State Cup Game #3 vs TC Fire

Another beautiful night for soccer.

I arrived up in Coon Rapids around 5:30PM to watch the Group A third round pool games, NSSA vs Wings and MapleBrook vs St Croix.  Wings led the group with 4 points, NSSA and MapleBrook each had 3.  If Wings won, they'd advance to the semifinals against us on Saturday.  If NSSA won and MapleBrook lost, NSSA would advance as group champion.  If Wings and NSSA tied and MapleBrook won, MapleBrook would advance.  Got it?

So, with three out of the four possible teams a possible opponent for us tomorrow, I perched up on the electrical box between the fields to try and scout out 3 teams.  Not really that easy, but it helped that I'd been able to watch them all over the last few weeks as most of the Group A games were played at earlier times to the other U13 games.  All I could hope for were some early goals to help narrow down exactly who I was watching.  Surprisingly, St Croix scored two on MapleBrook to kick them out of the hunt.  The Wings NSSA game was decent.  Both teams tried to knock the ball around a bit, and bother teams missed some clear chances at goal.  Both teams appeared to be slow in the back, and I didn't see anyone who I thought could match our speed up top. 

Wings looked to be playing a 4-5-1, content that a tie would send them through to the next round.

Wings played a flat back four while NSSA played with what looked liked a sweeper/stopper or at times 3 in the back with a defensive central midfielder.  NSSA also pulled an offisdes trap and I was looking forward to breaking that... often. 

I had seen a number of chances squandered by each side, with NSSA missing a PK on a dubious shoulder to shoulder foul in the box, then proceeding to miss a 1v1 breakaway on the GK a minute later. 

Wouldn't you know it, at around the 60 minute mark I took my eyes off the game to chat with Dom and Clint (the Wayzata coaches) and boom, the sidelines erupted with cheers behind me. Wings scored to go up 1-0, against the run of play I thought, and held on from there to set up the Wings/Bangu matchup tomorrow afternoon. 

I went over to gather up my girls who were watching the U13 Bangu boys play, and we headed over to our field to get ready for the TC Fire game.

Right before we took the field to warm up, I sat the girls down for a little chat.  I apologized to them for letting my frustration show last night during the end of the Coon Rapids game, and talked to them about why I didn't challenge the ref's decision regarding our apparent goal.  I told them that at that particular point in the game, I thought the ref went over to the AR and she called the ball out (I would later find out that the AR claimed not to have told the ref anything as she could not tell exactly what happened).  Ripper and some other girls who were on the field then informed me that I wasn't right about the AR and that the ref asked the Coon Rapids girls if the ball was out.  Wow.  Regardless, it's behind us and we now needed to focus on this weekend. 

I also told them that I take the blame for making a decision to push a defender up without giving her clear instruction, and used this example to remind the girls about the importance of communication.   

Lastly, I told the girls that I'm very proud of their efforts and their competitiveness.  They've worked very, very hard this past 10 months and they should all be looking forward to a fun and exciting summer.

In an additional effort to put the negativity of last night behind us, and also knowing that we had already advanced into the semis tomorrow, I ran through a couple fun warm-up exercises with the girls before the game: 8v8 Walking Soccer and 4v4 Linked Soccer (see Training - April 28).  Check that, I haven't updated that session yet.  Basically, for 8v8 Walking Soccer, I set up a 60x44 yard field (extend the lines of the penalty box to midfield) and add a cone goal at midfield.  Girls play 8v8 but cannot run.  The idea I'm trying to get across here is that the mind is quicker than the body will ever be.  Moreover, it's a ton of fun for the girls.

4v4 Linked Soccer uses the same field set up, but now the girls hold hands with a teammate, making 4 groups of 2 on each team.  The groups can run.  Another very fun exercise. 

Knowing that we faced a less skilled opponent tonight, I was able to prep the girls prior to the game what changes/restrictions we would impose once we got up by 3 goals.  My instructions to them were to play "normally" and look to put the game away early.  If we hit three goals, immediate restrictions would be 1) 2-touch in the attacking half of the field except if on a breakaway, 2) no beating a player 1v1 anywhere on the field, and 3) no passes in the air except on corners. 

I told the girls if the broke the rules I'd sub them out, and I didn't care if they were only on the field for 30 seconds. 

To TC Fire's credit, their girls battled hard all game against a team they knew was much better than them. 

In the 9th minute Ripper (LF) received the ball near the top of the Fire's penalty box.  She dribbled into the area, cut back on a Fire defender, and was fouled.  The girls looked at me for direction on who would take the kick, and I told them that they could sort it out.  Jilly (RM) stepped up and buried a low, hard shot into the bottom left (as she was facing it) corner of the net.  As one of our more quite and unassuming players, she works hard and has come a long way since joining us last fall.  She has undoubtedly been our most consistent PK taker in the last week when we've been focusing on the spot kicks, and I was proud of her when she stepped up to take it.

Two minutes later, Millie (CM) beat a few Fire defenders on the right flank and played a square pass into the box.  Maddie (LF) had made a cutting run into the box and finished with a low, right-footed (her weak foot) shot past a diving Fire GK. 

We scored our third goal at the 30 minute mark as Soph (CM) hit a left foot bomb from 30 yards out.

In the second half, with the restrictions in place, the girls played very well.  The new #3 restriction of no aerial passes was genius.  Not only did it severely blunt our strong over-the-top attack, but it forced the girls to look for passes to feet instead of long through balls, and passes to feet instead of long clearances from the back.  Couple this with the two touch restriction in the attacking half, and the girls were forced to work harder to generate positive attacks even though the game was already in hand.

Andy, the Fire coach who also coaches our U12 Academy group, made a change in the second half as his defenders now looked to step up quickly and compact the field in a semi-offsides trap mentality.  It worked as within the first 5 minutes of the half, Millie (LF) was caught offsides 6 or 7 times. 

In the 44th minute, we scored our best goal of the night with sweet 1 and 2 touch combination passing between Maddie (CM), Becs (LF), and Jilly (RF) that saw Maddie finish with a rocket.  I tired to illustrate it below, but it doesn't do the goal justice. 

In the 51st minute, Jilly (RF) played a slot ball across to Millie (LF) at the far post.  Millie's first touch was too close to her feet, her second touch set up her shot (which she curled in the lower right corner)... and I subbed her off for taking 3 touches.

In the 64th minute, Jilly (RF) capped off a great game with a fantastic far post, side netting shot off a nice slot ball from Blondie.

Our final tally came in the 66th, when Hannah (LF) played a ball back to Ripper (CM) on the left side of the goal.  Ripper took one touch inside the field and hit a good shot from about 18 yards away.

After the game, I asked the girls if they understood why the restrictions were in place.  They did.  The idea was to continually find ways to keep them challenged on the field against weaker competition.  The first 15 minutes, girls were coming off the field saying the game was boring.  When asked if the enjoyed the second half better, it was an overwhelming "Yes!".  That's what it's all about.

* * * * *

Our White team was also already through to the semis, and they beat Lakeville 2-0.  Our Green team beat Cottage Grove 1-0 and Blaine was beat 2-1 by EP, so our Green team advanced to the semis to face our White team tomorrow. 

Premier League Game #2 vs Coon Rapids

Nice night for a game.

Today we faced Coon Rapids in our second U14 Premier League game.  I did not know much about the team other than feedback from our U14 White team coach who had played against them last week.  He said that CR was fairly athletic, had a talented central forward, but played boot ball most of the time without much thought of creative build up.

Regardless, I knew we’d be in for a tough game.  Not only likely physically outmatched around most of the field, but also due to the fact that we were missing 3 girls; one (Bidi) in Washington, DC, for a school function (out until Sunday) and two others (Jilly and Macky) due to band concerts.  I talked with Andy Kaasa, our U12 coach, and asked Cutter to play up with us to help with numbers for the game.  She was excited to join us, knowing many girls on the team from the 94 ODP group, so we came into the game with 15 players.

I knew about CR’s talented forward as I had spoken with her and her family a few years back about joining our club.  I think they had been close to coming but she is also a big time hockey stud and I think the participation on two high level sports teams was a little daunting for them.  Just my guess here on their reasoning, but I think she would have thrived on our current U14 team.

We were also scheduled to play on a huge, 120x75 yard field at Bielenberg (Woodbury) and our girls would have to work hard against the bigger, faster, and stronger CR girls.

We started a bit slow and CR dictated a bit more of the play in the first 10 or 15 minutes.  Our girls settled in nicely though and soon began taking control of the game with good side to side field changes and more control of the center of the field.  We didn't create a ton of chances, but didn't give up many either.  I could tell though that a number of girls were off their game though, not as sharp as usual and tiring easily on the big field.

The half ended 0-0.

I talked to the girls at halftime about the communication and organization of our back four, challenging the girls to realize when some of them could push forward due to superior numbers in the back (many times we’d have our back 4 sitting back in our attack when only 1 CR forward was staying deep. I also talked about playing a bit more quickly in the middle of the field as the athletic CR players were closing down our central midfielders hard.

We talked about our training session yesterday regarding early crosses as Nash (RD) had been able to serve in a number of dangerous early balls from her right back position. I reminded the girls that they needed to stay tuned into the play and “read” Nash (and our other wide players) to better anticipate the early deliveries.

Lastly, we talked about not giving any of the CR defenders easy clearances.  Most of them could hoof the ball up the field 40 or 50 yards and I wanted the girls, the forwards especially, to do what they could to disrupt the CR defenders' concentration on the ball by applying pressure.  This was the same on aerial battles as many of our girls wouldn’t challenge a header they knew they couldn’t get to.  They needed to know that even if they had no chance of reaching the ball, and body to body challenge for the ball would not give the CR defenders, many of whom could head the ball very well, free headers.  Even a little contact could go a long way to forcing inaccurate distribution.

We came out and played much better in the second half.  Knocked the ball around better and looked more dangerous on the attack.

20 minutes in, I was still a bit frustrated about our back four defending positions when we had the ball in the attack, so I yelled out for Hannah (playing central defense) to push up as a stopper and have Becs (our other central defender) play sweeper, looking to sandwich the CR center forward while allowing Hannah to fill the gap between the defense and midfield.  Most of the game I had been looking to have either one of the central defenders push up to challenge the lone CR forward, and most of the game the girls were not able to grasp the concept.  My fault as I know we need to address this in training, not in the game.  I can’t expect them to just pick it up without more work.  I sometimes forget that I’m dealing with 12 year old girls.  Most of the time they do stuff that is more suited to players years older than they really are and it’s easy for me to expect some stuff that really shouldn’t be expected.

Sure enough, less than a minute later, we lost the ball at the top off the CR box and they booted the ball up to their forward.  Hannah was caught too far up, as were our wide defenders, and the CR forward went 1v1 on Becs.  Our three other defenders tried to recover, but no one was able to get into a decent cover position behind Becs.  The CR forward cut back and forth at the top of our box, split Hannah and Bec, and slid to push the ball past an onrushing Mudd (GK) from about 7 yards out.

Tough break, but my fault for not giving Hannah more explicit direction about pushing up but still focusing on defense.

To the Tsunami girls credit, we battled back.  After only a few minutes, Millie was sent on to goal on a breakaway due to a misplayed ball from one of the CR defenders.  Millie collected the ball about 50 yards from goal and was off to the races.  The only problem was that Millie’s 11 year old legs when dribbling aren’t much of a match for 13 year old legs without a ball, so one CR defender was able to catch her at the top of their box with two others close on her heels.

Millie wove back and forth, turning the CR defender inside out and then slipped a square ball to Ripper, who had made a 60 yard sprint from the right side of the field to get herself into a very dangerous position.  Ripper took a touch past one of the recovering CR defenders who tried to stab at the ball, then another touch to about 6 yards from goal.  She shot the ball right at the CR GK and it deflected up off the crossbar into the air.  Ripper adjusted her position and headed the ball into the net to tie the game.  Honestly, I couldn’t believe she hit the GK from that distance, but her ability to stay focused and finish the ball with her head was neat to see.  It was a great creative effort from both our forwards and a memorable goal, that’s for sure.

I looked down at my watch.  9 minutes left.  As I was thinking about what to do, how to play the girls for the last 9 minutes to try and push for the winner, I heard their coach ask his bench, “Didn’t that ball bounce off the top crossbar?”

Field #14 at Bielenberg has the goal posts that also double as football uprights.  Meaning, that there is another crossbar a few feet above the soccer crossbar, supported by three or four vertical uprights.  I don’t know how their coach, from 70 yards away, could possibly have known that the ball hit the top crossbar, but he talked himself into it.  He stepped onto the field and began yelling at the top of his lungs at the official that the ball hit the top crossbar and was out of play.  I didn’t think much of it as I saw, or thought I saw (from 50 yards away) the ball clearly hit the normal crossbar.  Moreover, the ref had signaled for a goal and was even beginning to make notes in his notebook as the girls ran back to midfield.  However, I glanced up to see the ref walking over to the AR, confer with her a bit, then point to the goal indicating a goal kick should be taken.  A goal kick.  What?!?!  Not even a corner kick, seeing as the ball deflected off the GK up into the crossbar.  I was stunned. 

Looking back at it now, maybe should have fought more on the girls behalf.  The only reason the ref even thought about the possibility that the ball was out of play was because an irate coach was making a scene.  As the CR coach was yelling, I could have also began yelling that the ball clearly did not the upper crossbar, but to be honest, the thought didn’t even cross my mind as I thought what just happened (the ball hitting the normal crossbar) was obvious.  But instead, the girls on the field looked at me in shock, asking me what the call was and complaining about the resulting call as they also knew where the ball hit.  Having been preaching the Controlling the SEA mentality (focusing the girls' energies on things under their direct control - the calls the refs make not being one of them), I told the team that the ref was not going to change his call and that we needed to continue to fight for the equalizer.  “But the ref did change his call!” they said.  I didn't know how to respond.

In the coming minutes, I got more and more frustrated that the other coach could have even fathomed taking issue with the apparent goal from his distance and from his angle at goal, and frustrated with myself for not contesting more the ref’s decision.  My frustration was compounded by the thought that my miscommunication with our defenders had a direct result on the goal that was scored.  This frustration was unfortunately passed onto the players as I found myself getting on girls for simple, 12 year old mistakes.  I know they were all giving their very best on the field, but in my state of mind it wasn’t good enough.

The game ended 1-0, I put a smile on my face that didn't touch my eyes I'm sure, and shook hands with the CR girls, their coaches, and the refs.  I asked the AR about the call and she said she couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it looked like the ball hit the normal crossbar.  So the ref changed the call on his own, in reaction to a coach's comments.  That's a bit depressing.

During our post game team talk, I still couldn’t get control of my frustration and found myself pointing fingers and calling players out on the mistakes that led to the goal on us.  I talked about looking at these mistakes from a development and learning perspective, though I know some of my words stemmed from my aggravation at the moment.  I also mentioned that it was a tough game for us today as a number of girls were not at their normal level and they needed to reevaluate what they did earlier that day (what they ate, participation in track, etc) and try to find out what they could do better to better prepare themselves for future game.  These aren't pros... why would I say that?!?!  I mentioned that they couldn't expect to always come out and have good games, but usually when 1 or 2 are sub-par, many others would be there to help pick up the slack.  Today, we just had too many girls not up to their usual standards.  It was not a very positive conversation and one that left me more frustrated later that night and is still bugging me this morning.

I’ve been to many regional and national events at which I’ve seen coaches of younger girls teams absolutely berating their players on the sidelines. Getting in their faces, pointing fingers, highlighting individual mistakes, etc. I vowed I would never be like that.  Though I don't think I'm near as bad as many coaches I've seen, I have found myself as of late with a shorter fuse, with less patience for mistakes and disruptive behavior at training and at games. 

I think I've begun to feel the pressure of coaching in a higher level club, a club whose top teams at each age group have an expectation of getting results.   I constantly preach against this train of thought, but I can't help getting caught up in it, even when coaching at the younger age levels.  I don't want to succumb to the pressure, mostly self-imposed pressure, of State Cup/Premier League performance, though admittedly this is difficult to avoid. 

Late last night and this morning, I took some time to read through some of my thoughts posted on this site as well as some of the other thoughts I've penned but have yet to post.  I helped remind myself that this is a game, a game for the girls.  These are 12 year old girls who are battling in the top U14 league here in Minnesota.  This is not about me, and all about the 17 girls in my charge.  I know these girls respect me as a coach, and this respect has allowed me to be able to get on them harder than I could if I didn't have this respect.  But they didn't deserve to bear the brunt of my frustration last night.  They all know that I'm helping them be the best players they can be, but I could see the negative effect my words had on some of them and was ashamed of the hurt looks I received from some of the girls after the post game talk.  At least I thought they were hurt looks... maybe I was projecting.  Is that even the right word to use here? 

I can't let any of this carry over into this weekend.  If I go into this final State Cup with any attitude save the "right" one, and if we get into tight situations, I run the very real risk of not being as positive and supportive as I can be... and this negativity will surly not help the girls perform better in needed situations.

I need to aplogize to the team tonight.  I need to make it a priority to get back to being ultra-positive on the sidelines at our games, and it will have to start tonight.  I need to see the girl for what they are, for how fast they've developed, and for how far many of them have come in 3 years.  I need to be content in the fact that I've selected the best possible players for this team and that I've prepared them for this weekend to the best of my ability.  I need to take my eyes off the prize, so to speak, and really appreciate how the long hours of work have elevated many of these girls' technical abilities far beyond those of the average U13 player here in Minnesota.  I need to make sure the girls enjoy this experience of a possible realization of a long-term goal.  I need to sit back, relax, and enjoy watching the girls play.

This writing is cathartic.

Training - Wednesday, May 16

Our first training session at my alma mater,  Macalester College (St Paul).  What a great new facility!  Where was this field back in the glory days?

The idea for today was to continue to address breaking down possible packed in defenses, if teams should choose to do so against us this weekend during the semifinals or (hopefully) the championship game.  Our main attack against this defense will come from the flanks, with early crosses into the danger area or by beating players 1v1 out wide and getting in endline crosses or wining corner kicks, and also by long range efforts.

Long range efforts don’t necessarily mean always striking shots from 25+ yards.  But if we can get a couple long distance strikes on goal early and prove that we are a threat from these opportunities, we will spread the defense out a bit as they will be forced to step up and pressure us.  This will create holes for crafty forwards to find space in dangerous areas for passes to feet.

In actuality, we probably need a few months in order to get all this stuff down, but the ideas for this type to play have to start sometime.  No better time than the present!

I had 17 girls at training.

I. Penalty Kicks

As the girls arrived on site I encouraged them to work on their PKs. While they waited for their turn, they were asked to be active, moving around to help get warmed up.

II. Endline Crosses

Set Up

• 4 crossers, 2 on the right and 2 on the left set up as shown below, with one crosser and one dummy defender on each side
• 3 defending players and a GK defending a goal
• 3 teams of 3 attackers 25 yards out from goal with all the soccer balls

Procedure

• A player from the blue attacking group plays a ball out to the right crosser
• Once the crosser has the ball under control, the dummy defender comes to pressure
• The crosser is looking to beat the defender and serve in a cross from near the endline
• Once the ball is in the net, out of bounds, or been cleared by the defenders, green plays a ball out to the left crosser to begin their attack on goal

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for a goal
• +3 points for a first time goal (a goal scored directly from a cross on a one-touch, without the attacker controlling the ball first)
• +6 points for any header goals

Coaching Points

• Crossers should attack the defender towards the middle of the field. If they just dribble down the sidelines, they set themselves up for a longer cross into the box. If they instead attack inside, the freeze the defender inside the field and, once they take a touch to beat the defender to the outside (away from goal), they will find themselves closer to the center of the field for an easier cross.
• Attack the defender at speed, take a bigger touch to get by them. This will allow the crosser to ran faster (without worrying about taking multiple touches on the ball) while also allowing the crossers to take a look up to see where they are crossing to.
• Crossers need to wrap their foot around the ball and pull the ball back – the closer you get to the endline, the more you have to cross the ball backwards, away from goal
• Runners need to get organized early and time their runs as not to be standing and waiting (easy to mark) before the cross comes in

III. Early Crosses

Set Up

• Same as above for the teams, the defenders, and the GK
• Still two crossers out wide on each side of the field, except now the two crossers start at the same disk, roughly 40 yards from goal
• All 3 attacking teams start about 30 yards from goal

Procedure

• Blue takes up starting positions as shown below
• A player from gold, next up after blue, plays a ball to blue1, who controls and passes a ball back to red1
• Red1 attacks the ball (doesn't wait for it) and looks to serve in an early cross for blue attackers + gold passer to finish (4v3 to goal)
• After the ball is in the net, out of bounds, or has been cleared by the defenders, gold takes up blue's starting positions and gold3 receives a pass from a green player to begin their sequence to goal

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for the attacking team if they get the first touch on the ball after the cross - I want the players to attack the ball aggressively
• +3 points for a goal

Coaching Points

• Drop the ball in the danger area off the crosses, aim for the penalty spot
• Attackers need to begin to read the crossers - if the ball is approaching them too quickly, it will likely take two touches to serve the ball.  If the ball is approaching at a slower pace and you see the wide player adjusting her feet and winding up to kick the ball, the cross is coming in
• Be first to the ball and don't give the defenders any free (unchallenged) clearances

9v9 Early Service

Set Up

• 60x75 yard field (half field) divided with a midline and channeled by extending the 44-yard box lines to midfield (see below)
• One goal on each endline
• 2 teams of 9 set up as shown below, with a GK, 3 defenders in the defending half, 2 wide players in the adjacent wide channels, and 3 attackers in the attacking half
• All the soccer balls divided and in/just behind the goals

Procedure

• Ball starts with blue's GK who plays to one of the 3 blue defenders
• One green attacker takes a knee and cannot defend
• After 5 consecutive passes by the 3 defenders and the GK, the ball can be played into either adjacent wide channel
• Crossers in these channels must deliver an early service into the danger area for their forwards
• The weak-side crosser (the crosser who does not receive a pass from the middle grid) may also join the attack
• If the the green defenders or GK gain possession of the ball, one blue attacker takes a knee and both blue crossers must return to their channel

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each goal

Coaching Points

• 4v2 in the back, keep possession of the ball by making the grid big, moving to create good passing and support angles, knowing what you are going to do with the ball before you get it, and playing quickly
• Attackers must read the wide players - when are they going to serve the ball?
• Attackers should attack the ball aggressively and be active and buzzing around the box
• Crosses should be aimed toward the penalty spot
• No free clearances, challenge everything

Progression #1

Same as above, but now when the ball gets played wide to either crosser, all players are live to play until the ball is scored at either end

9v9 Free Play

Remove all restrictions and let the girls play.

Penalty Kicks

Again... just in case.  Two teams played through 3 PK rounds to see which team emerged victorious!

Training - Monday, May 14

Tonight was going to be our first training session on the turf at Holy Angels.  We were scheduled on it last week, but due to a field conflict we were forced to use the grass outfield area on the adjacent baseball field.  Not ideal when I came with a session planned for the ½ field we were scheduled to use on the turf field, but not a huge inconvenience.

The idea for this week was to work on ways to break down teams who may decide to pack it in on us and look to defend in numbers from the opening kick off.  Though I’m not sure that any U13 team will try to employ this tactic against us, it never hurts to be prepared.

If teams look to do this against us in the semifinal game or (hopefully) in the final game this weekend, we will likely face something like a 4-5-1 formation; lots of numbers behind the ball with a lone forward up top to spearhead a counterattack.

How would we look to break this down? We have a number of options and ideas.

First, we’d likely switch to a 3-5-2 formation. This formation would

• give us enough numbers in back to defend against any counterattack
• give us width in the attack with two very wide mids who would look to either 1) serve in early crosses from 25 – 35 yards away from the endline, or 2) find 1v1 situations and attack the endlines
• The idea about the early crosses is that wide players will usually have more time and space the further away they are from the goal and the packed in defense
• The idea behind attacking the endline is to either get off crosses or to win corner kicks

Second, realizing that there would be little opportunity to play over the top if a defense looked to pack it in in the back, we would need to shift our attacking thoughts to finding forwards feet in dangerous areas for them to 1) play the way they were facing to set up supporting midfielders shots from distance, or 2) look to roll marking defenders and go to goal themselves.

The girls would also need to realize that if we can’t stretch a team in one direction (lengthwise up and down the field) if they are already packed into one area, then we need to look to stretch our opponents out widthwise. Why stretch out our opponents widthwise? Because this will lead to gaps in the middle (in the danger area) for us to look to attack.

The overall objective is still the same - get the ball into the opposing team's danger area in front of goal. 

In the end, it’s really more important that my girls begin to understand the ideas here. Why we would look to make tactical changes and how these changes would affect the game.

In truth, I’m not really worried about playing a team that packs it in. I understand the thought on their end, but I just don’t believe there is a team out there that can contend with our aerial strength off crosses and corner kicks, two attacks that we would likely get a lot of against a packed in team.

So for tonight, I wanted to do some work on early crosses and playing the ball around the back/midfield looking to unbalance the opposition and set up wide players for early crosses and/or 1v1 situations.

Like with all good plans there are always something that comes up that you don't expect.  When I got to the field tonight I saw that there were adult league games being played.  I saw our U17G Blue team, the team that was supposed to be on the turf field before us at 5:30PM, training in the grass outfield area.  At that very same instant, my earpiece starting vibrating and I looked down at my caller ID and it read "Mark Cook".  I didn't need to pick up to know what he was calling about... field conflict.

OK, time to scramble again and come up with a different plan now that we were going to share the outfield area with the U15s.  Moreover, we were on the way out outfield as there was a baseball game going on.  I would not have the space I would need to run the session I had planned on, so I had to come up with something else.

When all else fails and you only have a little bit of space, it never hurts to go back to some technical work.  So, my new training session was to focus on some technical aspects, get the girls moving in some fun 5v2 possession activities, then (after the baseball game was hopefully done towards the end of our practice) look to play for 45 minutes against the U15 team. 

Our U15s, if they can get past the semifinal game against St Croix, will likely face my old Woodbury Inferno team.  I guess I don't really have the right to call them "my team", but regardless of the personnel changes in the last two years, there are still many of the core group I started with some years back.  The Inferno are the clear favorites to take this event, and our coaches know it.  If our U15s meet them in the final, we will likely have to defend in numbers.  Thus, it worked out well to have the U15s work on this while we worked on finding ways to break the defending team down.

7:00PM - 8:30PM Field Training

I. Ball Masters Program - Dribbling Turns

Shield Turn, StepOver Turn, Slap Cut, Outside Cut

Set Up

• Players work in pairs with one soccer ball in a 10 - 12 yard long area

Procedure

• A and B start together at the starting line
• (1) A dribbles out across the opposite endline and executes a specific dribbling turn
• (2) A passes to B and keeps their distance
• (3) B controls and passes back to A
• (4) A plays a 1-touch pass back to B who attacks the ball and dribbles to the endline to repeat the sequence
• A takes B's place on the starting line to await a pass from B

Make It Competitive

• Which group is the sharpest?

Coaching Points

• Everything should be done at speed
• Quick set up touches out to the turning line
• Quick turn, getting the ball away from under your body so that you can play quickly
• Head up to find the target before you pass
• Crisp passes back and forth
• Player who is waiting at the starting line should attack the ball at speed when laid back from the dribbler in step (4) above - I'm looking to get the girls used to accelerating towards the ball and carrying the ball forward with a softer, relaxes, and controlled touch

II. 5v2

Set Up

• Two 20x15 yard grids separated by a 5-yard gap
• Two scrimmage vests in each grid that the defending players in the middle will hold, not wear, to indicate that they are the ones trying to win the ball

Procedure

• 5 attacking players in each grid, 2 defending players
• I had 17 at training, so 3 players were waiting in the middle channel (the 5-yard gap)
• Players play 5v2 possession (keep away)
• If you make a mistake, you are out and go wait your turn in the middle channel
• The defender who has been in the middle the longest drops their scrimmage vest and takes the place of the exiting player on the possession team
• One of the players waiting in the middle channel comes into the grid, picks up the vest, and becomes a defender

Note: This was just a way to try and find a rotation for the numbers we had at training.  I could have played 6v2 and had only one player sitting, but I told the girls I wanted them to work hard in the middle as defenders, as well as be sharp and active on the outside.  The ability to have 3 players inactive and resting, catching their breath, worked well.

Make It Competitive

• Count your passes.  Which pair of defenders allowed the highest number of completed passes?  Believe me, posing this question is a sure way to step up the intensity of the middle players!

Coaching Points

• Constantly move and adjust to provide teammate with options though good support angles and distance
• Look to change the rhythm of play when needed - hold the ball to slow the game down when you have time, play quick 1-touch passes to break pressure

III. 5v2 Mandatory 2-Touch

Same as above, but all attacking players must take two and only 2 touches

IV. 5v2 Two to One

Same as above, but players have 2 touches until someone takes 1 touch.  From that point on, attackers play 1-touch until they make a mistake.  The game is reset to 2 touches each time the defenders switch.

V. 5v2 Pass and Sprint

Same as above with unlimited touches for all players, but every time an attacker passes the ball they must sprint to another area of the grid.  Now, all players must see the ball, see their teammates, see who is running where, and move to fill needed spaces and adjust to number in one area.

VI. 11v11 With U15s

VII. Penalty Kicks

Just in case :)

State Cup Game #2 vs Dakota Rev

Taking nothing away from Dakota Rev, I didn't expect them to be able to put up much of a fight against us on Saturday evening.  I saw them play this winter a couple times and we just have too much all around athleticism and skill for them to be able to handle for 70 minutes.  This isn't saying that any team out there can't score on us or that we are guaranteed to step on the field and get a result in all our games, but IMO we would have to do something very wrong to drop either of our two remaining group games.

We came out in the 4-4-2 that we have been playing so well as of late.  My thought, right or wrong, was that if we could get up early in the match we would make the rest of the game easy for us.  Why?  Well, we saw the Rev girls two summers ago in league/tournament play a number of times.  Most games were relatively lopsided affairs and I felt that our group intimidated the Rev girls a bit.  If we could finish early, we could basically affirm the feeling of "we're up against a WAY better team" that I thought ran through a number of the Rev girls' heads.  They might then back down a bit and not have as much fight in them.  However, the longer the game would go on at 0-0 or even 1-0 us, the more the Rev girls would feel like "hey, we can play with these guys!"  I didn't really want it to get to that point as we would then be in a battle in which anything could happen.

I ended up playing Millie and Ripper up top to start, mainly for the fact that these two had been the main goal scorers against Dakota Rev for us in the past and they were known (and maybe feared).

By the way, in case anyone has failed to notice, I live in my own little world.  I hope people understand that I don't think my thoughts are gosple, just giving insight (right or wrong) as to why I'm doing what sometimes.

We got off to a flying start in the 2nd minute when Ripper (RF) tore down the sidelines and crossed in a ball, looking for Mille (LF) at the far post.  Millie made a play on the ball but the cross rebounded off a Dakota Rev defender and into their net.

Two minutes later, Ripper played a nifty little through ball to Getch (RM) who had made a blind side run.  Getch's early cross found Millie again at the far post, and Millie slotted a low shot past the Rev GK to put us up 2-0.

I made substitutions at around the 10 minute mark, and the new attacking crew had an immediate impact as in the 11th minute Sting (RF) received a pass at the top of the Rev penalty box and hammered a shot into the upper left part of the goal.

In the 20th minute Ripper got on the scoreboard herself with a long range effort from about 30 yards out that must have taken a weird bounce in front of the Rev GK and trickled past her into the net. 

Our 5th goal of the half came from a hard, low shot, again from the top of the box by Macky (CM).

At halftime, I talked to the girls about looking to keep possession of the ball, not always look to play in one direction (up the field) at one pace, but to look to change fields and change the rhythm of their play a bit.  In an effort to blunt our attack while also challenging the girls to play quicker/smarter soccer, I mandated a 3-touch or less restriction on our players in the attacking half of the field.  They had unlimited touches in our defending half, but needed to look for other alternatives to beat players in the attacking half of the field rather than by sheer speed and athleticism.  I did tell them that if they combined and went on a breakaway, they could use more touches and try to finish.

I will never tell my girls to stop playing the game, to not try and score goals (see Handling Blowouts).  I think passing around for the sake of passing around, or having players on a breakaway turn back from a clear goal scoring opportunity is more of a slap in the face to opposing players and coaches than scoring 7, 8, or 9  goals in a game through good soccer.  I saw an older team yesterday simply try and play possession soccer in their own half for much of the game without even a thought of going forward to goal.  No one is going to tell me that this is 1) enjoyable for their players (the team in possession), and 2) honoring the game and the other team.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the thought here, but I just don't believe losing opponents would rather chase a ball around a half field for 45 minutes rather than having additional goals scored on them through creative and exciting soccer.  I know which I'd prefer if I was on the losing end.  This is about respecting our opponents and respecting the game. 

As a side note, State Cup is the Minnesota's highest level soccer event.  Teams need to understand that the goal here is to try and find the absolute best team to represent our state at Regionals.  If you enter this competition, you need to be prepared to face the best and prepared to deal with potential lopsided games.

However, no matter what some people may think of me, I am conscious of opposing teams' soccer experiences.  I know the Dakota Rev coaches and have a lot of respect for both of them.  I also know that they will do/have done a good job of selling the State Cup experience to their team, stressing that their girls will get better by playing against better competition.  They will highlight some of our strong play and their girls will benefit in the long run having direct experience with the ideas their coaches are trying to get across.

The restriction definitely had an effect on our attacking play and it was interesting to watch the girls struggle to adapt to the more forced style of play.  We still generated some dangerous attacks are were rewarded for our efforts on a 41st minute corner kick.  I had spoken to the girls after our Premier league game against Eden Prairie last Thursday about looking to try and drive in our corner kicks rather than simply put them up high in the air and float them in.  Nash took this advice to heart as she served in a well hit ball that Maddog rocketed into the back of the net off her head from about 8 yards out. 

Two minutes later, an almost mirror image of the goal was repeated from the opposite corner, with Nash once again driving in a laser that Maddog again got on the end of with her head.  It was amazing.  These were also not just simply headers that found Maddog standing in the right place at the right time.  Maddog hit both these goals on the dead run, attacking both services aggressively finishing with powerful headers back in the direction the balls were served from. 

We got our 8th tally in the 55th minute as Scratch tore up the right side on a breakaway and hit a low, hard shot into the far post that the GK did well to get to, but couldn't fully stop the powerful shot.  Hannah was following up the play and scored on an easy tap in.

Out final goal came off a beautiful give and go combination between Mille and Getch at the top, left-hand side of the Dakota Rev penalty box.  Getch found Bidi in the center of the area with a little square pass, and Bidi finished well with a solid strike.

The team played very well and the girls looked sharp.  Our next game vs TC Fire will likely see a similar outcome as Dakota Rev beat TC Fire 3-0 in the first group game.

With this win (and Wayzata's 4-0 win over TC Fire) we have won our group (Group C).  Our White team has also guaranteed a place in the semis by beating Centennial 4-0 in their second game.  Our Green team pulled off what many will call a mild upset, beating Eden Prairie 2-1.  Our Green team has come a long way and now also has a chance at a semifinal place if they can beat Blaine next Friday.  I think I initially picked Cottage Grove or EP to win this group.  So much for what I know.

In Group A, NSSA fell to Maplebrook 1-0.  Wings tied St Croix 0-0, so the group will be decided next Friday when Wings meet NSSA (assuming Maplebrook will get a victory against St Croix).  We will face the winner of this group in the semifinals on Saturday, and we've lucked out that their games have all been played at different times than the rest of the U13 group so I've been able to watch many of them.

* * * * *

This will be a busy week for us.  Training tonight at Holy Angels and Wednesday at Macalester College, game in Woodbury vs Coon Rapids on Thursday (we'll be missing Bidi and Jilly for this one), game vs TC Fire on Friday, semis on Saturday, and hopefully a long awaited State Cup final on Sunday.