Ryan Proves Winning Isn't Everything, And We Should Thank Him For That

"With the standards our team has set, if you don't win, it's hard to keep your job." 

That was Cat Whitehill speaking about former US Women's National team coach Gregg Ryan after US Soccer Federation told him that they would not be renewing his contract at the end of the year.

45 Wins 1 Loss 9 Ties

That has to be the best winning percentage ever by a coach who was fired.  It may even be one of the best records by any coach in history, period.  His one loss did come in the World Cup Semi Finals, a tournament we were supposed to win.  Anyone who saw the games of this past year's Women's World Cup would have to agree that the quality of women's soccer around the world has improved dramatically and while it was disappointing for us to lose a game in the tournament, it was not shocking.  It is an incredibly difficult tournament to win.  We've only done it twice out of the five times it has been held.  We don't own the competition.  We still finished third, a position we have never failed to reach, so we are still a world power in the women's game.  But losing in the semifinal was not the reason for the dismissal.  The way the US lost, the way the US acted, and the way the US played were the reasons for Ryan's dismissal.

I am still in awe of Ryan's record, but I never have been in awe of how he got there.  It wasn't pretty, but it was effective.  In this culture, with our "Winning is everything mentality," would Ryan have been asked to stay on if the US had won the world cup?  It would have been hard to fire a guy who never lost a game had they won.  However, thankfully, we don't have to ask that question.  While I hate to see the US lose, I may have equally hated watching us play in this tournament and the build up to the Finals.  Waking up at 3:30am to watch a glorified game of bootball was upsetting.  What happened to all the possession and creativity we used to have on this team?   I seriously doubt that we cannot find enough skilled players in the US, or on the team we had, to play the "Beautiful Game."  Everyone of the players, besides Lilly and Scurry who were playing, grew up watching us play that type of game in past World Cups.  But then again, as Tim Vickery said of Brazil during the 2006 Mens Wolrd Cup; "The idea that Brazilians would rather have fun than win is a monstrous misunderstanding. There is far too much at stake for such levity."  We may have fallen into that trap prematurely.  And we should thank Ryan for that.

If the worst thing we have to endure is a Third Place finish at the World Cup by playing bootball is it really so bad?  It is tough to put too much blame on Ryan for his style of play.  Anson Dorrance is the most heralded womens coach of all time and he doesn't play "The Beautiful Game."  Year after year Dorrance's teams win the NCAA Tournament, which is now our highest level of soccer until 2009, and we praise him for it.  We all say how incredible it is. It is the greatest dynasty in the history of college sports.  Tons of coaches around the nation subscribe to his 100 mph, in your face, type of soccer.  Almost every successful college team does.  And we are fine with it because UNC wins.  Besides, why would Dorrance go away from his strengths?  He is so good at playing this type of game that he will tell you how to beat his team, show you how to beat his team, and then he'll go out and beat your team. 

The main luxury that Dorrance has that Ryan and the US Womens team does not have, is that UNC does not play in front of a world wide audience every time they step onto the field.  UNC can live off their history and the great story that they have created and focus simply  on winning games.  They don't have to play pretty soccer because not enough people are watching and demanding that they do it.  People hear that UNC wins or they read about it and each victory adds to the legend without most people seeing how they got it.  The US team has eclipsed that level.  People tune in every time the US is playing.  This team is our showcase to the world, and partly Dorrances too with all the players UNC puts on the team, and it is not good enough for us to simply win.  We must look good doing it. 

The standard for the US National team is set very high thanks to Ryan, Dorrance and all the other coaches and players who have represented the team.  Gregg Ryan attempted to live up to those high standards and did a fantastic job in the win column.  But his team's lack of style and creativity were his main down falls and for the US, that is not good enough. 

We should be thanking Ryan for pointing us in the right direction.  Without him and the controversy he created, we may have gone the way of the US Men's Basketball team.  All power, no finesse, no creativity, and no movement.  While both of those styles may work here in the NBA and in college soccer, thankfully Ryan proved to us that it does not work on the world stage.  It seems like it may be too late for our basketball program with failure after failure in international competitions, but the US Women's Team does not have to go down that same path.

It would have been nice to win the World Cup but, in losing it this year, maybe Ryan has ensured our future success and he has helped to make sure that we look good winning. 

So thank you Gregg Ryan for helping us remember "The Beautiful Game."

Nike Classic Cup Game #3 vs Sockers FC

To fly, we have to have resistance.  -Maya Lin

Chicago Sockers FC (#18 Region II)

This was the other game that I was really looking forward too.  I really like how the Sockers Club has their teams play.  They are usually quick, skillful, and a joy to watch.  This game would be no different and a lot was on the line for both teams.  We needed to win and a shutout, so we were fired up.  The Sockers needed a draw to make it to the finals so they would be up for the game as well.

After watching their game on Friday and seeing their #23 light up the field with her pace and quickness I struggled with how I wanted to defend her.  Ideally, I wanted us to play straight up and see if our defenders could read what she was doing and shut her down, but after our game against Team Chicago I was not confident that we would be able to do that.  So I decided that I would have Sonic mark her and put 3 other defenders in back to play as a normal flat back three adjusting to where Sonic and #23 were on the field.

I usually never have a player mark another player straight up, following them around the field because it is too simple and reactive for kids at this age.  (By simple I mean that the player will not have to think very much about the game.  Just the player she is marking.)  But Sonic is a player who will jump into the play every time she gets a chance.  So I knew that even though I told her to mark #23, she would be moving up into the play and helping out all over the field without me having to instruct her.

The game started and we were a little off again.  Our movement off the ball is not good enough unless we are within 15 yards of the ball.  This forces us to only make short passes and we end up getting boxed into tight spaces since the players away from the ball don't read how to get open for the next pass.  With us struggling to combine more than 3 passes, I was happy that we were looking to pass and dribble instead of booting the ball, Sockers had us under pressure.  I was not happy with the movement I was getting from my forwards, which is understandable since we move players around to different positions a lot and our two forwards had not played up there yet this tournament.  I decided to shake things up and put LK up there to see what she could do.  LK had mainly played defense and a little outside mid this tournament.  (Last tournament she mainly played center mid and center back.)  13 minutes into the first half, with Gaffer putting on another stunning performance of hard work in the middle of the field and Kari winning everything in the air.  Reaching what I thought was a difficult goal of 6 headers in the game! Gaffer flicked on a long ball to LK who calmly controlled the ball in their box.  She faked a shot with her favored left foot.  Went to her right and slotted the ball into the lower left corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead.  Great goal.  It was exactly what we had been talking about and it showed that longer passes are more dangerous.

After the goal the game was back and forth.  Hannah had some nice moves down the left wing for us spinning her defender into the ground a couple of times and we had a couple of shots, but nothing too dangerous.  The Sockers had one free kick from the top left corner of their box and their strong sweeper came up to take the kick.  Along with being strong, she was very skilled and would fake passes and dribble through our forwards almost every time she won the ball.  Anyways, with how strong of a leg she had and the big goal, I was pretty sure that if she hit the net, she would put this in.  Right when she hit it I said "That's in.  Let's regroup."  Then AJ, lept up and caught it between 3 players crashing in at the far post.  She made numerous sure handed saves during the game which were very impressive considering the rainy weather and the power of the shots.

Half time came and we were up 1-0 in a great game.  This was a lot of fun.  I praised our defenders, Blitz, Ricky, LK, Carly, Bella, and Sprout for the great job they had been doing.  Sonic had been doing a wonderful job on #23 who, when she saw she was being man marked, started to try to pull Sonic wide so she could create space to run into and she constantly was switching sides of the field with no instruction from her coach.  The effort that we had been lacking in our second game yesterday was there now. 

Half Time Points:

-The people off the ball need to make better runs and make them at speed.  The people on the ball need to relax and get their head up.

-Communication is key.  It should never be quiet out there.  We don't want to lose this game because we thought that somebody else was going to get that girl who scored.

-Enjoy being in a great game.

I was only part way through these points when the ref blew his whistle to start the second half.  He had only given us 2 minutes.  Yikes.  I didn't have time to create a line up so I went with the girls who started the game and told them that as soon as I could get the subs ready, we would make changes.

The Sockers came out playing with 4 forwards!  We were playing with 4 defenders and even numbers when defending is not ideal, but I had confidence in the girls who I put back there to make plays and they worked extremely hard and made countless outstanding plays all second half.  The first 15 minutes of the half we played well.  Erika and Binky were creating plays up top and our mids outside mids were working hard to make the runs we talked about at half time.  After that opening 15 minutes their coach asked their forwards what the point was of having all 4 of them up there if they did not work to win the ball and make runs?  Same question that I ask our forwards a lot.  After that, their team adjusted to having 4 forwards and began putting us under all kinds of pressure.  But our mids and defense held strong and made tackle after tackle.  We were giving up a lot of corners and free kicks, but we were communicating and we were able to clear everything.  It definitely looked like this game meant something to the girls.

With 3 minutes left we lost the ball in their half.  Their outside defender played their center mid who made a great one touch pass to split our defenders and send their outside forward through.  As she got into the box our center defender caught her and made the tackle.  Our center defender is strong and when she tackles the ball, the other girl feels it.  The ref blew his whistle and pointed to the spot.  Penalty. 

Their girl stepped up and rifled the ball into the upper half of the net to tie the game up.  Their team was ecstatic since they needed a draw to advance to the final.  Our girls quickly got the ball out of the net and back to the center half line.  We proceeded to attack for the last minutes and Mac almost had a goal when we played a long cross into the box and her pressure caused the goalie to fumble the ball.  She got a foot to it just as the goalie was diving back on the ball.

A little later the ref blew his whistle and the game ended tied 1-1.  Our girls were upset about the penalty call and felt they deserved to win.  I told them that whether or not it was a penalty I would have our defender make the exact same play because I have confidence in her, but what I really wanted them to understand was that we put ourselves in a position to have the call made against us.  We were up 1-0 late in the game.  If we had been able to possess the ball, they never would have had that chance.  We need to work all winter on our touch and creativity so next spring when we get in these situations like the game against ELA and this game, we can keep the ball and put the game away. 

The girls had come out and battled hard against a very good team and I was happy that we could end the fall on a good game.  This is why we come to these events.

The Sockers ended up beating Team Chicago 1-0 in the final later that day.  I hope we get to play both teams again next spring.

What A Mess!

Difficult takes a day.  Impossible takes a week.  -Unknown

The Standings after Day 1 were a mess and 5 out of the 6 teams had a shot to get to the final.  A great job of placing teams by the tournament officials.

Team	MP	W	L	D	GF	GA	Pts
Sockers	2	1		1	4	2	4
Team Chicago	2	1		1	4	2	4
ELA	2	1		1	5	4	4
NSA	2			2	3	3	2
Bangu	2		1	1	3	5	1
Campton	0		2		2	5	0

We had the worst shot to get in, but we still had a shot.  There was no way that Team Chicago was going to lose to Campton so I assumed that they were in the final and the rest of us were fighting for the other spot.  In order to advance to the final we needed to win 3-0 and have ELA and NSA draw.  (3pts for a win and 1pt extra for a shutout)

With 6 teams in the tournament I wasn't sure why the tournament didn't have 2 brackets of 3 teams and have us cross play.  While I was happy that we got to play Team Chicago and the Sockers because they are the two top teams at the tournament, I wouldn't have minded not seeing one of them until the final.  Oh well, this way we get to really see where we are at:)

Nike Classic Cup Game #2 vs Team Chicago Man U

If at first you don't succeed, you're doing it wrong.  -Bazooka Joe comic

Bangu 1

Team Chicago Man U 3 (#23 Region II)

I was excited for this game and the girls looked excited during their warm up. The only thing I don't like about the fields at this tournament is that there is no space to warm up.  The fields are good and have lights, but the areas around the field are all hilly and the ground is very uneven.  Since you only get about 3 minutes before each game on the field it makes for interesting warm ups.  So each game we improvised our warm ups and each game I hoped that the new warm ups would not adversely effect their play.  The first game it did not and we would see for this game.

Before the game I highlighted a couple of points that I felt would be important for us if we wanted to put ourselves in the best position to win:

-If we move the ball around quickly and switch fields we will have a lot of success

-They have one fast forward so when we are at midfield, one defender needs to drop deep to eliminate the through ball

-Continue to use your skill and have fun

The game started and Team Chicago came out attacking us.  They were all over us.  We couldn't complete a pass and we were getting beat to every single ball.  I was very impressed with their team.  Now that we were playing them I really saw that they possessed some great skill on the ball and they were a very solid team.  5 minutes in they scored their first goal when we attempted to swing the ball across the top of our box and they intercepted the pass and finished.

I have no problem with us playing the ball across the front of our goal if our players are confident in completing the pass.  It is the same for dribbling the ball in our box, if you are confident go for it.  I want them to know that if we lose the ball, we will be in a lot of trouble, but if they think they will be successful they can do what they think will work.

More of the same continued after their first goal.  At one point I asked the group of girls who were coming off the field in all seriousness if we were looking where we were passing or if we were just expecting the lanes to be open.  They replied that they had had so much success in the first game with passing that they were not really looking in this game.  At least they realized it, now we had to change that.

20 minutes in Man U got their second goal when we lost the ball in their half, we didn't drop far enough and their fast forward got a break away and finished.  Another great learning experience for the girls. 

Could I have eliminated this threat by playing with a sweeper?  Sure.  No doubt, but I don't want to play with a sweeper because it takes away a lot of the thinking and reading the game from our defenders and it hurts their long term growth.  I will try to get us able to play without a sweeper through the middle of next spring.  If we are having major problems then I will think about going to a formation with a sweeper as I did with my team last year.

Half time came with us getting thoroughly outplayed and if it wasn't for the spectacular play of our goalie Mac, we would have been down 4 or 5 goals.  She was providing exactly with what we need from our goalie at this level.  She was giving us a chance to win a game that we didn't deserve to win.

All through the first half and at half time I kept talking to the girls on the bench that we needed an attitude change.  We needed to play like it meant something to us to be here representing our club and ourselves.  We were getting killed in the effort category.  Our defenders were jogging or walking up when Mac was punting.  Our mids and forwards were not winning a single air ball.  We were not making runs.  We were not talking.  We were flat. 

We talked about how we could make a change in our attitude and come out and make a game of this.  We were only down 2 goals thanks to Mac.  But we would have to change things right away. 

The second half started and, unfortunately, it was more of the same.  We just weren't playing well.  Team Chicago put in another goal to go up 3-0 and our play was uninspired.  Gone was the great passing from the first game.  Gone was the individual creativity.  Then Gaffer stepped up and started winning everything in the midfield.  She was all over the place.  She won air balls.  She won tackles.  And after she got the ball she was taking players on and driving us forward.  With about 10 minutes left in the game we took control of the play.  We started to look dangerous and had a couple of chances.  With 8 minutes left Gaffer won a ball on the right side of the field, beat a defender and rifled the ball into the upper part of the net to draw the score to 3-1.

The game ended that way and we talked about how disappointing the game was.  We had a great chance to set ourselves up with a chance to get to the final and did not capitalize.  But what I felt most disappointed in was that we had played such poor soccer.  We didn't combine passes.  We were not creative on the ball.  We reverted to boot ball.  It was a step backwards for us. 

. . . . Oh well, that game is over.  We'll learn from it and come out strong tomorrow.  Now onto the important things of how do we make this tournament a fun event for the girls.  Plans were made for laser tag followed by the girls getting their nails done, finished up with a big pizza dinner Chicago style at Gino's East for all three of our teams.  I was finally going to be able to get my Italian food that I had heard so much about listening to Playing For Pizza.

As upsetting as the game was it is important for the girls to be able to learn from it and move on quickly.  Soccer is about much more than winning and losing.  There is no point spending the rest of the day dwelling on one game . . . as long as it does not become a trend.

Nike Classic Cup Game #1 vs ELA Premier

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner. -Tallulah Bankhead

Bangu 2

ELA Premier 2 (#22 Region II)

The girls were excited for the game and we came out and played really well.  We were knocking the ball around the small field, only about 100yds long by about 60yds wide, really well.  All of the things we had been working on were showing.  We were not booting the ball up field at all.  Our defenders were calm under pressure and were always looking for a pass or to dribble instead of clearing the ball.  We had a couple of good chances in the first 15 minutes highlighted by a Sonic rocket that went off of the inside of the far post and back across the front of the goal.  It was only a matter of time before we would break them down and 18 minutes in Hannah, one of our Eclipse girls, launched a shot from out wide that the goalie could not hang onto and Sprout crashed in between their goalie and defenders to bang home the rebound. 

Half Time Points:

-Keep moving the ball quickly.  Try to switch the fields more to create space on the small field.

-Look to make longer passes.  We were getting ourselves in trouble by only making 10-15 yard passes.  Challenge yourself to complete passes of 20yds in length or more.

-If we defend well and don't give up a goal we will like how the final score will look

Second half started off as the first one had ended. 

We were moving the ball around great and 10 minutes in we earned a corner kick. 

Ricky played a great ball to the far post, eliminating the goalie.

 Sonic jumped up and headed the ball into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

At this point their coaches who had been criticizing their girls all game stepped up their negativity a notch and yelled at their girls.  My favorite comment by one of their coaches that got a good laugh from our bench was "Don't you know you are supposed to go to that big white thing down there!  Get Moving!"  Maybe he really thinks his girls have never played before and don't know what they are doing?  But my guess is that they were smart enough on their own to figure that out.

We continued to work on possessing the ball at this point, but I was starting to get a little worried since we were possessing it in our end the whole time.  We were combining passes, but every time we lost it, they were in our half since we were not playing the ball to our forwards enough.  With about 10 minutes left we gave up a free kick 30 yards out and their girl put it in to bring the game to 2-1.  I encouraged our girls twice to play the ball a little longer so we could possess it in their end, but I did not want to yell and put pressure on them to do it.  I wanted them to figure it out for themselves.

We continued to possess it in our end and with 3 minutes left we gave up the ball around our box and they scrambled and put in the tying goal.  The game ended tied 2-2.

The result was harsh for our girls as we were clearly the better team on the field.  I was upset on the inside because I knew that drawing that game instead of winning would really hurt our chances to win the tournament.  Outside I told the girls what a great job they had done with their passing.  They had come a long ways in the month since NSR.

We talked after the game about why we should have possessed the ball in their end instead of ours and the girls all realized what can happen when you lose the ball around your goal, even if you are controlling the game. 

This was a frustrating tie for me since we played so well.  During the last 15 minutes I wanted to scream to the girls to play it long and keep it in their end but I refrained from doing so.  I knew the risk I was taking in letting the girls work it out for themselves, but I felt that if I screamed for them to play it long, I would be contradicting what I had been preaching to the girls all fall.  I also want the girls to learn how to possess the ball when they are winning late in games.  This is tough to do, but it is where I want our girls to get to.  I want them to be up 1-0 late in a tough game and be able to keep the ball for the last 10-15 minutes.  Work the ball around and not let the other team touch it.  Just like the great teams do.  Even though it is only a 1 goal lead, it looks like 3 or 4.

I hope that this result wont come back to hurt us, but even if it does in this tournament, the girls will have improved because they worked on possessing the ball late in a close regional game.