Soccer Champ

These are pictures from the Spring Cup 2007 Simi Valley Soccer Tournament. This is the first time Mikale has ever played goalie and she had over 30 saves. This also says alot about how important she is in her defensive position as stopper. When she is playing goalie the defensive line struggles. She did so well her coach asked her to play goalie full time but she loves her stopper position so we asked for her to only play goalie part time. She had a shut out the first game, then allowed only 3 goals in the second game, and allowed only 1 goal in the third game. The first two goals were over her head and there was no way she could get to them. The next two were in the corners and she dove and actually got a glove on the ball but they were strong shots and just made it into the corners. Her coach Rick, who is not easily impressed, could not say enough about how she played. He said there were many times that he thought for sure the ball was going in and she was able to block the shot with either her hip, diving, smacking the ball down and out to the side, running out to beat the offense to an incoming ball, and even sliding and falling on the ball at the offensive players feet twice. We are very proud of her, she said she spent the whole time bored waiting for a shot on goal and scared that she'd miss the ball.