League Game #1 vs Mahtomedi

One of the things we promise our players is that they will get to play multiple positions through the year.  It is something that we know benefits the players and it is something that both the parents and the players enjoy.  Moving the players around in the 6v6 or 8v8 game is simple because the field is not that big and your look from one position to another is not incredibly different.  The 11v11 field provides a much tougher challenge as there are more players on the field to deal with and there is so much more space to cover.  Because of these things, the players will find themselves with quite a different line of sight and they will not be as aware of where their teammates and the other team are.

Normally when we move players around we only move one or two around at a time so we can keep the team's flow going.  But today we were going to be missing LK, Ricky, Taz and LP was leaving at half time so we were only going to have 2 subs for the first half and 1 sub in the second half.  With all the players gone and keeping to our philosophy of moving players around this caused our starting line up to consist of 8 of our 10 field players to be playing in positions that they have not yet played this spring.

I was hoping that this would not cause us any issues since in training we work so much on transition and keeping your head up that I felt comfortable in making all the changes and I still expected us to play the good soccer that we had been playing.

I was wrong and all of the players being in new areas on the field caused us to completely lose our flow.  We were in disarray as far as our team shape was concerned and our communication was virtually non existent as the players were not confident in where they were supposed to be so, as a result, they did not communicate to their teammates as they were worried about themselves.  For the entire first half we played bootball.  I didn't recognize the team that was out on the field.

To the girls credit we were able to score two goals in the first half without giving up any dangerous chances and you could see all of them putting in the effort that we need.

5 minutes into the game Mack (RD) played a long ball into the box that caused a 50/50 challenge between Bella (CF) and their goalie which Bella won and slotted the ball into the open net for us to take a 1-0 lead.  With one minute left in the half Carly was fouled just on the left edge of the penalty box to give us a free kick.  With all of our runners lined up at the back post Blitz fired in a cross that deflected off a Mahtomedi defender and into the goal as we were running in.

At half time we talked about our glaring weaknesses in the first half.
1) Mahtomedi was getting numbers around the ball and we were not switching the ball at all because every time we received the ball from one side we dribbled right back to that side.  We needed to look around more and communicate to each other more so we could start to switch the field.
2) Because of everyone being in new positions we had lost our shape which meant we did not have the options we needed.  To address this we talked about our center mids giving us depth and our outside defenders giving us the width that we needed.
3) We can't always go forward.  I'm not sure if we played the ball square or support more than 5 times the entire first half.  Sometimes you need to go backwards in order to go forwards.

The best part of half time was that the girls knew they could sort things out and they were excited for the second half.  So we went back out there with everyone playing in different positions and proceeded to play some of the soccer we are capable of playing in the second half.

One minute into the second half with the ball deep in Mahtomedi's end Hannah (LF) pressured their defender to clear the ball outside.  As she was pressuring Sprout (LD) had stepped up about 30 yards into their half in anticipation of where the clearance was going.  The ball came right to her and bounced off of her to Kari (DM) who took two dribbles and fired a rocket over the goalie into the top part of the net from about 25 yards out.  Much better team shape by the girls.

Four minutes after that Bella took on two defenders in the center of the field and was fouled about 25 yards from goal.  Gaffer stepped up and hit a high free kick that the goalie got both her hands to but there was too much power and the ball went off her hands and into the net.

At this point we were starting to pass the ball much better and we were looking like the team we can be.  However with a lot of girls who have been playing mostly attacking positions back at defense for us Erika, one of our two central defenders, would be looking around and find herself the only player within 15 yards of the half line as all of our other defenders were jumping up in the play and going forward.

Because of this a couple of long balls were sent through that AJ came out of her box to either clear or pass away.  One time she had a 50/50 ball with the Mahtomedi forward that she beat to the ball by a split second to clear it and her follow through completely flattened the surprised forward who was not expecting our goalie to be coming out so hard to clear the ball.  All those years playing hockey with the boys was paying off for AJ:)

As the half wore on we didn't have the greatest defensive shape and Mahtomedi was able to put some pressure on us and in the 56th minute they played a long ball that was going down the right side of AJ's box.  I called for her to come out and get it as Gaffer was in a foot race with their forward.  AJ hesitated for a moment and came out too late.  Gaffer tackled the ball from the girl but the ball went to another player on their team at the top of the box who chipped the ball over Erika who was covering for AJ.

After the game AJ asked me why I called her to come out for that ball.  I told her that she had done such a great job of cutting off the through balls and getting all the long balls up till that point and I felt she could get there.  I really want her to own her 18 yard box and any ball played into it I want her ready to come and get.  Then I told her that if she ever thinks she can't get to a ball, don't hesitate, just get ready for the shot or cross that will be coming.

After a couple more minutes of pressure we settled back in to playing good soccer and in the 66th minute Carly (RD) was down by the corner of their box as the ball came rolling to her and she blasted the ball into the far corner for our fifth goal of the game.

One minute after that Blitz came down the right side of the box and cut her defender and fired a left footed shot into the far corner to finish off the scoring at 6-1.

It was far from the best soccer we have played but the girls became more confident as the game went on and even though we struggled today we know that moving the girls around to different positions will help us in the long run.

Also, over the past two weeks we keep talking about how important it is that we don't rely on one or two players to score all of our goals.  We want everyone to have that desire to score and set up goals.  So a big positive to take away from the game is that this was our 8th game of the spring and we have scored 19 goals and we have had 9 different players score goals.  And we have been playing against some pretty good competition in 7 of the games so that is great.

MVP's:
Kari
Jordy
Hannah
Blitz