2-1 and Learning

Well, the "easy" first part of our schedule is complete and while the loss was ugly and disappointing there is little question that every game has been a little better than the last. I suppose that's really all you can ask of a team. And maybe it was inevitable that with 9 new players and some veterans in unfamiliar positions we would have a rough first outing...Let's blame the coaches for that one and move on.

An outsider looking at our game scores and stat sheets would no doubt be confused. How did we end up with three times the number of corner kicks as our opponent and still score 5 goals less than they did? How did we lose 5-0 on Friday and win 11-0 just two days later?  How did Anya go two years without a goal and then score two in two minutes?  Who are all these freshmen who keep picking up goals? Who is this Emily Keast who plays all these minutes but rarely appears on the score sheet?

Now some of these questions are simply unanswerable, part of the grand mystery of soccer, and can be ignored unless it happens repeatedly. Some are easily answerable-- Anya had a position change from defense to midfield, Emily Keast can run forever, is extremely reliable, and tends to give the ball that sets up the assist--one that stat sheets don't recognize. The rookie class this year has really great players with a good array of gifts: some speed, some grit, some savvy, some aggressiveness. We too are just getting to know their off-the-field quirks and on-the-field talent. More to come on this. So far we know that Mickey can whistle just about any song, Holly is confused by charts and graphs, Ellen has a tendency to talk to herself/confuse herself, Nicole chews on the collar of her shirt when she is nervous, and Libby is looking to gain 20lbs of muscle by next year. Oh. And Elaina might be the fastest kid in the Midwest Conference. In any sport. The soccer coaches might just have to drive her to a few track meets this spring.