Big week of Soccer for the Stout Boys

We usually don’t get to play this much soccer.

Wednesday: Warm up for up coming tournaments. Grace’s team with Charles and Chase played three warm up games against American International School. We had three disappointing loses. The score for each game was one-nil. So that was three loses. However, that was against the American’s A, B and C team. Charles plays defensive and Chase is a striker. He also, played goalie in the last game. The only score was a beautiful bicycle kick by one of the American boys against Chase in goal.

Friday: French Tournament at the French School. Chad was on the under 9 team. They played four games. They lost the first two and won the second two. They kept getting better each time. The coaches had never worked with the team so they didn’t know who to put in goal at first. After they figured that out, by the third game, they started to win.

There is no doubt that Chad is the striker. He scored 7 goals in four games, in fact he was the only scorer for his team. However, he did make nice passes and good corner kicks. He’s funny, he looks the part of a striker (European) with his long hair.

Chase played for an International team called “Most Wanted” in the under 15. He was goalie for one game and defense for another. Most Wanted played four games and lost out in the semi-finals.

Big new from the French Tournament: Graces’ under 6 year olds won their division. It was funny to see them running around. C.J. played on this team even though he is only four years old. They needed 5 players and only had four so they asked C.J. to play. After they received a very big Championship trophy, I told C.J. that they won the tournament. He replied, “Yes, we won but we did not pass the ball!” They were a mob around the ball.

Saturday: Sir John Wilson School had an invitation tournament for under 15 boys and girls. Charles and Chase played with Grace. Grace had three games and did not make it out of their group. Charles was defense in two of them and striker for one. Chase was striker in all three. They went 0-1-2. To say the least Charles and Chase were not happy but Grace is not a powerhouse in the older boys’ soccer. They don’t have a regular coach, a field to practice on or practices. Sidenote: it was overcast and rainy today at the games, unusual for Bangladesh in February- it is usually mild and sunny.