8-30 Swoosh vs U12 Girls

The final scrimmage of the day pitted the Swoosh group against our top U12 girls team.  It had been a long day for the girls with constant activity since they had arrived this morning at 7:45am and the kick off for this game was going to be about 4:15pm.   I didn't know how the long day would affect the girls but they came out on fire.

Good Ball Movement from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

We were able to get on the board shortly after that movement when in the 3rd minute Carly scored a great goal by sliding in to finish Jordy's cross with a quick near post run.

1st Goal from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

We were on the board again just 4 minutes later when some hard work by Carly forced a turn over deep in the U12's end as Erin (LD) had moved up with the play and put in a dangerous cross that the U12's didn't deal with cleanly and Kenzie was there to power through 2 defenders and calmly slot the ball home.

2nd Goal from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

I was impressed by the composure of Kenzie after she used her muscle to get through the 2 defenders.

After our goal the U12's had their only really dangerous chance of the half when B Money spun our defender around in the box but her shot went high.

U12 Chance from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

After that chance we were able to go down the field and score our 3rd goal of the match.  I liked this goal because Jazzy (RCD) won the ball, didn't just boot it up field, and Mack (LCD) our other center defender made a simple run forward to get the ball from her and we started the movement up field under control but with speed.  

Bella's pressure led to another missed clear for the 12's and she did the rest with a great fake shot at the top of the box and another calm finish.

3rd Goal from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

We scored our 4th goal of the opening 20 minutes, my favorite goal of the day, with our best ball movement of the half.  We started with a throw in, swung the ball through our defenders, again they were calm on the ball, to our far forward who was checking back into space.  found our center mid who in turn found Jenni streaking down the middle.  As Jenni received the ball with runners streaking down the outsides I shouted from the side line for her to take on the center defender 1v1 since our runners had created a huge gap between their defenders.  Jenni put a quick speed move on their center defender and roofed the ball into the top of the net.

4th Goal from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

This was the first goal that the U12's didn't help us on.

Our 5th goal of the half was Carly's second.  Jordy played in a cross that their goalie had trouble hanging onto and Carly was calm and composed with the finish.

5th Goal from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

As the half time whistle blew I was a bit shocked that we were up 5-0 as I expected a pretty close game, but our girls were playing great and we were finishing a majority of our chances.

At half time I told the girls that the quick ball movement was the main contributer to our success and we needed to keep it up for the rest of the game.  I put the restriction on the girls that they had to score with a 1 touch finish for the second half as I wanted to see how well we could get numbers forward and then get in crosses.  The last thing I said to the girls was that the most important number on the score board was the 0 and reminded them that no matter what the score is you always take pride in playing good defense.  (The girls who were at Regionals last year acknowledged the importance as it had cost Eclipse their place in the semi finals.)

The second half was a fun half to watch.  Our girls moved the ball around well but we were unable to do much with the 1 touch finishing as we were not thinking ahead enough to create good one touch shots.  The U12's took the half to showcase their ball skills with Mark challenging them to do a move every time they could.  

The best move of the half was a slap cut by Mad Dog.

Slap Cut from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

It was a great day of soccer, team building, and take it to the next level training that we are looking to make a permanent part of our fall in the year's to come.

If you are interested in having your team come up and partake in this event please contact Mark or myself as we are looking to expand the event for next year.