gatorcast from paul smith

Evan played his first soccer game in several years.    Evan and his team have nicknamed him “Super Zero”.  It’s from the idea that he is at LEVEL ZERO in soccer.  He didn’t take it as a negative but rather as incentive to “increase his levels”.  In fact,  he kinda liked it.   Apparently all of Evan’s friends on the team have been playing for more than 4 years together and are quite good.  Evan played with them more than 2 years ago.    He really enjoyed himself and I think he is now higher than level 0.

Tonight Evan & I watched Cameron’s St Pats team beat Queen of Peace Academy.  We went down to the Sports Complex in Ocala.  It was the 1st game in a tournament and since we won we get to come tomorrow too.  Yea!  :>  

The kids did great and it was a battle all game.  The weather turned windy & colder, a brisk 65 for all my friends in the North.  Here are a couple of shots of Cameron.

This afternoon I watched Cameron play goalie for St. Patricks.  WOW!  It was awesome to see cameron playing soccer again.  I loved the way he played a commanding leading role for the team.  As the keeper, he was constantly praising each of his team members and giving them direction.  Constant communication.  

As a kid I played soccer (never keeper) and Cameron has it down.    As he put it after the game, “Dad, the Keeper is the coach on the field.”  Even though it was not a strong opponent, he stopped all that came to him.  He had a strong defense.  I think Kathy R. stopped 4 times on score atempts.  

Evan played Goalie today. Not his first time, but a first for playing the entire 1st half. He stopped all goals! His teammates thought he was great. Here is is getting ready to make one of the stops.

Evan is starting to understand how to play. Today he also played left wing. His skills have drastically improved from last season. :>

He was fan favorite and almost scored a goal on a corner kick. He actually made the quick decision to try it. It was funny, everybody was like “man he almost made that”.

Landon Donovan (left) and the U.S. team got their first-ever World Cup point in Europe.
And tie Italy 1-1 to stay alive.

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USA 1 – Italy -1