Youth Soccer: Injuries Mounting

Game 19

My son, Nic, and my daughter, CC, each had games at 1:30 today. My wife and I needed to divide and conquer. We decided to let fate decide who went where.  Rock, paper, scissors is our fate game of choice. I lost so my wife got to decide. She opted for soccer, perhaps 3 baseball games in one one day was too much for her. She opted out of the middle of the three games.

Sometimes a team's record is a direct reflection of how good they are. Sometimes a team's record is determined by injuries. CC's team carries 9 girls for the 6v6 soccer format. The team is now down to 7 girls. One girl is in a boot with an ankle injury and today the team's number one goalie broke her hand.
The injury to the goalie will impact my CC as she will need to play goalie a lot more minutes now. This will impact the team because CC is one of the leading scorers on the team.

The team lost 3-2 today. CC had a goal on a PK.

The Main Point

Coaches love to have a short roster of the very best players. Each player gets more playing time. Each kid gets more touches on the ball. And this makes the members of the team better. It also makes life easier for the coaches. Substitutions are less complicated and more playing time means little Suzie's mom or little Johnny's dad will not have anything to complain about. The is great until the injuries happen.