rocktober 13th weekend

just a quick, belated note this week, with pictures. i'm still struggling with formatting this thing, hopefully they will get prettier as we go. liam's team had picture day recently, and we have a photographer parent, so he's over-represented this week in particular.

As the temps climbed to near-summer levels, the Dufflings elevated their game to mid-season form. each of the young warriors showed something new on the field this week. for clare, it was two shots-very-near-goal, liam returned a mid-field interception to the 1 yard line and kieran caught a Bomb for roughly a 30 yard gain.

each week i try to impart a parent-who-doesn't-know-all-that-much-about-soccer nugget to clare for her to practice in the upcoming game. week one was, "don't chase the ball." week two, "don't pass right away every time." this week was, "follow the ball to the goal." i think we're at week four or five now, so i've probably missed a couple, but you get the idea. anyway, clare drilled two shots just wide of the goal and proved herself a threat at forward.

clare also played goalie for about half of the second half without letting a ball in, but her team lost 1 - 0 in a well-played match.

the rfl steelers went 1 - 1 for the weekend, with liam's pee wee team winning 20-something to zero and kieran's intermediate squad losing by about the same score. both boys continue to impress, playing hard on both sides of the ball and special teams. it's a rarity for one of them to come out for even a single play.