"Hey, Djordjevic -- your kid cost us the game!"

The Playmaker's first exposure to organized sports was soccer in kindergarten. That led to basketball and baseball. The next year brought flag football. Since that kindergarten year, he has probably played in over 125 organized games. He's probably won 100 of them (and four championships). No lie, during those 100 wins, he was probably directly responsible for the majority of them. (Certainly the football, basketball and soccer ones.) As for the 25 losses, we honestly can't remember any of them being the result of his play.

That's not bragging. That's fact.

This past Saturday, that changed.

The Fire lost their soccer game, 1-zip. The Playmaker was the goalie. He faced seven shots on goal. He stopped six of them. The one he missed came late in the game. And it cost us. Even though he allowed the goal, he had a ton of help. His two fullbacks had their heads up their asses somehow allowed a two-on-none break situation. The Playmaker got aggressive and came out and attacked the kid with the ball. He nearly got his hands on it, but, alas, the kid was able to pass to his teammate on the right. By the time The Playmaker scrambled back to the net, it was too late. The kid had scored.

We watched from the sideline to see what Our Son would do. He's not used to failing athletically and does not take kindly to losing. We saw his body tremble just the slightest bit. Then he gave the ball to the ref, dropped his head and headed back to the net.

We were proud of how he handled the situation. Interestingly, one of his teammates did not handle the situation at all. In fact, he yelled out The Playmaker's name in disgust. Ironically, the kid was one of the fullbacks who effed up on the play. He is also the head coach's son. (We are the assistant coach.) We said nothing. (Kind of awkward when it's the head coach's kid.) Payback will come, however. And it will be far-reaching. The kid is someone we've "carried" on our various sports teams from season to season. Never again will that kid play on a team we coach. And if his parents are dumb enough to ask why, we will be honest.

Your kid's a frigging asshole!