The Road to 40 Day 117/365: Vino’s Test of Fire

Vino had one of his most goalkeeper-heavy training sessions today, and I think he passed with flying colors – which was the real highlight of the day.

Che wasn’t feeling too well since the day before, so she decided to stay home on this day. After I took Vino to school, I arrived home with her having a few bites of Spam and bread for breakfast.

Since I slept through most of the episode we were watching the night before, she played back the episode so that I could get the context of what I saw at the end. Unsurprisingly, I fell asleep again.

But I saw enough of it to move to the next episode. We had last night’s dinner for lunch and watched a different K-Drama, Head Over Heels, after eating.

She fell asleep while we watched, so I took that chance to clean the dishes and prepare to pick up Vino.

Che doesn’t really get sick often, but when she does, she really shuts down. I don’t know how else to help her but by letting her rest as much as she wants or needs.

I went to pick up VIno from school. He has club activities today, but there wasn’t a lot of information about where I should pick him up. I told him I’d get him at Red Dot, but when I saw that no one was there, I decided to go with all the other people who went to Blue Dot.

After waiting a bit, Vino came and told me that he was at Red Dot trying to wait for me. Apparently, they were not brought down by their teachers like they were last year. He told his teacher that I would be at Red Dot, and he was allowed to walk there by himself.

Anyway, we agreed that I’d pick him up at Red Dot tomorrow after his club activities. He had football training on this day, and we had an hour and a half to burn.

Instead of going home, I decided that we should just eat some snacks at the nearby hawker center and head straight over to the place.

Vino had two and a half char siew paus, so he was either really hungry or just didn’t eat so much during lunch. He also almost finished his juice.

I had prata, as per usual, which I thought would be enough to last me through dinner.

When we reached the training grounds, we were told we could only come in at exactly 6pm. Before, it was 5:40, then it became 5:45, and now, Vino wouldn’t even get to play before training. I was told their school team was training until 6, so we would have to wait so as not to disrupt their training.

The coaches set up their pitch while they were kicking high balls to practice control. When they started their session, they practiced forward passing before going for a goal. I guess the coach found it as an opportunity to get more goalkeeper reps for Vino.

Vino dealt with a lot of easy shots because his teammates can’t get on the same page, but he was also swatting a lot of good shots. I think it was a good confidence booster for him. They’ve been losing by a bunch of points, so sure, he has his faults in games, but his team can’t generate offense as well.

They’re kids, and everyone just wants to get a touch and kick the ball to the goal from practically anywhere on the pitch. As a result, they usually get bunched together because they don’t really pass to each other.

This drill tried to address both issues. It allowed Vino to get used to facing attacks, and it let the players practice teamwork and positioning.

When it was time for their usual games, they were joined by a few U9 kids to play against the rest of the U9 team. After Vino made an error that led to a second conceded goal, coach approached him to give him a few reminders and tips.

Most of this game was played in the midfield, as both teams kept fighting for the ball but not really getting good positions to get into offense. The opposing team had more of the U9 guys though, and Vino did have to save a lot of shots.

At some point, coach used Vino as sort of an avatar during one of the attacks, so that he could understand what coach was saying about moving forward and back when defending.

In the end, they lost 5-2. Vino was a bit sad, but he wasn’t crying about it. I feel like he’s getting used to this being a sport. He had a lot of bright spots in this session which he should be proud of.

When we got home, Che was heating up the frozen Ippudo ramen kit I got last week for Vino’s dinner. We were both not hungry, but I told Che to eat Vino’s leftover ramen so that she’s not without food in her stomach.

They played together for a bit while I cleaned up the table and myself. Though he won’t admit it, Vino was tired, and Che was still trying to gain back her energy, so it was a pretty early night for both of them.

Since my body clock needed me to sleep closer to 12am, I watched a bit of Running Man before I turned in.

Planning on doing a couple of things tomorrow, so I didn’t fight off sleep. Hopefully, weather permits my plan to go through.

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