West Des Moines Premier Games Day 1
Monday, April 14, 2008 at 04:51PM 
I’m excited for the upcoming weekend in Iowa for the West Des Moines Premier Games. With 9 club teams attending the event, it’s sure to be a soccer-filled weekend for me! Though focused on the 11s, I’ll be helping Andy a bit with the 12s, and Ben with the 13s. Our 14 Whites are down there as well on the girls side of things.
For the 11 Blues, it’s been a long winter. The passion that these girls show for the game is a great fuel for me to keep me excited and energetic. I have yet to see an 11 team that I think it better than us, but hopefully we’ll find some competition at our age group this weekend in Des Moines, and more a few weeks down the road in Rockford for the NSR Region II Cup.
I arrived in Des Moines in the early afternoon and settled into my Iowa home away from home, the West Des Moines Sheraton. I made my way out to the James Cownie Soccer Complex to check out the fields, only to find the complex all locked up. I snuck around the back way and lucked out to find the heads groundskeeper hard at work. We chatted a bit about the poor spring weather and he let me walk around the fields for a few minutes. They were soggy and he was apologetic, but I didn’t mind the conditions at all. We just had 6 inches of snow here in MN a few days back, and I was very happy to see greenish brown grass.
Fields 12A and B were the wettest at the far west end of the complex near where I entered, but 11 (where we’d spend most of our time, was good). I hoped 12 would dry out a bit prior to the championship game :)
Back to the hotel to do some work in my room, then down to the lobby around 6PM to catch dinner with most of the 11s already on site. We had a light jog and stretch at 8PM and all the girls were in town for that.
Like I always do, I talked about the weekend, curfews and pool restrictions, hotel and field behavior expectations, hydration, arrival times at the fields for the games, etc. After some Human Knot competitions and individual talks with the girls about the Game Goals, I sent them on their way to their rooms.
This weekend, we'd see the Blue Valley Stars (KS), VSA Green (IA), and Lake Forest United (IL) in group play. Probable contenders for the championship in the other bracket were the CIS Knockouts II (IL) and Toro Chaos (NE).
Game #1 vs Blue Valley Stars - Millwall (KS)
As it turns out, this was the second team for the Blue Valley Stars at this age group. I've been burned by over-confidence many times in the past, but couldn't help thinking we'd be just fine if the girls gave the effort.
We started in our usual 3-3-1 formation, and I gave the girls pre-game instructions in the event we got up by 3 goals:
- No beating players 1v1 on the dribble
- 3-touch or less in our defending half
- 2-touch or less in the attacking half
If a girl broke a restriction AND a bench player recognized it (want to keep the girls on the sidelines tuned in to the game on the field), we'd sub the restriction-breaking girl off the field at the next opportunity. It didn't matter if that girl had been on the field for 10 minutes or for 30 seconds.
Some may think that this is confusing to the young girls. However, I want thinking players and always preach to the girls that in order to play at the highest level, players needed to both think and play.
We got on the board early in the 3rd minute as Barbie (CM) found B-Money (RM) out on the right flank. B took a touch and crossed to Maddog (Point) who finished well.
At the 12 minute mark Chels doubled our lead as she won the ball at the top of the BVS box, turned, and hit a hard left-footed shot past the diving BVS GK.
2 minutes later, Meg (RD) faked a shot about 30 yards from goal, beat her defender, and hit a low shot from about 20 out that whistled into the net.
Mal (CD) got our fourth 7 minutes into the second half from a free kick near midfield. She served a good ball into the crowded penalty box that everyone missed. However, the shot was on goal and the GK was screened and caught by surprise as the ball skipped past her.
At the 16 minute mark we got our final goal. B$ (RM) received an outlet pass wide and hit a low, hard cross across the face of goal. Normy (Point) was at the far post to redirect the ball home.
5-0 in a solid first performance by the girls.
* * * * *
Game #2 vs VSA Green (IA)
Another fast start for the girls against VSA. Babes (Point) won the ball for us at midfield, turned her marking defender and was in on goal on a breakaway. She picked her spot past the VSA GK with a low hard finish to put us up 1-0.
Though we created a number of good chances, the game stayed 1-0 until 5 minutes before half. Mal (CD) then found Maddog (Point) at the top of the VSA box with a 20 yard pass to feet. Maddog used a left foot Inside Arc Turn to spin her marking defender and stuck a low, hard, left-footed shot past the VSA GK to double our lead.
14 minutes into the second half, we got a memorable goal. Normy (LM) took a free kick from the wide left flank, about 10 yards from the endline. She served the ball into the box and Mal (Point) and Maddog (CM) both rushed for the ball at the near post. With ball blinders on, both girls collided into each other and were sent sprawling. The VSA defenders were distracted by the comedy they just witnessed and forgot about the ball bouncing in their penalty box. I think I laughed out loud. One VSA defender finally decided she better do something about the ball, and took a wild swing at it. The ball shot off her foot at a weird angle, ricocheted of Barbie's (RM) back and into the net. I love U11 girls soccer sometimes!
A minute from time we got our fourth as B-Money (RD) won a 50/50 challenge and hit a low hard left-footed shot into the near post corner.
Another good performance from the girls. To be honest though, I'm a bit disappointed about the competition level. I know we'll have tougher games tomorrow, with a stronger Lake Forest United (IL) team and hopefully a match up with a very talented CIS Knockouts II (IL) team who I've seen play twice now in this event, but still. Guess I'm expecting too much sometimes, but I continue to want to find these girls competition at their own age group as much as possible.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
* * * * *
We finished the day with a great team bonding activity, courtesy of Mama Phi Phi. I'll explain this one later. Suffice it to say that it was a challenging activity that the girls got a lot out of.
