{"id":8283,"date":"2016-09-16T18:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T18:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/09\/16\/watch-2-elite-soccer-players-take-on-a-pack-of-8-year-olds\/"},"modified":"2016-09-16T18:05:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T18:05:00","slug":"watch-2-elite-soccer-players-take-on-a-pack-of-8-year-olds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/watch-2-elite-soccer-players-take-on-a-pack-of-8-year-olds\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch 2 Elite Soccer Players Take On A Pack Of 8-Year-Olds"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bill Chappell<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What happens when two talented 36-year-olds face off against 30 8-year-olds on a soccer field? We now know the answer to that question, thanks to the LA Galaxy’s Robbie Keane and midfielder Steven Gerrard.<\/p>\n

The match was the finale in the LA Galaxy’s “Ridiculous Soccer Challenge” series<\/a>; we also found it to be good fun as we reach the end of a week’s worth of serious news.<\/p>\n

Despite the youngsters’ show of energy and talent, the two former Premier League captains prevailed, thanks to the wiles they honed in long pro careers and a collective 260 international games. A key component of Gerrard’s and striker Keane’s game plan was generous spacing: They often kept a player in each half of the pitch.<\/p>\n

But the kids from the “beehive,” as the announcer called them, made a game of it, with one girl picking Keane’s pocket to defuse an early threat, and another youngster showing a nose for the net \u2014 scoring both of her team’s goals.<\/p>\n

Keane scored the difference-maker late, using nifty footwork to get the ball past Lilliputian defenders, one of whom he high-fived after popping the ball into the net.<\/p>\n

With the final score at 3-2, the announcer said, “We’ve come to the end of this one, as the team of Gerrard and Keane will get the win \u2014 and orange slices for everybody.”<\/p>\n

Let’s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> (Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/09\/16\/494260196\/watch-2-elite-soccer-players-take-on-a-pack-of-8-year-olds?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n

What happens when two talented 36-year-olds face off against 30 8-year-olds on a soccer field? We now know the answer to that question, thanks to the LA Galaxy’s Robbie Keane and midfielder Steven Gerrard.<\/p>\n

The match was the finale in the LA Galaxy’s “Ridiculous Soccer Challenge” series<\/a>; we also found it to be good fun as we reach the end of a week’s worth of serious news.<\/p>\n

Despite the youngsters’ show of energy and talent, the two former Premier League captains prevailed, thanks to the wiles they honed in long pro careers and a collective 260 international games. A key component of Gerrard’s and striker Keane’s game plan was generous spacing: They often kept a player in each half of the pitch.<\/p>\n

But the kids from the “beehive,” as the announcer called them, made a game of it, with one girl picking Keane’s pocket to defuse an early threat, and another youngster showing a nose for the net \u2014 scoring both of her team’s goals.<\/p>\n

Keane scored the difference-maker late, using nifty footwork to get the ball past Lilliputian defenders, one of whom he high-fived after popping the ball into the net.<\/p>\n

With the final score at 3-2, the announcer said, “We’ve come to the end of this one, as the team of Gerrard and Keane will get the win \u2014 and orange slices for everybody.”<\/p>\n

Let’s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> (Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}