11/7 Scrimmage vs U14 Blue

First scrimmage of the indoor year and we had a great opponent in our U14 Blue team.  This scrimmage was going to be a great gauge for us of where we are starting the indoor year at and we are scheduled to play them again in the middle of February so we can see how far we have come.

We were going to be missing Gaffer and Blitz from the field and AJ from goal so we had Erika from the White team play goal for us and Millie played on the field for us.

At the start of the game the 14's played really well and we were too anxious to go forward so we turned the ball over a lot.  Just like had happened at the Sockers event against the top teams, everyone on the field was really fast so there was not a lot of time on the ball.  Because of the lack of time, using our skill and passing was imperative but we were too busy battling so we didn't use our skill.

3 minutes in Jenna from the U14's dribbled by 3 of our defenders with some really good moves and went in on a breakaway from the top of the box.  She faked Erika one way and tried to dribble around her the other way.  Erika, diving one way, stuck her legs out the other way and was able to deflect the ball away from Jenna.  Taz (LD) had recovered back behind Erika as she came out on the break away was there to clear the ball away.  Great recovery by Taz, great save by Erika, and a good reminder to us to not stab in on defense.

I was trying some new girls back at defense tonight so they could begin to learn how to play with 4 defenders and only 3 midfielders.  It was a tough ask of the girls who hadn't played back there because the 14's pass the ball very well and they kept exploiting our right side as our defenders would step too early to the 14's central players around the midfield are and the 14's kept slotting their outside mid through.  We are still learning where players on the opposing team are dangerous and where they are not so it was a good teaching point as the 14's must have played their outside mids through about 5 times in the first half.

Luckily for us our center defenders were doing a great job of sliding over and picking up the outside mids every time they were played through down the sideline.  While it was not ideal to keep having our central defenders continually sliding over to cover their outside mids, I was happy that they were solving the problem on their own and adjusting to the situation.

13 minutes in the 14's got onto the board after a couple of passes got them into our box.  We blocked their initial shot, but one of their center mids was at the top of the box and placed a great left footed shot inside the far post to take the lead.

We were playing 35 minute halves tonight and I didn't make our first subs until the half way point of the first half, this is what I have been doing the entire fall with this group, and I kept talking to the girls on the sideline about the things that I wanted to see changed when they went out onto the field.  (Something that we had talked about at the Sockers event, the subs having an impact on the game.)

After the subs went in we began to play better.  Not good, but better.  I subbed our outside defenders putting in Brownie (LD) and Millie (RD) so I could explain to the girls who had been playing outside defense what I had been explaining to the girls on the sideline.  Brownie and Millie did a great job of not allowing the 14's outside mids to get through on them so it was easy for me to illustrate what I was talking about.

With the subs the game became more of a back and forth affair with the 14's still carrying the play.  But unlike last year when we played them, now were were able to attack them and keep the ball in their end.  Jordy was able to get around their left side a couple of times and struck a good shot and also had a very dangerous cross for our best chances of the half.  The 14's had another good chance but the score remained 0-1 going into half.

 Halftime talk:
Me: How fast is the pace of the game out there?
Girls: Very fast.
Me: Yep it is.  Right now it is a turnover fest out there.  How many moves have we done?
Girls: Carly has done a couple and there might have been another couple, but not a lot.
Me: How many give and go's have we done up until the last minute of the half?
Girls: Umm
Gaffer: (Who was tracking the give and go's since she couldn't play) There were 0 
Me: Why did we turn the ball over so much?
Girls: Because we aren't using our skill.
Me: Exactly

So we talked about what we have been doing in training over the last couple of months, the fact that the game slows down when you use your skill.  We needed to use more moves, keep the ball, and play more give and go's.

Besides that, we talked briefly about our defending and not letting their outside mids get around us at the half line, then we went out and played a 100x better.

Right from the beginning of the second half the girls were great.  Off the opening kick they strung together 7 or 8 passes including a give and go.  The girls were much more relaxed.  We went from having 0 give and go's in the first 34 minutes to having 10 in the final 31 minutes of the game.

At the half way point of the half I made my subs and the girls coming out asked why they had been subbed after only 5 minutes.  I told them that they had been out there for 15 minutes and they responded that it didn't feel like it.  I pointed out to them how they were using their skill this half and because of that they were not turning the ball over nearly as much so they were not chasing the 14's all over the place.

We were playing really well, moving the ball around and the girls were using tons of moves.  One of our best movements involved us swinging the ball from our left back through our center mids to our right back Jazzy.  The thing that made this swing special was that instead of making her run too early, Jazzy had waited back in space so when she received the ball she had 10 yards to run at her defender.  She took advantage of that space by going at her defender under control, but with pace, and did a step-over that made her defender fall over as she dribbled by her.  With that move she earned the 2nd Cristiano Ronaldo Skillzy card that I have given out to the team. 

In the 16th minute Millie (DCM) received the ball 10 yards inside our half and played Bella (RAM-who had just come back in after dealing with a pretty good bloody nose after getting hit in the face with the ball 4 minutes into the half) a square ball by the 14's first defender and yelled "Hold!" Bella dribbled the ball diagonal, allowing Millie time to overlap and as the second defender stepped she played Millie the ball.  After playing Millie the ball, Bella continued her run forward and Millie hit a 1 touch give and go around the third defender.  Bella then took a couple of dribbles before playing the ball back to Millie around the fourth defender to complete the overlap-double give and go between the two girls.  Millie cut the ball on the top of the box and hit a left footed shot that the goalie was screened from seeing at all and the ball rolled into the corner.

It was fantastic from the girls on the ball, but our girls off the ball also did a great job of clearing space and dragging their defenders wide.

The remainder of the game was back and forth with both teams getting chances, including another Erika save on a close break away.  It was a ton of fun to watch the 2nd half and we played really, really well.  The game ended up tied 1-1.

After the game the girls took home the message that using their skill allows the game to slow down and allows them play great soccer.  While I would have liked us to play a lot better in the first half I was very pleased with the 2nd half and I can take away some good things for us to work on and gauge again in February against them.

Give and Go's
Brownie-Bella, Becks-Bella, Lydia-Brownie, Brownie-Lydia, Brownie-Lydia, Stoker-Millie, Jordy-Millie, Bella-Jordy, Bella-Millie, Bella-Millie