3v3 Soccer Tournament- Live Cincinnati

Alyssa is playing on a 3v3 soccer team this summer. She's on a team with three of her CUP teammates. The girls came up with the name for their team: the "Mighty Minis." Alyssa, being on low end of average height wise is the tallest girl on the team (although two of the girls on her team made a lot of head way (pardon the pun) recently and are very close to her in height). One of the girls is really short (although she's a great soccer player :)). Anyway, the name Mighty Minis really does describe them: smaller than average yet better than average ;).

3v3 soccer is a bit different than regular (8v8 for the girls' age group)/ traditional soccer. There are obvious similarities, the most obvious one being that the "goal" of both 3v3 and traditional soccer is to score more goals than your opponent to win the game. Here are a few differences:

• There are no goalies in 3v3. Scores tend to be much higher in 3v3 games than in traditional games. To somewhat ameliorate that...
• The goals are smaller than in traditional soccer. Also, there is a point at which players can't cross that's close to the goal. In other words, players can't take a shot from right in front of the goal. Players have to be a little ways out (not sure what the length is).
• The field is smaller than in traditional soccer. That makes sense since there are fewer players on the field.
• There are no throw- ins when the ball goes out of the bounds. The ball is kicked rather than thrown in.
• The games are only 20 minutes long- two 10 minute halves.

There are probably other differences but those are the ones that come to my mind.

Most (if not all) 3v3 soccer players play traditional soccer and do 3v3 during the off season to get more touches on the ball, have a different, yet similar experience from traditional soccer, have a chance to play other positions, etc.

The Mighty Minis played in a tournament over the weekend, the 3v3 Live Cincinnati East tournament. It was held in Batavia, OH, somewhat near Cincinnati yet somehow seeming like it was in the middle of nowhere. Oh well, we weren't there for the location or for the condition of the park (not great) or the bathroom facilities (awful- port a potties :(). We were there to play/ watch the girls play 3v3.

Alyssa's team, a 2006 team, had to play both 2006 teams and 2005 teams as there were not enough teams in each age group. The Mighty Minis did great! They beat their first three opponents easily (11-4, 8-2, 8-2 were the scores). In the semi final, they had to win to make it to the final game. They won their semi final game 5-1. Then they made it to the final. They played an 05 team that was good.

I mean, the Mighty Minis are good but this team was much better. They lost in the final game 2-10. The last game was disappointing but not surprising. We knew some of the girls on that team. Also we knew the scores of the games that they'd played prior to playing us.

It was fun to see Alyssa SCORE! Since she plays defense almost all of the time in traditional soccer, she gets very little opportunity to score. She's definitely defense minded so playing defense is a great spot for her. But, there was something special about seeing her stuff the ball in the net a time or two or eight.

Here are some pictures from the games.

She was too close to me for me to get a picture that shows much...

Again, she was too close; I'm pretty sure the ball was at her feet here...

Alyssa has just scored here (isn't her excitement OVERWHELMING??). I never got any shots of her shooting the ball into the net. I wanted to concentrate on watching and not taking pictures.

She mustered up a little more excitement as she approached her teammates/

Another goal, more excitement (lol).

I'd like to think that pony tail- up- in- the- air action is because there's a spring in her step following her goal.

 Getting ready for a pass- in

After another goal... we'll call it subdued excitement.

Celebrating with a teammate- I love this picture

Mama's pretty girl (and mama is not at all biased...)

Mama's tough girl (and that's the truth...)

 

 

The final game- the girls changed into their other jersey for the final game. I only took a couple of pictures. The wheels fell off the bus pretty quickly in this game

Runner's up- the girls did so well!!

The girls pose with the winning team

By late Sunday, Alyssa had strep throat. She didn't get diagnosed until Monday morning but she had a fever/ sore throat on Sunday. She was starting to not feel great on Saturday. Proud of her for persevering and playing so tough on Saturday.