Julia Keeping it real as the Goal Keeper

On Tuesday, September 11, we all got to attend Julia's 6th grade soccer match.  It was our first time seeing her in her ISB Dragon's Uniform.  The team played Dulwich Academy, which is a British school here in Beijing.  Half of Julia's ISB team was on a mentoring trip, which took the majority of the decent players.  The first half was kind of ugly, actually the whole thing was but we will choose to see the glass as half full here.  Julia scored 1 goal for her team, and this little girl for the other team was running around our defenders like Lionel Messi and by the end of the half it was 5-1.  Julia had been running non stop without a break and was huffing and puffing pretty hard.  The goalie for our team (who does not usually play that position) was in tears, so Julia offered to go in and play keeper. (IKR.....I know that her Moline United teammates are laughing right now)  Julia is a good player, but if you know her, you know she does not like balls coming at her face!  She is most likely to duck!  She went out there and literally had about 35 shots taken at her.  Much to our surprise she did great!  Every time she made a save or had to punt the ball she would turn around and smile at us.  Only 2 squeaked by her but she did us proud!  After the game she was all smiles.  I asked why she played goalie and she said, "Mom, are you kidding me?  Did you see the score?  There is no way I was going to let them run the score up any higher."
Most of the kids on the team have never played soccer before and they definitely need more practice, but they came off the field smiling and still having fun, so isn't that what counts???  Oh who the heck am I kidding.  This sounds good and I really want to mean it, but anyone that truly knows Kelly and I knows how competitive we are.  It was killing me on the inside but again, I missed my calling, because I gave one heck of an Academy Award winning performance and just smiled and said, "Way to play girls!"  And I meant it.....not really, but kind of!  They really truly are a great bunch of girls though and have many other talents.  See.... cup half full again!!

ISB Dragons logo on the school

Here is your proof...............Julia playing Keeper (gloves and all)