---
title: "Abby\'s Second Soccer Game"
date: "2013-04-20"
categories: ["Abby", "soccer"]
authors: ["owen"]
slug: abbys-second-soccer-game
html: true
---
Today was Abby's second soccer game. Ever. She's almost 12 (her next soccer game is next week, on her birthday) and she's not played any organized team sports before this year.
The league is organized through Glenmoore Eagle Youth Association (GEYA) which offers a bunch of sports in our area, similar to LYA when I was a kid. The league is for girls in grades 6-8, at which Abby is in the lower end. The coaches are very friendly, and they've been very supportive of Abby and all the girls playing on her team who are not as experienced as some of the other players.
Abby's first game was after school last week. The team was a bit disorganized because they only had three scheduled practices prior to the game day, and the last of those practices was rained out. As a result, the girls didn't really know anything about field positions or where they would be playing. It was a little chaotic, but they took it in stride.
Abby's team scored one goal early on, but the other team - made up of more 8th graders - was able to come back and score three goals by the end of the game. Abby seemed a bit bewildered by the rules of the game, and the effort required to play well. I think she enjoyed it, nonetheless.
We've started interval training in the early mornings to get her endurance up. "No more couch potato," as she says. We've been running/walking around the development before school, and now even having only done the interval twice (prior to that, I was sick and we only walked), it seems to be making a difference. If we keep it up, we should be able to run the 5k at Good Neighbor Day this year without embarrassing ourselves too much.
In today's game, Abby was keeping up with the other girls and playing less afraid of the ball. She still has some work to do in figuring out how to best position herself when she doesn't have the ball, but she's getting better at it. By the end of the season, I think she'll have a good idea of how the game is played and what she needs to do it well.
Plus, they won today, 2 to 0.
