Premier League Game #7 vs Woodbury

I knew this game was going to be a battle.  Not because I think that the Woodbury team is better than us.  More because it was going to be nearly impossible to put together a decent performance in a relatively meaningless league game tonight, coming on the heels of the absolute stunner of a week of soccer in Des Moines.  I've been similar situations before, both as a player and as a coach.  To try and give a good accounting after such an emotionally draining/rewarding experience is an extremely difficult thing to ask for from players, especially as we're talking about 12 and 13 year old girls.

There was still a very excited buzz in the air as the girls arrived at Bielenberg in Woodbury for this game.  A few were sporting their Nike Regional Champs shirts that a Nike Rep had pushed into our hands seconds after leaving the handshake line with the Internationals, a few were sporting their new bright red Adidas Region II Champions warm-up top, all were sporting huge smiles. 

I couldn't get the girls to focus one iota of energy/thought on the coming game.  And you know what?  I didn't even try.  I was still enjoying the amazing feeling of the day before and I was completely fine with the girls doing the same.  We all joked around with each other, talking about how nervous the penalty kick takers were the day before, talking about how it was so surreal to go down to the Internationals 2-0 and battle back again, just like a year ago, talking about who has the right to claim Best Bowler on the team from our bowling outing, and stuff along those lines.

We went through something that might have resembled a pre-game warm-up and we were all laughing at the extremely poor quality of play every single girl exhibited in the 40 minutes leading up to kick off.  I think we may have scored a grand total of one goal in the 10 - 15 minutes of crossing and finishing.  I didn't care.  Should I have?  I don't care. 

I don't think the Woodbury girls found our enthusiasm and lackadaisical attitude amusing and annoying.  There is some animosity shown by some of the Woodbury girls to our girls.  It's funny, you can see certain feelings and attitudes that some of that team's parents think about our girls/club or about me come out in the girls themselves on the field of play in what can only be called downright rudeness and poor sportsmanship.  It's really a shame.  I know I had a great relationship with every single one of the Woodbury girls who knew me 3 years ago, especially with the ones who moved with me to start the Bangu Tsunami Academy in the winter of 2004.  Families' plans changed in the coming years and all these girls decided that our club was not for them (one of these days, or maybe in the coming book, I'll go into detail about the infamous Renegades story), and that is fine.  We all moved on though some parents yet to this day look at what our club or what I do with disgust.  So be it, everyone's entitled to their own opinions.  It's just a real shame to see parent negativity come out through the kids.  Most, though again I've known them for years and spent countless hours helping in their soccer development, won't even wave or say hello anymore.  Soccer coaching is a fickle business at best. 

Anyway, though I didn't know it at the time and would find out from OJ (Woodbury's head coach) after the game, this was Woodbury's last league game of the summer.  If they won, or maybe even if they would have tied, they would have secured a place in next year's U15 Premier League.  If they lost, their ability to call themselves a Premier team would be subject to other game results out of their control - namely the results of our two upcoming games against our White team.  That could be interesting.

In my opinion, there is too much emphasis on "Premier" in this state.  Everyone wants their team to be Premier but we don't have enough talent at one age group to field 6 "premier" caliber teams here in Minnesota.  Granted this is all about a name and I'm sure most parents would want to say that their kid plays in the Premier league (or whatever the most competitive league's name may be), but in the bigger picture of what our club wants to accomplish - developing players who have long term success and interest in the sport and who can compete on a regional/national level, Premier means diddley-squat.  It is my goal to try educate parents at our younger levels about the this, as what we hope to aspire to in our club is bigger in the long run than Minnesota Premier status. 

Out of respect for Woodbury I guess I should have tried to coral the Goo Girls a bit, but to be honest, the thought never crossed my mind at that point.  Our girls had worked hard, achieved something that has never before been seen at this age group in Minnesota soccer history, and were entitled to a little unfocus. 

As was expected, the game started out fairly poorly for us.  To say that we were off would be a very drastic understatement.  I had never seen the girls play so disjointedly.  Woodbury was all over us and had a number of semi-decent chances in front of our goal.  The Goo Girls, on the other hand, struggled to complete passes, make halfway decent decisions with the ball under pressure by the Woodbury defenders, and had a hard time finding a rhythm.  Though the girls on the bench were still laughing at the girls on the field, all of whom seemed to either be wearing roller skates or cinder blocks on two left feet, I slowly stopped finding it amusing.  Not that I was getting angry, but the thought finally penetrated my head that as Region Champions, people were looking at us as Region Champions and we needed to take some pride in that title.

I don't even remember many details about that first half.  The 6 girls on the bench at the beginning of the game sensed my mood change and entered the game at around the 10 minute mark with a bit more focus.  The 6 girls coming off the field expecting to see us all still joking around on the bench also sensed the shift, so by the end of the first half we were playing a little better.

At halftime, I  attempted to get the girls a bit more focused by explaining my thoughts about taking pride in their newfound title.  It wasn't hard for any of them to make sense of what I was saying, and we moved into the second half with a bit more seriousness. 

Woodbury still created a few more good chances at goal but couldn't capitalize on any of them.  We played better, yet still not anywhere close to the level of our performance of the past week.  It was better though and we started to create a number of chances of our own. 

10 minutes from time we got on the scoreboard with a good goal.  The ball was played to Jilly (RF) about 40 yards from goal from midfield.  Jilly, knowing where Millie (LF) was, hit a one-touch diagonal ball over the top for Millie to chase down.  The Woodbury defenders, just like we've seen with Wayzata a couple times, raised their hands up to appeal for an offsides call, which it clearly wasn't, and stopped playing hoping for the call.  Mistake.  No call and Millie finished her breakaway relatively uncontested with some nice skill and a side of the foot shot. 

That turned out to be the game winner for us, 1-0 at the final whistle. 

I don't blame our girls for their lackluster performance.  I didn't expect much and made the mistake of making that feeling known to the girls, kinda giving them free reign to goof off prior to the game.  Again, not a huge deal as I feel they deserved to blow off some steam, just a good learning experience for me and a clear example of how my approach to a game and tone from the second I step on the field with the girls is an important factor in their overall performance that day. 

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Here's where things stand in our league up until this point.

We have 3 games left; 1 against EP and 2 against our White team.  If we win out, we win the league.  If our White team beats us in both games, they retain Premier status for the 2008 summer season.  Is this important?  Not in my mind as I think this team should move away from MYSA league play and into the U15 Midwest Regional League (MRL) next year.  I'm sure it's important to others though and could make for an interesting week next week.