Exciting Soccer Weekend

It was off to beautiful (yes, I'm kidding) Lake Oswego, Oregon for a soccer tournament this weekend with my daughter's team. Unfortunately, we visited in the midst of a heat wave that brought 100+ temperatures and a humidity that can best be described as Minnesotan...or Hellish.

It was all worth it, though, as the little princess' team won the championship! This was very exciting as it was the team's first tournament championship in 3 years together. They are a talented little bunch but have underperformed the previous 2 seasons. They seem to have it working now. Two weeks ago they came within a whisker of winning the Diadora Cup, only losing on penalty kicks. And now, they've bagged their first championship trophy. And these are high level tournaments they're competing in. To get to the finals, they had to get through the defending Oregon State champions in the semi-finals.

They played some great soccer at times this weekend. At other times, when they couldn't get the style of soccer they wanted, they did what they had to do to win. After the championship match, I heard the losing coach telling his team that they were the better team, but things didn't work out their way. It's true that the other team created more pressure and more opportunities over the balance of the game (our keeper made an astounding 12 saves in the game; I think we had 4 or 5 shots). However, at the end, we had 2 goals and they only had 1. I think that makes us the better team. I couldn't help recall former University of Washington football coach and NCAA basketball gambling analyst Rick Neuheisel's famous retort when University of Oregon coach Rick Bellotti complained that his losing Ducks played better than Slick Rick's triumphant University of Colorado team in the Holiday Bowl: "Scoreboard, baby!"

Champions are the team that perseveres, that finds a way to win on the off days, as well as the days when everything is working. Champions are the team that surrenders individuality to a collective goal and purpose. Champions are the ones left standing after all the punches that could be thrown have been thrown.

It was wonderful to see these girls be the ones that jumped and screamed as the referee blew the whistle to signal the game's end. They willed themselves to victory. And, I was happy to see my daughter place the corner kick that was slotted home by a teammate for the game-breaker!

I was elated to see these girls - my daughter amongst them - achieve a goal they'd worked so hard for.