Sparkle Girls - Game 1

We signed Eliza up for soccer this season and she's having so much fun!  They have been practicing for 4 weeks now.  There are 9 players on her team, some of which have played before, and some who haven't like Eliza.  They are all 5, 6, and 7 years old, though Eliza is the smallest.  We have friends in Texas who play and all the teams are different countries (Go Team Spain!).  In our league, the teams pick their own name, so our girls agreed on Sparkle Girls - they're so proud.  They are light pink, and Eliza picked number 2 with her first name on the back.

Today was the first game and we played The Candy Canes. 

Excited to get started!

Taking it to the goal during warm-ups (the most action she saw until after halftime).  She played defense the first half.  The coach gave them a general area to stand in, and she totally rocked that general area, cheering for her team as they played almost the entire half up by the other team's goal.  The score was still 0-0 when the whistle blew for half.

Halftime oranges.

The second half started off with Marissa (on our team) scoring 3 goals in about 6 minutes.  When our team scored the 4th goal, the referee asked us to take one player off the field.  Eliza finally got to kick the ball after that.  She did great once she knew that it was alright to leave her little area and just go for it.

She was happy that she kicked it out of bounds here, getting it away from her opponent.

She got to play some offense during the last 10 minutes, and really had fun.  She was right in there going for it.

When the other team scored a goal, Eliza got to do the kickoff.

At the end of the game they huddled up for a cheer, "2,4,6,8, who do we appreciate - the Candy Canes!"

Followed by shaking hands and running through the tunnel that all the parents made for them.
The final score was 4-1.

 

Our team banner was designed by Coach Chris and will be set up at every game.