NSR Gold Cup - Saturday, Sept 1

The U11 Blue team was up first on Saturday morning at 10:20AM vs Phoenix FC Elite from Nebraska.  According to the Elite website, the team was undefeated for a couple years and boasted the Indoor National Championships as U10s. I didn’t even know there was such a thing out there.  It would likely be one of the tougher games in the group.

I had the girls come out in a 3-3-1 formation to start, preferring to try and be solid defensively until I had time to observe the opposition and make needed personnel/tactical changes.  Yes, we are here for development. But we are also here to win games.  Can a coach want both?  Of course.  The issue becomes when winning and game results takes precedence over player development.  It’s a fine line to walk, one that the majority of coaches at this level cannot.  But game success is important.  It helps motivate the girls to train harder, it helps parents buy in to development philosophies, and it helps draw more talent to the program in later years.

The Elite team played well, had some very skilled and athletic girls, and gave us some trouble for the first 15 minutes of the game.  The Bangu girls looked nervous and found it tough to settle into any rhythm, though we had a number of shots on goal during the span.

In the 17^th minute we got on the scoreboard when Brit (RM) fired a low, hard shot that the Elite GK did well to parry.  The ball fell to Emi (CF) and she shot home the opening goal.

The half (25 minutes) ended 1-0 good guys.

At halftime, all the talk was positive and constructive, encouraging the girls to be confident with the ball under pressure, trust their skills, and relax with the ball at their feet.  This is tough to do with the vocal parent sidelines and an issue that I will surly have to address with the group soon.

The second half was all us as we scored 4 more to finish with a 5-0 victory.  Nice start to the tournament for the girls.

Our U11 White team played immediately after the Blue team, and came up against a Sirens SC team from Rockford.

To be honest, I was a little worried about the White team.  Not because I don’t think that they are a solid team, which they most definitely are, especially for a second team in a club.  But it’s very easy for them to compare themselves to the Blue team when they are in all honesty a notch below talent-wise.  My guess is that the Blue group is probably 5 or 6 goals better than the White team.  And you know what?  That’s perfectly OK, at least to me.  There are definitely a handful of players on the bubble who could perform on either team, and I’m certain I’ll have issues with these families when the final split has been made.

What people have to realize is that both teams will follow the same development scheme in the next 7 or 8 months, just play in different leagues next summer.  Both teams will work with me on a regular basis and I’m confident that all players will develop in the coming year.  Parents will need to accept and manage our placement of their kids at this point, with constant reminders to players and parents on both Blue and White teams that good (top team) at 10 doesn’t equate to good at 14, and “B” team at 10 doesn’t mean “B” team forever.

If the White team did not have a good showing on the field in this event, it would prove more difficult to sell the bubble players to stay on with this second group.  Again, though results aren’t my main focus here, to some parents they mean everything.  People will make their own choices in the end, and if they prefer to play elsewhere when named to the White team, I have no problem with releasing them to go.  The timing of the Blue White final team assignments may prove tricky though as I will likely have to contact all the White team players first and make sure they are all bought in prior to announcing the Blue team.  If White players leave, I’ll need to look to move some players who would have made the Blue team with our current numbers to the White team to balance numbers.

I’m moving forward with the assumption that all players and families are bought into what we are doing and are here for the training I can offer.  We’ll see how things pan out in the coming weeks.

The White team came out and played very well, beating a decent Sirens team 4-1 to open up the weekend.  Both teams come up against Team Chicago teams tomorrow morning.

NSR Gold Cup - Friday, Aug 31

Another holiday weekend full of soccer.

I’ve taken teams to this Illinois tournament for a number of years.  Great fields and competition make it a very enjoyable and challenging event for our teams.

This year we have 4 teams involved.  The U11G Blue and White pool teams (still not finalized Blue and White teams) from the East Academy, along with the U12G Blue from the East and the U12 Blue from the South.  Andy and I are the only coaches here this weekend covering the 4 teams, so things will be busy for us.

The tournament games are spread between two different field complexes in Naperville, but the schedule looks good in terms of minimal commuting between the two on each day.

I’m excited to seen how the teams compete.  It will be tough for the U12 South team as this marks their first games on the 11v11 field (the U12 bracket down here is 11v11).  Though it also marks the first real competition for the U12 East team on this sized field, we’ve done a good job of getting them a number of scrimmages already on the regulation sized field in the last two weeks.  Moreover, the East team is stronger than the South team at this point, with more athletic and skilled players in the East group.  Regardless, it will be a good early season experience for both teams, albeit a baptism by fire of sorts.

At this point, I feel the U11G Blue team in the East is stronger overall than my current U14s (the team we are modeling this age group after) were back in the fall of 2004 as U11s.  There are also many players on the U11 White team who I feel would have fought for roster spots on my U11 team back in 2004, so that team, even as a second team in our club, will be no easy meat for opponents either.

As recent as 4 or 5 years ago, U11 teams from MN would have been happy to score a goal in an event like this, let along win a game.  Though the level of MN soccer is still lagging behind what is generally found in the Chicago area and the level in the Chicago area has also continued to rise over the last few years, I believe what we’ve been doing in MN has allow our game to be raised faster.  There is still a gap, but the gap has narrowed.

As the my main new group, I’m looking forward to seeing how the U11s match up to some of the Chicago area teams, and looking forward to our individual and team weaknesses to be highlighted in this event.

This weekend will also be an educational one for the 28 sets of parents involved as they will get a chance to see some very strong regional teams in action.  Early tournaments like this will help to bind the parents and players into our training philosophy this next year as they will realize that there is a lot of good soccer out there and the only way to keep our players on the same playing field as those on some of the other teams in the region is through hard work, dedication, and commitment.  This is what we are about, especially with our Blue teams.  Regional competition, pushing our younger players through challenging game environments to be the best players they can be.  Is this too much too early?  I don’t think so, as long as the girls LOVE what they are doing.  My job is to help the girls foster this passion in the game so that they are around in later years to truly realize their potential.

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I met with about 30 of the U11 and U12 girls on Friday night at 7PM in the hotel lobby to go find a match of grass to do a light jog and stretch and some fun team bonding games. 

We talked about the upcoming weekend, reminding the girls about curfew, proper hydration, pool restrictions, and hotel/soccer field behavior.  All of them were obviously excited about the tournament and the hotel stay, and we all settled in for the night looking forward to what the weekend would bring.