Crossfire tournament

We drove up to Bellevue/Seattle last weekend for the enormous Crossfire soccer tournament -- both kids' PCU teams were competing in the gold/top tier division. And since we were all there, it was a great opportunity to see mom and dad. We had a lovely short weekend together -- we got to catch up on news, we ate lots of good food (thanks to Steve's research), we watched quite a bit of kids soccer, and the grandparents took Liesl to see Barbie on Saturday afternoon. 

Liesl's team went undefeated over the weekend, scoring lots of goals and letting up very few. They won the final 2-0 against the host team, Crossfire.

 

 

 

 

Seb's team started off strong, winning their Friday afternoon game. But then they were half-asleep for the Saturday game at 8 am, and were crushed 4-0. They came back that afternoon and played really well in the first half, going up 2-0. But then they missed some easy goals and let the other team back in, ending in a 2-2 tie. That was disappointing and could have been the end, as only the first two teams in each bracket went through to playoffs. Fortunately, they made it through, and played in the semifinal on Sunday at noon. 

 

That was the craziest game I've ever seen. It ended in a 2-2 tie and went to penalty kicks; two of the first five were saved, and then every single PK was scored from then on -- no misses, no saves. They went through the entire lineup twice -- 44 penalty kicks in all -- and Seb's team finally won when the other team's goalie missed his shot. It was insane. After all that, the final was a tough game. It was late on Sunday afternoon, the boys were tired, they were short on subs, and it was their 5th game in 3 days. They lost 1-0.

Meanwhile, we strolled with Jasper around Bellevue's very modern downtown, enjoying the parks and infinity fountain and live music. We also went to a huge off-leash dog park, Marymoor, where Jasper got to run and romp and swim in the Sammamish River.

 

And as I mentioned, we ate well: this was breakfast at the Barking Frog. We also had Chinese food at Dough Zone, yum.

 

I bought this cashmere scarf for mom at the Spitalfields market in London.

Championship photos!

This photo is of the boys after their 44-pk shootout. It was a crazy victory. Unfortunately, as you can see, Seb is in street clothes. He was fouled in the Saturday evening game and sprained his wrist badly. We went to the local ER for x-rays, and fortunately it isn't broken, but he couldn't play on Sunday at all.