The girls officially joined SC Buitenveldert last month!
Amanda has joined ME2. M stands for meisjes which is the Dutch word for girls. E is the age group (Birth Years 2003 and 2004). The club has 6 teams of girls for this age group. They had a set of twins move away so they had space on the team for her on ME2. She practices jointly with ME1 and has played one game with ME1 when they were short a player. All of the other soccer clubs use the same abreviations so you always know whether it is a boys or girls team, the age group, and ranking of the team for the club (1st team, 2nd team, etc). Honestly, the level of play is not quite at the level of her team from Ohio, but we are so glad she has a team and gets to play soccer with a Dutch club. She continues to play one half in goal and one half on the field. We look forward to the fall where she will move up an age group and be one of the youngest players. The club uses the month of June for evaluations to determine what team she will be on in the fall.
It is interesting that many of the rules are just not enforced at all at this level. No offsides, no attention to where feet are or if they are pulled in throw-ins, and usually no goal lines drawn for the goalkeeper. Goalkeepers can punt on a goal kick. At half time, a parent will bring out a pitcher and a set of cups for the girls that has water or a gatorade type drink (Aquarius is the sports drink here...no gatorade or powerade!). It is very laid back and there is not a lot of serious discussion of what they need to do in the second half. Also, it is my understanding that at Amanda's age group they are not allowed to practice headers. It is ok if they head a ball during a game, but it is not practiced.
In Grace's age group, all of the teams are full. There are five teams in her age group D (2001 and 2002 birth years). They decided to have Grace train with MD1 and then if there is a girl that cannot make it to a game for MD1 or MD2, Grace plays for that team. So far she has been able to play all weekends but one. We really appreciate that the club did that with Grace. It is tough to join a full soccer club half way through the season. We have been told that they have turned other girls down completely and then there are a few others that are allowed to train with some of the lower teams but don't play in games. Grace plays more often with MD2 because players from MD1 are not absent very often. Last weekend, though, she actually played with both teams so that was nice for her. MD1 is closer competitively to what Grace was used to with her old team. They play in a boys league for regular league play.
They also compete in the Cup which is when they play other girls teams. I don't know the official name of it. It is the closest thing they have to State Cup that I have seen. They also do that for Amanda's level. It is a tournament that lasts the whole year (fall to spring). It is single elimination. They play a game about once a month. The team Grace practices with (MD1) has won all of their Cup games and is still in the tournament. Amanda's team (ME2) lost before we arrived in the Netherlands, but the ME1 team is still in the tournament. During their last Cup game, Amanda played with ME1, scored a goal, and they won.
One thing that we absolutely love about it here is the club has one location for their fields and a clubhouse. Our club has three full-size turf fields and two smaller turf fields. We are lucky that the girls practice on the same nights each week and while they are practicing, I often sit in the clubhouse. In fact, I am sitting in the clubhouse right now working on this blog! Having a clubhouse is great! Each club has one. It is a wonderful place with WiFi to hang out with other parents, grab a snack or a meal before or after a game, and a place to get work or homework done during practices. Ok...so sometimes it is still a little difficult for me to hang out with the other moms at the club. Individually they are all extremely nice to me and we have good conversations in English. When they are all together, though, naturally they speak Dutch and I kind of just stand there since I have no clue what they are saying!! My Dutch lessons start on Monday but I'm sure it will be a very long time before I will be able to follow their conversation in Dutch!! The clubhouse has a bar as well so you can get a beer if you want too! From the front of the clubhouse you can see field 1. Here are a few pictures:
Finally, the girls soon have tryouts for the spring soccer team for their school. Their school (ISA) has a U15 team and a varsity team for girls in the spring. The tryouts are supposed to be for grades 6-12, but they have said that Amanda can try out. It is our understanding that these teams aren't as competitive as club teams but are fun and a great way to make friends at school. If they both make the team, they will play against other international schools and will have their end of the season tournament in Bonn, Germany in May.
