NSC Cup

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Minnesota Thunder Academy West Invite

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Eagan Future Stars

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NSR Region II Cup

6:33am Saturday April 25th

Beep!....Beep!....Beep!

Why won't this alarm turn off!?...Oh wait thats the fire alarm going off. Thus began our weekend at the Region II Cup in Rockford, IL.

I needed to get up at 6:45am anyways but I was still bummed about missing 15 minutes of sleep. It's so funny how important sleep is in the morning versus at night...but anyways it was going to be a fun weekend of good soccer.

I spoke with Andy Kaasa about some techniques to get the boys fired up about more as I didnt like the starts we had been having to our games. I decided to test a morning jog and fun activity with my U12 group. We left for a jog at 7:30am in the area around the hotel, we also played a fun game called Bib tag that I really like, its quite fun and competitive. The boys then had breakfast. I gave up my room for them to eat breakfast in as the hotel wanted $125 a day for a conference room. I also had the breakfast planned in my room for the u11's but I would be off to the U12's game before they were up.

The U12's had a 9:30 kick against Team Chicago. They would end up winning 2-1 over a very disorganized U12 team that was attempting to play a 3-5-2. Quite convinced this would be our easiest game of the weekend I left satisfied with the win but not that happy about how we played. I walked across the complex to the U11's who were finishing their warm up at their field. I wasn't sure what we were going to be up against since we were playing a team from the Chicago Fire Academy. I was sure they would be good but how good? I guess that all depended on if we showed up to play or not.

The boys came out flying and put the Chicago Fire team under tons of pressure and they really didnt have many oppurtunites to think. We looked really good, we had several instances were we put 5..6..7 passes together with combinations mixed in. It was really nice soccer against a quality team. I need to start talking notes on these goals so I can give a recap. Basically we ended up winning 2-1 which was an ok result. I believe we deserved a goal or two more but I was really happy because we played so much better then we did in Des Moines.

We had a short break of less then 2 hours and we grabbed a quick lunch. All of the parents brought food items to the field and we had a little potluck style.

In all honesty I was really glad we had a short break in between games, the boys didnt seem tired and the break was not long enough to fully bring them down to a relaxed state. Our second game had us playing one of the better clubs in Wisconsin, Mequon United. They usually have quality teams and they didnt disappoint. I had a quick conversation with there coach prior to the game and was asking about the other team in our bracket...LCU...which was ranked #24 in the nation according to National soccer ranking.com.

We kick off against a team from Mequon United from the Milwaukee area. They were a good squad and from what I learned from the coach is that they usually play close games against the LCU team. They ran the majority of their offense through their very skilled #8. It seemed to me that the Mequon team did not expect us to be as good as we were as they really picked up the physical level of their play to counter act the skill and abilities of our group. We played a really good first half in a tight game with a quality team and we gave some specific instructions at the half as well as asking for more of the same from the boys. The refereeing in this game was quite poor and ended up being a difference maker. The final was 3-2 for them and the boys were very upset because we deserved the win but couldn't get the result we needed. Mike my asst for the weekend pointed something out as we walked through the lines at the end of the game. He said look at the Mequon players...they were not smiling or celebrating but wondering how they had just beaten a team of the of the quality that they just played.

FC Milwaukee Recap (the short version)

We were in Milwaukee for the FC Milwaukee winter invite. The tournament was very well run and the boys seemed to really enjoy the experience. We were able to play two teams from the FC Milwaukee club and then also a team from the Rockford Raptors. The first game seemed to catch us off guard as the game was really fast and pretty physical. The interested thing was that even though the Milwaukee team was much more physical then us (and believe it or not smaller then us) we actually had more fouls called on us. We ended up winning by a decent margin so it was a good game to get us adjusted. Our second game was our best game of the weekend against a strong Rockford team. The had a few cheeky players that were very confident on the ball and did cause some issues. Overall we played a better style of soccer and were aggressive to the ball and physical which was the adjustment I hoping for from the boys. Our last game was far from our best soccer and we struggled with the organized Milwaukee team. They obviously have played in that facility quite often. The game close 9-5 final and we finished strong the last 10 minutes or so and were actually scoring more often then they were and had more possession. I guess the biggest positive I took from that last game is that the boys felt like they could be the team given another opportunity, so we will see if we can make that happen sometime in the future because I agree with them.

What I have been really happy with since we came back from Milwaukee is the increase in intensity during practices and the focus the boys have had lately. Not to say they have not been motivated but something is different they seem hungry. Which is great because or training have been super productive. We have three scrimmages coming up before we had to the West Des Moines Premier Games in April so we will have a good gauge of were we are at and were we need to improve.