Sometimes, a tie is a win. Certainly a tie is better than a loss, but if you had a chance to win, that would be better… except when you know that the tie is a win for you.

Last night, I missed a good game. Dad watched, giving me the score updates. 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2. They were ahead, but we never were.

And I won even though I missed it. Why did I miss this game? Not because of the chilly, wet weather and because I didn’t want to watch. Sometimes you have to divide to conquer.

I was at the “fields”, but I was with our older daughter working the snack stand – someone didn’t show up for their shift – maybe they thought it was cancelled because of the light drizzle we had at the fields for 15 minutes – but it wasn’t, so I had a night of hanging out with my eldest. It was a win for me.

I was at least 100 yards away and up the hill, so, sort of able to watch bits and pieces, but I know my younger daughter’s moves. She has her own unique style vs. the other players. I wasn’t watching at all the right moments, because I still missed some great defensive moves which saved the other team’s score from being higher.

She likes playing defense.  She isn’t the absolute best player on the team. She likes the social aspect of the game, making new friends, being part of the team. She’s getting better every year and she is smart about when she has a shot to kick the ball back up field, to the goalie or out of bounds to stop the other team’s momentum. She helped them even if they didn’t win – and I am so happy about that – even better that she knows the tie was better.

Could we have won? Possibly. But, not likely. They have better offense and are more aggressive. If I recall correctly, last time we played that team, they CRUSHED us. 0-5. Maybe it wasn’t that bad. We’ve played games with final score of 1-5, maybe that was the score when we last played them. But, in the end it doesn’t really matter. They played hard. They learn every time they play a better team and they improve. They tied.

I am proud of her (and her older sister, too.) Overall the night was a win.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl