Pre-Game
With an early game, Janie, J. R. and Rebecca headed to Wide World of Sports while the boys headed off to the parks, with plans to meet up at the Magic Kingdom in the evening.
Vs. Louisiana
The Fireballs first game was against a team from Louisiana. We matched up favorably and played hard but were also playing against the referee who didn't understand 3v3 rules. He whistled us on an opening kick for not moving the ball forward although the rules say the ball can go in any direction. He also allowed the other team's coach to slow down the play of the game by holding up in-bounds kicks for subs when the coach was still talking to the sub and didn't have them ready to go in. Worst of all, he called a goal on a corner kick that bounced off the post and went behind the goal. But we also had self-inflicted wounds with a bad bounce off a corner kick leading to an own goal and two shots clanging off the post leading to a 4-0 loss.
Spiderlings
The girls came out strong in the second game, fueled by Jif Peanut Butter, Little Bites and Go-Go Squeez. The 5-3 win over the eventual Silver Division fourth-place Spiderlings gave the girls confidence, especially after being up 4-1 and seeing their lead dwindle to one goal and then getting an icer late. Olivia, Molly and Emily all picked up goals.
Knock-Out
After lunch at WWoS, we were ready for our first game in the knock-out round. Unfortunately, the fire from the earlier game had gone out and the girls came out flat and fell behind early. A late rally closed us to within 3 but the final ended up 4-8 and we were out of the tournament. There were a lot of wet eyes from the girls who had come in with high hopes of playing for a trophy.
Magic Kingdom
To ease Rebecca's pain, and as a reward for playing hard and not getting down on her team, we ordered her a personalized T-shirt and then hopped in the car to meet the boys at the Magic Kingdom. They were just getting off a monorail from Epcot when we got to the TTC and all together, we caught the monorail to the MK. The park was more crowded than we had ever seen with two hour waits for number of rides and even a line for the Peoplemover, which was unheard of. The effects of new Fantasyland and Splash Mountain being down for refurbishment added to the holiday crowds and we suspected Space Mountain must have been down for awhile as well as Disney's app showed no wait times during part of the day. Still, we managed to get a Dole Whip, ride Pirates, see the Haunted Mansion and pick up late FastPasses for Thunder Mountain. By night fall, the crowds were starting to disappear so we managed to ride Space Mountain twice, Buzz Lightyear, Thunder Mountain and a few Fantasyland rides. Alex and J. R. begged off around midnight and took the car back to the hotel while Janie, Thomas and Rebecca closed down the park at 2 a.m.
