Today was David’s fourth soccer game of his first AYSO season, and
his team, the Blue Tigers, scored two goals against the Mighty Dragons.
These were, I might add, only the second and third goal the Blue Tigers
have ever scored, and the only goals of the game. That doesn’t mean that
the Blue Tigers won–they don’t officially keep score in the
five-year-old league–but still, there was great rejoicing. We won’t
talk about the Mighty Dragon’s goalie or the fact that David was in a
brown study for most of the game.

It was a surprisingly vicious game, the most violent I’ve seen to date.
I don’t know who started it, but there were kids falling over each other
all over the field. In some cases it was benign–one kid falls, and the
next kid, who’s really nowhere near him, falls down in sympathy–and in
some cases it was accidental, like when one kid went to kick the
ball just as the goalie fell on it, and ended up doing a header over the
goalie’s back. But there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on as
well.

David, I’m proud to say, had no part in the pushing and shoving…but
given his general air of detachment during much of the game, that’s not
particularly noteworthy.