The Brag Thread

Technician72 said:
She just passed up her older sister a couple months ago. Currently 5'9" and just turned 12. She's the GK for the Arsenal FC 06 ECNL team.
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Nice. Mine is at 5’ 5. Good news is older daughter at 5’8 and is still growing so hoping younger one is as tall as her sister. That plus her vertical should help her game.
 
I don't have any awesome photos like @Technician72 or @socalkdg, but my brag today is that this past weekend, my DD put in a performance that "won" the game for her team.

As we all know, keepers don't win games, they save them. It's a frustrating existence because often our kids' best performances come in games where their team is hopelessly outmatched (like Tim Howard vs. Belgium a few years ago). This results in lots of games where although our little keepers stood on their heads and covered themselves in glory, the team still loses, often quite badly. Until my DD got on her current team, that seemed to be about 75% of her entire youth career. On the other side of that coin, when the team your kid is on is great, often our kids are picking daisies or counting blades of grass while the rest of the squad is launching shots and celebrating goals. The worst is when the team plays well in a tight game, but our kids get beat on that one play that decides the game. This reality means that most of the time, the GK family ride home from games involve some sort of unhappiness or frustration. "I played great, but we got destroyed." or "My team did great, but I didn't do anything!" or "I let my team down when they needed me!" It's rare when all the planets align and your kid has to play lights out in tight game AND the team is good enough to get the W. That happened this weekend for my DD and man, was it sweet.

Very competitive game where the momentum went back and forth, the other team probably out shot us, but the kid came up big, making one stop in particular from point blank range that gave her team a huge boost, and they went on to score the deciding goal shortly afterwards. Maybe it's just my experience, but these games are so rare for our keeper. Gonna revel in this one all week long.
 
I have noticed that a great save can be a huge turning point for the team. Give up the goal and the team seems deflated, make the save, and they continue to fight on. We played a team Saturday that last year we lost 2-0 and tied 0-0. First half we had about 12 shots a couple posts that had been it and we should have been up 2-0, they had 1 shot, 0-0 tie at half. 2nd half we finally break through, take 1-0 lead. On a pass back to my daughter the defender didn't see one of the players that would normally be offside except it was a pass back. Girl gets to the ball, makes her first touch, and my daughter slides in and clears it before she can make a move or shot. After that we score again and the other team never gets another shot. But knowing 12-13 year old girls, if that shot scores, who knows where momentum goes. 2 shots or 20, our kids really are doing more than most of the field players.
 
Mystery Train said:
I don't have any awesome photos like @Technician72 or @socalkdg, but my brag today is that this past weekend, my DD put in a performance that "won" the game for her team.

As we all know, keepers don't win games, they save them. It's a frustrating existence because often our kids' best performances come in games where their team is hopelessly outmatched (like Tim Howard vs. Belgium a few years ago). This results in lots of games where although our little keepers stood on their heads and covered themselves in glory, the team still loses, often quite badly. Until my DD got on her current team, that seemed to be about 75% of her entire youth career. On the other side of that coin, when the team your kid is on is great, often our kids are picking daisies or counting blades of grass while the rest of the squad is launching shots and celebrating goals. The worst is when the team plays well in a tight game, but our kids get beat on that one play that decides the game. This reality means that most of the time, the GK family ride home from games involve some sort of unhappiness or frustration. "I played great, but we got destroyed." or "My team did great, but I didn't do anything!" or "I let my team down when they needed me!" It's rare when all the planets align and your kid has to play lights out in tight game AND the team is good enough to get the W. That happened this weekend for my DD and man, was it sweet.

Very competitive game where the momentum went back and forth, the other team probably out shot us, but the kid came up big, making one stop in particular from point blank range that gave her team a huge boost, and they went on to score the deciding goal shortly afterwards. Maybe it's just my experience, but these games are so rare for our keeper. Gonna revel in this one all week long.
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Her mom must be a great athlete.
 
Mystery Train said:
She's an 05, isn't she?? That's pretty impressive.
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Yes she is. Had her 13th birthday this past weekend.

We got a conference call from her coach and the President of the club, who coaches both those teams. He asked if she could come to practice that night, and if she was available for the Sunday game. She has done a couple camps in Arizona that he was at and he has trained our team a few times and seen her play.

She was very nervous, and my wife and I pretty much told her she was going because this was an amazing offer that she couldn't turn down. She had it in her head that all the girls would be 6 foot tall and as big and fast as NFL linebackers. :p Once she saw that she was the same size she felt much more comfortable. They constantly play back to the keeper and this may be one of the reasons he chose her because that is one of her strengths.

Practice went great, and she even knocked down one of the players on a sliding save. Had at least 100 touches during the game and didn't make any bad passes. Adapted real well to the speed of the game and did even better than I expected. Needs to expect a shot at any time as they got a couple off that caught her a bit flat footed. Hoping to see a few minutes Sunday, but will be there supporting the team either way.
 
socalkdg said:
Yes she is. Had her 13th birthday this past weekend.

We got a conference call from her coach and the President of the club, who coaches both those teams. He asked if she could come to practice that night, and if she was available for the Sunday game. She has done a couple camps in Arizona that he was at and he has trained our team a few times and seen her play.

She was very nervous, and my wife and I pretty much told her she was going because this was an amazing offer that she couldn't turn down. She had it in her head that all the girls would be 6 foot tall and as big and fast as NFL linebackers. :p Once she saw that she was the same size she felt much more comfortable. They constantly play back to the keeper and this may be one of the reasons he chose her because that is one of her strengths.

Practice went great, and she even knocked down one of the players on a sliding save. Had at least 100 touches during the game and didn't make any bad passes. Adapted real well to the speed of the game and did even better than I expected. Needs to expect a shot at any time as they got a couple off that caught her a bit flat footed. Hoping to see a few minutes Sunday, but will be there supporting the team either way.
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My kid played up 2 age groups for a U17 team when she was technically U15, and it did absolute wonders for her in terms of preparing her for HS ball and elite level players on the size and speed scale. Highly, highly recommend it. Good luck to her!
 
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