The Road to 40 Day 156/365: A Taste of Victory

Vino has been training and competing with the same group of guys for a few months now, and it was nice to see them hold their own in their two games.

The Real Madrid program has two under-8 teams, separated by where they train weekly. We train around Clementi, while the other team is at East Coast. Ever since we started watching games, we’ve gotten more heartbreaks than victories.

Coach has always emphasized that developing skills takes precedence over winning, and I was made more aware of this notion because of the other parents. Our role, they said, was more to encourage the kids about the things they do well.

The hope is that if the skills are developed well, the victories will eventually come. It’s a good mindset for these kids, because they understand there are more important things to a game than winning.

In the first few games, I would see that their team is overmatched. Even the other Real Madrid team looked a lot better than them. Of course, age is also a factor here, because they are a lot younger. Currently, there are four of them who are eight years old, and the rest of the team is seven or younger.

We saw the kids cry a lot because they all wanted to win, but they just couldn’t against better competition.

One time, there were not a lot of players for a one-day league, so the two Real Madrid teams were combined to form a single team. There were maybe three or four kids from our side, and the rest were with the other team. When we won, the parents were joking around, saying “so this is what it feels like to win.”

At some point, we were asked if Vino wanted to play as the dedicated goalkeeper for the other team. Currently, there were three goalkeepers in Vino’s team and none for the other Real Madrid team. Vino thought about it for a bit, but ultimately decided to stay with his current team.

I feel like it’s more a sense of comfort, but it could also probably be because he wants to earn wins with the team he trains with, and I respect that.

On the last day of the previous tournament, Vino’s team got promoted from division 3 to division 2 because they did better than about two other teams. It was a big win for them, but coach was worried about facing even tougher competition.

As it turned out, he was right. In four division 2 games, we were destroyed each time by the much superior teams. However, our kids played so much better than the first time that they played together. Coach decided to move the team down back to division 3 so that they would be more competitive.

Their first game last week turned out to be a draw, but it was a super competitive one. It showed that their skills are just right for this division, and could improve well enough to eventually get another crack at the next one.

This week, they had two games. In the first game, they were able to score early, but the opponents equalized before the end of the first half. Our boys kept their composure though, and seized control with a 3-1 lead.

With final whistles already sounding, we were hoping that our match would also end soon. Unfortunately, the opposing team hit a last-second goal that made it 2-3 in favor of Vino’s team.

They had a break and went to their next game. Apparently, they were going up against a team that just got promoted from division 4.

The other team scored the first goal, and while our kids in the past would hang their heads, they are now looking at the next play and encouraging each other and not blaming anyone for getting scored on.

One of the boys, who got a hat trick in the first game, got two goals, while the free kick specialist scored a goal off a corner kick after letting his ball hit an opponent near the goal.

The dads, who I stand with while watching the game under the heat of the sun, are all trying to be nonchalant and just offer constructive criticism while we’re watching. But when there are near misses and almost goals, we all let out loud sighs and share laughs.

We had a comfortable 3-1 lead, but another late goal by the opponents made it another 3-2 victory instead of a 3-1 win. It’s still three points in the standings, but the goal difference might bite us later on.

I was super happy with the team, not just because they won, but because I saw them actually applying what they learned in training. Since I’m there for all the training sessions, I know the things they work on, and one of them was controlling high balls.

That exercise has been done for several weeks now, and the boys controlled all the high balls well when they fell in front of them. As a goalkeeper, Vino was always told to stop the play by securing the ball with his hands, and you could see him go after balls on the ground.

It’s satisfying to see them apply their knowledge in an actual game setting, and getting wins for it is actually just a bonus. Despite their evident flaws, they are really coming together as a team now, so I’m glad that Vino is getting rewarded with wins by choosing to stay with the team.

They are now tied for second place in the standings, but we will be missing the next four games as we will be traveling. With the way they are playing together, I’m optimistic that they will be rewarded with more wins in the next tournaments they will join.