It's Not Soccer, It's FOOTBALL

Okay, so if you look at the picture, you'll see an instructor in the middle of all these preschoolers. He was the coolest instructor we had there in our league and great with kids. But he's teaching PRESCHOOLERS. It was a riot.

When we first moved here, we were hesitant to join any sports groups for the kids...we wanted to focus on travel. Well, after a couple months, we gave in and put all three boys in soccer. We heard it was a really low-key organization and you could get away with missing a few weeks if you were out of town. It was an incredible experience to start off with: first, they have several vendors who sell food to the players and their families, one of which was called Texas BBQ. I got quite the kick out of that one. Good food, but only if you'd been out of the South for a few months. Secondly, it was so wonderful to hear so many American accents in one place. Doesn't happen around here very often...

Well, it was low-key in a sense. I mean, they didn't take attendance, the parents were the coaches, and the kids really didn't get THAT competitive. But the first hour of each Saturday play was spent receiving instruction from the leaders. (not professional players, but very good skill-wise) All age groups received the same instruction (to a certain extent) each week. I was sooo amused at the skills they were teaching preschoolers. One-touch, two-touch, passing, goalkeeping, out of bounds, etc... Any of you who have had a young child in soccer know that at that age, all that's taught in the states is simply "Don't touch the ball with your hands!!!" Well, some kids caught on to the advanced skills and others didn't, but it was amusing to watch.

And you play "football" on a "pitch", not a field, and it's a "match", not a game.

Go figure.