It was a beautiful day in Costa Rica today, and my son made his debut playing goalie for the Heredia branch of the Jr. Liga Football program. The son was shining, but it wasn't too hot, and the Soccer Moms and Dads were out in force. The picture above was taken when we arrived at the stadium and before the people started filling in.

One of the cutest things was watching all the little kids play. This squad was made up of about 25, 5? Year Olds (I am guessing on the age), and it was a hoot watching them converge on the ball like one huge wave. That is, the ones among them who didn't just get distracted and stare off into space, or scan the stands looking for their mothers.

There were also quite a few little girls playing on most of the teams. I cant wait to see Apollonia out there on the field. She is already a huge soccer fan, and roots for her big brother.

In fact one of the first words she learned to speak was, "GOOOOOOOOAL!"



In this sequence you can see her enthusiastically rooting for Jean as he appeared as Goalie.


This picture, (Jean is on the ground) is indicative of the kind of day the kid had today. He team was literally destroyed by the home Team 13-1, and Jean suffered the indignity of having 4 goals scored against him. Which is bad, but not that bad considering the starting goalie had 9 scored on him and literally begged to be taken out at the end of the first half. The poor kid was shell shocked.

My son plays for the Heredia branch of Liga, but the professional team is located in Alajuella, and the team that wiped the floor with my kids team today are from Alajuella, so they were the home team.

They played like it too. It is obvious the kids from Alajuella get a little more attention from the pro team, as they play and practice in Alajuella. Jean's team had horrible defense and poor ball handling, and the kids from Alajuella exploited both weaknesses with impunity.

Jean spent most of his time on the field nearly alone at his end, as
his team mates were generally out hustled, out played and out ran.

I was nevertheless proud of the kid. Putting him in this program was good for him. I think it is teaching him some things about discipline and team play.

I have seen Jean play twice now, and I still think he makes a better forward, than goalie. But he complains that when he is playing forward, that his team mates don't pass the ball enough. That deficiency was obvious today, as one or two players seemed to hog the ball, and it only got worse as they got further behind, and the prima donna's tried to make things happen on their own, instead of settling down and playing a team game.

I had a blast today, even though it meant getting up at 5am to drive to the stadium in Alajuella at 6:15. Sorry I dont have pictures of the "Soccer Moms," Boyd, but the wife was with me, and she got pissed at me looking. I can only imagine how pissed she would have been if I had trained my camera anywhere OFF the field.

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