The U4 Alligators were a force to be reckoned with this week. Getting players of any age to play smartly away from the ball, that is, to anticipate where they need to be headed when they don't have the ball at their feet, is a difficult goal to reach. Led by Luke and Jackson, the Alligators seemed to have reached that plateau and displayed some amazingly coordinated effort in their game this week. Throughout the game as one of our players, usually Sam E. or Cooper or Elizabeth, brought the ball up one sideline the others, including Sam A., would run up the middle of the field to get in position near the goal. The best example of this was a perfect goal that Jackson had off an equally perfect pass from Cooper. I wish I could have had my U10 team on hand to see how these Four year-olds were working the ball from the corners like seasoned veterans.
The Red Wings played beautifully again but ran into a tough defense that prevented them from taking a lot of shots. In a 1-1 tie we had great play from everyone including some explosively fast runs toward goal by Will. Owen was his usual patient self, probing the other team's defense while experimenting with his ball handling. Ethan threatened to break out and take the ball to the goal a couple of times too. His ball handling has really improved. And Conner, too, has now become a consistent goal scoring threat. Conner impressed early in the season with his ability to get to the goal and be in the right position but lately he's added some aggressive ball handling to his skill set.
We had very energetic play from everyone else as well. The Red Wings have been great at practice too, very focused and hard working. And the work they do on Monday always shows in their play on Saturday.
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