Holy Crap!

Holy crap!  You know you haven't posted in a while when it takes you half a dozen tries to rediscover your blog's login and password information.

 I can't even begin to explain how busy things have become since the Beckham game (my last post).  Let's just say that the Bangu support at that game has been a catalyst for change here in Minnesota, and I believe the youth development scene will see a very pronounced new direction in 2008.  I won't go into more details at this point in time, but I'm super excited (and exhausted) from the whirlwind events since early December, not to mention a wonderful holiday time with 14 month old baby Emmri. 

 As for the Goo Girls, it's been a bit of a roller coster as well since around the same time. 

The day before the Beckham event, the Toro Bravo (NE) came up to visit us.  We did not play as well as I would have liked to see, and I began to question the training path we currently had the girls set on.

A few weeks later, we came up against the Bangu U15 Blue team, and proceeded to put together the absolute worst performance I'd see from the team in a long, long time.  

This friendly served to be a wake up call for both coaches and players alike.  The girls KNEW they didn't play well.  We couldn't control a ball to save our lives, and our decision making was slow and downright awful.  Not that we should beat our U15 Blue team, but we didn't even compete.

I think the girls had become a bit complacent.  Region champions, the #2 ranked team in the US last fall, and other tournament and league play success from last summer were at the forefront of their (and maybe mine) minds.  Our training sessions in November had lacked focus and intensity (my fault), and the girls were paying the price.  

 We had a bit of a come to Jesus meeting that next training session.  I attempted to reitterate to the girls that Eclipse, Hawks, Internationals, etc. were all likely working extremely hard this off season and we needed to do the same.  Allour success last year has guaranteed us only one thing this year.  We have a huge target on our backs. We were sure to get the very best efforts out of our opponents in every single match up.  We have skill and intelligence, but need to match other teams' intesity and workrate to all our skill to carry us through. 

My co-coach, Mark Cook, who also works with the U15 Blues, made a fairly telling statement.  That U15 team has never won anything when they've left the state to compete.  Rarely won a game.  They come into every training session and work their butts off, listen and respect when the coach is talking, demand focus from their teammates, etc.  This has translated into some real development in that group (they would win their flight at Disney in December). 

My challenge to the girls was simple.  I wanted them to know that we'd continue to have fun at training and I didn't expect military discipline, but we needed to refocus ourselves as a group if we truly wanted to make a run at Nationals this year.  We had A LOT of work to do.

The good thing is, based on their own reflections on the team's performance in the last two friendlies, it was clear we needed to step up our game.  

From a coach's perspective, we needed work on speed of play - technical speed and decision making speed.  Our next dozen sessions or so were focused primarily on those aspects of our game.  With the renewed focus (with a reminder every now and again) the girls have taken their game to the next level.

In December, we had a breakthrough weekend.  We came up against our U15 Blue team on a Saturday morning and were a whole new team.  I believe we actually won the game 2-1.  More importantly, we played some really great soccer.  

The next evening, we headed to to Eden Prairie to scrimmage the U15 Premier team.  This was a team that we had had trouble scoring on (never scored more than one goal on them in any given game) and never beaten.  I remember walking into the Eden Prairie dome for the first time and realizing that we were going to play on smaller 8v8 goals (7' x 21', or something like that).  EP's keeper is quite a physical specimen so my confidence wasn't tremendously high that we'd tuck the ball away tonight at all. 

Ten minutes into the game, we went down 0-1 as EP's scoring threat, a girls who has tormented us for a few years now, broke free up the middle and slotted home a breakaway.  We had actually looked the better team until that point.  Oh, great.  We're going to lose 0-1 as we have very little hope of scoring on this giant keeper in a tiny goal.  Oh ye of little faith...

The Goo Girls then put together some of the best soccer to date.  I made a change in the back, playing Blondie at left back after the EP goal, and she turned out to be the difference for us as we shored things up and didn't allow EP another good look at goal.  Much to Blondie's chagrin I imagine.  She's been a utility player to this point, like I was with the Thunder.  Athletic, skilled, and smart enough to play every position, never finding a real home because of this.  I think she found a home now, but I know she would prefer to take up residence a little further upfield away from our goal.  

The girls scored 4 really,really good goals (four!!!!) to leave 4-1 winners.  They constantly surprise me...

* * * * *

Looking to mix in some "new" soccer into our winter program (to keep the girls excited and fresh) we booked some time on the small 4v4 boarded fields at Corner Kick in Maplewood.  We kicked off the New Year with a lively session as we looked to begin a 3 week prep for the Sereno Soccer Classic in Phoenix (AZ).  We also added additional sessions at Bielenberg in Woodbury; some weekday and some early Sunday morning time blocks (7:30AM - 9:AM).  

Our first scheduled Sunday early morning session on Jan 6th proved to be the first session this 0708 season that saw all 17 rostered girls in attendance.  I couldnt' believe it.  What was I going to to with all the numbers?  :)  Lily has been down at SSM with the U16s this year, so I obviously don't expect her to attend our training while she's at school.  Clare and Becs are big-time hockey athletes and thus we haven't seen much of them due to their HS conflicts.

It was nice to kick off the year with the full compliment of players!