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.

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.