Premier League Game #2 vs Coon Rapids
Friday, May 18, 2007 at 12:15PM 
Nice night for a game.
Today we faced Coon Rapids in our second U14 Premier League game. I did not know much about the team other than feedback from our U14 White team coach who had played against them last week. He said that CR was fairly athletic, had a talented central forward, but played boot ball most of the time without much thought of creative build up.
Regardless, I knew we’d be in for a tough game. Not only likely physically outmatched around most of the field, but also due to the fact that we were missing 3 girls; one (Bidi) in Washington, DC, for a school function (out until Sunday) and two others (Jilly and Macky) due to band concerts. I talked with Andy Kaasa, our U12 coach, and asked Cutter to play up with us to help with numbers for the game. She was excited to join us, knowing many girls on the team from the 94 ODP group, so we came into the game with 15 players.
I knew about CR’s talented forward as I had spoken with her and her family a few years back about joining our club. I think they had been close to coming but she is also a big time hockey stud and I think the participation on two high level sports teams was a little daunting for them. Just my guess here on their reasoning, but I think she would have thrived on our current U14 team.
We were also scheduled to play on a huge, 120x75 yard field at Bielenberg (Woodbury) and our girls would have to work hard against the bigger, faster, and stronger CR girls.
We started a bit slow and CR dictated a bit more of the play in the first 10 or 15 minutes. Our girls settled in nicely though and soon began taking control of the game with good side to side field changes and more control of the center of the field. We didn't create a ton of chances, but didn't give up many either. I could tell though that a number of girls were off their game though, not as sharp as usual and tiring easily on the big field.
The half ended 0-0.
I talked to the girls at halftime about the communication and organization of our back four, challenging the girls to realize when some of them could push forward due to superior numbers in the back (many times we’d have our back 4 sitting back in our attack when only 1 CR forward was staying deep. I also talked about playing a bit more quickly in the middle of the field as the athletic CR players were closing down our central midfielders hard.
We talked about our training session yesterday regarding early crosses as Nash (RD) had been able to serve in a number of dangerous early balls from her right back position. I reminded the girls that they needed to stay tuned into the play and “read” Nash (and our other wide players) to better anticipate the early deliveries.
Lastly, we talked about not giving any of the CR defenders easy clearances. Most of them could hoof the ball up the field 40 or 50 yards and I wanted the girls, the forwards especially, to do what they could to disrupt the CR defenders' concentration on the ball by applying pressure. This was the same on aerial battles as many of our girls wouldn’t challenge a header they knew they couldn’t get to. They needed to know that even if they had no chance of reaching the ball, and body to body challenge for the ball would not give the CR defenders, many of whom could head the ball very well, free headers. Even a little contact could go a long way to forcing inaccurate distribution.
We came out and played much better in the second half. Knocked the ball around better and looked more dangerous on the attack.
20 minutes in, I was still a bit frustrated about our back four defending positions when we had the ball in the attack, so I yelled out for Hannah (playing central defense) to push up as a stopper and have Becs (our other central defender) play sweeper, looking to sandwich the CR center forward while allowing Hannah to fill the gap between the defense and midfield. Most of the game I had been looking to have either one of the central defenders push up to challenge the lone CR forward, and most of the game the girls were not able to grasp the concept. My fault as I know we need to address this in training, not in the game. I can’t expect them to just pick it up without more work. I sometimes forget that I’m dealing with 12 year old girls. Most of the time they do stuff that is more suited to players years older than they really are and it’s easy for me to expect some stuff that really shouldn’t be expected.
Sure enough, less than a minute later, we lost the ball at the top off the CR box and they booted the ball up to their forward. Hannah was caught too far up, as were our wide defenders, and the CR forward went 1v1 on Becs. Our three other defenders tried to recover, but no one was able to get into a decent cover position behind Becs. The CR forward cut back and forth at the top of our box, split Hannah and Bec, and slid to push the ball past an onrushing Mudd (GK) from about 7 yards out.
Tough break, but my fault for not giving Hannah more explicit direction about pushing up but still focusing on defense.
To the Tsunami girls credit, we battled back. After only a few minutes, Millie was sent on to goal on a breakaway due to a misplayed ball from one of the CR defenders. Millie collected the ball about 50 yards from goal and was off to the races. The only problem was that Millie’s 11 year old legs when dribbling aren’t much of a match for 13 year old legs without a ball, so one CR defender was able to catch her at the top of their box with two others close on her heels.
Millie wove back and forth, turning the CR defender inside out and then slipped a square ball to Ripper, who had made a 60 yard sprint from the right side of the field to get herself into a very dangerous position. Ripper took a touch past one of the recovering CR defenders who tried to stab at the ball, then another touch to about 6 yards from goal. She shot the ball right at the CR GK and it deflected up off the crossbar into the air. Ripper adjusted her position and headed the ball into the net to tie the game. Honestly, I couldn’t believe she hit the GK from that distance, but her ability to stay focused and finish the ball with her head was neat to see. It was a great creative effort from both our forwards and a memorable goal, that’s for sure.
I looked down at my watch. 9 minutes left. As I was thinking about what to do, how to play the girls for the last 9 minutes to try and push for the winner, I heard their coach ask his bench, “Didn’t that ball bounce off the top crossbar?”
Field #14 at Bielenberg has the goal posts that also double as football uprights. Meaning, that there is another crossbar a few feet above the soccer crossbar, supported by three or four vertical uprights. I don’t know how their coach, from 70 yards away, could possibly have known that the ball hit the top crossbar, but he talked himself into it. He stepped onto the field and began yelling at the top of his lungs at the official that the ball hit the top crossbar and was out of play. I didn’t think much of it as I saw, or thought I saw (from 50 yards away) the ball clearly hit the normal crossbar. Moreover, the ref had signaled for a goal and was even beginning to make notes in his notebook as the girls ran back to midfield. However, I glanced up to see the ref walking over to the AR, confer with her a bit, then point to the goal indicating a goal kick should be taken. A goal kick. What?!?! Not even a corner kick, seeing as the ball deflected off the GK up into the crossbar. I was stunned.
Looking back at it now, maybe should have fought more on the girls behalf. The only reason the ref even thought about the possibility that the ball was out of play was because an irate coach was making a scene. As the CR coach was yelling, I could have also began yelling that the ball clearly did not the upper crossbar, but to be honest, the thought didn’t even cross my mind as I thought what just happened (the ball hitting the normal crossbar) was obvious. But instead, the girls on the field looked at me in shock, asking me what the call was and complaining about the resulting call as they also knew where the ball hit. Having been preaching the Controlling the SEA mentality (focusing the girls' energies on things under their direct control - the calls the refs make not being one of them), I told the team that the ref was not going to change his call and that we needed to continue to fight for the equalizer. “But the ref did change his call!” they said. I didn't know how to respond.
In the coming minutes, I got more and more frustrated that the other coach could have even fathomed taking issue with the apparent goal from his distance and from his angle at goal, and frustrated with myself for not contesting more the ref’s decision. My frustration was compounded by the thought that my miscommunication with our defenders had a direct result on the goal that was scored. This frustration was unfortunately passed onto the players as I found myself getting on girls for simple, 12 year old mistakes. I know they were all giving their very best on the field, but in my state of mind it wasn’t good enough.
The game ended 1-0, I put a smile on my face that didn't touch my eyes I'm sure, and shook hands with the CR girls, their coaches, and the refs. I asked the AR about the call and she said she couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it looked like the ball hit the normal crossbar. So the ref changed the call on his own, in reaction to a coach's comments. That's a bit depressing.
During our post game team talk, I still couldn’t get control of my frustration and found myself pointing fingers and calling players out on the mistakes that led to the goal on us. I talked about looking at these mistakes from a development and learning perspective, though I know some of my words stemmed from my aggravation at the moment. I also mentioned that it was a tough game for us today as a number of girls were not at their normal level and they needed to reevaluate what they did earlier that day (what they ate, participation in track, etc) and try to find out what they could do better to better prepare themselves for future game. These aren't pros... why would I say that?!?! I mentioned that they couldn't expect to always come out and have good games, but usually when 1 or 2 are sub-par, many others would be there to help pick up the slack. Today, we just had too many girls not up to their usual standards. It was not a very positive conversation and one that left me more frustrated later that night and is still bugging me this morning.
I’ve been to many regional and national events at which I’ve seen coaches of younger girls teams absolutely berating their players on the sidelines. Getting in their faces, pointing fingers, highlighting individual mistakes, etc. I vowed I would never be like that. Though I don't think I'm near as bad as many coaches I've seen, I have found myself as of late with a shorter fuse, with less patience for mistakes and disruptive behavior at training and at games.
I think I've begun to feel the pressure of coaching in a higher level club, a club whose top teams at each age group have an expectation of getting results. I constantly preach against this train of thought, but I can't help getting caught up in it, even when coaching at the younger age levels. I don't want to succumb to the pressure, mostly self-imposed pressure, of State Cup/Premier League performance, though admittedly this is difficult to avoid.
Late last night and this morning, I took some time to read through some of my thoughts posted on this site as well as some of the other thoughts I've penned but have yet to post. I helped remind myself that this is a game, a game for the girls. These are 12 year old girls who are battling in the top U14 league here in Minnesota. This is not about me, and all about the 17 girls in my charge. I know these girls respect me as a coach, and this respect has allowed me to be able to get on them harder than I could if I didn't have this respect. But they didn't deserve to bear the brunt of my frustration last night. They all know that I'm helping them be the best players they can be, but I could see the negative effect my words had on some of them and was ashamed of the hurt looks I received from some of the girls after the post game talk. At least I thought they were hurt looks... maybe I was projecting. Is that even the right word to use here?
I can't let any of this carry over into this weekend. If I go into this final State Cup with any attitude save the "right" one, and if we get into tight situations, I run the very real risk of not being as positive and supportive as I can be... and this negativity will surly not help the girls perform better in needed situations.
I need to aplogize to the team tonight. I need to make it a priority to get back to being ultra-positive on the sidelines at our games, and it will have to start tonight. I need to see the girl for what they are, for how fast they've developed, and for how far many of them have come in 3 years. I need to be content in the fact that I've selected the best possible players for this team and that I've prepared them for this weekend to the best of my ability. I need to take my eyes off the prize, so to speak, and really appreciate how the long hours of work have elevated many of these girls' technical abilities far beyond those of the average U13 player here in Minnesota. I need to make sure the girls enjoy this experience of a possible realization of a long-term goal. I need to sit back, relax, and enjoy watching the girls play.
This writing is cathartic.
Reader Comments (1)
Your post (and some of the other posts on this site) reminds me of the Tom Cruise "show me the money" movie. He comes up with this brilliant piece of insight into the chaos of the modern world agent/athlete relationships and is basically laughed out of the office (though many proclaim to support what he has done to his face). I think there are many out there who perceive what you are doing as marketing in nature, but take heart that there are many, including myself and colleagues, who find your work inspiring and beneficial.
Good luck to you and your girls this weekend, though I know luck will have very little to do with their performance.