2/29 11v11 Scrimmage vs Dakota Rev

The girls and I were excited for today's scrimmage against Dakota Rev.  We had two close games with them in the 7v7 Dakota Rev tournament and I really wanted to see how both teams would stack up on the big field.

For today's game I had asked Lydia and Millie to play with us since they will be playing with us at the West Des Moines Event in April and we also had Brownie and Jazzy from the south play to give us enough numbers for the scrimmage tonight.

Millie plays on our U14 Blue team even though she is a true U12, but it is fun for both her and the other girls to have her play her own age group once in a while.  The last time Millie played with this team was last year at the WDM Event and there were times when our girls would stand around and watch Millie go.  Or they would defer to her like Arsenal's players did last year with Thierry Henry.  (I'm not comparing the two players, just the situation.)  I had hoped that the girls had grown in confidence and skill over the past year so they would play with her instead of watch her.

When the game started we came out flying.  We were combining well in the attacking third and we were aggressive going to goal.  20 minutes in Ricky crossed the ball into the box and the ball was half cleared to Millie and she volleyed the ball into the upper corner for a 1-0 lead.

Just as half time was approaching the ball was played into our center forward, Kari, who laid the ball back to Ricky about 35 yards from goal.  She was feeling confident and decided to have a go and her long shot hit the crossbar, bounced to Millie and she put home the rebound.

At half time we talked about how to defend when the other teams forwards or mids have lots of room to dribble just before the half line and we don't have the numbers to step.  We discussed that we don't want to rush into making a tackle at the half line because all the other team has to do is get the ball by you into the acres of space behind you and they will be off on a break away. 

Instead we want to drop centrally until we are about 10 yards outside our box, or within shooting range for their players, and then try to make the tackle.  By dropping we eliminate the through ball and now we have less space to defend.  Another benefit of dropping early is that most players are not comfortable dribbling the ball in all that space and more than likely the dribbler will get anxious and try to play the through ball and it will go right to our defenders.

After talking about that I encouraged the girls to keep doing what they were doing.  We were playing well and we should keep it up.

A couple of minutes into the second half Dakota Rev was able to start stringing together more passes and they started to find some success going down the wings against us.  Because we were being put under pressure and the ball was in our half, we had to to work on our counter attacks.  The girls counters were great today.  We were finding one of our forwards or attacking mid's feet early and they were switching the ball to the other side of the field allowing us to create 1v1's and numbers up chances.

12 minutes into the second half one of these movements led to a corner.  Before the game I had talked to Sprout and encouraged her to get in the mix on corners.  Sprout is not very tall but she has a great sense of where the ball is going so she is able to consistently get on the end of crosses and corners.  Blitz took this corner and hammered it just past the PK spot and Sprout popped up and volleyed the ball first time back to the near post.  Kari was just outside of the near post, framing the goal, and she got a quick touch on the ball to redirect it off the post and into the goal.

The game ended 3-0.  It was another fun game with Rev and we are hoping to set up another scrimmage in March.

MVP's:
Sprout for her quick dribbling and volley on the corner.
Hannah for her calm on the ball and good footskills.
Lydia for her great runs on the outside and confidence in playing with a new team.