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.

Premier League Game #5 vs Woodbury

A lot of personal history with the Woodbury team.  I had a chance to work with many of the girls on that team back in the fall of 2004 in the inaugural and only season of the new-then-old Woodbury Soccer Academy program.  After that fall, some of the girls had chosen to remain with the Woodbury Soccer Club while others (the better players) had moved with us to begin the Bangu Tsunami Soccer Academy on the Renegades team.

The Renegades had won the fall State Championship that season and went on to have a successful summer season in 2005, emerging as the U12 summer State Champions as well.  The core group (all but one actually – Flash who opted to play with our top U13 Blue team) of the Renegades then decided to leave Bangu the following fall after the tryouts in August and stay together as a team for the 2005/2006 season, now playing under the Sibley Sting club – a club that had agreed to take the team intact as a U13 team so that the girls could remain together.  This past fall (2006), the group decided to return to Woodbury and play as a U14 Classic I team.  With one of their players leaving to Bangu after the fall of 2005, another three coming to join our club in the fall of 2006, and two other Renegades leaving and now playing with Wayzata’s U14 Premier team, the current Woodbury team is a shell of the team I knew a few years back.

Woodbury’s other disadvantage (on top of not having 7 talented players who had once been with the group) was that the team did not know that they would be playing in the U14 Premier League until early in 2007.  They were not able to hold tryouts and advertise “come play on a Premier team” last fall and thus missed the opportunity to potentially attract more talent.

With that said, most people had written this team off this year as the one team who would struggle to maintain their Premier status at the end of the season.  As expected, this sentiment has only served to strengthen the resolve of the Woodbury parents, and theu the players, and they have, IMO, exceeded expectations thus far this year.  Their girls play with a lot of heart and I know we would likely see them give their best effort tonight.

I’ve know their coach, OJ, for a long time. He’s a great guy and has had a lot of experience with top level older girls teams through St Croix and the Blackhawks.  He has his work cut out for him this year but has been doing well as far as I hear and can tell from recent results.

My thought for tonight was that Woodbury’s threat to us would come from 1) the center midfield play of Buggy, or 2) from the individual attacking play of Gracey (skilled) or Kage (speed).  We have worked enough on addressing the long balls over the top so my main concern was controlling the center of midfield.

I’ve known Buggy for almost 6 years now.  She was a U9 play up on my first U10 (Inferno) team in Woodbury in 2001.  She is quick, athletic, and has a good sense for the game.  Our U14 White team coaches thought she was the best midfield on the field when the teams met a few weeks ago and we needed to be aware of the danger she posed.

So, to address what I thought would be the major concerns from the Woodbury group, we came out in our 4-1-2-3 formation.  Not only did I hope the 3 midfielders, concentrated in the center of the field, would help defensively against the Woodbury threat up the middle of the field, but I didn’t think the Woodbury defense could match up and contain our three forwards.  I told the Bangu girls the same thing in our warm up, believing that if we could deny goals against us, Woodbury would not be able to keep us of the score sheet.  If they did manage to do this, more power to them.

We came out a little shaky, but settled into the match fairly quickly.  We weren’t as sharp as in some of the past games, but still found ways to be dangerous and created a handful of great chances at net.  We failed to capitalize on 3 or 4 excellent chances and what I thought at the time were sure (as sure as any at this age group) goals, and the girls were a little bummed at halftime to still be deadlocked at 0-0.

We addressed a few important points at halftime, mainly focusing on the positives in the first half and talking about trying to be a bit more composed in front of goal.  We were for sure more technical as a group than the Woodbury team and, unlike in some other U14 Premier League games, we were probably a bit more athletic overall as well.

Our breakthrough came 10 minutes into the second half.  I had just made a substitution and was talking to Macky on the sidelines, giving her some additional thoughts about finding space and creating better scoring opportunities in the box, so I missed what I would find out later to be some great build up to our goal.  As I was talking to Macky, facing away from the field, I saw the girls on the bench get up and look excited.  I turned in time to see Maddie (LF) play a fantastic low cross into the box that Jilly (CF) one timed into the net.  Apparently, Sophie (LD) had controlled an air ball well and found Nash (CM).  Nash played one touch back to Hannah (CD) who then played one touch over the top to spring Maddie down the left flank.  Maddie sprinted to the ball and drove a one touch cross on the ground that Jilly got on the end of.  Sounded like a great build up.

We continued to press the attack after that for the next 15 minutes, then I changed formation to a 4-4-2 to try and shore up the midfield defensively.  I think this shift took some of the rythem out of our play and instead of being more solid defensively, we started to lose control of the game.  This was also due in part to Woodbury’s renewed efforts to press the attack, looking for the equalizing goal.

In the last 5 or 6 minutes, I made two substitutions.  The first, which I thought would be the last, was to change girls as I normally would look to do, while asking one the forwards to drop back into the center mid, effectively changing to a 4-5-1 to end the game.  I then realized that I had pulled Becs out after only being on the field for a few minutes, so I subbed her back on a minute later.

One of the Woodbury players complained to the ref about watching for time wasting, and I stopped for a second and realized this is exactly what it looked like.  Fairly observant comment from the Woodbury player, but nothing I had thought about until that point.  I hate it when coaches at this age group do it, though I understand the tactic.  It was not in my mind here.

The game finished 1-0 good guys.  I’m sure some of the Woodbury girls were disappointed in the score, and I could feel a couple of the girls put some extra energy into very firm handslaps with me in the post-game hand shake line.  I know some of the parents in this group have hard feelings towards me, for reasons of their own, and I know some of this gets translated to the girls.  It’s hurtful to see some of the Woodbury players look at me with what I can only guess is disgust; players who I had worked with for years in the past in our Academy program.  Soccer coaching is a fickle business at best, with parents/players loving you one minute then hating you the next when your plans differ from theirs.

It was good to see Em play well for Woodbury.  She had been with my group for 2 years until choosing to return to Woodbury last fall when she was notified that she was a bubble player at tryouts.  She was one of the most athletic girls on the field yesterday and caused our forwards a lot of trouble with her speed and aggressiveness.  I think she will continue to be a force on the field in the years to come.

Anyway, a good result for us after a scrappy and gutsy performance by the girls.  As I’ve said before, any team can beat any other team on any given day in this league.  We come up against these girls again right after Regionals.  The second match up is sure to be a battle as well.

Region II Championships Draw Announced

Draws came out today for the Region II Championships.  Here's what we've got:

Saturday, June 23
9:30AM vs Mequon Red (Wisconsin)

Sunday, June 24
4:30PM vs Javanon (Kentucky)

Monday, June 25
8:00AM vs Chicago Magic (Illinois)

If we advance as the group winner, we will play in the semifinals on Tuesday.  Region finals will be held on Wednesday.

Do we have a good draw?  Depends what you define as good.  In terms of possibly advancing to the region semifinals, yes, I think we have as good a chance as any.  I wouldn't say the same if we drew Michigan Hawks, St Louis Soccer Club, and Ohio Premier in our bracket. 

I am looking forward to the possible "big game" vs Chicago Magic on Sunday.  If we can get past Mequon and Javanon, this would be the game that decides the group... against a team that I keep saying we are better than but who we have lost to... twice.  It would be real nice to finally walk the walk in this event against them. 

Regardless, it should be an excellent experience for the girls.

Premier League Game #4 vs Wayzata

Wow.  Hot day.  The girls were wilting walking from the parking lot to the field.

Up against Wayzata for the third time is as many weeks.  This was our tie breaker with Wayzata beating us in PKs to take the NSC Cup Championship over Memorial Day Weekend up in Blaine and the Bangu girls winning 2-0 in Woodbury in our first meeting in the Premier League.  Today was sure to be a battle.

This game was a rescheduled match as we were supposed to meet the week of June 25 when we would either be in, or just coming back from Regionals in Iowa.  Wayzata was accommodating enough to the reschedule, but with both teams’ schedules relatively booked for the next month, we decided that today would work best.  The girls had ODP training at 5:30PM today and there was some hesitation from the parent group about scheduling a game in conflict with the ODP session.  However, the way I saw it was that as we were imposing on Wayzata to reschedule their home game we would work with whatever worked for them.  The game was going to be played at 7PM, but Wayzata was able to push it up to a 4PM start when I informed them about the ODP training.

The teams are fairly well matched, with us having the technical and, IMO, the tactical edge and Wayzata having the size and aggressiveness edge.

My goal for today was to have the girls focus on the aspects we had been covering in our last couple training sessions; keeping our twin strikers linked and working together with our midfielders looking to be unpredictable on their forward passes, sometimes looking over the top, sometimes looking for feet, always keyed into the 2^nd runner.  I mentioned to the girls prior to the game of these goals for today, encouraging them to try and forget about the end game result in favor of working on our overall team development.  Tough to do, I understand, but again, as I’ve mentioned before, if people focus on pure results, we set the girls up for possible failure when a win is not in the cards for the day.  If we can rather shift the focus on trying to succeed in other things that we can control, the girls are winners no matter what the scoreboard says after the match.  A bit cliché, but important for this age group.

During our warm up, I gave the girls a visual reminder about the possibilities going forward by illustrating the different passing options and movement with two forwards and four midfielders while the others watched.  I hoped this visual reminder would refresh the girls’ memories a bit about our last two training sessions.

The game started out well for us.  We came out and knocked the ball around a bit, were fairly solid in the back, and sprung our forwards for some good chances at goal.

Ripper (RF) was involved in our two best chances midway through the first half.  The first came when she chased down a ball played over the top of the Wayzata defense and headed to goal 1v1 against the keeper.  Wayzata’s fast defenders recovered enough to apply pressure and this, combined with an aggressive play off her line by the Wayzata GK helped see Ripper pull the shot just wide of the left post.

A few minutes later, another ball was played through to Ripper.  The Wayzata defender made the mistake of raising her hand and looking at the linesman appealing for offsides AND stopping playing in anticipation of the call.  The flag stayed down and Ripper was off again, this time to the right side of the goal.  This time, instead of going to goal she hesitated a bit then played a great little diagonal slot pass to Millie (LF) who was cutting to goal.  I heard the Wayzata coaches appeal for offsides but again the flag stayed down.  I couldn’t tell if Millie was on or off, but in the end it didn’t matter as her first time shot from about 6 yards out hit the GK square in her hands.

The half ended 0-0 with hot and tired girls on both sides of the field.

At halftime, I addressed a few key points.

1. If our forwards are not making a play at a ball coming at one of the Wayzata defenders, they need to believe that the defender will miss it and our forwards may be off to the races.  Too many times our forwards were caught standing as long balls were played forward, only to be surprised and too slow to react once the balls were missed or misplayed by the opposing defenders.  I want our forwards to work hard and challenge every loose ball as even though they have a very slight chance of getting to the ball first, their pressure, or threat of pressure on an opposing defender may be enough to result in a forced or rushed clearance.  Either one means an increased chance that the defender will not be able to get a clean foot or header on the ball or will not be as accurate as when clearing a ball with zero pressure.
2. We need to continue to work on being proactive on the flanks.  Many times our central mids would look to change fields and a dangerous ball to the corners would be on.  However, our wide mids tend to be reactive instead of proactive.  Proactive would mean that they anticipate the ball coming their way, realize that the central mids 1) are changing fields, and 2) have time and space to play a long ball, and move to make the pass.  I want the run to make the pass, as opposed to the mid playing the ball then our wide mids running after it.
3. We had a couple breakdowns in the back due to lack of communication.  This is something I need to address prior to Regionals.

We continued to play fairly well in the second half.  We created a few dangerous chances that we just couldn’t capitalize on due to a breakdown in the last pass (isn’t it always on the last pass!).

Ten minutes from time we lost the ball in midfield.  Macky (CM) was battling for it and tripped over the ball.  Sophie (LD) started giggling at Macky’s flailing attempts to right herself and wasn’t able to pressure the Wayzata midfielder enough.  Macky got up and Sophie arrived only to both be split by some nifty skill by the Wayzata midfielder.  She started up field, beat Hannah (CD) and headed to goal.  Scratch (CD) came over quick as lightning to deny the shot, giving up a corner on our right side.  The corner kick was whipped in and headed clear by Maddie (LM).  She followed her header up the field as a Wayzata defender rushed to keep the ball alive in the danger area.  The Wayzata defender crossed/shot the ball from about 30 yards out into the far post side netting. Stuart, Tony’s (Wayzata’s Head Coach) would later dub this as a “crot” when we were chatting at the end of the game.  Regardless, they all count when they go in and we were down 1-0.

I thought about it for a second, then made the decision to press for the equalizer.  I motioned to Ripper on the bench and told her that we were going to pull Becs (RD) and go to 3 in the back. Ripper was going to go in up top as a third forward.

As I was busy explaining to Ripper for the third time who she was going in for and what formation we were going to move towards, frustrated that we had already missed one opportunity to make the sub due to Ripper’s confusion, the girls on the field surged forward from the throw in and were awarded with a corner kick of their own on the right side.

I can’t remember who took the kick (Jilly I think), but it wasn’t a good one.  Instead of falling into the danger area, it swung out to the top of the box.  We managed to keep it alive and send it back into the danger area, but it was then half cleared back to the top of the box.  Becs was sitting at the 18 and hammered a volley into the far post.  It was a great goal.  Isn’t that just the way it goes.  If Ripper had understood my instructions on the first go round, Becs wouldn’t have even been in the game at that point.  This is a funny game.

Game ended 1-1 in a hard fought battle.  I was a little disappointed in the result as I feel we are a better team, but Wayzata is a classy team all the way around, coach, manager, and players (to the extent that I know the players) and we will likely have many battles down the road.

* * * * *

Up next we train Monday at Holy Angels, then see Woodbury on Tuesday it what will surly be another tough test.