re: "Unlucky" -- the participation trophy of soccer tems

I think you have completely missed the boat on this one. Kids make mistakes in all sports but there is a difference between soccer and other sports.

Soccer is a difficult game to get tactically. The best players often are not the greatest physical specimens but the ones who can break down the game to the instinctual level in their heads.

For instance, when a SS misses a base hit up the middle it is poor execution, there isn't much thought that goes into it. He needed to get to the ball and make a play. The kid is not an adult is not the complete player he will be physically.

Or when a receiver drops a ball or fails to catch one, those are execution issues for kids. These are related to poor execution from kids who are not yet at full potential.

The same thing applies to soccer as they are kids who have not yet completed their technical or phsyical development. When the failure is technical/physical in nature (strike off target, pass too weak or strong, failure to run down a pass into space, turn or touch into the open space let down by an inability to control the ball, etc) but the tacial decision was correct then you want to encourage a repeat of that behavior (even if the action was a failure), not scold a kid for failure to execute due to a poor physical or technical issue. Hence the term unlucky, usually in the same breath as the statement "good idea".

It is a way to express to kids that their tactical action was correct but the execution was lacking. You want them to continue to make that same decision in the game until (hopefully) their technical and physical ability catches up to their tactical decision making. That is how you develop a complete soccer player. If you scold a kid for poor execution they are much less likely to make that same (correct)desicion in the future.