Blitz Tournament this weekend. Tale of 2 days. Saturday the wind blew 20-30 mph all day. Makes things a little crazy on GKs. My son's team played really well actually although didn't get the results. 1st game vs Blitz's 05 2nd team, 1-0 defeat. Goal was sort of a fluky, wind aided thing. My son actually made some crazy good saves. Goal came with about 2 minutes left. His team actually generated some nice scoring chances but couldn't break through. 2nd game vs a team from Bartlesville. They're good and have been together a while. 3-0 defeat. 1st goal came off of a couple deflections and sort of fluky (may have been an own goal). 2nd goal was off a brilliant cross and header. The kid who got it was probably crossbar level with his head. Last goal was the last play of the game. Off a corner, my son got to the cross first and grabbed it and come down on a teammate and spilled it. Unfortunate and a little bit unlucky as he had shown some good strong hands all day. He took a ball headed for the top corner earlier in the game and snared it with 2 hands while being horizontal to the ground.
Yesterday...the fields were atrocious. 2nd game probably shouldn't have been played at all considering the condition of the fields and you couldn't make a pass in certain parts of the field because the ball got stuck in pools of water. This was the game my son's team probably had the better side but just didn't adapt to the poor conditions. Match was abandoned with about 15 minutes left due to lighting in the area my son's team down 3-2. He didn't play great or poor. One of the goals against came after one of his CBs attempted to play a pass back to him and the ball got stuck in a puddle that the other team picked up and scored 1 v 1. Other 2 goals were somewhat legit. My son's team missed a 1st half PK (saved by keeper) before picking up 2 goals in the 2nd half with all the momentum before the match was abandoned. There were about 5 yellow cards in this one...some because it looked like the Blitz team was out for blood, and a couple on dissent for Blitz and their coach. One of the yellows (which resulted in the PK) should have been red. Straight hard tackled from behind with studs up. AR on our side said he would have given it a red had he been in the center. I certainly would have been inclined to as well.
1st game yesterday was vs the top 06 Blitz team. The field was a muddy mess but not quite as bad as the 2nd game's pitch. 4-0 defeat BUT the game certainly was not that lopsided in terms of possession or quality...just 1 team did a much better job finishing chances. 1st goal came on a PK for a handball in the box. 2nd off a headed corner. 3rd goal come on a 1v1 after a player broke through. Last goal came off a corner and pinball in the box...original shot hit off of no fewer than 4 players before finding the back of the net. Positive on this game was my son's team outplayed them for long stretches of the match...better possession, better build up...they just lack the pure finisher. (If anyone knows a 2006 who can score, send him our way). My son even came away thinking if they had played the 2 Sunday games on dry fields his team would have come away with results.
I also ref'd 6 games this weekend. Mostly U9/U10 boys. Those parents are unhinged. And Blitz cheaped out only provided a center ref for those games even though there is offside beyond the build out line. One parent decided to go crazy on a non offside call...(there team was losing 5-0 at the time and maybe had 1 legit shot on goal). Towards the end of a tournament, muddy conditions, I dare anyone to find the lines of these fields. I had one coach upset because I didn't blow the whistle on a ball that hit me but the team maintained possession. He was upset that I didn't blow the whistle because his girls stopped playing assuming the whistle would be blown. I explained to him why the whistle didn't blow and he was more worried because the almost gave up a goal which would have been damaging to their chance at winning the trophy. NM that this team (U10 girls, 2012s, were playing a team that was a 2014 rec girls team). His team won 7-0, but if my daughter played soccer I'd want her playing for the coach of the Unicorn Lightning...great coach and the girls played their hearts out and they knew they were playing a team of older girls but that didn't stop them.
I did witness a straight red yesterday. Ball is coming in to a GK who comes out to get it and attacker goes jumping in to win the ball, studs high and basically Johnny Lawrence's the GK in the chest. Ref immediately whips out the red card and sends the kid off. Coach of the GK who got kicked, sprints onto the field and starts verbally abusing the ref...not sure why since the ref did what he was supposed to do. Also saw the ref just walk away from the coach, around the goal and met up with the AR on the side. He did a good thing. That coach should have been sent off as well (didn't see if he was though). The GK had to leave the game and they finished with a kid in a bib who gave up 4 goals despite being a man up. Our team played in this tournament because the parents wanted some extra games for the boys which is fine. I don't think I'd advocate playing in it again...really poorly run to be honest. No field marshals to assist with issues or to call a trainer or tournament official if needed. I saw limited ATs available (maybe 1-2 for 25 fields) and I saw plenty of injuries. I did a U15 girls game on Saturday and one girl from Owasso stepped on the ball and her leg buckled and twisted. The shriek she let out could be heard through the entire east side of the complex. It looked bad and I was on the opposite sideline. We had a player who did something similar and had to be carried off the field.
