Coach Tyler sent Emilio back to the defensive end early in this match against division-leading Midwest City.
Emi did a good job of slamming the door on the possessions that came into his area.
This sequence of photos shows how one of their attackers got frustrated with Emi's stellar defense play and expressed that frustration with a trip.
To his credit, Emi just keep on playing. No foul was called.
Emi starts as attacking midfielder in the Ada Soccer Club's co-ed U-16 first match of the year against Harrah. The match is played in the rain on the ECU soccer pitch. Emilio makes several excellent through passes to his forwards, but we are behind 2-0 when Coach Tyler calls him to the sideline to take a breather.
I expect that Emi will not see the field again until the second half, but with a few minutes remaining in the first, he goes back in, fields a throw-in, gets a pass back, dribbles past three defenders into the box, and gets off a shot under the left arm of the Harrah keeper. You can't actually see the end of the play very well in the video below because other players blocked my line of sight, but that's the first goal of the season. It was followed by a sloppy chest bump with Carl, that I did not catch.
One minute into the second half, Emilio runs down a through ball in the box, gets past the keeper and executes a deadly strike from an acute angle to tie the score, 2-2.
Sam is the first to congratulate Emi, and then Carl and Emi manage the chest bump they flubbed earlier in the game.
Twenty minutes into the second half, with the score 3-3, Tyler moves Emi back to defense, and I take some photos.
