Eventful Soccer Weekend

I spent Friday night training my daughter for the defender's spot while I also trained her in the forward. The head coach said she was ready for forward. I begged to differ so I kept her in forward for the first half. She barely got touches on the ball. As a defender, she was in it completely. We're not supposed to keep score, but I can tell you all the coaches did and we won 2-1. But it wasn't mean spirited as last week. Where last week, we could have used a referee, this week, the referee wasn't needed. My line up in the meditation room seemed to have paid off. It was a spur of the moment idea.

I reffed an U15 girls in Danville. Leaving names out, I'm just going to say that red was playing blue and it was supposed to be silent Saturday. That lasted 25 minutes as the parents bitched and a coach from blue bitched. I wound up cautioning 9 for persistent infringement. I was going by Robert Evans' prescription of how to read PI and number 9 made 3 fouls in the first half, two of them in a 2 minute time span and both occasions with her bitching at me. First time I just told her off. Second time I was going to talk about it being her 3 foul, but then she opened her mouth, so I decided this would be PI and if I wound up sending her off, would add the misconduct of dissent in the the report. Fortunately after the card, she was on her best behavior. The San Ramon coach was still going at it. Mind you I hear worse at the SFSFL so this really didn't bother me that much. However, this is a youth match and CYSA has a zero tolerance. Also would be doing the next referee a favor. Also wound up cautioning the red coach after an injury, he decided to confront me rather then take care of his player. I told him he was in my book and if he doesn't tend to his player, I'll find another coach on the staff to do so. Both cautions shut them up though and I pretty much had control for the rest of the match.

Sunday was a morning game, U16 Girls, San Ramon vs. Pleasanton. It was a better game for I didn't have any problems I couldn't shut down in a heartbeat. It was pretty even in the first half, but in the second half, Pleasanton had a slight hill advantage which made the ball roll faster. The real catalyst was when I gave a free kick 30 yards out and she kicked it through a wall and it rolled past 2 defenders and the goalkeeper. The common question on both teams was, "What just happened?" Several more goals came about and Pleasanton won 7-0. I added 3 minutes of stoppage not so Pleasanton would rub it in some more, but so if San Ramon had scored one goal, it could make all the difference in the long run in the standings. Had San Ramon not wanted to play and voiced it, I would have called the game right at 40.

Took Marlena out to ride her bike. We're trying to get her to ride enough so we can get her training wheels off. She's not comfortable, but she didn't notice I raise the wheels to the max.