3/21 Scrimmage vs U12 West Boys

Phew!  Full field tonight.  

Before the game I addressed the roles of our outside players in our formation.  Many of the girls feel that being an outside defender is a position that is meant for unskilled players.  The girls have the idea stuck in their head that the only role of the outside defenders are to stay back and not let the other team score. 

This is very frustrating for me as a coach because that is about as far away from how I see the position as possible . . . and that is my fault.  

I want our outside defenders to be switching positions constantly with our outside mids.  I want our outside defenders to get in front of our outside mids when the ball is on their side of the field and try to score goals.  When the ball is not on their side, I want them to stay back so we are solid defensively, but I also want them to stay back so they will have plenty of room for us to switch the field and find their feet so they can attack at speed.

This brings me to our new position called a "Winger"

I explained to the girls that we have 2 wingers on each side of the field.  One will start in front of the other, but every time the ball is played to the winger who is further up the field, the other winger must overlap her and they will trade positions.  

I told the girls that if they are not switching positions on the wing at least once every 5-10 minutes something is wrong.

I wasn't sure how the overlapping would go and I was a little afraid that if we lost the ball while we were overlapping the boys would be able to exploit the open space.  But I decided that it was more important for me to get through to the girls that the "Defensive Winger" is an attacking position and they should be switching with the "Attacking Winger" on a regular basis than it was to worry about our defensive shape.

The girls came out and we played really well.  I don't have any notes from this game because I was coaching on the field tonight.  I've found that it really helps to be on the field during these scrimmages because you can give the players more personalized instructions without having to sub them off the field to ensure they understand.  A huge benefit of this is that the player can put into practice what you are showing them immediately and you can get them into the correct position so they truly understand the concept.  Like when you want players to understand how to play on the wing:)

 We were missing Lydia tonight and so I put Brownie and LK together in the center of defense and they played awesome.  

The girls on the wing did a great job of recognizing when and how to overlap and I was super happy with how well we moved the ball all game.  

With about 15 minutes left in the game we had a good movement down the left side of the field that produced a cross to the far post.  Taz was crashing in from the wing and she out jumped their goalie and defender and put the ball into the back of the net.  There was a bit of contact as Taz was running in and we discounted the goal for this game, but I think the goal would stand in a normal game.

We are a lot bigger and stronger than the 12 West boys and had a couple of hard tackles/fouls in a row after the goal.  The parents were really loud with each foul call we made screaming that they were not fouls. We stopped the game for a minute to bring all the players in from both teams and reminded them that we are all from the same club and if you can see someone's number, then you should not be trying to tackle the ball.  

I was not happy that our parents would be vocal about refereeing decisions . . . I was especially unhappy because their coach and I were reffing the game.  Of course we were going to call the game tight and protect the players on the field because the 13's were so much bigger than the 12's.  I want the 12's to enjoy playing us because they are very skilled and a good match for us technically.  So if it means calling an occasional hard tackle as a foul due to the difference in size I am ok with that.  

I am nervous about what is going to happen on the sideline in 2 weeks when we go down to Des Moines.

The West ended up scoring with about 3 minutes left when we had a clearance deflect off of one of our defenders and go straight to one of their players.  It was a very unfortunate goal to give up because it came out of nothing.  

After the game I told the girls I was very happy with how well they played.  We possessed the ball very well.  Our Wingers did a great job switching positions and overlapping each other.  We were very solid defensively.  Our center backs did a great job of finding passes and they were very calm on the ball.  

I can't wait to play the 12 South tomorrow and see how much we have improved since November.