Soccer Tournament

Soccer tournament day. Ileana and I left the apartment with Mr. Xue at 12:15. We stopped by school to get Alejandro and to follow the bus. We pulled out of the parking lot around 12:45. We finally arrived at IST in Tianjin around 1:40. Mr. Xue just can't follow things. He finally gave up and drove to the school. Thank goodness it was at the same school as last time otherwise we would have been lost again.


Soccer games started around 2:15. It was an overcast day which made it great. It was cool too. The first game the other team came out and they were all way bigger than Cameron (who is the biggest on our team). We lost 6-1. We found out later it was 4th and 5th graders on the team. That explained a lot. Our kids did good and tried hard.

We have arrived.

 

Alejandro was so happy to eat a cucumber.

Warming up.

Herman and Cameron practicing.

Team meeting.

Cameron going after the ball.

After game one I had to run over to the cooler to get Cameron's drink. By the time I got back they had started the second game. Cameron looked at me like he was going to die of thirst but he was on the field so no drink. He played awesome. He was running all over and making some great plays. He threw the ball in to one of his teammates and the kid kicked it in for a goal. He also dribbled it (i think that's what you call it)half way down the field, shot, and the goalie just stopped it. Shoot. They won 2-1. Finally he could drink. Boy was he red and hot.

Alejandro hung out with me.

One tired boy.

The third game they tied 0-0. Again Cameron ran his booty off and he did great. He almost scored. He was off to the side of the goal a little and shot. The ball rolled past the goalie who was out too far obviously because another kid went behind him and kicked the ball out. It couldn't have been an inch from crossing the goal line. We all thought it was in. I'm still not sure how he didn't score. Heck of a good try.

Some how with their record they played in the championship game. They played the team they lost to 6-1. Yikes! Our kids did better against them the second time. We lost 3-0. With about 4 minutes left Cameron got ran into by one of the kids. The kid hit him in the ribs and as Cameron was going down the kids knee hit him in the eye. Cameron went down and I could tell he was hurt. He was down about 10 seconds but then rolled over and got up but he wanted to bawl. I had already jumped up and went down the sidelines (not on the field like I wanted) to make sure he was ok. He looked at me with the saddest look ever but kept playing. He was still running after the ball but still looked like he was in pain. As soon as the whistle blew the tears were coming. He looked at me and I told him he was ok and he went to shake hands. When he came over to me he told me what hurt...mostly his side which he was holding. We made it through closing ceremonies looking like he wanted to cry. I felt so bad for him but I was proud of him for being tough and hanging in there. Peter said to me "see that's the difference with foreign kids. Here Cameron was hurt bad but continued to play. All the Chinese kids trip and acted like they are dying and went out of the game". This was true for all 4 games. The Chinese kids rolled around acting like they had broken bones as the ball was going around them.

Cameron couldn't wait to shake hands and be done.  He was in pain.

Waiting for the trophy presentations.

Cameron, Manuel, and Alfredo.

He still looks sad here.

TEDA International School Soccer Players.

Still trying to get pictures done.

The 4th grade team.  Notice the kid sitting in back pouting.

Coach finally made him stand up.

Great buddies.

This is how the boys spent their time on the way back home.

We made it back to TEDA around 5:40. At 7:15 the Carrasco children came up so that Ileana and Fredy could go out to dinner by themselves. We had Jacky's delivered. The boys played wii and had a Nerf fight while Marcela and I talked. It was fun to have a girl around for a change. She had a lot to say. She even told me about the Mexican English and the Mexican language. The funny thing is she was trying to say Spanish. I'm not sure why she couldn't get that word out since that is what she speaks. Such a silly girl. Alejandro crawled up on my lap to watch Monsters Inc. while Marcela lounged on the couch. The other two boys went back to having a Nerf war.

Off to bed. Cameron decided to sleep with me.