3/27 Training and Scrimmage vs 12 Blues

We only had 10 players for training tonight.  We have not had any soccer related event since the Sockers Tournament 6 months ago where we have had everyone attend.  This is becoming very frustrating as we are approaching our summer season for a team of this quality . . . more will come on this later.

I was upset going to training today knowing that we would not have enough players to scrimmage with 11 players from our team against the 12's when we were only 2 weeks away from West Des Moines.  It took me at least 10 minutes of training to settle in and focus on the kids that were at training.  I preach to the players that once they step on the field to just focus on soccer, but it took me a little bit to take my own advice.

The first 30 minutes of training we worked on our crossing and finishing.

I.  Ajax Shooting Drill: Crosses on the Ground

Set Up

• Line of players where the end line and the 6 yard box meet 
• Line of crossers outside the 18 on the side line
• Line of shooters 10 yards outside the 18 on the far side of the box
• Same set up on the other side of the goal

Proceedure

• Blue passer plays the ball out to the Blue crosser
• Blue crosser attacks the ball, dribbles end line, and crosses the ball on the ground to the top of the 18
• Blue shooter starts bending her run away from the ball when the passer plays the ball to the crosser
• When the crosser picks her head up, the shooter sprints to the top of the 18 for a 1 touch shot (we also did 2 touch shots)
• Red team passer plays the ball as the Blue crosser is crossing

II.  Ajax Shooting Drill: Crosses in the Air

Same thing, but now instead of the crosser attacking the end line, she takes 1-2 set up touches and plays a cross in the air to the top of the 6 yard box.

We really struggled with this from both the crossing and heading technical points.  We will spend a lot of time focussing on this over the next month.

The 30 minute scrimmage against the 12's went pretty well.  We moved the ball around well and kept really good possession.  The scrimmage definitely pointed out our resistance to crossing the ball into the box as every time we had the ball out wide we tried to go 1v1 or combine around their defenders.  This is fine with me at this point because we are just starting to work on the crossing and finishing.  It will be really fun to watch once we combine all 3 options from the wing.

1st Outdoor Training Of The Spring 3/23

We did not have the dome tonight so I boldly scheduled training outdoors at McMurray two weeks prior to today.  The weather up until today had been very nice outside, so of course that meant it was 50 degrees and raining off and on by the time we started training.  However, the weather didn't seem to bother anyone because it was so refreshing to be outside.

A number of the girls arrived early and they set up a scrimmage field and began to play on their own while I set up.  The level of play in the scrimmage was very good so we ended up doing that for the first 20 minutes of training.

Our main focus for the next month is going to be crossing and finishing.  As a team we have become very good at a number of different things, but we rarely cross the  ball.  We would prefer to pass or dribble the ball into the box all the time instead of putting the ball into the danger area.  So I've gone back through Mark's 94 team's journal and pulled out all of his crossing and finishing sessions.

For today we were going to just start with some basic runs and then we added in 1 recovery defender on the outside to add a little bit of pressure.

Setup

• 8 crossing playing, 8 central players, 1 GK
• Two disks on each flank, Crossing Disk and Recovery Disk, with the Recovery Disk 5 yards further away from goal that then Crossing Disk

Procedure

• We first started without the recovery defender and added her in later
• central players work in pairs
• (1) Blue1 passes to Blue2
• (2) Blue2 lays off a pass back to Blue1
• (3) Blue1 plays wide to C, who tries to get in a cross to Blue1 (slot run), Blue2 (near post run), and Gold1 (a left-side wide player coming into the far post)
• recovering defenders (wide players take turns at being a recovering defender) start 5 yards behind the crossers and cannot leave their disk until the crosser leaves their disk

Coaching Points

• If crossers leave too early (before the play develops) and are forced to slow down their runs to wait for the ball, their recovering defenders (who can recover the second the crosser moves forward up the field, will be able to get back into a defensive position.  So crossers must read the central players in order to sprint quickly up the field at the right time in order to lose marking defenders.
• Wide passes from Blue1 must have the proper pace and direction
• Play your teammate in to dangerous positions whenever possible
• *In order to work on how we make runs on the outside I had our recovery runners leave a little early so some times they would catch up to the outside runner before the pass had been made to her.  When this happened I wanted the passer to play the ball behind the runner so she would be able to stop and get the ball while the recover defender continued to recover behind her.
  By receiving the ball at her feet, the outside runner can either put in an early service, or she can go 1v1.

After this we finished the training by playing 6v6.  I made 2 wide channels and the the attacking team had to play the ball wide before they could go to goal.

3/14 St Cloud Friendlies Game #3 vs Rev

After our game against the Blues we were pretty beat up and Brownie was unable to play.  Plus we were missing Bella, Gaffer, and Stoker who were not here today.  Both Taz and Kari were injured during the game so we finished the game with only 10 healthy players.

We started off the game with some very good ball movement and had an ok chance early.  After the first couple of minutes Rev began to dominate the territory battle.  But being in our half only translated to 2 quality chances for them.  The most dangerous was off a throw in when their right forward was able to beat our defenders and AJ came up with a big save.

Immediately off of that save AJ punted the ball and after a scrum we won possession of the ball.  Taz played it up to Jordy.  Jordy flicked it onto Blitz who turned their defender inside out and fired a dipping shot into the net.

After the goal we began to dominate the field position, but we only created one more quality chance in the half.  With 2 minutes left in the half we had a goal kick that we did not mark up on and Rev won the ball.  The ball came to their right forward who hit a volley over AJ to tie the game up.

This was the 2nd goal kick of the half that we had not marked up on properly and they had another chance from the throw in.  We really need to tune in on what seem like harmless dead ball situations.

We played pretty well in the second half and Blitz continued to dominate up front.  Our quick passing led to more shots and we were able to go ahead when Lydia played a free kick into the box that Blitz cut back to her left foot and roofed the shot.  Fun to watch.

AJ had one really good save in the second half to keep us in the lead, but I was happy with how we played.

The game ended a little early due to an injury to Kari, who would turn out to be ok.  All in all it was a good weekend for us to begin getting into game season.  These were our first games in a very long time and we will continue to adjust and improve a ton over the next 3 weekends.

U13 Blue vs U13 Rev Highlights from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

3/14 St Cloud Friendlies Game #2 vs U14 Blue

The good part about having games video taped is that it is really cool to watch the game again.  The bad part is that it takes a lot of time to go back through and put everything together.  So with that in mind I am just getting to post our game against the 14 Blues from St Cloud now.

After our game against Mequon, Cook, Young Kim, and I all had dinner and talked about the games from the day.  Cook thought that we showed a lot of skill on the ball, but we needed to be more direct and get the ball forward quicker.  I told him that I didn't disagree with him, but that at this age I'd rather have kids who are showing skill on the ball every time they get it than have kids who play one and two touch soccer.  I believe it is a lot easier to teach girls when to pass as they get older than it is to teach them when/how to beat players.

In our game against Mequon, recap here, we spent the entire first half showing skill in our end and did not get anywhere.  The second half was a little better, but not much.  For the rest of the weekend I decided to have us focus on finding our forwards as quickly as possible so we could move up field faster.  I told our forwards that I didn't want them to take off on their own, unless they had an odd man rush, but to hold the ball up so we could attack as a team.

We also switched from our 4-3-3 into a 4-4-2.  The reason I had gone with the 4-3-3 originally was because it is much harder to pass the ball when you don't have wingers.  It requires a lot of movement.  I was happy with how much we moved off the ball against Mequon and felt that now we could play with outside mids while still keeping our movement up.

Switching to a 4-4-2 will really help us to exploit our 1v1 and 2v2 skill out on the wing, so this formation will really play to our strengths.

Today's game against the 14's was the game that I was looking forward to the most for this weekend.  They are a really good team and they challenge us.  Plus, we play our best against good teams.  Because we have the video highlights I'm going to save some time and not recap the game, but finding our forwards earlier really seemed to work for us producing 3 goals from our front runners.

For best viewing be sure to click on the full screen button:)

First Half Highlights 

U13 Blue vs U14 Blue 1st Half Highlights from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

2nd Half Highlights

U13 Blue vs U14 Blue 2nd Half Highlights from Andy Kaasa on Vimeo.

3/22 Scrimmage vs U12 South Boys

Of the 3 games this weekend, this was the game that I was looking forward to the most.  The 12 South group plays some of the best soccer I have seen from kids at that age group.  The last time we played them they dominated us, leading me to title the recap as a Showcase for the U12 Boys.  The video highlights from that game are fun to watch.

After last nights game I was very encouraged by the progress we had made as a team in the last 3 weekends of games.  

I was on the field during the game so my note taking was non existent again.

The last time we played, the boys had the ball a majority of the game.  Today it was even, if not in our favor.  I know they were missing a couple of players and they were a bit beat up from their first two games of the weekend like we were last weekend, but I still think they had a very good team that really challenged our girls.

Our defenders, cm's and wingers did a great job of recognizing when to dribble and when to pass.  Looking back at the game, that was the thing I was happiest about.  The girls were really starting to understand that the more they pass the ball, the more they actually get to dribble because quick passing leads to 1v1 opportunities.

10 minutes in we scored a great goal.  The play started in the midfield and we realized that we could not go down the right side.  We played it back to our right defensive winger, who found our center mid.  Our center mid found Blitz running diagonally towards the corner and she played a pass that beat all of their players except their central defender.  Blitz took a couple of dribbles to draw in the center defender and when he committed she slotted the ball to Gaffer who one touched the ball into the side net.  I wanted to call the game after that goal.  It was fun to watch.

I was very entertained throughout the entire game and as I was watching I kept thinking to myself that this was the reason why I wanted to go out to Nomads and play.  So we would be able to play 3 weekends in a row and really find our rhythm.  

While our skills have not changed a lot in the last 3 weeks, the girls knowledge of when to do what has improved a ton.  This improvement has made them more confident all over the field because good decisions have put them into positions to succeed.  

Some time during the game Mukwelle scored a sick goal where he beat our center backs using his Cristiano Ronaldo Cryueff and slotted the ball into the side net.  

Both teams had chances and Jake Simon, our guest goalie from the U12 Boys South White team, made a huge save on their best chance to keep the score tied.  With 3 minutes left we had a corner kick.  We played it into the box and the boys cleared the ball and pushed up to the top of their box.  The ball came rolling back to Jazzy or Brownie (man I miss having my notes for recaps) who one touched the ball back into the box.  The South goalie came charging out for the ball but Sophie had timed her run perfectly and arrived at the ball a split second before their keeper and flicked it with her head over him and into the goal. 

The game ended and I told the girls how happy I was with how they had played.  I can't wait to go to the Premier Games.