2008 Season Recap By The Numbers

The great thing about this journal is that I finally had the chance to go back through the year and go through and look at how our year went in depth.  Going back over the year we had a great balance to our year.  We were challenged all year long and we rarely were on either side of a blowout.  As I stated in the League Wrap Up entry, we are more concerned with finding our teams the appropriate level of competition than winning everything in sight and after going back through the entire year we really did find that balance this year.

Overall Record: 25 Wins, 14 Losses, 6 Draws

I don't think this team has lost that many games combined over their last two years but the players and parents did a great job of realizing that winning every game was not our top priority, but rather finding the challenging environment we were seeking.  Along the way though, we did do some pretty remarkable things including:

Notable Achievements:

-Won U13 State Cup

-Won U13 USA Cup

-Won U13 East District Tournament and finished 2nd in the League

-Semi Finalists in the NSC Cup losing to the eventual champions our U13 team

-Semi Finalists at the U12 NSR Gold Cup losing to the eventual champs Grand Rapids Crew Jrs

-Tied for 3rd place at the U12 WDM Premier Games with Eclipse

Winning State Cup was the biggest surprise of the year and it really showed that this group of girls believes that they can win every game that they are in.  The way that we won both the semi final and final will help us in the future because we are so confident in close games and in shoot outs.  Being down a goal in stoppage time in the semi final as well as being up by a goal in the final and having the U13's tie us in the 2nd half and then going on to win both games in shoot outs will really help us in State Cup next year and hopefully Regionals as well, because a bunch of the girls will have been through the ups and downs of big games this year.

Just going to Regionals this year and seeing the intensity and skill level that are needed to play at that level will be a huge lift for us because now all the girls really know what they are getting ready for.  They saw how much it meant to all the teams at Regionals to be playing there.  Seeing Eclipse not go through to the semi finals based on goal differential will also help us because the girls will remember that if they lose focus for one moment and give up a soft goal it can ruin their chance to become Regional Champions next year.

This year we scored a total of 67 goals and conceded 47 goals so there was never a lack of action for our spectators during the year.  That averages out to 1.49 goals per game for us and about 1 goal per game against us.  The thing that impressed me the most about this team was the variety of ways that we scored multiple goals and how many different girls scored multiple goals through the year.  

Goals Scored

Long Distance Shots- 14

Cross And Finish- 10

Through Ball- 10

Combination Play- 8

Free Kick- 5

Penalty Kick- 5

Rebound- 4

1v1- 4

Inside The 18- 3

Corner Kicks- 3

Turnover- 1

Goals Against

Missed Clears- 6

Turn Overs- 6

1v1's- 4

Long Shot- 3

Through Ball- 3

Scramble in the box- 3

Rebounds- 3

PK's- 2

Long Throws- 2

Free Kicks- 2

Cross- 2

Combination Play- 1

?- 1

Corner Kick- 1

Regionals- 8 (I couldn't find my notes from the last 2 games when St Louis and Eclipse beat us)

Breakdown of the Goals 

-In 5 Games at State Cup we scored 7 goals and only gave up 2 goals

-We conceded 10 goals at Regionals or 22% of the goals against us

-In 12 U13 league games we scored 29 goals and only conceded 8 goals.  That averages out to about 2.4 goals per game for and .67 goals against per game

-Against U12 Regional competition we scored 18 goals and conceded 16 goals in 11 games averaging out to 1.6 goals for per game and 1.45 goals against per game

-We scored the final goal of the game in 25 of our games

-Our opponents scored the final goal of the game 20 times

-After being scored on this year we scored 15 times

What Do I Take Away From This?

1) We can score goals in a variety of ways and a number of girls can score.  We are not a one dimensional team and that makes us very dangerous.

2) We gave away too many goals this year from missed clears, turn overs, and rebound goals.  We will need to heighten our focus when we have the ball around our goal next year.

3) After first game in the WDM event we did not give up a break away.   This was important because it means the girls understand the basics of playing with a flat back line and how to drop.

4) I was actually shocked at the number of goals that we gave up this year and I think it was because we rarely reacted negatively to getting scored on.  I would like us to score the last goal in a higher percentage of the games that we play.  We need to focus on not letting in goals when we are ahead in games in the coming year.

5) Having the right mind set and belief is a crucial component to this team.

I am excited to take all this information and use it in helping us with our goal of winning Regionals next year.