By far, my favorite game of the season (not because I'm a masochist and happy we lost!), but because we never gave up--down by two very early we fought the entire time. I was very impressed with every player. I was glad to see a few of the kids use the signal for "sub me out!" when they ran out of steam. With two subs we will rotate kids in and out rapidly on these hot days. The kids left every bit of effort they had on the field.
We did a great job with passing, a few passes came up short, and the kids learned the hard way that a missed pass means a rapid sprint in the wrong direction (toward our goal) to head off the counter attack--we did a good job slowing this down and getting back on defense. We had some out of this world goal keeping by Jackson H. in the second half to deny several strong shots. On the offensive end we took a number of good shots and forced their keeper to make some saves. Shots that have gone in against weaker teams were denied--but this is what we want in an opponent if we are going to keep improving. We were unlucky with a couple shots going over or wide. Some shots were not terribly strong, but they were on frame, and the strength will come--the hard part is getting open and finding the space to shoot, so we are doing good on that aspect. I thought we matched their level of play (or vice versa?) and hopefully we can finish in the top four to have another shot at this team during the post-season tournament. We need to keep working on endurance since we can't have any development players during the tournament. Unfortunately Logan will still be out with the broken collar bone, so we'll only have 9 eligible players. Let me know if you will miss any of the remaining games so I can make sure we always have at least 9 players by adding a development pass player (I've got Nick down as missing our game against Idaho, and we'll pick up Sergio from FC Bayern for that game). Idaho is struggling, so we should roll through them.
I had a couple favorite plays today on the defensive end (which were balanced by "least favorite plays", also on the defensive end!) First, we never gave any easy, unchallenged one on one break aways: that was a whole team effort and I was really happy to see the kids covering each other. Everyone ran, and when they couldn't, they let me know and we got them a quick rest. We also met the ball and made defensive interceptions--toward the end when Kyler was the last defender on the right side he ran in front of the striker who was lazily awaiting the ball to arrive to him. I'm not sure if Kyler read my email after the game against Sport Logan where I gave a bullet list of options for that situation, but he made an excellent choice and it worked. If he were to miss the ball, then we are counting on other players to sprint to the middle to slow down the attack. Ethan did a good job today helping out in back while still making dangerous attacks into the offense. Least favorite plays were when we tried to make clears and just kicked the ball into awaiting opponents--I'd rather we take Trent's approach of controlling the ball and looking to dribble / pass it out. Just don't make any lazy passes in front of our own goal please!! Another defensive mishap was when we deflected a ball off a knee toward our own goal and Nick thought he'd be penalized if he picked it up. This was a two part problem: do not deflect shots toward our own goal (get your body in front of that ball)--this is what happened when Sport Logan swung and sliced Jackson Weaver's lob shot leading to a goal; Second, we've covered this many times: keepers can pick up balls that are not clear passes. Even if it looks like our player touched the ball last with his foot it is not a pass if he is defending. We are also better off getting called for a hand ball than giving up a goal. So drop passes to the keeper can not be picked up, but a defender who partially deflects a shot toward our goal can be picked up by the keeper. If we head or chest the ball intentionally to the keeper he CAN pick that up. We'll be rotating new kids though this position, so everyone needs to know this rule!
I'm happy we came away with a strong effort and no new injuries--we'll have another fun open practice on Monday, 8am, Mt Side. Tuesday 5:30 practice as usual, then we host the Infinity Premier team on Thursday. Aggies only beat Premier 3:1, so we are in for a tough opponent. We own them a thumping, and I expect the kids will be ready. I'll continue to intermingle "carrot" / "stick" psychology in my coaching, but as parents, let me know if any of the kids are feeling bad about themselves and are in a sensitive mood. This is a solid group of kids and I wouldn't trade a single one. Thanks again for your strong support,
Coach Dave
P.S. Quote from my older kid to me when I was playing in our final game of Kenton's cup 4 vs 4 tournament: "Dad, make a personal goal to keep yourself in this game for a whole two minutes before asking to be subbed out!" (its hard work out there and we all sometimes forget this!)
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