Lessons From Iowa

I was very proud of the girls play this weekend.  Throughout the entire event, I gave the majority of the girls (excluding Mudd at GK) looks at multiple playing positions.  This out of comfort zone experience and the success that each player found in various positions will help tremendously with the individual and team overall development. 

Here's a graphical depiction of the different positions each girl saw in the four games this weekend.  Note that I didn't add in our 3-2-2-3 formation to this mix.

I know some may say that playing all the girls in different positions must have worked against building a good team rhythm this weekend, and that not focusing on keeping all the girls in their "best" positions cost us the trophy in the end.  I'd agree with that.  I know that if I played only what I thought was our starting 11 players for the majority of the time, we likely would have walked away with this event hands, or feet, down.  That's not youth coaching in my book.  For those who have read through this site a bit, you know I don't like losing.  However, coaches who put results above all else at the younger age groups and doing the kids a vast disservice.  I bet I did more substituting that every other team in this event to give ALL the girls playing time, and I'm willing to bet the house on the fact that no other team had as many players play as many different positions as we did.  The girls are winners in the end.

Other thoughts/lessons from the weekend:

• 11 out of our 14 goals came as a direct result of wide play/crosses
• I need to do some work on midfield shape as our three mids tend to play wherever they want to
• We attack well from the wide back position, but need work on playing these wide backs in (the runs these backs make to get into the attack, the thoughts behind the passes coming from our central players, etc)
• We need to work on keeping possession of the ball once our GK has it, to become more dynamic and unpredictable with the ability to start quick counter attacks from our GK's hands through distribution to our wide players instead of always punting the ball up field
• Our defenders find our target players well, but our mids need to provide better support (distance, angles, etc)
• Managing 3 teams in one weekend is tough/tiring
• Getting the attention of U11 girls at a team dinner is like corralling cats
• Sometimes when an audio book starts out slow, 9 CDs later it's still pretty slow
• Even if a State Patrol trooper has already pulled someone over, it does not mean they won't leave that guy in the dust (and free) to chase after another car doing 90 on I35
• The Nike Outlet in Medford has now morphed into a Clearance Store (nice!)
• You are free and clear all weekend if you randomly make up a hotel room number to give to 10 year old girls so they don't bug you... unless of course that room actually exists in the hotel and happens to be occupied by an elderly couple who somehow manage to force a confession out of the young girls as to who told them this was their coach's room
• It's not as hard as you might think to hit a coach on the head with an ice cube from the 4th floor balcony in the hotel atrium
• If you haven't consumed alcohol in a while and spend 9 hours out in the sun without food or water, one beer can make a long-haired team dad attractive from a distance
• I'd make a million dollars if I could come up with a device that parents could point towards a tournament score board and then get an immediate print out of all the possible scenarios that would see their team into the championship game
• Though compensated at roughly $0.27/hr, I love the work I do!

A Weekend in Iowa - Day 3

We had a 9AM game against Homer.  It looked to be shaping up into another beautiful day weather-wise and I was looking forward to the competition the girls would face today.

Game #3 vs Homer Hawks (2-1)

Homer had lost to KC Heat yesterday 2-1, and beat Windy City 2-0.  Not only did this give me confidence that we stood a very good chance of competing well this morning against what I initially thought was going to be the toughest game of the group, but it also meant that unless we lost the game 3 or 4 to zero, we were already in the finals.

Once again we started out strong, when in the 4th minute, Soph (left back) sent in a hard far post cross that the GK couldn't handle.  Scratch (right forward) pounced on the loose ball to give us a 1-0 lead.  We held the lead for about 3 seconds, until the center ref noticed the linesman's flag frantically waving around, and the goal was called back for offsides.

14th minute, Lily (holding mid) played in a long diagonal through ball to Mille (point) who went 1v1 with the GK and slid the ball home for the 1-0 lead.  No flag waving linesman this time.

47th minute, Maddog (left forward) played in a low, hard cross that one of the Homer defenders knocked into their own net to put us up 2-0. 

The game wasn't that close as we carried the great majority of play.  Two minutes from time, Homer was awarded a corner kick and we got caught napping.  They sent two girls out to the corner to play a short one, and not one of our players reacted to the movement.  Homer sent a dangerous ball into our box from the short corner, we half cleared it, and the resulting pressure in our area saw a Homer forward finish to bring them back to 2-1.  Though we ended up winning the game, I was disappointed that we tuned out on the set piece that started this whole sequence.  I talked to the girls after the game about the importance of staying tuned in the entire 60 minutes, and this was a good learning experience for us as a whole.

3-0 in group play, scoring 12 goals and allowing 2... we were rolling.

Championship Game vs Chicago Magic (2-4)

We've played this team twice in the last two years, losing 1-0 and tying 0-0.  I know we're the better team and was looking forward to proving it today.  The girls had played very well all tournament long and I didn't expect much to change in the final.

We came out on fire, again, and carried much of the play for the first part of the half.  Midway through, at least I think it was midway through as I was too engrossed in the game to take exact notes, the Magic went up 1-0 on what I call a typical goal at this age group.  A high, not too powerful lob/shot at goal that goes over the keeper's outstretched arms. 

About 2 minutes from time, the Magic go up 2-0 as their one stud player dribbled through four of our girls, all of whom could have put a tackle in but none of whom did, ripped a shot the was blocked by one of our defenders.  The ball ricocheted to a wide open Magic player on our right side and she put the ball away with a nice finish. 

To our girls credit, they took the kick off, stormed down the right side of the field and Sting (right forward) sent in a low cross to Bidi (point).  After a little scramble, Bidi got a good shot off that whistled by the Magic GK to pull us back to 2-1.  My watch said 31 minutes, their coach was livid at the extra time added on.  Not sure what it was added on for as there were no injuries, nor tear-your-shirt-off-and-airplane-run-and-karate-chop-the-corner-flag-and-take-up-2-minutes-on-the-clock post goal celebrations by either team.  My only thought was that for the first time in the event, the sideline ref on our side of the field would hold all the girls at midfield until the players coming off the field were truly off the field, prior to letting the subs enter.  This took time every time and is the only reason I can think of for the added time at the end of the half.  We'll take it...

It was a huge goal for us just before half and the girls were excited.  I knew we'd come back to tie it in the second half and told the girls so.  We switched to a more attacking formation to what I call a 3-2-2-3 by asking one of our center backs to push forward up into midfield as we looked to press for the equalizer.  We got it less than 10 minutes later as Soph (left back) played a pretty give and go with Sting (left forward) down our left flank.  Soph hit in a low, hard, one-time cross into the box from Sting's return pass to Bidi (point).  Bidi beat her marking defender and blasted a shot past the on rushing Magic GK.  It was a great goal!

Maybe at this point I should have gone back to our 4-1-2-3 base formation.  However, I felt we had the momentum and wanted to go for the knock out punch.  We carried the run of play, but ended up conceding a goal to the Magic's one stud player with about 10 minutes left to play.  We pushed forward into the attack again, and gave up another goal a few minutes after that.

A Weekend in Iowa - Day 2

I got to the fields around 8AM to catch part of our U13 boys game.  They are a solid team and I think they'll surprise some people this year.

I had the U11 game at 9:30AM, so I left the boys game at 8:45AM when the girls arrived for warm-up.  The U13s arrived at 10:15AM for their 11AM kick off, but luckily the U13s played on an adjacent field to the U11s, so I was able to get them going with their warm-up while I finished the U11 game.

For the U13s, in the weeks leading up to the Richmond event, I think I had panicked a bit and tried to force-feed the girls with too much stuff.  They were already nervous about the trip out east as it was our "big, plane trip event" of the year, and the stress we all felt translated into poor play overall. 

I changed things up a bit between Richmond and this weekend's event in Des Moines by lightening the mood at training and focused on being uber-positive in everything I did with the girls.  The result was two weeks of some of the best training we've done all year, and I was confident coming into this weekend that we would play well. 

I did not know much about the teams in our group, though my guess was that Homer (IL) would be the game that would eventually decide the group on Sunday.  KC Heat (KS) and Windy City Pride (IL) were crap shoots.  If we could make it out of our group as the #1 seeded team, we would likely face Chicago Magic (IL) or Toro (NE) in the final.  I was looking forward to this as we've never beaten either of those teams, though I've held firm to the fact that we are a better team than both.

In our last two regional/national events (Eclipse Select Challenge Cup last fall and the Jefferson Cup this past March), we've scored a total of 4 goals in 7 games.  3 of these goals game in one game against Ohio Elite (OH) last fall, the other lone goal against Hockessin (DE) this spring.  I was looking forward to bucking the trend this weekend, and though our competition was not going to be at the level of the past two events, playing well and scoring goals in this event would be a great confidence booster heading into State Cup later this month.

Game #1 vs KC Heat (4-0)

I knew the girls came ready to play when we scored some incredible goals during our crossing/finishing warm-up.  There was a buzz in the air and the girls could feel it - we got off to a flying start. 

Maddog (playing left forward) put us up 1-0 6 minutes into the game, finishing a great diagonal through ball played in by Lily. 

Two minutes later and Maddog struck again, hammering home a near-post rocket from about 16 yards out after a cross from Lily.  Great way to start the weekend. 

Ten minutes later, Sting followed a weak shot in from the left side, snuck in between a defender and the GK to tap the ball across the goal with the outside of her right foot to Macky who was there to tap it in. 

3-0 after the first half (we were playing 30 minutes halves this weekend), and no question about which team was the more dominant on the field.  Though we continued to pressure the KC team in the second half, we could not find more goals for the first 20 minutes. 

In one of KC's few attacks into our defending third of the field, their left forward sent a hard cross into the box that skipped up and into Soph's hands blocking her face with a reflex movement.  Mudd (GK) made a fantastic diving save to push the low shot past our right post, and a few minutes later Ripper put the game out of reach, taking a KC defender one 1v1 and blasting a shot into the back of the net past the on rushing GK. 

4-0 and a very solid performance. 

After the first 10 minutes, I began moving the girls around into different playing positions.  At first the girls looked at me like I was daft when I informed them that they would be re-entering the games in a "weird" position.  "But Mark!  This is a regional event!  I can't play defense/forward/in the middle of the field/out wide/etc!"  The idea is to give the girls this out of comfort zone experience in big events as much as possible.  By me showing my confidence in their abilities to play multiple positions, they gain confidence.

After the game, it was time for a quick lunch of pepperoni pizza slices and Diet Coke, then off to the U12 girls game at 12:30PM.  The U11s came next at 2:00PM, then our (U13) second game of the day at 3:30PM against the Windy City Pride.  Windy City had lost their first game to Homer 2-0 in their first game.  I knew that we needed to at least match this score in order to have a chance to advance as the top seed in the event of a tie versus Homer on Sunday. 

Game #2 vs Windy City Pride (6-1)

It took us a while to settle into this game.  Windy City was a rough, physical team and the ref let a lot of the play go.  I didn't mind this as I don't think there was a lot of fouls missed, just a lot more physical contact than most refs allow at the younger girls age group.

Jilly went down hard after a tackle down the right flank that brought medics over to our bench and kept her out of the rest of the game with what I thought was a slight concussion. 

We finally broke through in the 27th minute with Getch (attacking mid) finding Millie (point) with a through ball.  Millie beat a defender, went 1v1 against the GK, and tucked the ball home.

Two minutes later, Millie put us 2-0 up finishing a great cross by Bidi (right forward).

At half time, we talked about focusing on the things that we found successful in the first half.  Namely, this was playing longer balls out of the center of midfield to the corners, and using our speed to get crosses into the box. 

We came out in the second half on fire, with Mac (point) finishing a breakaway after a great slot pass through from Getch (attacking mid). 

Four minutes later we scored one of our best goals of the tournament.  The movement started on our right side with a few quick combination passes from our right midfielder and defender.  We changed the point of attack through Hans at holding mid, who sprung Maddog (left defender) down the left side of the field.  Maddog beat two defenders and sent in a great low cross that Sting finished at the back post.  Probably 8 to 10 passes in the sequence and a nice finish. 

Six minutes from time, Ripper (attacking mid) sprung Scratch (right forward) on a long diagonal ball from midfield, and Hans (point) finished Scratch's cross. 

Two minutes later, the Pride's left forward cut inside the field about 20 yards from our goal, beat our right back, and sent in a high cross/shot that sailed over Mudd's head. 

At the 58th minute, Scratch once again broke free down the right side, thanks to another long diagonal ball from center midfield.  This time, Becs (point) was in the middle to score our 6th.

6-1 in another convincing performance.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

A Weekend in Iowa - Day 1

I love the drive down to Iowa.  Weird, I know, but that's me sometimes.  270 miles from my door in Woodbury to the Sheraton (except when I detour through Rochester on my way down to see family) and as many parents I'm sure will understand, heavenly peace and quite when you've spent four out of the past six months dealing with a colicky baby girl.  As long as Andy (our U12 girls coach and my roommate for the weekend) doesn't snore, I'm in for a two good nights of sleep!

The grass turned green somewhere about 15 miles north of Des Moines.  Nice.  Tournament officials had been in constant email contact with coaches warning of possible field changes for some of the games this weekend due to the poor weather conditions of late, and I was happy to see that there was no snow or standing water around. 

I flew by the University exit that I would normally take off I35 to get to the Sheraton in order to take a quick jaunt over to the Hidden Valley field complex to check things out.  The complex looked fantastic, as did Field #1 where we would open up tomorrow morning.  I stepped off 108x68.  A little short, but decent size.  But moreover, coming off the field in Virginia a few weeks back, this one was flat and had grass on it.  Lots of grass.  Thick grass.  This would be our biggest challenge in terms of getting accustomed to the conditions down here as we are coming off of 5 months of fast turf play.  The girls will get tired more easily and their feet/legs will feel heavy, and I'll need to make sure to stress the importance of over hitting ground passes early on.

I made my way back to the hotel (10 miles away), and then over to the Marriott (3 miles away) to check in our teams.  This is another reason why I like this event.  Everything is in easy driving distance from everything else once you're down here.  I've been to some larger regional/national events where you need to drive close to an hour to get from tournament hotels to fields.  Not here.  Moreover, at this event all the teams play at one complex which helps generate the excitement in the girls with all the hubbub surrounding the games.

We had set a 7:30PM Friday night meeting time for the players who were in town to go out for a light jog and stretch.  We had 30 girls among the three teams in town in time to participate, so we took them out to a large grassy area just across the hotel parking lot for some light movement activity and fun group games.  The munchkins (U11s) were a little nervous to be around the older U13s.  We divided the girls into five groups of six players for the evening activities, with each "team" comprised of some U11s, some U12s, and some U13s.  By the end of the 30 minute of relay races and other team challenges, each team was full of smiling faces.  Nice way to start the event.

We finished the short session by talking to the group about the importance of hydration this weekend, about focusing on things that were in their control (see Controlling the SEA), and about being courteous to other hotel guests this weekend.  We set curfews and pool restrictions, let the teams know what time to be at the fields tomorrow morning and what uniform combination to wear for the first game, then send the kids off to hang out together prior to the 9PM in the room curfew.

West Des Moines Schedules Posted

Schedules are now posted for the WDM Premier Games.

U13 Girls Brackets
Pool A
13GA1	WDMSC Celtic (IA)
13GA2	Wayzata Wapeka (MN)
13GA3	Chicago Magic 93/94 (IL)
13GA4	Toro Bravo (NE)
Pool B
13GB1	Bangu Tsunami FC 93/94 Blue (MN)
13GB2	Homer Hawks (IL)
13GB3	KC Heat (KS)
13GB4	Windy City Pride (IL)

U13 Girls Schedule
Saturday
11:00AM	Bangu Tsunami FC 93/94 Blue (MN)	vs	KC Heat (KS)
3:30PM	Windy City Pride (IL)	vs	Bangu Tsunami FC 93/94 Blue (MN)
Sunday
9:00AM	Bangu Tsunami FC 93/94 Blue (MN)	vs	Homer Hawks (IL)
1:30PM	1st in A	vs	1st in B

Our U11G and U12G top teams will also be making the trip down to Des Moines in April, along with our U14G White team.  Our U11B and U13B will be there as well, so it should be a fun event with all the teams participating.

I know nothing about the KC Heat team, I couldn't even find a website.  Windy City Pride is a Chicago based group, though I do not think that they are one of the strongest teams at the U13 age group in Illinois.  I've heard of the Homer Hawks team for a number of years.  I believe they will be the toughest competition in our group.

In the other group, I would love to come up against Toro Bravo or Chicago Magic, both teams we have not yet been able to beat - though I still hold to the fact that we are a better overall team than both of them.

I would think that we go into this event as one of favorites, if not the favorite.  I'm tempted to tell the girls this in order to have them experience this top-seed feeling prior to our own State Cup where we are most likely the hands down favorite to win the competition.  I'll have to think about this a little bit.  Regardless, it should be a good event for us sandwiched in between our two toughest competitive events of the season, the Jefferson Cup and the Arsenal Elite Invitational.