Another great soccer match yesterday! The players dedicated the match to Logan before the start and did well to give him a win--hopefully he enjoyed it from the bench--I was tempted to throw him in, sling and all, as the game dragged on scoreless and fresh legs were hard to find.
We really depended on all 10 players to keep up the intensity for a full 50 minutes--we will not have 10 players for the tournament and we will only have 8 during our last game against FC Idaho--so this brings up the homework--have your kids run / jog a full 25 minutes on either Saturday or Sunday. At a good clip they should be close to running 5 kilometers. They will need the stamina and leg strength for three tournament games with only 1 sub.
Game recap:
Our first shut out!! So we must credit some great goal keeping by the Tate-Jackson-Cousinship in the first half, followed by Big-Nick in the second. They tested all three keepers, and luckily we had our tallest keeper in 2nd half to deny a perfect shot to the upper left corner. Super-solid hands Nick! The defense did a good job at not allowing any 1 v 1 breakaways and we doubled up on the dribblers for the most part. We had a couple misplays in our own box where we didn't have clean traps from passes and we ended up deflecting the ball right to an open Infinity player. They were unable to capitalize, but in a tight game, we can't be gifting any goals with perfect set ups. The Aggies got both of their goals against us due to "panic in the box" during the first several minutes--yesterday I challenged the kids to come out strong from the first minute and they responded.
Set plays: We took a nice short corner kick (drop pass) and worked the ball into the box nicely. We had a strong corner cross and free kick just outside the 18, both of which landed on the far side of the goal and over the heads of all our players. The solution is to keep at least one player wide on the far side. This comes down to staying open and using the entire width of the field--both teams bunched up at times, but we often took advantage and put together a series of passes to move the ball to the opposite side. The ball movement was superb! My favorite play was the well orchestrated overlap by Nick and Dylan right at half line in the first half--we spent an hour last practice having all the kids working on overlapping each other and sending through balls to the running player. This caught the defense flat and gave us an open run into enemy territory. We had a number of break away runs (Gideon, Dylan, Nick, Tate, Ethan, etc.!) but just weren't quite able to release the ball on goal or find an open player before the defense caught up. Tate dropped his defender in the dust and managed to get a nice shot right before half but came up unlucky hitting the near post. The ensuing scramble was cleared by the defense--we need to always have players following up on the shots for easy put backs. Still, we sent a strong message to our opponents at half.
The second half had us knocking on the door with several more close opportunities--Dylan made a running effort to the far post to just barely miss a cross from the right wing--you could tell he tasted how close he was to that goal--I love the intensity, drama, and even better, the channeling of the frustration from a close opportunity into continued hard runs. Use that energy positively! We had multiple runs into their 18, but just couldn't get clean shots off. Kids: practice faking a monster shot then slipping the ball to an open teammate! We finally were able to collectively exhale as Isaac pulled the ball from left foot to right, and found the inside of the far post. I think the pull back left the keeper's view somewhat obstructed by the defender, because he didn't make any effort to save the ball--maybe he saw the dried blood on that post from Ethan's nose and decided it wasn't worth saving. Either way, the whole team looked re-energized and we had a couple more close opportunities to add to the lead. Jackson H. demonstrated a textbook header to return a defensive clear right back into their box. Gideon pushed the ball through a couple defenders, and Tate wore out the defense with sprints down the wing. And even with their desire for more goals, the kids remembered their primary duties on defense and we held off a few late attacks to run out the clock! Again, kudos to all 10 (and cheering from Logan on the bench!) to play a full 50 minutes, start to finish. Our fans were great too--your support energizes the kids.
Enjoy the Saturday break--WoverinesJD has their last regular season game against Aggies tomorrow if you want to go cheer them on at 10:30. They've struggled this season, but managed to score in every game but one--yesterday they tied Idaho 1-1, so hopefully they build on that and give the Aggies a workout.
Practices: Monday 8am; Tues 5:30pm.
Game: Thursday 5:30pm again at the mosquito pitch against "Stingerz" (Formerly TFS Lightening)--let's be ready.
Cheers,
Coach Dave
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