Soccer!!!

We went up to Redding (out of all nice places in California:-) for the State tournament. This is the first time we took part in so the expectation was low. Luck has conspired to avoid Fury (actually more like justice avoided our team:-) we were not going to the next round, losing at the 4th tie-breaker. This is still pretty good for the team, only one team out of 4 teams advance, and by drawing, our bracket is the one who only send out one team.

We won two games: 3:0, 2:1, and drew one game: 2:2, the other team had 3:0, 1:0, and 2:2. According to FIFA rule, we advance, but according to this tournament rule, they do (they rank points, head to head game, goal difference, goals allowed, goals scored). Everyone was heartbroken, we prepared champagne (cider of course) for the kids but still we toast what was a fantastic tournament. It's great to watch them taking on teams with big kids, with latin american style passing team, without substitutes (two of our key players were at Hockey tournament). Best of all, the game was like a mini-world cup (at least for the parents). To top it off, four of the boys got stuck in the closet (the hotel had a defect lock that shouldn't be installed) and they were stuck there for 1 hr, and fire department had to be called in:-). It was a great experience!

Just a few photos of Takeru playing.

Slide show with personalized music

A slide show mostly of Takeru and Ruri fooling around. The music "To a wild rose" by Edward McDowell, played by Ruri on Tenor recorder, Takeru on Piano. They are practicing for their recital, and this is their first take. I'm looking forward to more.