Reality Check Weekend in Lakeland

State Cup Game #2 vs Prior Lake 12s

Second of four group games for the U13 State Cup.

Prior Lake 2 is the other U12 team in the tournament. They play U13 in the South District and are here, I believe, like we are for the experience.

We've seen the Prior Lake 12s once before on the 11v11 field - last fall in a friendly we set up as a fourth game for the NSC Fall Cup in Blaine. They are well coached by an ex-NCAA DI player, but lack the overall athleticism and technique that the MTA girls possess.

My thought was that they didn't have enough defensive presence to keep us off the scoreboard, and didn't have enough punch in the attack to do us critical damage in our defensive third. But there's a reason we play the games, right?

We would start in a 4-3-3 today, really hoping to press the attack with a third forward and use that player to help pressure the PL defenders in order to try and win the ball back from them in our attacking third while also try to deny the PL defenders from easily clearing their defensive zone. The PL team knew we were a strong team. If we could jump all over them with pressure and get an early goal, we'd make the game easier on ourselves.

Like the 1/2 game vs SCV earlier in the week, we came out very, very strong.

2 minutes in, Vivi (Point - center forward in a 3 forward system) collected the ball about 25 yards out, dribbled through a couple PL defenders and found herself clear 12 yards out with just the GK to beat. Her shot cracked the crossbar and rebounded back over her head. 1-0 with a little more composure.

We played most of the first part of the game in the PL half, time and time again getting free on the right flank, sending dangerous crosses into the box, winning corner kick after corner kick, and causing some real trouble for the pinned in PL girls. We just lacked the finishing touch in the box, same as against SCV.

12 minutes in we finally got on the board. Vivi (Point) again got free in the PL box, this time on the right side of the goal. Her hard, far-post shot was parried by the PL GK but rebounded into the danger area in front of goal. Gia (LF) came racing in with her marking PL defender, and knocked the ball into the net. Great example of the benefit of shooting far post from angles (rebounds drop into danger areas), and very good work by Gia to fight for the loose ball.

5 minutes later, more pressure by us and allowed Mickey (CM) to pick up an errant clearance by a PL defender about 22 yards from goal. She took a good prep touch forward and hit a low, hard shot with her right foot into the lower left corner of the goal. I had just yelled out to her a few minutes earlier about being confident about her ability to shoot from outside the box. Sometimes things just work out well...

We continued to press and spent the great majority of the first half in the PL half, but could not manage to net another goal. The half ended 2-0.

Not much to say at halftime. We were clearly controlling the game, creating chance after chance, and PL hadn't managed a shot on our net. We talked about ideas to breakdown a packed in defense and I reminded them that sometimes in order to go forward we have to play backwards. I also reminded the girls about the value of getting the next goal in the game as it would effectively seal the deal for us. If PL got the goal, which they possibly could regardless of how we thought we were in control of the game, we would need to relax and work hard to avoid the panic and tension that could result from a close contest.

As the second have progressed, I started to feel myself getting frustrated with the little mistakes the girls were making. Looking back at it now, I wanted to us to score more goals and bury a team at our age group in this event. I wanted to send a clear message that we claimed the undisputed right as the top team at this age group. I tell the girls all the time that I'm not worried about the end result, though in this game I clearly was... for my own reasons.

I found myself getting on the girls for their poor decision making and technical breakdowns. I could feel the negativity in my body language and in my tone. My comments to the girls lacked the normal positive nature as my frustration must have been evident.

Don't get me wrong, we still created chances (a few cleared scrambles in the PL box, another shot off the crossbar), but not as many as in the first half as to PL's credit, they came out and played better. They still did not manage to threaten the goal with a shot, though they did earn a corner kick or two. They had one player in the center of the midfield, a tall athletic girl who played our mids tough. She helped change the game in the second half to help PL.

Anyway, as I should have known it would, the lack of positive energy from the coaching sidelines translated into a poorer performance on the field, which translated into more negativity from the sidelines, etc. Vicious circle that I preach against constantly.

10 minutes from the end of the half, PL was awarded a free kick about 30 yards from goal. I think it was the big midfielder who took the shot, a shot that just cleared the heads of all the players on the penalty box line. Phi Phi (GK) saw the ball late, but side shuffled to her left to get in front of the shot. She went down to scoop the ball up that was about to bounce 4 yards from the goal, and the ball squirted between her legs and trickled over the goal line. PL's first, and what would turn out to be their only shot on goal the entire game.

Game ended 2-1.

Phi Phi felt bad about the goal, but 99 times out of 100 she stops that with relative ease. I told her as much.

Good first half, poor coaching, poor second half.

* * * * *

I was frustrated by my frustration the entire rest of the day. These are 11 and 12 year old girls playing a game that they should love. I didn't help foster that passion this morning. I know the girls work their tails off during the games. If there are breakdowns on the pitch, these need to be recognized and addressed in training sessions. I can't expect the 12s to be at the level of my 14s last year. We talk about the long-term goals for this team and I have to remind myself that it's a journey and we're not there yet.

* * * * *

State Cup Game #3 vs Northern Lights

Out at the fields at 7AM for an 8AM kick off.  Refreshed and with a clear head from the lessons of yesterday's frustration, it was going to be only positive today from the get go.  Over-positive in fact, to try and make up from my Saturday attitude.

The girls arrived around 7:15AM.  I led them through a very fun and goofy warm-up, with the NL coaches staring over at us probably thinking we were a bunch of loonies.  Or, that we were super-over-confident.  Hope it wasn't the latter because that wasn't my thought at all.

Brought the girls in to stretch and apologized to them for my sideline behavior yesterday.  They seemed unaware that I was frustrated during the game, with Phi Phi making a comment that I'm too nice after I apologized.  I told them I believed that it was my more-negative-than-normal attitude that contributed to our sub-par performance in the second half yesterday, talked about the vicious cycle of negativity leading to poor performance, leading to more negativity. 

I told them today the goal was to enjoy the game.  They were going to make mistakes.  All of them would.  Gave them the Leave It Behind trigger to use when they made a mistake on the field.  Instead of dwelling on it, they would slap their own butt to indicate that the mistake was left behind.  The butt slapping idea made them all giggle and lol, but that's the point.  Laughter melts tension.

I also gave them the idea of Confidence Buddies, used to encourage (not patronize) players in order to help them play better.

Smiling because the girls were smiling all warm-up, I sat down on the bench to enjoy the game.

We came out on fire again.  Girls looked sharp, dangerous on the attack, and more composed under pressure.  There were plenty of butt slaps, but unlike yesterday when mistakes were followed by more mistakes frequently, today our high level of play continued.

We had a wind behind us to help keep NL pinned in their end.  That, combined with our pressure made it very difficult for NL to get out of their half.  We had over a dozen corner kicks in that first half, as well as hit two posts.  However, we could not find the breakthrough goal. B-Money (RM) had at least 4 or 5 good chances to finish, but many times pulled the trigger too early from distance. The girl has an absolute cannon on her right foot when she connects with the ball, but this leg strength and past success from scoring from distance has encouraged her to shoot from distance even when she has beaten the last defender and is alone to take touches forward and get closer to goal.  I'd need to work with her on that.

First half ended 0-0, but it was complete domination by the MTA girls. 

Halftime talk was all about the positives in the first half, comments on how relaxed the girls looked on the field, and encouragement to continue as they were.  A few of the girls playing on the far side of the field made comments about the vocalness of some of our team parents.  75 yards away and concentrating on the game, the parent comments were not in my mind at all, but I made a promise to try and listen for them this half.

With the wind behind them, NL was able to press the attack a bit more in the second half.  We still played well and looked the more dangerous team, but it wasn't the lopsidedness seen in the first half. 

Splitting my focus more to listen to the parent sidelines, there was not much to be heard from this distance except for the dreaded word "Shoooooottt!"  I need to make sure to address this soon with the parents as many times I don't want the girls to shoot when some parents think the girls should shoot.  I heard it once early in the half, actually at a time when I did want the girl in possession of the ball to shoot it, so I didn't think much of the comment at that time, though I would still prefer that parents didn't yell it out from their sidelines.

About 12 minutes in, B-Money (RM) flew past the NL left defender and cut in towards goal.  I heard the "Shooooooooooot!" call from the other side of the field (it wasn't even her own parents) and B pulled the trigger from 3 or 4 yards outside the top of the penalty box... on a breakaway.  "Parents!!!!  Please stop yelling SHOOOOOOOT!" I yelled across the field to no one in particualr and to everyone.  I subbed B out on the ensuing goal kick.  Though not in a negative tone, I did get on her.  "That is the last time I want to see you look to shoot from outside the box before looking to see if you have open space in front of you to get closer to goal."  She nodded.

The ref and one of the other coaches would both approach me after the game in separate instances and applaud the comment made to try and silence/educate the parent group.  Again, I'll need to address our parents about this soon.

Anyway, as it turned out, things worked out pretty well.  22 minutes into the game, Bam Bam (CM) won the ball from a NL midfielder about 35 yards from the NL goal.  She took a few dribbles and passed the ball to B (RM) who was about 25 yards from goal on the right.  B split two NL defenders and found herself clear at the top of the penalty box, on the right side of goal.  I saw her begin her wind up to strike the ball, then glance up, and take another touch forward when she realized she was fairly open and alone.  She ran up and struck a rocket into the upper far post from about 13 yards out.  Perfect. Good for her!

We managed to hit another post and create some hectic moments for the NL keeper in front of her net, but couldn't manage to put another goal away. 

Could have been 4 or 5 against PR2, could have been 4 or 5 today.  In reality, we deserved to come away with max goal differentials in both games this weekend, thereby putting ourselves in control of the group with a win or tie against Prior Lake 1 next weekend.  Instead, PR1 has the goal differential (beating Eagan 3-0, beating PR2 2-0, and beating NL 3-2), and we need a "W" next Saturday to win our group outright. 

I'd like to make the semifinals against our 13 Blue team and give the girls the experience of that game, but I'm very happy that the girls have put together some good performances this last week (1/2 against SCV in league, first 1/2 against PR2, full game vs NL today). 

More beneficial to the team than the good performances was my own self reality check this weekend.  I'm no where near perfect, though many haters out there think I think I am.  I love that I continue to learn soccer and life lessons through the girls and my interactions with this team.  I don't do anyone any favors if I think I know everything there is to know about working with young players.  Our team will only be stronger because of this in the years to come.

We'll see what happens next weekend.