Another Soccer Game

 

We had another nice day of Saturday soccer yesterday.  Claire's team (the Panthers) didn't come away with a win this week, but they played a pretty good game and it was a beautiful day to be outside.  Another nice thing about this game was the changed ways of, "Yelling guy."  Claire's team played this particular team before during fall soccer.  During that game, one of the parents from the other team was shouting instructions and editorial comments from the sidelines (far louder than their coach) for the entire game.  It was annoying after about the first two minutes and about as entertaining as a root canal for the entire game.  Fortunately, for this game he was as quiet as a church mouse.  Perhaps he had laryngitis or something-- who knows.

Another interesting thing in this game was the application of off sides penalties.  We were somewhat less than pleased with the way some of these penalties were doled out over the course of the game.  Later on that night, I was watching the last few minutes of a Sounders FC game (MLS) and discovered that off sides is not called on throw-ins.  The Sounders used this rule to slip a forward into the box and score a fairly easy goal at the very end of the game.  I've got to get Claire on board with this for her next game.  Of course, it might be a little easier to pull off when the person doing the throw-in can make the throw from half the width of the field and hit the forward right in the kicking foot with the throw.  Practice, practice, practice!