Rob Lasso: Episode One

By popular demand (and common sense), we're changing the names of the characters for better readability. For reference, R is now Dutch (her real name is that of a former President's last name), E is Ellie, B is Breezy, A is Ash, K is Kenny, J is Jennie, and O is Ollie.)

“Little girls are mysterious. And silly and powerful. I gave up trying to figure them out years ago.” - Ted Lasso

When we left our squad in the prologue, we'd reached a tentative peace after a bit of intrasquad drama. And goodness gracious if these kids have been anything but supportive of one another. On their own, they:

• organized big/little sister pairings
• designed, collected money for, and had printed custom tie-dyed team t-shirts (Mac, another of our senior captains, spearheaded that effort)
• sorted out a clusterfuck of uniform distribution; trying to outfit 27 kids with uniforms enough for 22 is a test of coaching mettle and patience

With respect to the first of those, I was particularly interested to see that Dutch (our fiery senior captain) paired up with Roo, one of the freshmen who was almost certainly the target of her anger on the final day of tryouts.

On the field, even before our first game, injuries were beginning to cause issues. Most of our kids play travel at a reasonably high level, and those seasons started in March. Our high school season is compressed due to COVID, so we'll play 10 games in five weeks. We've had shin splints, thigh strains, knee knocks, back spasms, and a banged up toe. 

Jorge Campos, also a short, 
quirky keeper

In brighter news, we were forced to train on the school's secondary (grass field) while the football team advanced to the state semifinals. Our kids were sad (not sad) to see their classmates lose that game, 21-14, to a team from Rootsy's neck of the woods. That was a long day in the car for my kidlet who made the seven-hour round trip to cheer in the game. And now we get first dibs in the turf stadium field.

You've met Dutch, Breezy, and now Roo. I was really impressed last week with Ash, a senior defender, who went out of her way to be supportive of our backup keeper, Ollie. Both of our keepers don't do much to dispel the stereotypes that attach to their position. Ollie and our first-team keeper, Ellie are a bit, how shall we say...quirky. Ellie is a junior who I've coached before. She's on the small side for a keeper, but she's a good shot-stopper. She also strays way too far from her line, which drives the head coach bonkers. He's had two All-State keepers who went on to start as freshmen for Division I programs in the past six years, so he's been spoiled. I worry a little bit that the frustration he expresses to me will be visible to the kids in the net. I hope that's not foreshadowing.

Back to Ash and Ollie, then. The former is a pretty, popular senior, the latter a socially awkward sophomore. Ash went out of her way without prompting to have a word with Ollie and boost her spirits after she muffed a corner kick. Ash is okay by me.

Lindsey Horan, also a tall, smooth
attacking midfielder

We started four freshmen in our first game of the season this evening, and had two more play significant minutes. And none of the players had been in a high school game since May 2019. The nerves showed early on. Ellie almost gave away a silly goal by playing a goal kick before her outside back was ready for it. Kenny, our most talented player - a tall, smooth attacking midfielder - had a couple of balls bounce off her shins that she'd usually cushion and play the perfect pass from. Roo was manic, chasing everything and getting to nothing.

And then, all of sudden, Kenny got to a ball, and found Kenz, a slight freshman winger, who beat her defender with a nifty feint and delivered a sweet return pass that Kenny ripped...just wide of the keeper. We kept the pressure on, pinning the opposition back for a good five minutes, and our nerves abated.

Midway through the first half, Ellie made a spectacular save on a drive from 10 yards out, tipping the ball over the net. On the ensuing corner, our defenders left two opponents unmarked, and one of them toe-poked a ball into the net. 1-0, bad guys.

Just a few short minutes later, Breezy got turned around our opponents' striker - an exceptional player - who lashed a ball into the top of the goal to put us down 2-0 at the break.

We switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 after halftime because our midfield was allowing too much space to our opponent, and we controlled the ball for much of the first portion of the last frame. Kenny stripped the ball in midfield, took one touch, and sprung Kenz, who took a sublime first touch and struck a low hard shot to the far post. The keeper got a hand to it, but deflected it directly into the path of Jennie, a diminutive and speedy winger. Jennie slotted it home, and we were within a goal.

Not three minutes later, the referee spotted a foul that I'm still looking for, and awarded a free kick about 30 yards out on the right wing. The kick found its way to the back post and none of our defenders attacked it, giving the other team an easy goal to make it 3-1. Five minutes later, their stud striker turned another defender and rifled a ball to the top corner of the net, and it was 4-1.

That's probably a fair result, all things considered. We emptied the bench in the final five minutes, and got all but 1 active player into the game. Our friend's niece got her first high school playing time, and acquitted herself well, sticking in on a tackle and making a nice pass.

I remain impressed with how much the kids support one another. Ab, our third senior captain, didn't start and didn't play very much, but she sat with a bunch of underclassmen and talked to them on the bench throughout the game. Several kids were pissed about losing, but none of them took it out on each other. We'll get another shot at this opponent next week. We've got some work to do, but I think it'll be a fun journey.