Victory!!!!

Well it was a long time coming, but the U-7 girls soccer team that I coach finally had our first win. It had been two weeks since our last game and we came in to Saturday 0-6. I had seen improvement each game and I never felt we were really overmatched by our opponents, but still we couldn't get over the hump. I was starting to worry about the girls psyches. Even though they seemed to be having a good time, they realized they hadn't actually won any games. Our fundamentals were getting better. The girls' understanding of the game has gotten better, and our defense has gotten really good, but we hadn't gotten over that last mental hurdle. This last two weeks of practice had been really good and I had seen so much good on Thursday that I told my wife that I really liked our chances this Saturday. Well the game wasn't even close. We dominated from start to finish and the final score was something like 11-3, with us scoring one of their goals for them. My own daughter, who really has a warrior like attitude out there, scored five goals and was darn near unstoppable for us. I saw them use some of the moves that we've been working on and making good passes. It was such a rush to see all that teaching I've been doing actually translate into some learning by the players and result in a victory. We've still got lots to work on as I watch these games with a critical eye, as most coaches do, and unfortunately most of what they did wrong stands out to me more than what they did right. Still it was nice to get to relax a little during the game and hear some of the praise from the parents. I'm shooting for a winning streak now. I'll tell you later this week whether we've managed to achieve it!