MRL Game #6 vs Chicago Fire Jrs (IL)

The weather cleared up a bit for the afternoon.  Still a bit chilly and windy, but dry. 

Lots of soccer this week for the girls, so Cook ran them through a very light=hearted warm-up with some fun games and competitions.  The girls giggled, laughed a ton, and seemed relaxed.  I'm sure the Fire coach was looking over at us thinking "These guys are the Region champs?!?!", as he took his team through a WAY more professional-style warm-up, but we didn't really care.  

We came out in a 3-5-2.  The Fire were scrappy and had a talented central midfielder who ran the show on us most of the day.  We were a bit flat with heavy legs.  Jilly was back in MN with family commitments, and Maddie (though on the trip with us) was out with a back injury, leaving us with 3 subs.  Looking at the bright side, we'd work on our game fitness for sure, and if we could get another good result this afternoon, the girls would come out of the trip having battled hard (against roster numbers, poor weather, and bumpy field conditions) - something that would go a long way towards bringing the team together more. 

We got on the board midway through the first half as Ripper (RF) slotted a ball through to Millie (LF) at the left corner of the box.  Millie took a good first touch inside towards goal to set up her right foot shot.  This morning, Millie had had 2 or 3 very good looks at goal, but failed to get any power behind her shot.  Prior to this game, I brought her off to the side and had her strike 8 to 10 shots, focusing on her shooting rhythm and power.  Armed with that pre-game confidence, she hit a solid low shot under the Fire GK to put us ahead.  That would prove the only goal in a relatively ugly match.  

The work with Millie reminded me that now as we get into the meat of our season, looking for results through State Cup and hopefully Regionals, Cook and I need to do more functional positional training with all our players one on one or in small, position-specific groups.  We haven't had a training session in two weeks, so hopefully starting next week we can look at addressing this.

On the road back to MN for our group-deciding 3rd MN State Cup game tomorrow against NSSA.  We're tired and beat up - a problem with MRL and State Cup in the spring.  I'm hoping for nothing silly tomorrow as even a fluke goal and a packed penalty box could end our Regional run.