Katherine plays Futbol Sala, or indoor soccer, in Spain. This was her first foray into Spanish immersion, and I am so proud of her for it. None of the girls on her team speak more English than, "Hello." One of her coaches, Pedro, speaks pretty good English, and actually tutors my girls in Spanish. Kilian doesn't even know, "Hello."
This is an Under-14 team, so most of the girls are actually Elizabeth's age, which creates quite a gap in size. As you may be aware, girls in this age range can vary dramatically in body shapes and sizes. Katherine is Lilliputian compared to these giants, but she has worked very hard and earned their respect. The girls are all very nice and have welcomed Katherine as much as a mascot as a player.
Sunday was Katherine's first match. She is a portera, or goalie, which is the same position she played in the USA. The girls here are toting cannons for legs, however, so I was a little nervous for my little daughter. Katherine sat out the first half, while Miriam, the other portera, played. We were ahead 4-1 at halftime, so Katherine had a nice lead to start off.
We ended up losing 8-5. Not a great beginning to Katherine's futsal career. It wasn't pretty, but Katherine played hard, making several good stops. I cringed at every goal, expecting to hear THAT parent say something under her breath about how, "Maybe they should give her a little breather, bless her heart." I'm sorry, but it's almost always the mama that does that. The daddy is too busy dog-cussing the ref to be worried about the players. It's a nice division of labor, actually. That's the closest they probably get to teamwork all week long.
It helped not being able to speak the language, but I don't think the parents were really being that bad. They were actually encouraging the girls and the team, even Katherine. That was nice. Coming here is hard enough without having to make Susan post bail for me, after I knock out somebody for talking bad about my baby girl. I am a Redneck after all and civility only goes so far.
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