Thursday, October 28, 2010

Fall/Winter Indoor Session I

The new session begins this Saturday, October 30th. U4 plays at 8:00 AM and U6 plays at 9:40. A link to the complete schedule for all divisions is in the menu to the right. I won't be coaching U8 or U12 this session. Good luck everybody. Have fun and play hard.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Next session starting soon

The Fall indoor session will begin the weekend of October 30th with games on Saturday for the U4, U6 and U12 divisions. While U8 and U10 games will be on Sundays those divisions won't begin their session until Sunday November 7th (due to the 31st being Halloween.) Coaches will be picking up their rosters and schedules this Friday evening and should be contacting families over the weekend. I don't know yet if we will be getting any practice time indoors.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

USA Women's Soccer V China

Tonight you can watch the US Women play against the Chinese National side on ESPN2 at 7:00 PM. Of course you shouldn't switch over to the soccer until the Reds have finished beating the Phillies.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Week Seven: Fall Weather, Great Soccer

Sorry I missed updating the blog last week. My schedule has been very hectic.
We had really perfect weather for soccer this week and everybody played with a lot of energy. I want to remind everyone that registration for the first indoor session has started and you can sign up on line or in person this coming week at Richardson Road. I will be coaching U4, U6 and U8 again. I'm not sure yet about U12/13.

The U4 Blueberries had their best game yet with the most consistent level of participation we've seen. Everyone stayed involved the entire game. Carson was our most active player and he had a couple of goals, including one off of a nice corner kick from Eileen. Carson will be missing the last game. Good luck, Carson!

The Sharks had their best game of the session with strong performances from everyone. We had excellent play in at goal from Elizabeth and Kendall among others. Out in the field Kendall had a bit of a breakthrough game, playing with more determination than ever before. She finally started to bring some of the great skill she shows at practice to the game. Kendall had at least three genuine chances on goal but each time was a bit unlucky.
Sam E. had his best game since moving up to U6 and after three straight goals plus another couple of good attempts I actually had to take him off the field to let the other team get back on their feet. Sam has been doing such a good job of bringing everything we work on in practice to the games and it seems like every week he adds some new move to his repertoire. Sam Atkins had a great game for us too, taking on most of the striking duties while Sam E. was on the bench. Sam A. is still working on his ball handling but he already has a huge kick.
Finally, I'm thrilled to say that the Sharks were jubilant and gracious in victory sharing a sincere hand-shake with the other team at the end of the game.

The Warriors got their groove back playing against the Light Blue side this week. Nate and Will combined for our first goal and from then on the Warriors kept the pressure on most of the game. It was a good return to form but I tried to remind the team after the game that while they are playing with a lot of energy and a lot of good communication they still aren't being patient enough with the ball. We spend almost all of our practice time working on ball control and yet as a team they rarely manage to execute that basic skill. There is far too much "kick-ball", where they wildly kick the ball away as soon as they get near it. We'll just keep plugging away at that at practice.

The Strikers had a fantastic game as a team coming up just short in a 1-2 loss. The star of the game was Isabel who scored our lone goal and who has dialed her game up several notches since the beginning of the session. Iz shows amazing confidence now while dribbling the ball and seems confident that she can get around anyone. Lydia is another player who has really turned her game up lately, playing with great energy throughout the game.
It was great to have Meaghan back from her injury lay-off. She played wonderfully, like she hadn't lost a step. Sam was great in defense for us showing great patience and poise handling first touch and then moving the ball forward for her team mates. Everyone else played really well too. They played as a team and were really working to back each other up. Great work strikers!