Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Great Last Game

Firstly I want to thank all the parents for their patience in dealing with the fact that our team was crowded. The enrollment situation at the start of the session was such that there were enough total players in U5 to make five teams but not enough to make six and since a five team field doesn't work scheduling wise the only thing to do was to divide the kids up into four teams so some of the teams were over the normal ten player limit. I personally prefer to have fewer than ten players since it seems that on every team I've had I have players that need to be coaxed just to play one quarter and other players who would play the whole game if I let them. But anyway, thanks for your patience and help and I hope each of your kids got something out of this session. They were all a joy to work with.
Now, as for that last game...you may have noticed some strange behavior in the last quarter. The other coach, Scott, and I agreed before the game to use the last quarter to try and get any kids who had no goals this session a chance at making a goal. This involves pulling your players aside and giving the other team a head start as it were. This failed hilariously as Greg's players couldn't get the ball in the goal even as I had to practically sit on Nate and Mason to keep them from playing defense. And on our end Maddie and Kendall were both in position a few time to get their shots on goal but each time they seemed to be looking at something other than the ball. All the same it was fun.
It was a great session and I hope to see everyone when the spring session begins. Don't forget to watch that USA soccer qualifying game on the 28th. Oh...and Go Cardinals!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Highlight-free game

Well...we did have a very good pre-game practice. And then there was that one kid on the Orange team who had a great game. And then everybody had a snack, which was nice. (Thanks to Cole's parents for that). So not a bad day really.
After the game the coach of the Orange team apologized for leaving the scoring-machine kid out on the field so much. Orange was a few players short so the coach figured he'd let the kid (Logan) get some extra playing time. I told him "it's cool. Facing a better opponent isn't going to hurt anybody." Some of the kids will be moving up to U7 soon so they will be seeing a lot of that sort of thing. Aside from a slight size advantage, what makes a player like Logan stand out is his single mindedness when it comes to what to do with the ball. We have that on out team in the form of Nate and Mason. When Nate has the ball he is frantic in his effort to get to the goal but he doesn't panic when he's in close contact with the opposition. I saw him twice step gracefully over the ball to shield it from the opposition and start moving toward their goal. He keeps his head under pressure. I ask the kids every week before the game starts "who's ball is it?" and I expect them to answer "mine!" I never have to ask Nate twice.
And every week Mason shows a better understanding of where he needs to position himself off the ball to defend effectively. He has a great sense of the field.
I should also note that Annie played some fierce defense when she was in goal. And Kendall Romito now has a baby brother, Gabriel.
Everyone is making steady progress and it's been a good season despite our over-crowded bench. Next week is the last game of the season. Camden's mom will be picking-up the snack. See you then.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Playing like a team

The level of "team" play in this week's game was excellent. In our first quarter line-up we had great goal coverage from Kaleb which allowed Mason, Nate, Owen and Camden (!) to really attack the other goal. They combined for two great goals and we saw lots of cooperative play with good passing and a lot of talk.
On the second quarter team it was Chase who took charge of the goal coming up with some excellent stops and allowing Annie, Ethan, Maddie and Max to keep pushing into the other team's side. In the fourth quarter Annie and Chase switched. Annie made some good defensive stops and Chase had some good shots on goal.
Two games left on the 8th and 15th. Sign-ups for next session going on now if you're interested.