Layla's First Soccer Game

A little crying, a little dancing and, in the end, a little soccer.  Our girl took the field for the first time today for AYSO U-5.  The format is different from the older leagues.  First there are not set teams.  When you arrive you are assigned to a field with 7 other girls.  There is a coach who does a couple of drills with the kids (about 20 minutes) and then they play a 3v3 game for about 20 minutes. 

The first drill involved a sort of tag game, which Layla was wary of.  She doesn't really like people in her personal space, much less being touched by them.  After a little crying (on her part) and cajoling (on ours), she joined her teammates in the drill and was very enthusiastic to play in the game. 

She hasn't quite got the hang of dribbling toward the net but had a few good kicks when the ball came to her.  We parked and walked with another family with are friends with from preschool so the girls could play together for the first day.  They had a really amazing time!

(Okay, it's probably fair to say that I was much more excited about this than anyone else.  I'll give Layla a close second.)  

Ready to go in her over-sized uniform, also referred to as a 'unicorn' several times this morning! 

Dribbling and shooting drills

Jayden and Ryan at the first, and definitely not the last, soccer game for their big sisters. 

 

Layla and her buddy, Alaina

Alaina really did well and scored several goals.  She passed Layla the ball a couple of times to they could 'do teamwork'.  Pretty sweet stuff.  Watch out GBS, freshman phenoms are only 10 years away!