8-30 Nike vs Swoosh Scrimmage

In looking for ways to maximize our travel and save money we set up some friendlies within the club for today.  This is the first time in a couple of years that I wont have a team traveling over Labor Day Weekend and I think the set up for today will be something that we will do every year in the future.  The entire day was excellent.

The first scrimmage of the day was between our U12 East Blue girls and the U12 West boys group, we had the second scrimmage.  

I had divided up the girls into to teams which I had hoped would be pretty equal: Team Nike and Team Swoosh.  Mark Cook would be coaching Team Swoosh for this scrimmage and I would be coaching Team Nike. I didn't want to use Blue and White for the names because we are still in pool training.  We will have the same names for the tournament in Madison in a couple of weekends.

Team Nike got on the board with a movement that started with a punt from Bono and finished with Beck's shooting the ball low to the far post with her left foot.  It was nice to see how quickly we moved the ball from our box to the other box.

Nike vs Swoosh Goal from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

After the goal Team Swoosh came back with a very good chance created by Blitz's dribbling down the wing and a couple of fake shots in the box by Stoker.

Blitz Move and Cross For Stoker's Shot from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

The entire day I kept stressing to the girls the importance of looking to be dangerous while keeping possession of the ball and we were able to put together a couple of nice combinations during the game.

Combination Passing from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

 Team Nike was able to put together some nice chances in the 2nd half but they were not able to put the ball in the back of the net thanks to some saving tackles and good goal keeping by Erika.

Nike Chance- 2nd Half from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

Team Swoosh almost tied the game up on this nice run by Jordy ending with a hard shot, (sorry to whoever took the shot, I couldn't tell who it was. I need to teach my camera workers how to zoom in:)

Swoosh 2nd Half Chances from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

The best dribbling run of the game came from Graybill who used her quick touches and acceleration to create this chance.

Graybill Dribbling from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

The game ended 1-0.  It was the close game that we were hoping for with the girls learning how to play together.