Back at Bielenberg

I must say it was a bit strange walking into the Bielenberg Sports Center in Woodbury for Thursday's 6:00PM training session.  I couldn't helping thinking that all the coaches and parents of the Woodbury players training in the dome were thinking, "There's the enemy!" when we walked in.  I'm sure things were far worse in my mind than what really happened in reality, but it reminded me of those old E.F. Hutton commercials... you know the ones I'm talking about.  The commercial opens with the camera panning a crowded restaurant scene, focuses on a table with two guys talking about investments, almost straining to hear each other over the unrealistically loud background noise.  The first guy shouts something like, "My broker told me blah-blah-blah about so-and-so stock, etc, etc.".  Then the second guy pipes up by saying, "Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says...".  All of a sudden a deathly and immediate hush falls over the crowd and all you hear are the crickets.  That's what my mind perceived immediately after I pushed through the revolving air-lock doors at Bielenberg.  Chirp, chrip, chirp...

What was interesting is that some of the Woodbury girls on the team also made similar comments, more to the tune an unwelcome feeling surrounding our walk to our side of the field.  Oh well, WAA may not like our organization blossoming in "their" city, but they don't own the dome (though they think they do sometimes). 

Not on the field until 6:30PM, I ran the girls through some individual skills work on the track area surrounding the field.  When we got on the field, I took them through a long range shooting progression with the goal of continuing to build their confidence in their ability to strike quality shots from distance.  We finished with some 6v6 small sided play.

On my way out, I tried not to make eye contact with the numerous WAA board members in the dome with their kids.  Sometimes I wonder why I feel apprehensive in dealing with some of these people.  Maybe it's because I know they work against what I stand for with Bangu and don't want to even pretend to be cordial.  Heck, for all I know though, they're all avoiding looking at me as well :)

A Weekend in Nebraska - Day 3

We finished our weekend on Sunday morning against the Toro Bravo (NE).  The Bravo had beaten us 2-0 here in MN in 2005 at the All American Girls Tournament (Blaine, MN).  That game was on a small sided field and I fully expected a different result today.

The Bravo were fairly athletic and direct in their play and didn't create much against us.  They scored two goals in the second half though.  Their first came on a free kick after one of our defenders cleared the ball into the low ceiling.  The ensuing indirect kick was shot directly at our goal and went in off Mudd's hands as she tried to block the high shot.  Bravo's second goal came off a whiffed clearance by one of our central defenders that sent a Bravo forward in on goal. 

We really controlled the game but could not find a way to score.  Many of the other coaches watching exclaimed after the game that that was the most lopsided game with the weirdest end result that they had ever seen.  Tough for the ego to not come away with a "W", but good for me to see that we really have begun to play well. 

A Weekend in Nebraska - Day 2

We opened the weekend against Toro Booyah (NE).  This was Toro's U12 team that was one of the top teams at this age group in the nation.  I found out yesterday that the Blue Valley Stars Ratpack could not make the trip up due to a sheet of ice over the Kansas area.  I obviously understood the situation but was bummed that we wouldn't get a chance to come up against them this weekend.  As it turned out, the Booyah were supposed to head to Kansas City this weekend to play in an event.  They couldn't make the trip for the same weather reason, so they filled in for the Ratpack in the Omaha event.

The Booyah played well, but they couldn't compete with us.  The game was played in the Booyah half for 90% of the time.  We created a ton of chances but only put one goal away.  This was a good indication to me that we needed to work on ways to penetrate packed in defenses as we would likely see similar situations at State Cup. 

We then came up against the Omaha Gladiators later that afternoon.  The Bangu girls played very well, again created a ton of chances, but had better luck finishing 4 or 5 of them this afternoon.