Late July Friendlies

OK, OK.  I know good bloggers are supposed to blog daily, and I've been missing for a while.  My excuse?  Just a busy time all around.  I serve as the Technical Director for the MN Thunder Summer Soccer Camps, and camp season is in full swing.  Couple this with the fact that tryouts are just around the corner, and the new interest in expanding the BTFC Academy Program to the north and west metro areas, AND now that baby Emmri (my almost 10 month old baby girl) is now mobile and crawling around the entire house, and I have my hands full.  I know I'm probably preaching to the choir as many out there are in similar or worse situations, but just let me ramble on and seek some sympathy. 

Tryout time sucks, and it's energizing at the same time.  It's not fun to say goodbye to some players and families and it's not easy to tell a young player that they just aren't good enough at this time to make the team they want.  I think the parents take it harder than (and thus many times make it worse for) the kids, but that's the way it goes. 

As for the girls, most of them opted to take part in the Bangu Girls Camp this week, 10AM to Noon Monday to Friday.  The first few days were heavy on the fitness aspect, so the girls were in some severe soreness when they showed up on Tuesday evening for our friendly with the U15 Blackhawks team.  My old Thunder teammate, John "Sly" Sylvester, was the head coach of this group and since they had won their league and were heading directly to the State Tournament in late July, they did not have to play through the District Tournament and thus had a long time off.  Sly was looking for some games to keep his team sharp, and he had seen my team play the Bangu Tsunami White team in Bloomington a few weeks back.  I'm not sure if he realized that they were U13 as I told him at that time that he was observing a U14 Premier team game, but he wanted a game and I was all for helping him out.

The game was set to be played at the McMurray fields in St Paul, and I almost wrapped my car around a light pole as I came up to the fields.  I had heard about the new synthetic fields being developed here, but I was completely shocked when I came upon the complex.  It was a dream come true.  Three turf fields set deep into a grass bowl-type valley... fields marked only with soccer lines (as opposed to the great majority of other turf fields in the area absolutely vandalized with football lines).  Man, if our club had priority access to a complex like this it would be game over. 

The game was a decent game.  We were missing Ripper, Becs, Hannah, and Jilly (four legitimate starters), and had a girl named Maddie (a U13 who played with Coon Rapids U14 Premier team and who was a close friend of Getch) guest play with us. 

The field was large and the girls were completely legless.  The fitness camp in the heat had left them sore and drained, and their lack of sharpness was clearly evident. 

To their credit, after a marginal first half that saw us fall behind 1-0, the girls came back and played a gutsy second 40 minutes, giving everything they had left.  I was really impressed with their effort in a meaningless friendly game, but we were clearly the better team in the second half, actually playing more physically and tougher than the girls who were 2 years older, and though we gave up another goal, we had the better and more numerous chances, scoring once and unlucky not to put in the equalizer and then the winner.  I think it was a very positive experience for the girls involved.

Wednesday we headed to Eagan to play a friendly with the Eagan U14 C1 team, also to help them prep for the upcoming State Tournament.  They were in a similar situation that the Blackhawks were in, having won their league and looking for competitive matches prior to their State Tournament run.

We had Ripper, Hannah, and Jilly back, but Becs was still out, Tori (our GK) was gone, Maddie (from Coon Rapids) couldn't make it, and Getch's mom's car overheated in St Paul, so we had three subs.  Blondie's back was bothering her, Millie and Nash were both battling blisters, Ripper's back was still a bit sore (so she played GK).  Scratch had only played 10 minutes the night before because her back was bothering her as well, and all the girls were tired from camp.  In hindsight, scheduling these friendlies was probably not a very smart thing with the camp going on this week, but nothing I could really do about it now.

The game was played on a tiny grass field that couldn't have been more that 60 yards wide.  We played well, all injuries and tiredness considered, and I think the final was 3-1. 

We will likely not do too much else prior to tryouts, save for maybe one or two optional sessions next week.  I've tried to make it clear to the girls that I'm very willing to do some private or small group work with them if interested in prep for tryouts, and a number of them have taken me up on it.  I'm not sure what tryouts will hold for this group, but we'll know fairly soon.

I have also received some communication from other coaches and club directors about some of this current group of players already signed up for other club's tryouts.  I think most are looking at these other tryouts as back up plans, though I guess some may have already decided that our program is no longer for them, no longer meets their family's needs.  To each their own.

Friendly vs Woodbury U13 Boys

Dickie Vilme, the coach of the Woodbury U13 Boys approached me last week about setting up a friendly between his boys and my girls for this week.  It worked out well for our schedule and would serve as a good prep match prior to our first State Cup game this Saturday. 

Just like we saw with the St Croix and Minneapolis United boys last year, as well as with the Bangu U13 boys this winter, we knew the Woodbury boys would likely be quicker than us, we would be bigger, stronger, and probably faster over distance.  It was sure to be a good battle and a great way to challenge the girls.

As expected, the game was competitive.  I think we carried the great majority of play, but it was tough for us to break down the boy's defense. 

Blondie scored a great goal for us in the first half.  Millie (Point) received a pass and held the ball up at the top of the boy's penalty box.  The defense collapsed on her and she slotted a nifty little through ball to Blondie (LF) who had made a cutting run across the box.  Blondie took a touch under pressure from about the penalty spot, then buried a low hard shot into the far post.

We created a number of good scoring chances throughout the rest of the game, and really only gave up one solid chance to the boys in the second half which they capitalized on.  The game finished 1-1 and I was pleased with the girls' performance. 

A Saturday at Shattuck

The team traveled to Shattuck St Marys in Faribault (MN) yesterday to play two games vs Bonivital (Winnipeg, CA) and Wayzata respectively.  As I mentioned, I was a little nervous coming into these games as I didn't think we had a very good week in training.  Once again, the girls surprised me by playing some good soccer in the games, especially in the morning game against the Canadian team.  We play 2 x 25 minute halves, with a short half time break. 

We started tentatively in the morning game, and though creating a number of chances early on we lacked the finishing execution.  Jilly got us on the board with a sweet volley from about 18 yards out to put us up 1-0, and we didn't look back from there.  We tallied 5 or 6 by the end of the hour, with Millie, Brownie, Bidi, and Getch putting the ball away for us.

We had a two hour break in between games, and the majority of families headed into downtown Faribault to The Depot to grab some lunch.  We agreed to meet back at the dome around 1:45PM for a 2:30PM kickoff against Wayzata.

I've known the Wayzata team's coach Dominic for a number of years now, and I knew he had a solid group.  He had a U12 player (Kylie) and a U11 player (Brittany) who had both guest played with our younger teams in some events in the last year.  Dom does a good job with the girls and I think they'll be one of the top 3 or 4 teams in this year's State Cup in May. 

Due to some very poor service at The Depot, more than half the girls didn't arrive back on site until nearly 2:15PM.  Most had stuffed their meals into their mouths before hustling out of the restaurant to get back to the facility, and many were complaining of feeling queasy.  What are you gonna do? 

Friendly or not, I knew Wayzata had come to play.  They had obviously heard about our group and I think were itching to see how they matched up.  The Wayzata girls came out on fire, and had two very good chances early on to go up in the match.  Our girls settled in after that and I think we had the great majority of play from that point on.  We got three goals in the first half, two by Sting and one from Ripper. 

At halftime, I made a GK change and put Hans back in goal.  Mudd (our main GK) loves to play on the field and I know she gets bored back at GK when there is not much action.  Also, Hans is not making the trip to Virginia with us and I wanted to give the players playing that weekend to get more of the time on the field.  Hans, like the team player she is, didn't mind at all though she didn't touch the ball the second half. 

I think the game was an eye-opener of sorts for the Wayzata team.  Dom is trying to do what he can to form a high level team based in the west and I know he's met with some resistance from the parent group to do some of the things he feels would be best for the team if they want to play with the big boys. 

All in all, I was fairly please with the girls performance.  In both games I had to call off the dogs a bit by changing formation and rotating players around, but the girls played well on defense and were creative on the attack.  Though missing two players (Blondie and Macky) due to the State Basketball Tournament, the team came together well and had a good experience in prep for Richmond. 

Here's hoping for a good two weeks of training, and then off to grass!!!! 

In Prep for Richmond

In an effort to get some 11v11 games in prior to our trip to Virginia later this month, I registered the team to play in the Shattuck-St Mary's (SSM) U13 Tournament the weekend of March 10 and 11.  I had found out about this event from our U12G coach and thought it might be a good opportunity to get some last minute ideas about where the girls were at in preparation for the tough Jefferson Cup.  I knew there would be no chance of coming up against the level of teams we were going to face out east, but the ability to just play some 11v11 would help tune us up.  At this point in the winter it is nearly impossible to find unreserved dome space for 11v11 matches, so I will take what I can get.

SSM started a residential soccer program for elite players two years ago.  The school has built a nationally renown hockey program, and the idea is to use this hockey program model to produce top level soccer teams.  I think they've done a pretty good job of getting things going, and we'll see where things are at in a few years time.

In a completely selfish gesture, I had offered to help try and pull some higher level regional teams in to this event for SSM.  I made contact (some direct, some messages) with Ankeny Soccer Club (IA), West Des Moines SC (IA), Dakota Gold (SD), and Toro (NE).  Most teams could not commit due to basketball conflicts, some were pretty adamant in the fact that they wanted absolutely nothing to do with the SSM program.  Apparently, SSM had sought out a lot of help from some clubs initially a few years back and now that the SSM program was on its feet, the school had basically shunned these same clubs, causing some resentment on the part of some key decision makers out there. 

So I received the schedule last week to discover that there were only four teams registered to compete.  Us, our U12 team, Wayzata's U13 team, and a U13 team from Winnipeg, CA, Bonivital.  Now our U12 team is no slouch, but I didn't think our parent group would be too pleased with the fact that they were giving up a weekend paying to play against our U12s.  I talked with SSM and suggested that they take their Academy team (a team comprised of players from the school's winter training Academy) and play our U12s, and the organizers thought that would work.  Instead of 3 games over two days, we'll play two games on Saturday.  This should work out well.

Wayzata will likely be one of our main competitors in this year's State Cup.  I watched them play our White team this winter already and the team is decent.  Some good athletes, a few dangerous attacking players, and a solid coach.  I've know their coach for some years now and I know that he will have his team well prepped this summer.  Next weekend will be a good opportunity for me to really gauge where the Wayzata team is at, unless he's a sneaky devil like me and doesn't plan to show his entire hand :)

Friendly - Friday, Feb 16

Our U14 White team is a solid team.  I'm pretty confident that we will have tough battles with them in the U14 Premier League next summer. 

Tonight, both teams were missing a few key players.  I think we had control of most of the game, though the U14s had a few good scoring opportunities.  We got a goal off a great piece of build up play down our right side, culminating with a great cross from Bidi (playing right back) to Jill (playing point), who took a hard shot on a half turn that was too powerful for the U14 GK to handle (though she got two hands to it). 

I had been giving a lot of thought to which team formation suits our players best.  We have a lot of team speed and are a dangerous direct-play team, while also having some real technical players in the center of the field who can take control of a game.  Tonight, we came out and played a 4-1-2-3.  It was a very effective formation for us, giving us the following benefits:

• Solid back four defending shape with the ability to get our wide backs into the attack (which happened a lot)
• Good numbers in the center of midfield
• Good options for flank attacks with wide forwards and supporting wide backs

I realize that some people may call this a 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1, or a 4-5-1.  The 4-1-2-3 helps the girls better understand the roles I want them to play, namely that I want our wide players up front as well as our two forward center midfielders to be very attacking minded.

I will experiment more with this system of play, but like what I see so far.