Region II Championships - Tuesday, June 26

So I've been wrong from time to time.  It will not be us and Michigan Hawks in the region finals tomorrow morning.  It will be us and Internationals. 

Beautiful morning for a game.  Glad we've drawn the 8AM time slots all week as it was steamy even at 7:30AM.  The girls came to the field excited for the game.  There has just been a great vibe, a great team vibe this entire event.  I'm so proud of all the players on this team.

We warmed up with some Walking Soccer to get the girls loose, then changed up our routine a little bit to get some long distance shooting in for our attacking players.  Some crossing and finishing, some 5v5v5, and we were set to go.

The game was one of contrasting styles.  The BVS Ratpack have quick, technical players and prefer the slower-type build up of short passing.  They would build up out of the back and through midfield, rarely looking to play over the top.  It was fun soccer to watch with some of their quick interplay, but I thought it lacked purpose at times. 

This was in sharp contrast to our more direct play.  It was like Brazil vs England.  I don't think we play "boot ball", though we don't have the technical players that Ratpack does and can't keep the ball under pressure in tight spaces like they can.  I think we are safe in the back, more dangerous on the attack and look to go forward a lot, but the game made me think about player development.  Are we playing for results and not teaching the game?  I'm sure some people see it that way.  More on this later.

We came out and played well.  Apparently, Ratpack's sweeper had a broken angle and has been out for a while.  Meagan Tickle, a girl who had guest played with us during last year's US Club Soccer Regional Finals in Rockford (IL), played back there today.  She is a solid player and I thought it would work well for us if she wasn't up in the attack.  She'd be a tough player to beat on defense, but I'd much prefer to see her 60 yards away from our goal than find her in 20. 

We created a number of dangerous "scrambles" in front of the Ratpack's goal from attacking set pieces (corner kicks and freekicks), as well as had a fantastic shot from Jilly (RF) graze the far post from about 16 yards out.  I didn't think our goal was threatened much, save for a shot early on from outside the box that skipped dangerously and was bobbled out by Mudd for a corner kick.

Having played this team before we had been familiar with some of their set pieces.  I heard them try to run a dummy corner kick play to the top of the "D", but we were ready for it when they wanted to play it.

Around the 30 minute mark (I don't know the exact time as I failed to start my watch in the excitement of the moment) the ref awarded us a freekick about 12 yards from the endline on the right side of the goal.  I was as surprised as the Ratpack coach at the call as I thought their player had the ball and we were going in for a tackle.  I would find out later from the ref that the Ratpack player with the ball had stiff-armed one of our girls off the ball. 

Blondie ripped a ball into the danger area that Getch (LM) narrowly missed getting her head on in the slot runner position.  It was a brave attempt from her as she was the tiniest player on the field.  Macky (CM) fending off a marking defender who was all over her and bent to get her head to the ball.  The header was not a powerful one, but it was low and back where it came from to the near post relative to the free kick service.  Ratpack players tired in vain to slide to it but it rolled in to give us the 1-0 lead heading into halftime.  Another set piece, another header.  There's been a lot of negative talk on the MN blogs about the Full90 headgear.  To these people I say this.  The proof is in the pudding at the younger age groups.  We've scored 6 goals here at Regionals.  Four of them have been off headers from three different players.  It's all about heading technique and the headgear to give the girls the confidence to attack the crosses like they do.  I've never seen any U13 girls team be able to find the success we've found in the air.  Say what you want, this headgear has helped the girls tremendously. 

At halftime, I talked about a few key points:

• We were getting killed in midfield by ball watching and following the ball.  I reminded the girls that when defending a player in possession with the ball, if the ball is played square, your first movement should be back and to the middle of the field.  Lateral movement following the ball allows you (and possibly another teammate moving forward to close down the new threat with the ball) to be beat with a return pass.  See one of our training sessions addressing this topic here.
• We needed good honest defending around the field.  No stupid fouls, no diving in, good communication encouraging girls to tackle when players have provided adequate cover.
• Through balls out of midfield and out of the back needed to be hit to the corner flags, away from the Ratpack sweeper in the middle of the field.  This would draw her out and leave open space to attack in the center of the field.
• They will likely make changes to get numbers forward.  As the game goes on and if the score line stays the same, time is our friend.  No need to sprint to get to the balls out of bounds.  Be smart, take the pace out of the game.
• If we don't let in a goal, we win the game.  Tough individual and team defense all over the field, beginning with our forwards.

We continued to play tough in the second half.  I could tell that the Ratpack came out with more urgency from the get go, but we matched them well.  I think it was a fairly even contest in the second half, though neither team had many great chances at goal.  I think we had the best chance as Bidi (RM) found Becs (RD) on a great overlap run around 30 yards out from goal.  Becs took a good first touch and hammered a ball that I thought the GK deflected off the crossbar.  Becs told me after that the shot wasn't touched by the GK and hit the crossbar directly.  Regardless, it was a nice piece of combination play.

About 15 minutes into the second half, I saw Meagan push up the field into the attack.  Now with three forwards, I asked Hannah (CB) to mark up and leave Scratch (CB) free as more of a sweeper.

We had to absorb some pressure at the end of the game, but ended up on the good side of the scoreboard at the final whistle.  Good game for the girls, great result.

Internationals beat Michigan Hawks in the other semi 2-1, so tomorrow we have a rematch of the US Club Soccer Region Championships from last summer, where as a U12 11v11 team, we faced the same opponents for the title.  Funny, we made the effort to attend the USCS Regionals last summer as U12s in order to best prepare us for this event this year.  We are now facing the same team was saw in the finals last year.  Last July, Internationals went up 2-0 before we clawed our way back to send the game into overtime, eventually falling 3-2 in the extra time period.  A little redemption maybe?  I know this Ohio team is a worthy opponent for a final game.  I wonder if they think the same of us?

I hate wearing dirty socks and am on my last pair of boxer shorts.  I'm off to find a washing machine in the hotel.