Region II Championships - Friday, June 22

Out my front door in Woodbury around 8:30AM on Friday morning, on the road to Iowa for the Region II Championships.  The plan for today was to hold a light training session with the girls down in Des Moines at 1PM.  We would then check in at the sure-to-be-luxurious Holiday Inn Airport hotel to get ready to head to the Opening Ceremonies at around 4:30PM.

I made a short detour 70 miles into the trip at Medford to stop by the Nike Factory Store, but lucky for my AmEx card the store didn’t open until 10AM.  Bummer, I needed more socks.

Between my iPod, cell phone conversations, and Sirius stations Foxxhole 106 (Jamie Foxx's new station) and SPA 73 (spa/jazz station), the trip flew by.  When I traded in my 2002 I-feel-really-cool-driving-it BMW for my new 2008 wife-says-we-need-a-more-practical-vehicle-with-a-new-baby-girl-and-a-115lb-Italian-Mastiff-pup-Bella-and-there-is-no-way-on-God’s-green-earth-that-I’m-purchasing-a-mini-van Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, it came with a six month free trial of the Sirius Satellite service.  I wasn’t big on satellite radio until this point, but it is really a cool thing.  A ton of choices, though I’ve gravitated to the aforementioned two.  106 has me laughing out loud constantly, and 73 (though I can’t believe I’m admitting to choosing to listen to spa/new age music), is a good station to think and unwind to on the way home from the sometimes stressful U13 girls sessions.

I thought the training field was perfect.  A mile or two from our hotel with very thick, not-recently-mowed grass. We’ve been down to the Hidden Valley Soccer Complex the last two Aprils and the grass is always thick and lush.  I didn’t expect them to be any different this week so our ability to get a little run around on a longer-grass field today was perfect.

I. Name Tag

Set Up

• 2 groups of 8 players in different colored vests in roughly a 40x60 playing area (from midfield to the top of the penalty box)

Procedure

• Coach yells the name of one girl on the field and that girl is now “it”
• Teams get a point by having their “it” player run over the endline
• If opposing players tag the girl that is “it”, the tagger now becomes “it” and “possession” is switched to the other team

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for a team if their “it” player can run over the endline

Coaching Points

• The idea here is to work on field vision, anticipation, moving to open space when your team is in possession of “it”, and defensive awareness (marking up dangerous players)
• The game moves much faster than a soccer game because there is no ball involve
• The players must still think quickly though and make good decisions when to pass “it” by yelling out another teammates name or when to run with “it” on their own

II. Name Tag Possession

Same as above, this time with no direction involved.  Teams look to keep possession by passing "it" around without letting the opposing team tag the "it" player.  Upon a successful tag, possession switches over to the team that was defending. 

III. Sequence Passing

Set Up

• 2 groups of 8 players in different colored vests in roughly a 40x60 playing area (from midfield to the top of the penalty box)
• Players in each group numbered 1 to 8
• Two soccer balls for each team, one with player #1 and the other with player #4

Procedure

• Players pass to the player with the next higher number (1 to 2, 2 to 3… 8 to 1)
• All players must be moving at all times

Coaching Points

• “Ping” the pass (hit it firm) in the long grass
• Anticipate when you will be receiving the ball, know what you are going to do with it (who you are going to pass to) before you get it

Switch Variation

• When the coach yells “Switch!”, players reverse the order they are passing in (3 now plays to 2, 2 to 1, etc)

Pass to Space Variation

• Same concept but now passes are made into space or teammate to run onto

Three Ball Variation

• Three soccer balls, beginning with 1, 3, and 6

IV. Corner Kick Attack/Defense

Same as our last training session, again focusing on prepping to try and take advantage of our attacking corner kicks, while trying to minimize the threat of these set pieces against us.

I had our 4 corner kick takers working on their services, two from each side of the field.  We had a GK and 6 defenders in the box with the remaining 6 girls trying to finish.

The focus was emphasizing attacking the ball aggressively, believing that teammates/defenders will miss the ball when they try and head or clear the ball just in front of you, and sprinting out of the box to remain onsides when the defending team clears and pushes up field.

My new catch phrase with the team in recent weeks has been “believe she’s going to miss it”.  This means that I want the girls to believe that a teammate or defender challenging for the ball just in front them is going to miss the ball.  In this way, our girls are ready and the missed ball, when it does occur, is not a surprise.  I would rather see one of our girls take a swing or follow through with a header on goal and shoot/head the air that a ball would have been in if it had not been played by a defender or teammate, rather than have the girl mistakenly think the ball will not get through to them and be caught not ready when it does.

V. 11v6 Attacking and Defending Set Pieces

The team of 11 defended the big goal and attacked two 4 yard counter goals at midfield. The team of 6 (and me) attacked the goal and I whistled for indirect and direct free kicks at random to work on attacking and defending ideas.

Attacking Free Kicks

• From long distance center of the field kicks, look to play the ball wide for a wide back to serve in at a better angle
• From wide set pieces within 20 yards of the endline, look to set up like a corner kick
• Around the box, simple set up for indirect kicks, hit the target on direct kicks

Defending Free Kicks From Distance

• When defending free kicks from distance, center backs organize the holding line - sort your marks out quickly
• As the kick taker approaches the ball, turn your body and be ready to beat any attacker to the space behind you by getting a few steps head start

Defending Free Kicks Around the Box

• GK announces how many in the wall
• Mids in the wall, first one on the scene is the "post" player and raises their hand - this is the player who one of the forwards lines up with the near post
• Know the ref signals, indirect and direct
• All other players stay tuned in and mark up
• Step up the field but stay organized when the ball is cleared

After about an hour we headed over to the shaded pavilion for a Subway lunch. It was a fun and very productive afternoon. The girls look sharp and ready for the weekend’s competition.

On our way back to the hotel, some ominous storms started forming on the western horizon.  The plan was still to head out to the Opening Ceremonies at around 4PM and I was looking forward to the experience.

I got to the baseball stadium around 4PM, but by 4:15PM officials had made the decision to cancel the event due to severe weather in the area.  I headed back to the hotel (about 4 miles away) and snapped this photo looking south.

There was some serious rotation in this front and the sky was a scary green behind it.  This cloud ended up forming into a tornado that hit about 5 miles south of us.

Due to the severe weather in the area, the girls gathered with other teams and hotel guests in one of the ball rooms to wait out the storm.

About 20 minutes into the wait, the power went out in the building. 

It would not come back on until sometime in the middle of the night. 5:30PM, a whole night ahead of us, and no power in the hotel.

It ended up being a fairly fun night though.  Good bonding time for the kids and the parents, and fun for the players as there were plenty of soccer boys around to make things interesting for the girls.

There was a huge astro-turfed area pool side, so I cleared an area, set up a bunch of chairs, and got a couple fields of 2v2 soccer tennis going.  The girls played for hours and other Bangu and non-Bangu teams came down to try their luck.  The pool area was domed with a huge skylight, so there was plenty of light even without the power working.

Eventful day… looking forward to the morning though!

17 for 17 After Final ODP Cuts

Final roster cuts came out yesterday for the 93, 94, and 95 ODP age groups.  I was very happy to see that all 17 girls on the team were recognized as top players in their respective age group pools by the state ODP staff and were all Region Camp Selections for ODP camp in July.

To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in MN soccer history that an entire club team is comprised of all MN ODP players.  This is a testament to the effort and commitment the girls have made over the last few years, as well as a testament to the Bangu Tsunami club, the quality of the selection process used to form teams as well as the to the club's structured, year round training program.

93 Girls (18 girls selected)

• Brownie
• Bidi
• Mudd
• Lily
• Sting
• Jilly
• Becs
• Blondie
• Hannah

94 Girls (36 girls selected)

• Sophie
• Getch
• Scratch
• Macky
• Nash
• Maddie
• Ripper

95 Girls (64 selected)

• Millie

Premier League Game #6 vs Coon Rapids

As I was dumping my sugar for a slow count of 10 into my medium Starbucks light roast in a big cup, I was thinking about what I was going to write up about our game last night.  By the way, good for Starbucks to begin offering to put the smaller sized coffee orders for people who want room for cream into larger cups.  Brilliant!

I guess I should get the Starbucks lingo down right, but even though I make the coffee stop almost daily I still feel resistance to submerging myself totally in the Starbucks coffee culture.  I order the same thing every morning, a medium light roast in a large cup.  The same red-haired-twenty-something-loud-obnoxious-female-coffee-connoisseur behind the counter always gives me the I hate you! look and yells out “A Grande house blend in a Venti cup?”, stressing the “proper” Italian (or whatever it is) verbiage as if a complete imbecile just placed an order.

You all know the I hate you! look I’m talking about.  It’s the look you give the guy that’s been driving the speed limit in the left lane when you eventually pass them on the right.  It’s also the look you give in the rearview mirror of the car in front of you in the touchless wash that uses the full 90 seconds of the air dryer time, or the look you give the car behind you in your rearview mirror in the same wash when they drive up and begin their wash before your dryer time is done.  You can also give this look to inanimate objects, like to your laptop when it takes an excruciating 9.6 seconds to load Windows as opposed to the usual 5.2.

With me and the Starbucks ginger-haired she-devil, it’s now gotten to a point of all out verbal war.  We eye each other as I enter the establishment and I see her eyes narrow in concentration for the upcoming encounter.  I wait my turn as she helps others in line before me while she constantly sneaks peeks (on her tip toes) of hatred in my direction over the top of the cash register that she can barely see over.  I steel my nerve as I approach my turn, eagerly anticipating the inevitable good vs evil verbal battle that is about to occur amid the taupe, rust, and mustard colored walls.

“Good morning!” I say cheerfully.  Her lips twitch slightly.  “One medium coffee in a tall cup?” she asks sarcastically, speaking slowly and emphasizing the clearly incorrect terminology loudly for all to witness my apparent lack of brain function, all the while looking around at her co-workers and customers with a smug look that says look at this guy, he doesn’t belong in our Starbucks world.   Actually, I say, I’d like a grande decaf triple shot marble mocha macchiato, extra white mocha, no whip, no foam, extra drizzle (chocolate), sugar free vanilla, and with 2% milk.  Extra hot please.

It had taken me nearly one hour to memorize the order in my car in the Starbucks parking lot, but the look on Beelzebub’s face was worth every minute.

I have no idea where I was going with this story.

* * * * *

This was our second game against the Coon Rapids team.  Having lost the first match up 1-0, we knew a little bit more about what to expect this time around.

We were not going to beat Coon Rapids’ defenders in many foot races over the top as 3 out of 4 of them were faster than our fastest player.  We knew we would be in for a physical match up all around the field and knew that there were a few dangerous players up top for the north Premier team who could cause us trouble.

It was not a good first half for us.  We could not seem to get control of the ball anywhere on the field and to Coon Rapids credit, most of the half was spent in our end.  We earned a grand total of zero corner kick and didn’t test the Coon Rapids GK once.  Mudd (GK) was kept busy, but nothing too threatening save one good opportunity by the opposing team.  A fast Coon Rapids attacker broke through up our left flank and fired a low, hard shot to the far post that forced Mudd to get to the ground quickly and parry the ball.  She pounced on the loose ball, and while her hand was on it, another Coon Rapids forward came rushing in and bullied the ball over the goal line.

As the Coon Rapids girls began celebrating, I saw the young AR across the field raise his flag then put it down.  I didn’t want to make a sour grapes scene, but remember the feeling of the officiating encounter in our first match up with the same team earlier this year and how bad I felt that I accepted a referee decision that I maybe should have contested.

I stood up and yelled out to the ref to please talk with his AR.  The ref looked at the AR who was walking back up the field, then looked back at me questioning (as the AR was not looking to get the refs attention).  I made the motion of raising a flag and pointed to the AR, and the ref jogged over to the young man for a chat.  The AR must have seen what I saw, that Mudd had a hand on the ball giving her possession prior to the collision with the CR forward, and the apparent goal was disallowed.  I didn’t hear much from the opposing coaching staff, so they must have seen the same thing.

If a neutral observer watched the first half, there would be no question in their minds who the more dominant team was.

At halftime, we talked about a few key points.

• Our wide players need to have the confidence to take more risks and attack opposing defenders when in 1v1 situations.  I challenged the wide mids to stop looking to get rid of the ball as soon as they got it and instead try to get to the endline for crosses or to win corner kicks.  I made it clear that I, as a coach, would be more disappointed if a girl didn’t try to take players on wide in the attacking third that if a wide mid did go 1v1 and lost possession.  This (the attacking third) is the place for risks.
• We struggled with some defensive clearances in the back, and I reminded the girls that which ever defender was going for a challenge, the other three should be sprinting back and to the middle of the field in the event that the aerial challenge is unsuccessful.  Better safe than sorry.
• I wanted our outside back to recognize when they could direct the wide mids in front of them to get into the attack more, especially on the weak side of the field. 
• I talked about the center mids being our unsung heroes. They are the workhorses and the glue that holds the team together. They must work hard to constantly find space when we are in possession for everywhere on the field where we have the ball, there needs to be a central midfielder option. They are the link players that link our defense to our forwards and one side of the field to the other.

I made a few position changes for the second half.  To try and gain more control of the midfield area, I dropped Ripper back from her forward position into a central midfield role.  I pushed Nash back to right defender and looked to get Bidi (who was playing that position a lot in the first half) up top and in midfield.  I pushed Blondie up top (she had been playing wide mid) and looked to use Sting more as a wide player.

The second half was all us.  A complete opposite of the first 35 minutes, the very great majority of the second half was played in the CR end.  The girls were relentless on the attack, creating a number of great chances at goal.  Ripper’s physical presence, work rate, and aerial ball winning ability helped us tremendously in the middle of the park and this was one change that I think really helped turn the tide of the game.

As the half went on, we got better and better, bolstered by the confidence of successful attacks on goal, near misses, and 5 or 6 corner kicks (our wide players got the message at halftime and were way more aggressive to the endlines).

Starting at around the 57^th minute, we created a number of dangerous scoring chances, two of which I couldn’t believe didn’t end in goals.  Both our best chances involved combination play and low crosses and final touches inside the six yard box, both touches went directly at the GK.  It seemed more difficult to hit the GK that hit the rest of the goal in both, but that’s the way it goes.

CR still created some chances on their own, with most of their threat coming from long free kicks from midfield over our defending line that Mudd had to make sure handed grabs on with big girls in red jerseys sprinting at her.  Their best chance came of a corner kick when the ball fell to a CR attacker about 12 yards from goal.  She hit the volley well over the net, but it was a solid chance.

At the final whistle, it we still deadlocked at 0-0.  I might be projecting, but I think the CR team felt a bit lucky to get away with a tie.  I would have if I was them as we were clearly the more dangerous team in the second half.

Again, good battle for the girls regardless.  We played some good soccer against a tough opponent and it was a good pre-Regioanls tune up.

Here is where things stand in the Premier League at this point.

Up next: we train Thursday night, then leave for Des Moines Friday morning for a 1PM training session in Iowa and the Region II Championships Opening Ceremonies later that afternoon.

Training - Monday, June 18

Holy Angles, 16 players.

The plan for today was to warm-up with some technical work keying on movement of our outside defenders.  It would also involve work for our target forwards and mids.  I then planned to move to the 3v2 Continuous activity that we ran through last week, focusing more on the spacing and shape of the three attackers.  I was then going to finish with more set piece work in prep for the weekend.

The girls still tend to crowd around the ball at times, not fully comprehending yet that their teammates are usually good enough to pass the ball to them over distance now.  As our players get drawn close to their teammate in possession of the ball in games, though the number of options may increase, we are still not very effective as a pass to a close teammate does not break pressure (get us out of pressure) a lot of the time.  The idea of focusing a bit on spacing and shape when attacking would be helpful to them as in game situations there can sometimes be a world of difference between a 5 yard pass and a 10 yard one.

Spacing and team shape require that the girls possess some very important skills.  First, they need to have the awareness in their surroundings (where opposing players are as well as the location of their own teammates).  Second, they need to possess an understanding of the individual benefits of receiving a ball in space versus receiving a ball in pressure as well as the benefits of attacking up the field on opposing teams in less densely populated areas.  All this can’t be addressed in a single session and takes time to build the skills in the young players.  I planned on addressing some of these issues tonight.

As with all good plans, unforeseen circumstances arise and plans need to be changed.  The field was double booked beginning at 8PM as our U16 and U17 Blue teams had planned on scrimmaging in prep for Regionals this weekend.  With some accommodation, they agreed to begin at 8:15PM to give us 75 minutes on the field.  To throw another wrench into the mix, the U15s (training from 6:30PM – 8:00PM), having not played a game since State Cup, were interested in a full field scrimmage with us from 7:30PM – 8:00PM.  I decided it would be good for the girls to get a competitive run in for a bit, so I adjusted our training plan accordingly.

I. Technical Functional Training – Wide Backs

Set Up

• 4 groups of 3, formed around 1 wide back per group
• Two groups worked up the right side of the field, two up the left – the right side groups had our two wide right backs, the left side groups had our two lefties
• Midfield start disk, wide back start disks, and target start disks arranged as shown below
• All the soccer balls with the midfield players

Note this activity involves 12 players. The other four players (our central backs) were off on another part of the field working on long distance ball striking and clearances. Players were rotated in and out between the activities.

Procedure

• Green group starts with the ball at the green mids feet, working up the right side of the field
• Gold players play low pressure, dummy defense against the green team
• Green mid begins the sequence by dribbling forward with the gold mid applying pressure on one side or the other

• Green mid turns away from pressure and looks for support

• Green wide defender recognizes the need to maintain possession and moves back quickly, away from the gold defender to provide support
• Green mid plays to green wide back

• Green wide back receives the ball across their body with the inside of their right foot, playing the ball out wide to their right (clear your feet!) in order to set up a pass up field on their second touch
• Green wide back plays a driven ball to their target player who, with one or two touches, plays back to the green mid who has moved up for support, completing the sequence

• Orange then begins the same sequence up the left side of the field while green and gold switch roles so gold can attack while green defends
• Midfield defenders should apply contact pressure though not trying to win the ball
• Wide back defenders do not move
• Target player defenders apply contact pressure to the back of the target player and make then work to get good touches and pass backs to the supporting midfield player

Make It Competitive

• White group can execute the sequence the sharpest/quickest/with the most technique?

Coaching Points

• Midfields need to clear their feet with their turn so that they can play a pass quickly to the supporting wide defender
• Wide defenders must back away from their marking defenders quickly once they recognize that their midfielder is looking to play backwards
• Wide defenders need to recognize where the open space is (out wide) and touch the ball in that direction – this also helps create a passing channel wide of the marking defender in order for the wide back to play forward
• Target players make their body big, shielding off the marking defender
• Balls played into the targets should be low and driven over the distance
• Balls played back from the targets to the mids should be on the ground

Release Variation

Same set up and concept with the following modifications:

Procedure

• This time the midfielder dribbles up field, turns back to maintain possession from the marking defender, then turns back up field again when the marking defender over plays the back pass
• The wide back backs up to offer the same support, but once the mid turns back up field, the wide back releases out wide at a sprint to received a pass in space from the central mid

• Wide back still plays forward to their target and the target still tries to find the supporting mid

Coaching Points

• Recognition by the wide back after backing up to provide support that the mid can play forward, and a sprint out wide (into open space) and forward to receive a pass in that space
• Arm extended out in front of the wide back indicating that they want the ball played out in front of them
• “Release!” call from the wide back to provide verbal communication

II. 30 minute Scrimmage vs U15 Blue Team

We defended most of the time as the U15s were able to out play us in the midfield and thus keep good possession of the ball.  We didn’t really allow any solid chances at goal but did concede two or three corners.  We didn't threaten the U15 goal more than 2 or 3 times, and did have a couple corner kicks.  We did manage to score a great goal though.

Jilly (LM), from midway in our own defending half, played a 30 yard long ball over the top that Ripper (RF) raced onto up the right center part of the field.  Millie (LF) sprinted up the field in support of the attack with a loud “Early! Early!” call, wanting the ball played to her quickly.  With the ball still bouncing, Ripper played a fantastic first time, blind pass into the space behind the recovering defenders.  The U15’s GK came out to the top of the box to make a play on the ball, but was thrown off a bit by Millie barreling down at her.  The high lobbed pass bounced high on the turf and over the outstretched hands of the GK.  Millie changed direction and hit a left foot volley into the top right corner of the open goal as the GK tried to chase her down.

What we did learn from the U15s (who incidentally have gotten MUCH better since we saw them in January) was how their center back (in a 4-man defensive scheme) was able to get up into midfield when they had possession.  This girl was usually free and clear of defending players as our forwards were too high and our mids too far in retreat.  She got the ball often and the added numbers in midfield killed us.  It was great for the girls to see and I kept rotating out our central backs so that they could watch and try to pick up on it.

III. Corner Kick Attack/Defense

Set Up

• 6 defending players defending an open goal
• 2 girls striking corners on each side of the field (4 total)
• 6 girls attacking the corner kicks trying to score

IV. Game Observation

For the last 15 minutes of training, we sat in the stands to watch the U16s and U17s play.