"During my first youth game at a South Pasadena field, I stood behind the goal and whooped, 'Yes!' when my son's team scored. A moment later, the referee walked over to me and said in the polite but stern voice of a good cop: 'You can't cheer if you sit behind the goal.' I must have looked perplexed, because one of the moms sitting next to me explained. 'Yeah, that's a rule. They say cheering intimidates the goalkeeper.' The little soccer hooligan inside me wanted to say: 'Of course it does. That's the whole point!'"

-- Los Angeles Times columnist Hector Tobar on learning a kinder, gentler soccer in AYSO's South Pasadena, Calif., league than he was used to living much of his life in Latin America. (Los Angeles Times)