Premier League Game #6 vs Coon Rapids

As I was dumping my sugar for a slow count of 10 into my medium Starbucks light roast in a big cup, I was thinking about what I was going to write up about our game last night.  By the way, good for Starbucks to begin offering to put the smaller sized coffee orders for people who want room for cream into larger cups.  Brilliant!

I guess I should get the Starbucks lingo down right, but even though I make the coffee stop almost daily I still feel resistance to submerging myself totally in the Starbucks coffee culture.  I order the same thing every morning, a medium light roast in a large cup.  The same red-haired-twenty-something-loud-obnoxious-female-coffee-connoisseur behind the counter always gives me the I hate you! look and yells out “A Grande house blend in a Venti cup?”, stressing the “proper” Italian (or whatever it is) verbiage as if a complete imbecile just placed an order.

You all know the I hate you! look I’m talking about.  It’s the look you give the guy that’s been driving the speed limit in the left lane when you eventually pass them on the right.  It’s also the look you give in the rearview mirror of the car in front of you in the touchless wash that uses the full 90 seconds of the air dryer time, or the look you give the car behind you in your rearview mirror in the same wash when they drive up and begin their wash before your dryer time is done.  You can also give this look to inanimate objects, like to your laptop when it takes an excruciating 9.6 seconds to load Windows as opposed to the usual 5.2.

With me and the Starbucks ginger-haired she-devil, it’s now gotten to a point of all out verbal war.  We eye each other as I enter the establishment and I see her eyes narrow in concentration for the upcoming encounter.  I wait my turn as she helps others in line before me while she constantly sneaks peeks (on her tip toes) of hatred in my direction over the top of the cash register that she can barely see over.  I steel my nerve as I approach my turn, eagerly anticipating the inevitable good vs evil verbal battle that is about to occur amid the taupe, rust, and mustard colored walls.

“Good morning!” I say cheerfully.  Her lips twitch slightly.  “One medium coffee in a tall cup?” she asks sarcastically, speaking slowly and emphasizing the clearly incorrect terminology loudly for all to witness my apparent lack of brain function, all the while looking around at her co-workers and customers with a smug look that says look at this guy, he doesn’t belong in our Starbucks world.   Actually, I say, I’d like a grande decaf triple shot marble mocha macchiato, extra white mocha, no whip, no foam, extra drizzle (chocolate), sugar free vanilla, and with 2% milk.  Extra hot please.

It had taken me nearly one hour to memorize the order in my car in the Starbucks parking lot, but the look on Beelzebub’s face was worth every minute.

I have no idea where I was going with this story.

* * * * *

This was our second game against the Coon Rapids team.  Having lost the first match up 1-0, we knew a little bit more about what to expect this time around.

We were not going to beat Coon Rapids’ defenders in many foot races over the top as 3 out of 4 of them were faster than our fastest player.  We knew we would be in for a physical match up all around the field and knew that there were a few dangerous players up top for the north Premier team who could cause us trouble.

It was not a good first half for us.  We could not seem to get control of the ball anywhere on the field and to Coon Rapids credit, most of the half was spent in our end.  We earned a grand total of zero corner kick and didn’t test the Coon Rapids GK once.  Mudd (GK) was kept busy, but nothing too threatening save one good opportunity by the opposing team.  A fast Coon Rapids attacker broke through up our left flank and fired a low, hard shot to the far post that forced Mudd to get to the ground quickly and parry the ball.  She pounced on the loose ball, and while her hand was on it, another Coon Rapids forward came rushing in and bullied the ball over the goal line.

As the Coon Rapids girls began celebrating, I saw the young AR across the field raise his flag then put it down.  I didn’t want to make a sour grapes scene, but remember the feeling of the officiating encounter in our first match up with the same team earlier this year and how bad I felt that I accepted a referee decision that I maybe should have contested.

I stood up and yelled out to the ref to please talk with his AR.  The ref looked at the AR who was walking back up the field, then looked back at me questioning (as the AR was not looking to get the refs attention).  I made the motion of raising a flag and pointed to the AR, and the ref jogged over to the young man for a chat.  The AR must have seen what I saw, that Mudd had a hand on the ball giving her possession prior to the collision with the CR forward, and the apparent goal was disallowed.  I didn’t hear much from the opposing coaching staff, so they must have seen the same thing.

If a neutral observer watched the first half, there would be no question in their minds who the more dominant team was.

At halftime, we talked about a few key points.

• Our wide players need to have the confidence to take more risks and attack opposing defenders when in 1v1 situations.  I challenged the wide mids to stop looking to get rid of the ball as soon as they got it and instead try to get to the endline for crosses or to win corner kicks.  I made it clear that I, as a coach, would be more disappointed if a girl didn’t try to take players on wide in the attacking third that if a wide mid did go 1v1 and lost possession.  This (the attacking third) is the place for risks.
• We struggled with some defensive clearances in the back, and I reminded the girls that which ever defender was going for a challenge, the other three should be sprinting back and to the middle of the field in the event that the aerial challenge is unsuccessful.  Better safe than sorry.
• I wanted our outside back to recognize when they could direct the wide mids in front of them to get into the attack more, especially on the weak side of the field. 
• I talked about the center mids being our unsung heroes. They are the workhorses and the glue that holds the team together. They must work hard to constantly find space when we are in possession for everywhere on the field where we have the ball, there needs to be a central midfielder option. They are the link players that link our defense to our forwards and one side of the field to the other.

I made a few position changes for the second half.  To try and gain more control of the midfield area, I dropped Ripper back from her forward position into a central midfield role.  I pushed Nash back to right defender and looked to get Bidi (who was playing that position a lot in the first half) up top and in midfield.  I pushed Blondie up top (she had been playing wide mid) and looked to use Sting more as a wide player.

The second half was all us.  A complete opposite of the first 35 minutes, the very great majority of the second half was played in the CR end.  The girls were relentless on the attack, creating a number of great chances at goal.  Ripper’s physical presence, work rate, and aerial ball winning ability helped us tremendously in the middle of the park and this was one change that I think really helped turn the tide of the game.

As the half went on, we got better and better, bolstered by the confidence of successful attacks on goal, near misses, and 5 or 6 corner kicks (our wide players got the message at halftime and were way more aggressive to the endlines).

Starting at around the 57^th minute, we created a number of dangerous scoring chances, two of which I couldn’t believe didn’t end in goals.  Both our best chances involved combination play and low crosses and final touches inside the six yard box, both touches went directly at the GK.  It seemed more difficult to hit the GK that hit the rest of the goal in both, but that’s the way it goes.

CR still created some chances on their own, with most of their threat coming from long free kicks from midfield over our defending line that Mudd had to make sure handed grabs on with big girls in red jerseys sprinting at her.  Their best chance came of a corner kick when the ball fell to a CR attacker about 12 yards from goal.  She hit the volley well over the net, but it was a solid chance.

At the final whistle, it we still deadlocked at 0-0.  I might be projecting, but I think the CR team felt a bit lucky to get away with a tie.  I would have if I was them as we were clearly the more dangerous team in the second half.

Again, good battle for the girls regardless.  We played some good soccer against a tough opponent and it was a good pre-Regioanls tune up.

Here is where things stand in the Premier League at this point.

Up next: we train Thursday night, then leave for Des Moines Friday morning for a 1PM training session in Iowa and the Region II Championships Opening Ceremonies later that afternoon.