Training - Tuesday, March 27

6:00PM - 6:30PM Ball Masters - Individual Skills Development

I. Short Passing Warm Up

Now that baseball has started up at the Academy of Holy Angels, we are not allowed into the dome until our allotted start time of 6:30PM.  I didn't know this and wasn't able to prep the girls prior to tonight.  Luckily the weather outside was decent, so we spent the first 25 minutes on the grass area just outside of the dome.  I would later get an email informing BTFC teams that we cannot use this grass area yet, but I didn't know about this tonight.

We struggled this past weekend with our passing.  Big time.  I wanted to take a step back and refocus on simple passing technique.  I did this simple exercise as a warm up.

Players worked in pairs with one soccer ball per pair.  They stood about 10 yards apart and worked on different passing techniques back and forth.  Lots of repetition which was needed.

• Inside of the foot - strong and weak foot
• Outside of the foot stab pass
• Clip pass (player would face sideways and "clip" the ball across their body to their teammate)

6:30PM - 7:45PM Field Training

II. Sequence Passing

Set Up

• 44x40 yard area
• Two teams of 7, gold and blue, and players on each team are assigned numbers 1 - 7

Procedure

• Two soccer ball, one with the #1 players on each team
• At the coach's signal, #1 passes to #2, #2 then passes to #3, and so on
• All players must be moving at all times

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each team if they make a mistake (you don't want points)
• Mistakes could be errant passes outside of the grid or to incorrect teammates, more touches than is allowed, not receiving the ball in a proper position, etc.

Coaching Points

• Short passes - no more than 15 yards
• Keep the ball on the group, strike the middle of the ball using proper passing technique
• See your target before you get the ball - meaning, take a look prior to having a ball passed to you in order to see where your next pass will be going
• Adjust your body to receive a pass facing the teammate you are going to play to next - sometimes this means moving your feet quickly in order to best position your body

Progression

• Unlimited touches by all players to start
• Two touch by all players
• Two soccer balls for each team - one starts with #1 and one starts with #4 on each team
• 2 to 1 - a player takes two touches, the next player takes one, the next players takes two, etc.
• One touch by all players

When the girls started this drill, gold was on one side of the field and blue was on the other.  I challenged the girls to have their teams play through each other, thus forcing them to get into good positions, find their target players in traffic, and all around be more aware of their surroundings. 

The girls also hit many long balls to teammates early on and, like I have them do in our pre game warm ups, made long runs to get the ball.  I wanted to focus on short passing, so I put in the restriction of passes no longer than 15 yards and encouraged them to move quickly to get into space prior to receiving a pass so that the pass could be played into their feet.

III. Four Corner In and Out

Set Up

• 50x65 yd grid with 4 x 10 yd Target Areas, one in each corner of the grid
• Two teams of seven players, gold and blue
• All the soccer balls at the coach's feet at the top of the grid

Procedure

• Coach plays a ball into the mix
• Teams play possession, scoring points for a set number of completed passes
• Teams score bonus points for passing a ball to a teammate in a Target Area and if that teammate can then play another pass to a different teammate (not the same teammate who played the pass into the Target Area)

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for every 5 consecutive passes
• +5 points for a pass into a Target Area followed by a successful return pass to a different teammate

Coaching Points

• Get support around the ball and keep the ball moving
• Don't force low percentage passes
• Read when the time is right to place a long pass to break pressure or spring a teammate, and when the time is right to slow down the pace of play
• 3-man combination play - third attacker needs to read when a ball is played into a Target Area and where the best position is to give support

IV. 7v7 Small Sided Scrimmage

Lessons From Virginia

The main reason that I take the team to events like the Jefferson Cup is to be able to find top level competition at our true age group in order to best highlight our team's strengths and weaknesses (see You're Planning On Taking This Team Where?!?!).  Armed with this information, I am able to design training sessions that address needed areas of improvement which leads to accelerated player development (see Key To Accelerated Player Development).

Though I didn't think that we played our best soccer this past weekend, it was evident in our games and in watching other games at this age level that we have a number of areas in which we need improvement.

• Simple passing technique under pressure
• Proactive movement off the ball to create good passing angles, support options, and forward passing channels (as opposed to reactive movement)
• Continued technical work seeking comfortability on the ball
• 1v1 composure
• Changing our playing rhythm as we are, in most cases, a very direct team
• Finishing breakaways
• Pouncing on the ball in our opponents box
• Keeping the ball "alive" in our opponent's danger area
• One touch defensive clearances
• Aerial ball control
• Overall aggressiveness and intensity around the ball

Here's what I thought we did really well on the field at this past weekend:

• Not much

I'm kinda kidding.  Though I didn't see much I was really please with on the field of play, the girls had a great attitude, gave 100% effort, and showed good sportsmanship the entire event.  I preach to them that these are the 3 things we have full control over, and I was proud of how they handled themselves (see Controlling the SEA)

Foregoing a Top Event for State Cup

After pondering it for about a second after seeing our State Cup draw, I decided to pull the girls from the Arsenal Elite Invitational (Cincinnati, OH, April 27 - 28).  It would have been a great event for us as many of the teams there would likely represent their states at Regionals in June.

However, we've been clear about our goal of representing Minnesota this year at Regionals, and there is no way I can sacrifice performance in our first game against Wayzata by attending the Arsenal event.  The girls would have a tough, competitive weekend for sure in Cincinnati and that alone would have stopped me from taking them.  Couple in the 12 to 14 hour bus ride after Sunday's game, rolling into MN sometime Monday morning, then playing at 8:00PM that night, would have been too much to ask. 

The tournament is disappointed that we won't be making it, but the director understands our situation.  The four other Bangu Tsunami girls teams are still planning to attend (U10 East Academy, U11 East Academy, U11 South Academy, and U12 East Academy) and it should be a very challenging and memorable event for all of them.   

2007 MN State Cup Brackets Set

The mandatory State Cup meeting was this past Saturday.  My wonderful team manager extraordinaire, Wendy Nelson, attended the meeting in my place as I was busy with my girls in the beautiful Virginia countryside.  Brackets played out as follows.

Group A

• A1 - St Croix
• A2 - NSSA
• A3 - Wings
• A4 - Maplebrook

Group B

• B1 - Play in winner Tonka United or Blaine
• B2 - Bangu Tsunami Green
• B3 - Cottage Grove
• B4 - Eden Prairie

Group C

• C1 - Dakota Rev
• C2 - TC Fire
• C3 - Bangu Tsunami Blue (you're on our site!)
• C4 - Wayzata

Group D

• D1 - Bangu Tsunami White
• D2 - Bangu Tsunami Academy 95
• D3 - Centennial
• D4 - Lakeville

The Group A and Group C (our group) winners will meet in one semifinal, with the Group B and Group D winners meeting in the other. 

Download 2007 MN State Cup Brackets

Group A is the wildcard group for me.  NSSA is the defending state champion at this age group from the summer of 2006.  The question will be whether or not they were able to pick up additional talent when they moved to the larger 11v11 roster.  Same goes for Maplebrook.  I saw St Croix play last fall against our U12s and they didn't have much.  No idea about the Wings team.  Luckily, all Group A games are at different times from our Group C games, so I'll get a good chance to watch all four of these teams in action.

Group B is tough for me to predict as well.  EP was our toughest competition the fall of 2004, but I haven't seen them at all since then.  Cottage Grove will be athletic and work hard and will probably give the opposition trouble just based on those qualities. Tonka was one of two clubs who advertised and recruited last fall with the hopes of forming a "superteam".  Lakeville did the same.  I know Tonka had some good talent last summer and mixed with Edina this past fall, and I think they will likely make it in after their play in game.  This is probably the toughest group on paper with any of the four teams able to advance.

Though our 3-year State Cup goal has a possibility of ending with a loss in our first game, I like our draw.  I'm not overlooking TC Fire or Dakota Rev, but I think we can get away with favorable results against those teams with a decent game on our part.  I think Wayzata will be one of the top teams in the event, and I'm sure they're not too thrilled to draw us in their pool group.  We are scheduled to come up against them on Monday, April 30, for our first game.  If we can get by them, I believe we stand a good chance of getting out of our group.  Wayzata will be nervous as we're the team to beat, no question about it.  I don't think they can stick with us if we come to play, and it will be my job to make sure the girls do just that.  We've opted out of traveling to the Arsenal Elite Invitational in order to be best prepared for this first game.  More on this later.

I think our White team has a good shot at making it out of Group D, though Centennial and Lakeville should offer up tough competition for them.  Our U12 Academy team is also in that group and will get some valuable experience playing up this year. 

The field is set, we know what we are up against.  People will be gunning for us for sure and I know our girls are up for the challenge.  As always, there are many surprises each year at State Cup and I'm sure this year will be no different.  Just hope we're not on the "bad" end of any of them!

A Weekend in Virginia - Day 3

I got up at around 7:00AM this morning, packed up my room, and headed out to catch the two semifinal games at 8:00AM.  FC Pennsylvania (PA) was playing Charlotte SC (NC) in one game, and Bethesda (MD) was matched up against Carolina Elite (SC) in the other.

Having not seen FC Pennsylvania play yet, I set up my folding chair at that game first.  My plan was to watch half this game then mosey over across the parking lot to catch the second half of the other game.

FC Pennsylvania was solid.  Very solid.  Two real dangerous, athletic, and skilled forwards, creative and quick mids, and an awesome center back.  Field #4 negated some of their passing combinations, but I could tell the idea was there.  Charlotte played tough, but after FC Pennsylvania scored in the first 15 minutes, I knew it would be difficult for Charlotte to come back.  I left with the score 1-0 in favor of FC Pennsylvania, and headed to the other game.

Bethesda and CESA battled in a hard fought contest.  I have never seen a team like Bethesda play at this age level.  I doubt they hit more than a handful of passes over 15 yards, yet tore CESA apart sometimes with quick, short, pinpoint passing combinations.  It was really fun to watch.  CESA was more direct and the two team's styles were clearly at odds with each other.  The game ended 0-0 and headed into overtime.

Maybe another east coast thing, but overtime meant both teams pulled off two players and played 2 x 5 minute periods 9v9.  Though the game opened up a bit, neither team broke through and the game went to PKs.  Again, I watched and was impressed by the coolness of the players who stepped up to take the kicks.  It was 4-4 after the first 5 players from each team went, with the GKs for each team coming up with one save a piece.  The game was eventually decided on the 8th shooter in favor of Bethesda.

I should have had the girls come out to watch these games.  They would have learned a lot.

I left the complex to grab a bite to eat, then returned to meet the girls for our final game.  South Charlotte had lost both games so far 4-0 and 5-0, and I was confident that we would leave with a good result to send us home.

Lily was back from injury but Becs was sidelined still for this game.  I moved some players around to give the girls some different experiences in tournament situations and the girls played fairly well.  Not great, but not Hockessin-bad.  Alas, we let up a soft goal in the first part of the first half and could not find a way to battle back for an equalizer, let alone for a game winner. 

South Charlotte was decent, better than Hockessin but no where near Charlotte SC.  Once again I thought we were the better team, and once again we couldn't get a result even though we created more attacking play and held our opponents to a limited number of quality scoring chances.  Tough way to end the weekend from a results perspective.

My ego was bruised for sure, though I could not let on to the girls about this.  In our final team talk after the game, I once again focused on the girls effort and all around attitude over the weekend.  I spoke to them about the benefit of making a trip like this to find top level competition (see You're Planning On Taking This Team Where?!?!) and that I was proud of them regardless of the win/loss records.  We talked about this being a good building block for State Cup in a few months and I think most of the girls left the field with a positive feeling.  I say most because I know a few were clearly disappointed with their performance over the weekend, and a few were too focused on winning to see the other success the weekend brought our team.  I can understand this as no one is more competitive than I am.  This weekend is going to sting for a while, but I know that it will help make this team stronger in the long run. 

I had a ticket out of Dulles on Monday morning, so my plan was to stay in DC near the airport tonight.  Before heading back up I-95 though, I made my way over to Striker Park to watch the final between FC Pennsylvania and Bethesda.  I almost fainted when I got out of my car and saw the field conditions over at the main park!  Check this out!

OK, maybe this comparison isn't quite fair as this was one of the Field Turf fields at the complex, but look at these shots another field at the park.  Most looked like this next one below... nice grass, flat, surrounded by sponsorship info, pro.

Here is the field the U13 Girls final was played on.

Man, did we draw the short straw or what?