Training - Saturday, March 31

8:15AM - 8:45AM FIT Training

8:45AM - 9:15AM Video Analysis

9:15AM - 10:45AM Field Training

It was clearly evident at the Jefferson Cup event that our girls were uncomfortable with the ball under pressure.  My plan is to spend a lot of the spring time in 1v1 situations to try and build the girls' confidence in their individual technical ability with the ball at their feet. 

It's spring break week so we have a number of girls out of town.  We had 12 today which actually worked out perfectly for what I wanted to do.

I. 1v1 Battles - Head On

Set Up

• 4 teams of 3 girls per team, blue, green, red, and gold
• Two 20x12 yard fields with Pugg goals set up on opposite ends of each field

Procedure

• Decide which team starts off as the defending team
• First player in the defending line passes a ball out to the first player in the attacking line and then goes to play defense
• Attacker tries to score goals
• If the defender wins the ball, the defender can look to attack the attacker's goal
• Make it, take it - teams alternate playing defense and offense each turn, EXCEPT if the attacking team scores a goal.  Then, the attacking team gets a ball played out to them again.

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for the attacking team for a goal
• +2 points for the defending team if the defender wins the ball from the attacker and can score a goal

Coaching Points

• Attack the defender with your first touch
• Quick set up touches (close control) as you approach the defender
• Explosive moves to get by defenders, composure on the finishes

II. 1v1 Battles - From Angles

Set Up

• Same as above, with the addition of two pink starting cones as shown below
• Soccer balls with the player at the pink cones, another player at the attacking cone, the third player waiting in between the cones (as this third player could need to be at either cone depending on what happens on the field)

Procedure

• Same as 1v1 Head On, with the only difference being that the defenders are now closing from angles

Make It Competitive

• Same as 1v1 Head On

Coaching Points

• First touch towards middle of the field to leave more options for attack
• If possible, try and use the defenders momentum and sideways movement against them by taking touches in the opposite direction across the defender - in the illustration above, that would mean that the blue attacker would try and use the green defenders movement towards the defender's right against the defender, looking to take the ball across the defender to the defender's left

III. 1v1 Battles - Back to Goal

Set Up

• Same as 1v1 Head On, but this time both teams are on one end line on opposite sides of the goal

Procedure

• Green attacks first
• First player in blue's line (defender) is sitting on the ground, hands up, feet up (both hands and both feet off the ground)
• The second player in green's line has a ball and passes it out for the first green attacker to sprint to - ball must be played into the opposite half of the field
• Blue defender can get up and sprint to defend as soon as the ball is played out
• Attackers always attack the goal they came from, defenders who win possession always attack the far goal - remember, teams could score on either goal depending on if they are the attacking team or the defending team
• Play make it, take it

Coaching Points

• Attackers need to get to the ball quickly in order to be able to turn and face the defender if possible before they pressure you too much
• Attacker don't need to track the ball (watch the ball) the entire time - get a feel for the speed and direction of the ball then sneak peeks behind you to check where the defender is

IV. 9v9 Scrimmage with White team

Training - Tuesday, March 27

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

I. Short Passing Warm Up

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

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

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

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

6:30PM - 7:45PM Field Training

II. Sequence Passing

Set Up

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

Procedure

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

Make It Competitive

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

Coaching Points

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

Progression

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

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

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

III. Four Corner In and Out

Set Up

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

Procedure

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

Make It Competitive

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

Coaching Points

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

IV. 7v7 Small Sided Scrimmage

Lessons From Virginia

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

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

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

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

• Not much

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

Foregoing a Top Event for State Cup

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

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

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

2007 MN State Cup Brackets Set

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

Group A

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

Group B

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

Group C

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

Group D

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

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

Download 2007 MN State Cup Brackets

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

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

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

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

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