Futebol Sunday

This blog is about soccer. Everyone is welcome to read it but it's mainly for Bronwyn and anyone else who cares about soccer....and our sons. We know some people really hate soccer so you've been warned. 

Yesterday was futebol (soccer) Sunday for our family.

First we had an awesome house church with our Brasilian family. Right after that we had to take two boys to two different games.

Anderson had the first game. His team got beat 2-0. He actually plays futsal which is soccer played inside a gym on a court that looks like it's for basketball (same dimensions, hardwood, etc. but it's for soccer). Smaller kids start off playing futsal because it helps with their skill and ball control and really prepares them to move, as they get older, to the soccer field.

Anderson had three great shots on goal but just missed on all three. Hit the post on one of them. He was disappointed but he played great.

His pre-game warmup is worth the price of admission. I'll try to film it next time to share. Knowing Anderson you can imagine what his warm-ups might look like.

Before we left for the game he made a sign with his name on it. He encouraged us to raise up the sign and yell for him whenever he did something good. We did and he loved it.

He got a medal. He was in heaven.

Garrett had a game in another city. He took the team bus so we only heard his report of what happened.  It works out better for him like that. Ever since he was a small kid he's always preferred that we stay away from his games. He's told us that he's worried that our big family might yell loudly and embarrass him.  Like we would really do something like that. Very offensive.

His team also got beat 2-0. They played against Inter (our favorite team) school.  He played against guys that were 2  years older than him. When he called after the game he was frustrated because the guys were so much bigger than his team.

Garrett is one of the starting attackers (forward) and so he was constantly going up against these great big defenders. He said they were really shoving him around. It didn't help that he was recovering from a fever over the weekend and said he felt weak. He complained before the game, before he even knew that he was going to be playing older guys, that his legs felt dead. Not a great way to start a game. But after the game he said he didn't think it would've mattered if he had been at full strength because these guys were just so big. The worst part he said was they would just hang all over him and then burp in his face and blow on him. We laughed, he didn't.

We assured him that playing against great big guys like he did would only make him better when it came time to play against guys his own age. And 2-0 is not a horrible score. Of course he didn't agree but he took everything in stride (as is his nature) after the game. He never gets too bent out of shape with stuff like that.

Anderson and I ended our day with a game at Beiro Rio.

We have a friend (our mechanic) who has given us a free ticket to every Inter game this year. Kids under 12 always get in free so Anderson and I have been taken in as many free games as possible. You can't beat seeing your favorite team play for free.

Yesterday started off 2-0 against our team and we began to think it would be a day of 2-0 defeats. Canoas did those two goals in about 16 minutes. It didn't look good for us. We were playing terrible. Anderson then informed me that he thought it could still be 3-2 or 4-2 in our favor by halftime. I agreed on the outside but on the inside I knew he was nuts.

It was 4-2 at halftime. I won't doubt Anderson again.

We ended up winning 6-2.

We had a great time.

Here are your highlights.