Spring Soccer. Week One.

The Wednesday night U4 clinic was a huge success with the kids having a great time and the parents and Coaches all having an opportunity to meet. I know that the actual games on Saturday may have seemed like some barely controlled chaos to many parents but the early start in acclimating the kids that we got with the clinic was a big help. With kids this age the main thing is repetition and routine and while at first many of the kids don't seem to even be aware that there is a game going on they will over time, I promise you, start to get it. It's just a process that requires patience. So don't give up.

The first weekend of a session is always a bit hectic as we get shirts handed out and put players together with Coaches they haven't met yet. As a result, even though I love coaching my head is usually in two places at once on opening weekend. With that in mind please forgive me if I don't remember every highlight of each of the games.

Your U4 Slime got started by choosing their name. I expected some vegetable or fruit based name to win the vote but Green Slime was suggested and easily gained approval. Our team lost a few players, some of whom moved up to U6 (more on that later). But the core group of Ashley, Diego and Eileen remained strong with Diego putting in another hat-trick of goals. After his last he came charging back to the center pumping his fist and doing his best Andres Cantor impersonation. "Goooooooooooooooal"! Ashley was doing her usual excellent ball handling work but is still working on finding the goal. I've never seen a player her size cut and turn the ball so well.
Our new players were Abby, Mason, Lincoln and Delaney and they all did very well. Mason and Lincoln each had a couple of assists and I'm sure Mason had at least one goal. Delaney ran after the ball a lot which is a good beginning and Abby was also getting after it a lot too. As a team the Slime were also doing some great work with players moving into position away from the ball quite a lot and that is a huge step in their understanding of the game. That's the aspect of their development that we will work on most during the games, their ability to see where they need to go when they don't have the ball. In practice we will always work on fundamental skills and never talk about game situations. But once the game starts I will be constantly talking to the players about where they need to move to. So if you see your player run away from the ball they may be doing that because I asked them to.

Wearing green didn't pacify the Sharks. They were on the attack, as usual. Sam E. and Austin led that attack and their level of team work continues to amaze. On one particular play Austin dashed into the corner on our own side and recovered the ball. He then calmly turned back to the field and scanned about to find Sam. When he found him he made a quick, accurate pass to Sam in the middle and then bolted up the side line to get in position. By the end of the session these two will be running give-and-goes, pick-and-rolls and ally-oups like pros. Kendall was right in their with them and on her three best runs she was working hard to pick up her pace. By the last possession she had she was moving with the ball at nearly her best running speed. Her confidence is really growing fast. On two of those runs she took the ball all the way to the other goal and made good passes in. Really great plays.
With those three in together Sam E. managed three goals and was really feeling his kick. He even surprised himself a few times with the velocity he put on the ball. But the best goal of the game had to be from our youngest player, Samuel, who made a very heads-up play on an outlet throw from the other goalie. Samuel was about five yards out and watching the goalie closely. When the goalie made a weak throw right at him Samuel stepped up and struck it firmly while it was still in the air and drove the ball into the net. Pretty nice work for a kid who just moved up early from U4.
Luke was in good form this game and had one goal. Brandon was back with us after a layoff and he stepped right into the sweeping midfielder role. He's got the foot for it and with Brennan taking the session off we really needed someone to cover that spot. Aiden was back after a layoff too and he and Ryland, another new player, were doing great work in defense. Ryland especially made very rapid progress in learning to track the ball from the backfield and always being in position to intercept the attack.
So, we've got a great team with some very skilled players and some very enthusiastic rookies. What are we going to work on this session since we get some practice time? We obviously will be devoting lots of time to fundamental ball skills but we are also going to be working with the kids on some basic passing strategies (I wasn't kidding about the give-and-goes). As we progress this season I'd like to see the Sharks doing even more dribbling and passing to move the ball and I'm sure they can do it.

Our U8 team chose the name Green Wave and that turned out to be a great choice as they really did a great job repeatedly crashing into the other side's end. This team is a new team. Some of the kids know each other. Some have played before, some not so much. None of them have played together as a team. Before the game I let them know that the team we were facing was clearly the best team they would meet and so I didn't want them to worry about the score but to just commit to doing the things I was asking them to do and to play with all the energy they had and have fun. Well, that's what they did and while the other team did manage seven goals they didn't have an easy time doing it. The Wave pressed them hard, especially in the midfield and while we don't have any really experienced goalies we did have plenty of enthusiasm there. We'll be focusing on those goalie skills during this next practice along with some fundamental ball skills. We did see lots of great passing for a team that is just getting to know each other and an amazing number of shots on goal. That game could easily have ended with the Wave being within a goal or two.
Everyone played well and here is what I noticed about this new team:
Jake had his best game ever and had at least three good shots on goal,
Logan was tenacious on defense,
Gabrielle was great up front and is amazingly fast,
Lydia is really tireless and a great ball handler,
Jordyn and Montana both did good work in goal and Jordyn showed some surprising patience while dribbling the ball,
Cody, like Logan, was also a defensive pain to the other side,
Nabil and Aiden worked well together as a fullback tandem,
And Zachary really led the team with his fierce play, attacking the ball at every opportunity and making some great saves on defense and putting the ball up into position on offense.

All in all I was really impressed with how well they played and I can tell you that the other team's best player was feeling genuinely frustrated by how well he was being defended. Thanks to Ashley's dad, David, for helping out on the bench. He's going to help out at practice too and I expect those practices to be very effective. See everyone then.