possibly the best saturday of soccer ever

Claire's new soccer team, The Shooting Stars, had their first game this past Saturday morning.

It's a very cute and sweet little team, and includes two girls who were on the Super Tough Pink Puffs last year. Bob is happy to be coaching again. :)

They are actually playing their positions this year! It looks less and less like amoeba soccer. What a difference a year makes.

One of the team parents is a French pastry chef for Disney. C'est chouette, ca! :) It was his family's week to bring snacks, and they really upped the bar right away.

Typically, we throw a zip-loc baggie of grapes or orange wedges and a water bottle at the girls at half-time. These folks brought a table, covered it with a tablecloth, and had lovely fruit and sandwiches and chips and napkins . . . it was a thing of beauty. I love the civilized French. 

The Shooting Stars won, 3 to 1!  We have a little wringer on our team named Olivia who made both goals. She is adorable, and just zips down that field. You'd never see her coming, and then, bam!

I went home and washed Claire's jersey so she could wear it again that night ... Saturday evening was our AYSO region's night at the L.A. Galaxy! Bob and his dad and Claire and Tash and Danielle and I went to the game. The Galaxy was playing D.C. United. :)

We got there early, and it was fun to watch the Galaxy warm up.  They do some fun stretching thingies. 

Tash and Danielle drove separately and met us after work.  They're always fun to be with.

The reason we had to get to the game early was because Claire got to be in the Hi-Five line down on the field. Do you see the kid in the teal-colored AYSO jersey? Here, let me guide you with an arrow.

More arrows are below . . . the yellow arrow is Claire, and the red arrow is Landon Donovan.  Who, pray tell, is the blue arrow?  It's nice of you to ask.  The blue arrow is Galaxy team photographer Robert Mora.  

Robert just happens to be a friend of our very own suziebeezieland Resident Dude, Mark!

I did not know this when I mentioned in my Facebook status on Saturday that we were all excited around our house because Claire was going to be in the Hi-Five line.  Mark emailed to let me know that he knew the team photographer and that if I told him what Claire would be wearing, he'd let him know, and maybe Robert could get a few shots of her.

Is that not awesome?

Robert got a photo of Claire hi-fiving D.C. United's Julius James, below.  

"Why do you look so serious?" we asked her.  

"I was cold and a little bit scared," she said.  "And they had this Volks W. Wagon thing on their shirts I was looking at."  

"Do you mean V.W.?" asked Bob.  

"Shoosh," I told him. "Volks W. Wagon is cute."

In this photo you can see that she had just hi-fived Troy Perkins and Stephen King for D.C. United, and Edson Buddle and Omar Gonzalez had just passed by on the Galaxy side. 

{photo credit: Robert Mora}

And here's a shot of her getting ready to hi-five United's Santino Quaranta. Or possibly shake his hand. I'm not sure which.

{photo credit: Robert Mora}

I am pretty excited that we got some up-close photos of this opportunity.  Thank you so much, Mark and Robert.  

Okay, so back to the regular photos I took. :D  Here Claire is showing me her Hi-Five line armband before we cut it off.  (It was hurting her wrist.)

I tried to get a decent shot of David Beckham to show you, but this is about as good as I got. :) He is number 23 and wears red shoes, so he's easy to spot.  He came on in the second half.  

We spent most of the game being behind, zero to one, which was a bit of a surprise to folks, I think, because D.C. United has not had a good year.

But then, in the last ten minutes of the game, Landon Donovan scored a goal.  Everybody went wild!

And then four minutes later, he scored another one! And everyone went SUPER wild!

So right at the end of the game, we pulled ahead, and won! 

It was such a great day of soccer. I'm pretty sure it was the best ever. :)

You can see more of Robert Mora's quite stunning photos of the game here on the Galaxy website.  It will give you a much better idea of what the guys actually look like, and what they are capable of doing as they play.  Really incredible.

I had the funniest thought when I saw Claire down on that field hi-fiving the guys.  

"I'm a soccer mom!" I realized.

:D