League Game #5 vs Blackhawks

It rained and stormed all day and until about 4:30 it was unclear if we would be able to play by 6:00.  Luckily we were playing at McMurray fields tonight and the fields are turf their so we were able to play the game.

From how we played though it looked like the girls did not expect to play.  We were not very sharp due to the rain, playing on turf again and we were just tuned out.  It was dissapointing since we had played so well yesterday.  Despite our poor play we were able to get a 1-0 victory.  Blitz scored on a free kick in the 45th minute that was perfectly placed in the upper corner.

I was happy with the fact that even though we did not play well at all on offense, defensively we were solid and we only let them into our half a couple of times in the second half.  After the game we talked about the fact that there are going to be games where we are going to suck on offense and we need to find other ways to win.  Today was a good example of that and I was happy that we could grind out a win.

Seas Cards
S- No one, I didn't think we were very good sports today
E- Ricky
A- Gaffer
S- Carly

*Since it was raining I am missing some of the skillzys that we did since I could not write anything down

Give and Go
Lk-Carly

Split
LK- Carly
Bella- LP seen by Sprout

3v2 3 Man Combo
Hannah- LK- Blitz
Hannah- LK- Bella

League Game #4 vs St Croix

What had originally looked like an easy game after St Croix was smoked in some early spring games was now looking like a much tougher game.  One of my players from last year's U12's had stepped in goal a couple weeks ago and since that time St Croix has been playing really well and getting some good results including winning the St Croix Cup and beating Eau Claire in league.  I was happy that they were doing so well because the more good games we can get, the better we will become.

It was our third game with the Skillzys and we had yet to see the 3v2 3 Man Split combination skillzy and we had barely earned any skillzy cards through the first two games that we had used them.  The U11's and the U12's are all trial teams for the skillzys and we are trying to find what works and what does not work so before the game we went over the skillzys again and we got the kids excited about them.

We started the game off well and scored in the 4th minute when Blitz crossed the ball in from the right side of the box after beating 2 players.  The ball was partially cleared by their defenders to the top of the box where Gaffer beat them to the ball.  As Gaffer arrived at the ball she was facing away from goal and had a defender on each side of her.  She did a sharp turn and cracked a quick shot into the upper corner for our first goal.

We had a couple of give and go's during the first half as well as a couple of split passes and the girls were seeing the results as we were playing very well.

We were unable to score again in the first half but we had played very well so at half time we talked about the reason that we were playing so well was because we were combining and looking for split passes.  If we continued to do that we would have a great second half.

8 minutes into the second half we scored what could turn out to be our goal of the season.  Hannah (CM) played the ball to Sprout (LF) who was checking back on the outside.  Sprout, with a defender on her back, played the ball inside to Bella (CM) who was running diagonal into the space that Sprout had just left.  Bella then did a give and go with Jordy (CF) and she was played in down the left side.  She dribbled down the wing and as she arrived at the top of the box she played a cross into Mad Dog (RF) who took a touch to control the ball.  Then she spun her defender and rifled a ball into the upper corner.  Outstanding soccer.

As we were trying to write all that down we scored another great goal 4 minutes later when Hannah (CM) made a 25 yard split pass to our far forward Mad Dog (RF) who layed the ball off to Bella (CM).  Bella did a split through ball for Jordy and Jordy hammered the ball off the bottom of the cross bar and into the net.

Along with all the goals we were able to get our first 3v2 3 man combination skillzy involving Blitz, Bella, Ricky, and Erika. 

We really played good this game and I left the game thinking that we had hit a whole new level offensively and the Skillzys were really starting to work.

SEAS Cards
S- Jordy
E- Sprout
A- Taz
S- Erika

Give and Go
Gaffer- LK seen by Erika
Jordy- Sprout seen by Gaffer
Hannah- LP seen by Sprout
Bella- Jordy

Split
LK- Mack seen by Kari
Gaffer- Kari seen by AJ
Kari- LK seen by AJ
Kari- LK seen by Mack
Hannah- LP seen by Ricky
Hannah- Sprout seen by AJ
Hannah- Mad Dog
Bella- Jordy

3v2 3 Man Combo
Blitz-Bella-Ricky-Erika seen by Mad Dog