USJogger, Soccer Star

Last night was the last practice for summer soccer for the Little Joggers. The medium Little Jogger's coach has a tradition of playing a "Kids v. Parents" soccer game. It wasn't anything formal. Everyone was on the field at once, kids pointed in one direction, parents in the other. With all the siblings and what all, they had us outnumbered two to one. (But I think we still had them outweighed.) The kids won 2-1 in a spirited game.

I played goalie for the first half, and I'm happy to report that I didn't allow a goal. Not that that was entirely to my credit. One shot went just wide, although if it hadn't been wide, I think I might have gotten it. Another shot went right past me, bounced off the post, and came back into play, where I managed to misplay it again. Fortunately, it dribbled out of bounds, and the resulting corner kick did no damage.

The second half, I played forward. I wanted to score! Mrs. Jogger accused me of playing as if it was the World Cup Finals, but I said Nonsense, those guys are much better. I had two good scoring chances. Ironically, one went off the post. The other the goalie touched right before I booted it home, so they called the goal back, ruling that I had kicked it out of his hands.

I'm sore this morning. Playing soccer is a whole different ball of wax than running. There's a lot more starting and stopping and cutting back and forth, and you have to run all-out a lot more. Not to mention that I had warmed up by running nine miles that morning. So I didn't go anywhere today, and I don't even feel bad about it. I got at least two days worth of exercise yesterday.