Training - Thursday, June 14

On Monday I was reminded that the MN Lightning (Minnesota's W-League team) was playing against Ft Wayne on Thursday night at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in St Paul.  ELR Stadium is one of the premier college soccer facilities in the country and home to the Gopher Women's team.  I called up Mikki (University of Minnesota's Women's Head Coach) to see if I could get the girls to train at the facility prior to watching the Lightning game (scheduled to begin at 7PM that night).  She hooked me up with the Facilities Director there and we scrambled to get things organized. 

Mikki was out of town on a recruiting trip, but Assistant Coach Kate Cortis was gracious enough to meet the Bangu girls at the stadium at 5:30PM to give us a tour of the stadium.

Kate took the girls up to the stadium press box and down to the Gopher's locker room.  It was cool for the girls to see a bit of the Gopher soccer team's history in pictures in the press box, as well as to see the college girls official lockers and the "Future Gophers" name tags.  It's a good bet that there are some future Gophers in this group. 

It was a hot day, but I wanted to get in a little training.  I just set up some 4v4 small sided games and help a mini tournament for 30 minutes or so.  It was good for the girls to get on the thick grass on the training field there as we will likely see this type of surface next weekend in Iowa. 

We then sat under the shade of a huge tree in the parking lot to eat pizza, then headed into the Stadium to watch the Lightning.

Fun session...

See more photos here.

Training - Saturday, April 28

Well, our last session before State Cup begins.  The girls are excited and have been playing some of the best soccer I've ever seen them play. 

We've focused on individual and team defending the last two sessions.  Why?  Because defense wins championships.  If we don't allow goals, we are in every game.  That goes for this event, this summer in the Premier league, and hopefully in June at Regionals.  I believe that the only ways we will give up goals in this particular event to other teams at our age groups is 1) on quick counter attacks/breakaways, or 2) on set pieces.  I could be wrong, and I would truly be pleasantly surprised if a team scored on us by outplaying us through build up.  Too cocky?  I don't think so.  I just don't see it happening.

Who knows which way the ball will bounce for us in this event, but regardless of the outcome, I am very proud of where this group is at right now.  Would I be disappointed if we failed to advance out of this event to Regionals?  Extremely.  Do I know that it is a possibility?  Most definitely.  Though there would likely be many more life lessons for all of us if we end up getting beat here in MN, I would much prefer that we don't have to deal with those issues at this particular point :)

4:00PM - 5:30PM Field Training

I. 8v8 Walking Soccer

II. 4v4 Linked Soccer

III. Individual Functional Training

Forwards - Breakaways

Defenders - Clearances in the Box

Wide Players - Services into the Box

IV. 8v9 to Goal with Counters - Defending Set Pieces