Nomads Game 1 vs SC Del Sol (AZ)

We played at an elementary school for this game and this was the only field.  The dimensions were very small.  The sidelines were 5 yards away from the 18 yard box and the field was maybe . . . maybe 100 yards long.  It was a perfect field for 9v9.  11v11 not so much.  And it was really bumpy and there was a baseball infield that took over one of the corners.

The girls were excited for the game and we had lots of energy in the warm up.  The whistle blew to start the game and Del Sol played the ball back to their mids and they booted it upfield.  The ball went to one of our central defenders who miss hit the clear and it went right to their forward.  Both our central defenders backed off her and she took a shot from 25 yards out that AJ dove for, maybe could have held onto, and their forward continued her run and hammered in the rebound.  

24 seconds in we were down 0-1. Uh Oh?  Nope.

After that SC Del Sol did not get another shot and we opened up the flood gate of chances . . . The only issue was that none of our chances were going in.  Here are our notes from the game:

1 min: Del Sol Goal off of missed clear and rebound
3 min: Kenzie cross to Carly, header just over bar
4 min: Carly cross just misses
12 min: Gaffer shot from Sophie cross
14 min: Sophie catches the goalie out of position on a counter, but it hits the outside of the post and goes wide
16 min: Gaffer cross bounces around in front of goal
19 min: Gaffer misses open goal
19 min: Gaffer to poke, great save for corner
20 min: Sophie header from corner saved
24 min: Sizzle shot saved
26 min: Sizzle gets open off of flip throw saved
26 min: Kenzie break away saved

Half time 

At half time all we could say was keep doing what you are doing.  We were getting 3-4 runners in the box every time a cross came in.  We were super dangerous.  Just be composed in front of goal.

31 min: Corner bounces around in front of the goal
33 min: Gaffer gets a break away and hits the post.  The ball rebounds back off her face and into the net for a goal!  Finally!
35 min: Becks shot off of flip throw
37 min: Sophie gets played through on a counter attack for a break away and hits the post
41 min (3 chances): Taz hits the cross bar followed by Kenzie hitting the cross bar and the 3rd shot went wide
43 min: Becks free kick saved
50 min: Taz shot from Lydia pass
51 min: Gaffer volley just over
54 min: Jordy shot
59 min (2 chances): Gaffer break away saved, Kenzie misses near post on open net rebound. 

Game over.

We had 24 high quality scoring chances and scored 1 goal.  They had 1 shot and had 1 goal.  Soccer is not fair.  I know another couple of our shots hit the post but we were not able to keep up with all the chances.  Did the nets have plexie glass in front of them?  We were almost averaging a high quality scoring chance once every two minutes.  That is incredible.  The girls did everything right but the ball just would not go in.

If we score a usual percentage of the high quality chances we created we should have won 5-1 easily.  If we played on a good field we would have beat this team 7-0, but that darn ball just would not go in the net for us today.  

Hopefully the ball will go in for us in our next game vs Nomads.

Nomads Day 2: Team Surfing Lessons and Training

Still Coming . . .

Nomads Day 1: Flight and Surfing

It is great having roommates who travel and need rides to the airport occasionally.  It is especially great if you have picked them up from their last flight and they owe you a ride at 6am.  

After a long day of flying I made it into San Diego at 3pm.  Perfect timing for my 4:30 surfing lesson.  I boarded the bus for National Rent A Car and as we approached their facility our driver, Steve, informed us that the first stop would be for members of the Emerald Club.  The second stop would be for everyone else.  As I looked at the other 2 passengers on the bus, one had a smirk on his face knowing that he was in the Emerald Club.  The other passenger and I would have to wait for the 2nd stop.  

As we pulled up to the Emerald stop and our royalty passenger exited I started laughing because our stop was a mere 10 yards up ahead.  I wonder how much he paid to get into that club?  I then found out after he had issues with his car and was in line behind me complaining about it.  

I got into my car and 2 wrong turns and 10 minutes later I was at the hotel.  I threw my stuff in my room and left to go meet my surf instructor Souf from the San Diego Surfing School.   I found out that Souf had moved here from Hawaii 10 years ago and shortly after that he founded San Diego Surfing School.  This year they have partnered with the city of San Diego and he was really excited about the upcoming year for them.

The reason why I was able to go out surfing today was that Kenny Culotta had helped to set up surfing lesson for girls tomorrow.  I had mentioned that I would love to go out today and Souf made it happen.  

I wanted to take the girls surfing on our trip because I had done a group surfing lesson a couple of years ago when I was out at this tournament and it is probably the most memorable experience I've had in soccer.  It is something that is very unique for kids from Minnesota to do and I was excited that we were going to be able to surf.  

It turned out to be a very good thing that I went out with Souf today because I was horrible. I resembled nothing close to the picture from above.  Souf did a fantastic job explaining everything to me, showing me, and helping push me into great waves.  But once he let go and I was on my own, gravity usually won out in a matter of .58 seconds.  

Being a coach, it was super frustrating to hear Souf explain it to me so well and completely fail each time.  But I loved it.  I kept getting back up and eventually I started to catch a few waves and ride them in.  I think I caught about 7 waves in my 90 minutes out there.  With all the practice today, I might look somewhat respectable tomorrow if I can move.  Surfing is an incredible work out!

When Souf said that the next wave was going to be my last wave I relaxed and actually caught the wave.  I was pretty proud of myself.  

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  I'll recap the surfing and I'll even preview the tournament and who we are playing.

San Diego for Nomads Because Neusport FC Continues To Ruin The LVCS

We fly out tomorrow to San Diego to participate in the Nomads Coaches Showcase.  San Diego is one of my favorite places in the entire world so I am excited to go out there.  It is supposed to be mid 60's-70's and sunny the entire time we are there.  Here in Minnesota we just had another bout of snow/sleet/rain and sub zero temperatures.  I will be leaving at 9:00 tomorrow morning and I have a surfing lesson set up for tomorrow evening.

Our original plan for this weekend had us going to Las Vegas with our U15's, U16's, and U18's.  We had major problems with this tournament last year with our current 15's and 16's.  

First they put the 15's into the 2nd division of the tournament.  The 15's were the Region II Champs, there was no way they belonged in the 2nd flight.  After much work, they were finally moved into the top bracket.  

The next issue was that hotels had doubled in price from the year before and the tournament was pocketing a ton of extra money.  They were also selling vouchers for food at some of the hotels, that were more expensive than the food at the hotels actually were, and the hotels didn't know anything about the vouchers.

Then, on the first day of the tournament, we were warming up with the current 16's and we kept looking over to the field next to ours where the other two teams in our group were supposed to play.  As we looked over, we saw referees and one team warming up.  Where was the other team?  The other team was supposed to be the Region IV ODP team, but they had pulled out of the tournament well over a month before because all of their players were competing with their club teams in the tournament.  The officials at Neusport had decided not to tell anyone about this.  Not even the refs or the field marshals.  Then, as usual, they would not answer their phones.

We played our game, but the other team in our group did not get a game.  Us and the other 2 teams in our group were furious about this but the tournament would not respond to anything.  Finally on the morning when we were supposed to play the ODP team, they called us and said that we would not have a game.  

Add in the fact that they did not have the goals up and ready at the start of the tournament for the the 15's and there were no corner flags at our complex, this was the worst run tournament I had ever been a part of.

I completed our registration for the tournament last fall and I began sending the tournament emails in November to see if we had been accepted to the tournament.  By December I had heard nothing back from them so I began to call and leave messages.  Our 14's were doing the same thing and we figured between both of our teams that one of us would get a response.

January came and we still had not heard from the tournament.  Then one day they switched the tournament's front page from U13-U18 Showcase to U15-U18.  What the heck?!  I had been hearing rumors that the entire tournament was going to be cancelled do to law suites and I wanted to get in on one of those.  I wanted to file our complaints along with everyone else.   

When all this came about I tried to see if we could get into the Jefferson Cup and one other tournament, but after checking into them, I found that too many of our girls would not have been able to go on any other weekend.  

Then about a month ago I was in contact with Nomads and they said that they could use one more U13 team.  I checked it out with the parents and we had enough players to go so we booked the trip.  We will be in the same tournament as our 13 Whites and we are staying at the same hotel as the 14 Blues so it will be a fun tournament.

*Vegas once again screwed our 15's by placing them in the 2nd bracket and the 16's play 2 of the same teams that they played last year.  It would be great if that tournament could get their act together because it used to be one of the best tournaments in the nation.