Conversations such as, “Oh man, Rooney is hurt, should I trade him and take a penalty?” or “Did you see how many points Torres got this weekend? I should have made him the captain!” are commonplace around here. No, we’re not the multi million dollar owners of an English Premier League team, but enthusiastic participants in the EPL Fantasy League. The girls’ coach was looking for a way to encourage the his players to watch and learn from the Premier League players, so he created a private fantasy league (easy and free here) and told the girls the champion would win the jersey of their choice.
The girls enjoyed setting up their teams and choosing names (Megchester United is my favorite name!), players and uniforms. Along with promoting soccer skills, setting up a team also uses some higher level thinking skills to stay within your budget, but sign your desired players. I heard about all sorts of methods for player selection including picking the best looking players and the “meanest looking” players. I helped little soccer girl set up her team and she was very deliberate about who she picked. I mostly stayed out of it, but I did encourage her to pick Joe Hart from Man City because he’s a great keeper (Oh, and I think he’s cute! lol)
Now that we’re almost two months in, some of the girls have been faithfully stewarding their teams, while other “girls teams” are really being run by dads. Good natured competitive talk still abounds at games and practice fields. My hubby and the coach are neck and neck and keep trading the first and second spots. (I had to break it to my hubby that he wouldn’t be getting a jersey if he won…) It’s a loooong season so we have a way to go before crowning a champion… I’ll keep you posted.