Soccer Update

Thought I would give you a little update on how things are going for the girls in soccer.

Soccer
The girls started practicing last week on Monday with Buitenveldert SC in Amsterdam. This club has the largest girls program in the Netherlands. To get there, we take the tram. They have practices two times during the week.



The club is in a great location. It is right off of the tram line and they have three turf fields and a clubhouse that are surrounded by city buildings. I love the way it looks as they play under the lights. I'll get some better pictures but here are a few with my phone.



The experience has been great, but joining the club mid (soccer) year has been challenging. Teams were set and we are trying to work with the club to find a spot for both Grace and Amanda. I am so proud of the girls and their efforts so far. For Grace, all the team members and the coach she has practiced with are Dutch. The coach speaks in Dutch to the team and Grace just has to figure out what they are doing by the way she demonstrates a drill or by asking a teammate to translate it for her. I know soccer is soccer, but it still must be a somewhat intimidating situation. The head of the girls program has not yet decided what to do with her as far as assigning her a team. Until then, she continues to practice with the 1st team. She has practiced with them 4 times now and it seems to be a good fit for her. They have 5 teams in her age group, many of them very full. The age group is 2001 and 2002 birth dates. They play 11 v 11 on a full size field.

For Amanda, there are a couple native English speakers on her team so that helps a little. She does have one coach that does not speak English, though, and some of the Dutch girls can not speak English very well either. Again, so proud of Amanda and her efforts. Amanda's age group is 2003 and 2004 birth dates. They play 7 v 7 and play on half of a full sized field. This level is much more laid back than in the US. No offsides, goal boxes not clearly marked, substitute on the fly, etc. She has not yet been officially assigned to a team, but they did have her play in a friendly last weekend so Amanda was the first to wear the Buitenveldert uniform:



The game was at Haarlem DSS. The 2nd team in Amanda's age group recently had a set of twins move away so they actually need people to help out (unlike Grace's age group). She played goalkeeper one half and forward the other. She scored a goal and had a good time. Her team won 4-0. Unfortunately the weather was cold, windy and rainy. We were all soaked!

After every game, they shoot penalty kicks. The kids enjoy it. A dad of one of the daughters on the team has a theory that they instituted that because the Dutch team lost a big game a few years back due to penalty kicks. It is a nice way to have kids get comfortable with penalty kicks against another team!

After the game, we went to their clubhouse and watched the women's 1st team from our club play another team for a few minutes. Both girls have coaches that play on the women's teams for the club.