Blue Devils won their first game

My team won their first game. Some people are still talking about the late heroic goal that won the game, but had I not spoke up, we would have never had that goal. So let's talk about what happened.

Before the game: Greg (the other coach) and I hashed the game. Being that we're U10 house we play with 8 players on the field instead of 11. This left us with a formation of 3-2-2 which is what I had in mind because I wanted a solid back. Greg wanted a 2-2-3 because he wanted a strong attack and he noticed that those who played it did well for scoring. So I made a deal with him. We used one of our girls as an anchor player and observed the formation of the other team. If they played a 3-2-2, then we were going to play a 2-2-3. Which is exactly what happened.

During the game: With the exception of one player who suddenly developed stage fright at the beginning, we played very well together. We got a first goal from that one anchor player we pulled from the back to the forward. We held on that lead until 20 minutes we're up and the referee blew the whistle for halftime....while we were goal bound.

I did tell myself that I was not going to play the "I'm a referee" card and for the most part I didn't have to. The referee crew knew who I was and I can tell they were intimidated. I kept my mouth shut to them until this point. I calmly walked over to the crew and I asked, "Ref, how long are the halves?"
Ref: "She said 20 minutes."
Me: "Who said?"
Ref: "She said."
Me: "Who's she? Oh, you mean ____?"
Ref: "Yeah."
I turned to walk while I pondered my options and what I had to do to right things didn't sit well, but I had my team to think about so I went back and said, "You have two options here. You can pull the team out and play the remaining 5 minutes and then play the second half 25 minutes or you can start the second half and you are now obligated to play 20 because the laws of the game mandate equal halves. But if we lose as a result of the latter decision we're going to be playing under protest. You're choice."
I turned to walk away and she said, "We..We'll play the remaining 5 minutes." Good decision!
Of course she restarted incorrectly with a kick off for us which would have been protestable itself, but I kept my mouth shut. Should have been a dropped ball.

So as a result of the decision we had a tying goal in the 20 minute from the other team. Our anchor gal came back at the final minute to give us the game winning goal. The referee went home and probably said, "Whew!"