MYSA League Wrap Up

*As the summer has sped up I have not been able to keep up with all the entries so I am going to summerize all the league games that we played.

*Playing up as U12's in the U13 league has provided excitement for the East Academy for the last 3 years with each year the league title has been decided by less than 2 points. This year we were on the wrong side of the 2 points but we finished second and we had a number of competitive games.

Each year we get complaints from people asking if we are a U12 team then why are we playing up at U13? We also get complaints when we play our own age group in some tournaments with people asking; "If they are building a 'Super Team,' then why do they have to come and beat up on our teams?" While we don't make our decisions based on other people's complaints but on what will be best for our teams, we still hear the complaints.

There are three main reasons why we play our U12's up in the U13 league:
1) All of the other major states play 11v11 at U12
2) We want our girls to get the experience of State Cup so we have to play up at U13 to do that. Other states have State Cup at U12 to get that experience but that is not an option here in Minnesota.
3) We want to find competitive games for our teams. While winning the league the last two years has been nice, it was not the major reason why we played our teams up. When Mark decided to play his current U14 team up at U12's he was hoping to go .500 in the league and they ended up winning the league. If you are around .500 you are probably in the right competitive division.

This years league has been a lot of fun with having Woodbury, Eau Claire, and us all within 3 points of the league title and the other teams in the league have challenged each of us in our game with them. (St Croix tied Woodbury twice, Mahtomedi and Blackhawks tied Eau Claire) So the level of competition between all the teams in the league this year is probably the best that I have been a part of.

With the league wrapped up we are hoping to finish off the year by having some fun at the U13 USA Cup and then we hope to do well at Districts and make it to the State Tournament.

League Game #6 vs Mahtomedi

We played well in this game and we scored some good goals.
Goal 1: Blitz dribbled down the left side of the field and crossed the ball to Mack. Mack 1 touched the ball to Sprout who, in turn, 1 touched the ball into the back of the net. Nice goal.
Goal 2: Bitz and Ricky do a give and go. Ricky crosses it to Sprout who takes her girl on 1v1, beats her and finishes.
Goal 3: Sprout plays the ball to Gaffer who hits a hard shot from distance.
Mahtomedi has a really good forward, who scored 1 goal on us after we were up 3.

Final 3-1

League Game #7 vs Blackhawks
There had been a lot of rain and thunder storms all day and I kept getting texts and calls asking if we were going to be playing tonight. Luckily we were at McMurray fields in St Paul, which are new turf fields. So I knew that as long as there was no lightning we would be playing.
Judging from the way the girls played they were not mentally there and it looked like none of the girls had really planned on playing tonight.

We also struggled adjusting to the rain and the turf since we have not played on turf since April. It is sometimes difficult to remember that young players have troubles adjusting to different playing surfaces and weather. They have not played a ton and do not have the experience to change how they play on the fly. It is something that we are working on, but it is difficult.

Despite our lack of sharpness on offense we played really well defensively and did not give up any chances. In the second half we hardly allowed them into our end. Blitz scored a great free kick goal in the 2nd half and we won 1-0.

It was nice to see that the girls could find a way to win even though they were not playing well. That is an important tool for them to use moving forward.

Final 1-0

6/17 League Game #8 vs Eau Claire
We knew this was a big game in deciding who would get the top two spots in the league. It was a three horse race between Eau Claire, Woodbury, and us for these two spots.

Eau Claire is big and fast so it was going to be a good prep for Regionals from the fact that we would be under a lot of pressure when we had the ball. The girls played really well this game. We moved the ball well, combined well, and we created lots of shots. But it just was not our day to end up with a win.

Eau Claire scored off a miss hit clear from a sharp angle to take the lead. Sprout then scored a great goal for us after Mad Dog won the ball off their goal kick and played the ball to Gaffer. Gaffer played the ball back to Mad Dog, ran and received the ball down on the endline, great combination, and crossed the ball just inside the 6. Sprout had read the play and made her run away from the ball, losing her defender, and as the cross came in she darted between the goalie and defender and volleyed the ball home.

Eau Claire ended up getting the winner in the 2nd half off of a long throw that went over our heads. We had many chances in the 2nd half to tie the game, but the ball just wasn't going in for us today. After the game we talked about the fact that even though we ended up on the wrong side of scoreboard we had played really well and that is all that we can control. We can't always control the ball going into the back of the net. Disappointing today, but that's life sometimes.

Final 1-2

6/18 League Game #9 vs WBL
Today we played really well again. We had tons of combinations including a number of 3 Man Combos. Mack scored 4 goals and Erika scored her first goal of the year.
Goal 1: LP wins a corner, Ricky puts the corner inside the 6 yard box. The ball goes off the goalie and Mack has a tap in.
Goal 2: LP hits a slotted through pass to Mack who finishes the break away.
Goal 3: Erika has a long throw in to Bella. Bella slots a through pass to Mack who finishes another break away.
Goal 4: Ricky hits a free kick from our end to set Mack up on another break away.
Goal 5: Bella crosses to Erika who hits a first time shot.

Final 5-0

6/26 League Game #10 vs Woodbury
During warm ups I could tell that it was a mistake not to reschedule this game. We had just gotten back from Regionals the day before and we were not ready to play. We played very poorly. Woodbury played well. They scored the only goal of the game with a minute left in the first half. Maybe the result would have been the same if we played them another day, but we can play a lot better than we did and I'll take the blame for this. After the first Eau Claire game, played the day after the State Cup Final, I saw the emotional and physical effects that had affected our play and I should have learned from that. Two games that I needed to do a better job with the scheduling.

Final 0-1

7/8 League Game #11 vs WBL
Offensively we played great. Our focus on combination play, keeping the ball, and 1v1 moves really came through today.
Goal 1: Gaffer hits a long shot off the post. Sprout gets the rebound, beats a girl 1v1 and crosses the ball to Jordy for the finish.
Goal 2: Sprout beats a girl 1v1 and plays Bella through on a break away and she slots the ball past the goalie.
Goal 3: Jordy gets a loose ball on top of the box and hits a shot into the upper corner.

With less than a minute left WBL had a free kick 35 yards out from our goal and we set up our line on top of the 18. The ball was kicked and 3 of their players ran in and none of our players moved. The ball bounced past AJ in the confusion between their girls running in. It was a very frustrating goal to give up. This is the fourth or fifth time we have given up a goal like this this year. Even though the goal had no effect on the outcome of the game I made a very strong point to the girls after the game that that type of goal should never happen. I really made a point of making a big deal about the goal and how it is all because we still don't communicate before the ball is played. It is something that needs to happen if the girls are interested in continuing on with us this fall.

After we talked about that I switched over and said, "Now that we have learned from that, don't let that one moment take away from the fact that we played really well today." I wanted to make sure the girls knew that they had played very well and they could also take away all the positives from the game so we talked about all the positives for a while. It is important that they can learn from both the good things and the things we need to improve on.

Final 3-1

7/10 League Game #12 vs St Croix
Last game of the year and St Croix had just helped us out by tying Eau Claire the night before. The last time we played St Croix we played really well and scored 3 of our best goals of the year. After the good attacking play in the White Bear game I was hoping to see us continue to play well on offense. Just as in the White Bear game we are really focussing on our 1v1 play using our 3 main moves, give and go's, and looking to keep possession of the ball more, especially with our defenders.

The first half of the game we played well and moved the ball around nicely but besides Blitz hitting the post on a hard shot, Gaffer having a break away, a number of crosses to only 1 runner, (Sprout just missed a header over the ball after a nice combination play and cross,) and a couple of corners we did not create enough chances for how much possession we had.

At half time we talked about the fact that possession of the ball is good, but we can't look to keep the ball just for the sake of keeping the ball. The reason we possess the ball is so we can look for opportunities to attack. We need to vary our attack between possession and countering quickly and attacking the goal by taking chances. If you play everything safe your team may look good, but you wont score many goals.

The second half we were much more dangerous. Our forwards were doing a good job of making dangerous runs. We started to take shots from outside the box but their goalie was hanging onto everything and we couldn't get anything by her.

15 minutes into the second half Blitz tried to take two girls on 20 yards out from goal but she was tackled and the ball came out to the outside of the 6 yard box. Instead of trying to shoot from a poor angle, Gaffer faked the shot and cut the ball back to just inside the top of the 6 where we had three runners crashing into the space. The St Croix defender had to try and make a play on the ball as she was being swarmed and it went off her leg and into the net. Tough break for her, but if she didn't get a leg on the ball one of our three probably would have.

After that goal we continued to be dangerous but we couldn't get anything by their goalie and the game ended 1-0 in our favor. Fun game and our play is continuing to improve.

Final 1-0

After the game we found out that Mahtomedi had tied Eau Claire 2-2 which meant that we finished the league in second place and we still have a shot to gain premier status for next year.