Saturday 12/5 Training

I. Heading

Run by Eric.  I want him to focus on winning punts and goal kicks and how do we attack out of them.

II. Pattern Play Shooting

III. 5v3 Split The Defenders To Goal

IV. Scrimmage with 1 Touch Grid

Scrimmage vs U13's Friday 12/5

We played 10v10 today since we were short on players.  We played awesome.  Brownie was solid at the back and kept possession of the ball for us.  We tracked each possession that she had when she had time to see how many times she kept the ball.  I think that because she was conscious of us keeping track she did a much better job of maintaining possession of the ball for us and did not let her mind wander.  

Becks played left back for us and offensively she was fantastic.  She made a number of great entry passes to the forwards, outside mid, and attacking mid as well as a number of crosses.  The more she received the ball the more comfortable she became attacking from that position.  If she begins to tackle and play more physical it will be a hug asset to the team to have her play in that position.

Jazzy moved back into the center mid today and played our defensive mid position.  Her timing and spacing was much improved from a month ago and she only turned into pressure twice.  She had one of the plays of the game with a no look outside of the foot flick pass while dribbling towards the left to set up Kari on the right. 

Our attacking triangle with Gaffer and Greely up top with Magic underneath continues to build and create problems.  They are just beginning to read each others runs and create space for each other instead of running individually.  Magic had a great goal when she was fed through on the right side of the box, did a Cristiano Ronaldo Cruyff to beat her defender and slotted the ball inside the near post for her finish.  She is very calm in the box.

On a day where everyone played well, Kari was our best player today.  She caused all kinds of problems on the right side.  Her reading of which space to run into was fantastic.  She beat players 1v1 and was looking to score.  She hit the post with one of her shots and scored on two other shots.  If she begins to score on a regular basis we will have a very dynamic attack this year.

I hope we can play as well as we did today in a week versus the 16 Whites when we will be under higher pressure and we will be playing 11v11.

Tuesday 11/29

In an effort to save the U14's money and to help the U12's with training space I've sold part of our field to the U12 age group for all the Tuesday's in December.  While I really enjoy having half a field on Tuesday's so we can play big games at the end of training, our injuries/other sports/ and time of the year say that maybe we do not need all of this space right now.  

With the Laguna Hills Tournament not until the middle of January I decided that our money would be better used in scrimmages than in having half of the dome to ourselves on Tuesday's.  We will use half the dome again beginning in January in our lead up to the Eclipse event and then we will split the field for a couple of weeks following the tournament before we ramp up for spring again.

3-5 of Mark Yuiell's U13 Boys train with us each Tuesday and they really improve the level of our play.

I. Mark Yuiell Dribbling Activities

Mark runs the first 20 minutes of our training working on dribbling.

II. 5v3 Split the Defenders

Set Up

• 1 big grid (20x30 yds) is divided into 3 smaller 10x20 yd grids
• 5 Blue Attackers: 3 defenders, 1 mid, 1 target
• 3 Red Defenders are in the middle grid

Procedure

• The 3 Blue defenders must pass the ball 3 times before looking to play forward
• The Blues receive one point every time they play the ball into the attacking grid
• The Red's receive one point every time they stop the Blues from playing the ball into the attacking grid

Coaching Points For The Attackers

• The 3 defenders need to move the ball quickly
• The midfielder and the target need to find the gaps between the defenders and anticipate where the ball is moving
• One touch passes will have the best chance to get through the defenders

Coaching Points For The Defenders

• Work together to force passes into your help
• Keep your feet moving and recover quickly after you have stepped up to a ball 

Variations

• Allow the Blue midfielder and target to switch grids to work on the target checking to and the midfielder running through.

III. 3 Team Keep Away to Straight Diagonal

IV. Scrimmage With One Zone