The Pocket-Picker, the Finisher, and the Cross-Master

**Two days until we leave for Kenya and I am posting about soccer. Sounds crazy, but this is one of those posts that I have had on my to-do list for a month and today I get that check mark.**

Here are three clips of a few seconds each of the girls playing soccer. First up is Miss Bookworm at left defender. Sometimes the coach would feel that she was not aggressive enough in going after 50/50 balls, but she had a preference to not take the risk on a 50/50 but rather wait for the striker to make a move and then pick her pocket.

I was standing along the sideline of a game halfway through the season when Ed shot on goal and the goalie made a great save. I cheered. All of the parents turned to look at me like I was a heartless father. But you see, Ed already had two goals and the opposing team was clearly not going to mount a comeback to win. If she scored a third goal, then I would have had to take the whole family out for ice cream according to family tradition. That goalie saved a goal and saved me $25. I was happy.

Word got out about “Hat Trick = Family Ice Cream” and I think the coaches liked to see me sweat so they started playing Ed more up front as the Finisher rather than center mid as the Distributor. In the first game of the final tournament Ed scored two goals so the coaches should have pulled her from the front line, but everybody knew that family ice cream was on the line. Well, here is the ice cream goal, as you can tell with KD yelling “Ice cream! Ice Cream!” after she scores.

FG usually played right striker and was tenacious with sticking with the ball until she got the cross off. About every clip I have of her playing seems to end with a nice cross. The team scored many goals off of her crosses, although not on this clip.