Finishing, Forward and Midfield Movement: Training 4/30

Today's training was thrown a bit out of whack when Eric called me to say that he had an emergency at work and was not going to be able to attend the 16's training.  Originally he was just going to let the girls run it, but I said that we were doing a lot of finishing and different activities that are fun and I could have the 13's demonstrate the activity and the 16's could go and run it on their own.

It turned out I overestimated the 16's focus level and maturity.  Their was no leadership and they were perfectly happy to do everything at half speed and sloppily.  After 35 minutes I told them to go do whatever they wanted because it was a waste of time to explain the exercises to both groups and try to watch them since they were not putting in any effort.  

If the 13's ever show this type of attitude there will be major consequences and changes to who is on the team.

Here is what we did:

I. Off Foot Juggling & Driving The Ball With 1 Touch Back

All but 4 players can get to the 30 juggles with their opposite foot now and the 4 are really close to getting to 30.  The one touch back went better than expected last time.  

II. Finishing Technical Work

Lots of repetition.  We had 2 players serving balls from their hands on each side.  Every couple of minutes we switched up the type of ball being played in.  We concentrated on quick, sharp swings.  Finishing low.  And Headers.

• Line drives from throw
• Bouncing balls from throws
• Lofted balls from throws

III. Crossing and Finishing
Same set up we used on Tuesday to see if the technical work helped us out on our finishes. 

IV. Scrimmage vs the U16's
Some of the 16's had mentioned before training that they'd like to scrimmage the 13's.  I had said no before because there was a lot of things I wanted to work on and we were not going to have time.  But the 13's really wanted to play and they had been pretty focussed during training so for the last 40 minutes we scrimmaged.

The small training field at McMurray (100x55) would play to our advantage because the 16's wouldn't be able to out run us.  We played really well and created a handful of really good scoring chances.  As usual the girls battled extremely hard and didn't back down from the challenge.  The 16's hit the post but besides that the work rate of the 13's kept the ball away from our 18.  There was a controversial offside call by the 16's that pulled a goal back that the 13's had scored.  The game ended 0-0 and I left amazed at how the girls absolutely never back down.

Crossing and Finishing: Training 4/28

I didn't have time to do this one in depth.  But we continued on with the crossing and finishing aspect of our training.

0-15 Off Foot Juggling & Driven Balls With 1 Touch Back

15-30 Lay off crossing and finishing technique Teams of 4

30-60 5v3 Forward Movement to Goal

60-90 7v7 

Points:

• +1 for a goal
• +2 for 2 touch
• +3 for a one touch

State Cup Game #1 vs St Croix

I arrived at the field about two and a half hours before our game today to check in with Mark's team and be on their bench for their first game against Eagan.  They began the game really well and cruised through the first half going up 3-0.  They slept walked through the second half and allowed Eagan to have more of the ball, but not many, if any, real chances and the game finished 4-0.

The 13's showed up to watch the 12's game and I pointed out to them how it was important to play both halves strong and not allow a team back into a game in the second half.

When it was time for our game we started out quickly and Gaffer almost scored 2 minutes into the game. We had a couple of other chances before we were able to get on the board in the 7th minute.  Brownie (CD) had stepped up to intercept a clear from St Croix on the right side of the field.  Jazzy (RD) saw Brownie stepping and covered for her at center D and they switched positions as Brownie stayed out right after she played the ball to Sizzle (CM).  Sizzle returned the pass to Brownie who hit a 1st time cross towards the penalty spot in the air.  The St Croix goalie came out hard for the ball but Gaffer arrived at the ball first and flicked the ball over the goalie with her head into the goal.

It was great to see all the work on crossing and finishing paying dividends.  

We continued to press St Croix and put crosses into the box but we could not get another goal.  St Croix's goalie played well and hung onto everything she got her hands onto and St Croix's defenders cleared everything they came in contact with.  Putting those two factors along with our struggles to hit the target on all of our chances kept St Croix in the game.

17 minutes in St Croix made a rare appearance in our half after they cleared the ball long.  We had tried to play the ball out of the back but lost it around the half line on a give and go and St Croix played the ball long to the top of our box.  Our clearing attempt went to a St Croix player who was about 28 yards from goal and she struck the perfect U13 shot high into the top part of the net over AJ to tie the game.

After the goal we continued to press but could not finish anything.  I couldn't help but flash back to Nomads when we were in the same type of situation.

At half time I talked to the girls about the Manchester Utd game from that morning that saw Man U turn on the switch in the second half to destroy Tottenham 5-2 after being down 0-2 at half time.  It was an incredible turn around that saw Utd score 5 goals in 23 minutes. Soccer is a game of two halves and I stressed to the girls to be sharp with their finishing in the second half and once we scored to take the lead to make sure to score again and end the game.We came out sharp in the second half but we missed a handful of chances to go up.  We finally had our breakthrough 17 minutes into the second half when Stoker (CM) dribbled by two St Croix defenders and slotted a perfect pass to Blitz (Fwd) who left no doubt about this chance ending up in the back of the net when she fired the ball into the net from 18 yards out.

Two minutes after that Taz played the ball out of the air from a St Croix punt to Gaffer who turned just outside the top of the box and put home the 2nd goal in 2 minutes.  It was the quick finish to the game that we had talked about after we went up by one.

We continued to create chances the rest of the game and we delivered a number of great early crosses, but we were unable to score another goal.  Our team defense was good and we did not allow St Croix to get within 40 yards of our goal after they scored.  I was also really happy with our crosses today, but we will have to finish our chances better.  If we had brought our finishing boots today the score would have been a lot more lopsided.  But to St Croix's credit they battled hard and didn't give away any goals.

Tomorrow we have Coon Rapids who did not play today.  The weather is supposed to be cold and rainy.  I think the girls will be sharper in front of goal and it should be a good game.