Game 7 recap

That was an exciting finish of the regular season! I could barely fall asleep last night recounting all the plays. Three games ahead of us in the tournament and if we play like we did last night we should rack up a lot of goals. That was quite a shoot out last night and I think our stat keeper said we had 6 to 1 shots on goal the first half. We struck early when Nick picked off a goalie kick at the 18 and put a confident shot past the keeper on the ensuing one on one for his first goal of the Spring season!!! Always nice to see one of my keepers rewarded with a goal on the "other end". A bit later our opponents equalized with a one on zero?! (Not sure how we had nobody in the box, but it was an open net--no keeper, no defenders). I let our midfielders know that they have to play defense as well as offense and we have enough subs that we should always be sprinting in the midfield. We kept up the pressure and on his second corner kick from the left side Zane placed a perfect curving shot into the net at the near post as the keeper found himself a few feet too far out and could not handle the kick. Another first-season-goal! Go Zane!!! A perfect shot like that comes in part from a good feel for the ball on the foot, and Zane holds our juggling record at 21. Remember, the kids get a gold start for their jersey for every 5 juggles. We went into half with the 2 to 1 lead and kept up the offensive pressure in the second half. Our defense continued to put up some good saves, but would also completely disappear at times and we saw a few more one on one and another one on zero goal (they had two very fast strikers). The boys were all clearly hungry for goals and kept up the offensive pressure (a bit at our defense expense) but it paid off as Gideon put on some fine foot work to move the ball up the left wing where he sent a laser of a shot burning the ground into the far post net--another first goal of the season! Go Go Gideon!!! We finished the scoring streak with another set piece by Zane from about 10 feet outside the 18...before the kick I saw him practicing placing his plant foot down at an angle facing the far post, and sure enough the ensuing kick landed perfectly at the far post where the keeper misjudged the curving ball and it slipped into the net! Gooaaallll #2 for a hardworking defender! That was an "inzane" kick and I'm submitting this word to UrbanDictionary.com. We had some more scoring opportunities, including a one on one, but didn't quite get the goals and time ran out with the score sitting at 6 to 4. I think everyone played incredibly hard and this was a great back and forth effort that could have turned either way. Of course my favorite plays were the ball skills and passing--I challenged the kids to complete four drop passes in this game. We had a series of five completed passes (starting with two drops) in the first 15 minutes (Pizza Party!!!) We probably finished with over 5 solid drop passes and an equal number of forward or lateral passes. My other subtle but favorite play was when Tate contained the ball on our side line, shielding the ball from a striker who didn't want to poke it out of bounds but couldn't quite get around a patient defender--when the striker did move to get on the other side of the screen Tate dribbled the ball right up the side line and sent it into the offensive half. I've really been working with the kids to have the confidence to hold onto the ball, even in our defensive end and not panic when under pressure. Every single kid has raised his game a level since start of the season. My other two favorite plays late in the second half where when on separate occasions Avery and Dylan sprinted from offensive positions all the way to our goal line to make key stops. Dylan thwarted the cross. In Avery's case it allowed Isaac to jump on the ball with outstretched hands, but alas, the striker kicked the ball out of the hands and a goal was awarded. Perhaps it shouldn't have been, but my advise to the kids is to politely point out what you considered a foul to the ref, and he will nod and politely ignore you. It goes both ways so it is part of the sport to learn to brush it off and focus on the next play, which we certainly did last night. Keep your players working on fundamental skills at home and we'll see you Monday at 3:30 for practice (please send your kids to school with water bottles!) Thanks