Rob Lasso: Episode Two

“Seems like a Smurf with an attitude would be a lot of fun to watch.” -- Ted Lasso

One of the reasons I coach kids is because it gives me an opportunity to teach life lessons through a game I love. I can help them compete and develop - hopefully in equal measure. So far this season, we're heavy on the latter.

After dropping our first game to a strong opponent, we faced a team that's on our level on Friday night. The kids expected to win, or at least thought they had a good chance to grab their first victory. 

Before the game, I sat down on the bench with Ab, one of our senior captains. She hadn't played very much in our opening loss. I asked her how she was feeling, and she said, "Discouraged. I didn't play last game."

This was true. Also true was the fact that she didn't pout about it. In fact, she sat on the bench in the midst of a bunch of younger girls and led by example, encouraging the kids on the field, and pointing out nuances in the game to less-experienced kids. I told her that wasn't lost on me, and said that leadership shows up in lots of ways - not just on the field. It sounded good to me, anyway, and I meant it. Hope it means something to an 18 year-old with just a few weeks of high school left.

The game against a county rival didn't get off to a great start. In fact, it was delayed because the referee wouldn't let Ellie (our keeper) play until she put on socks that showed over her long goalkeeper pants. Marv Levy's famous "you're an over-officious jerk" jab came to mind. Once the game got going, the referee issued a yellow card to our coach because one of our players forgot to remove her earrings. Them's the rules, for sure, but maybe this one could've been let go with a warning. The ref's adherence to the minutiae will contrast with his interpretation of a much bigger law of the game later in our story. Foreshadowing!

Speaking of Ellie, as we were, she had a spectacular game. Probably shouldn't have needed to, but her defenders gave up a handful of reasonably easy chances that she parried. She's about 5'3" in cleats, which doesn't make for textbook keeper dimensions, but she's quick and a strong shot stopper. Midway through the second half of a scoreless tie, she stretched way beyond what I thought possible to tip a long drive off the crossbar and keep the game deadlocked. 

We're a reasonably skilled team, but we're not very physical, and that ultimately cost us. One of our freshmen got bodied off a ball in our defensive half, and the opponent play a quick through ball that sprung their striker. Ellie rushed off her line, but the striker calmly slotted home to put us down 1-0.

Under-officious jerk

With the clock winding down, Kenny played a sublime ball between the opponent's center and left backs and into Kenz's run. The latter took one touch and prepared to cross the ball, and a defender barged into her from what appeared to the naked eye to be the back, inside the penalty area. Kenz is a slightly-built freshman, and the defender was solidly-built, so Kenz went all yard sale, bouncing off the turf with limbs splayed. Over-officious became suspiciously silent, and the penalty we probably deserved went wanting.

Our opponent got a late goal to make the final score 2-0. While we aren't that physical, as I noted above, Jennie did make a mark. She's the Smurf of note from the Ted Lasso quote that prefaces this post. She can't be any taller than 5'0", but she's fast and she's got good ball skills. In this game, she received a yellow card for persistent fouling, crashing into multiple larger opponents with abandon - though I'd quibble with half of the calls that went against her. Natasha's also physical, and a little bit crazy. That'll come back to bite us. Jennie's a killer. Natasha's a mess.

As our head coach told the kids after the game, we've shown a lot more in practice than we have in games. "Can we do it with the lights on?", he asked. That remains to be seen.

We got another opportunity to answer that question just three days later. On Monday, we took on a crosstown opponent with a serious soccer pedigree. They've won three state championships since 2015, and have to be considered a contender this year. During our pregame talk, I supplemented the head coach's tactical advice with an exhortation to "make them feel you", a nod to our need to be more physical. I told them that Friday Night Jennie should be their spirit animal. Which they enjoyed.

And at halftime, the opponent knew they were in a game. The score stood at 0-0, and while we were on the wrong end of the possession and shot on goal stats, we hadn't given up many good chances. By the end of the half, they resorted to longballs and low-percentage shots from distance.

Their coach was frustrated, too, sniping at Dutch about some trifle. Dutch, who's a cool customer and generally fearless, chirped back at him, saying, "Are you really picking a fight with an 18 year-old girl? Grow up." Big Dutch fan right here.

We kept them at bay for the first ten minutes of the second half before the dam broke. They scored on a header off of a long cross, then Natasha had a rush of blood to the head and clattered into an attacker in the box, which led to a penalty and another goal. Ellie rushed a clearance from a back pass and drilled it directly into a charging attacker - it deflected right into the goal. And poor marking doomed us to another open header at the back post. It was 4-0 in a span of not more than ten minutes, and we still had 20 more to play.

Funny thing happened next, though. We subbed out Ellie for Ollie, who made her varsity debut in the net, and began liberally getting the rest of the roster onto the field. Ollie quickly made two very strong saves, to her teammates' enthusiastic cheers. Our opponents made a few substitutions, but kept their entire back line intact (all four of whom play at an elite club level). Steph, one of our freshman strikers, drifted to the right side of the field and hit a shass (shot/pass) that floated over the keeper's head for a goal. After we gave up a breakaway to make it 5-1, a freshman midfielder named Sid latched on to a loose ball from about 20 yards out and lashed it upper 90 for the game's final goal. Sid had a rough start to the game, and she's really hard on herself, so that goal may turn out to matter more than a garden variety garbage-timer. Our bench erupted like we'd won the state title. 

That moment told me everything I care to know about these kids. Winners as people, despite winding up on the wrong end of a 5-2 score. 

We got all 26 healthy kids on the roster into the game, and we proved that we can play with a very strong opponent. We may not win a ton this year, but it looks like we'll have fun.