how much harder being Goalie is than he originally thought. But he still enjoyed playing that position.

Second, he had asked me if we could bake some Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight for the team tomorrow. The first story I heard from him was, he wanted to offer who ever made a goal tomorrow to help his team win, would get a cookie. Like Bribery.

But the last thing I heard as he was going to bed tonight, was that each person was going to get a cookie or two. So we will see what happens tomorrow.

I am sure Gardner has a few stories to share from the day. Since he isn't working right now, He was also able to go to the tournament. And he was able to stay for all 6 games. I only got to see 4 of them.

Here are some pictures I took today. Hopefully tomorrow I get some good shots. I need to move my camera settings to sport and then maybe, my pictures will turn out better. So many of them were blurry because Spencer was moving.