Week one of any session is usually more hectic than fun with players trying to find their Coaches and Coaches trying to find their team shirts and parents wanting to sign a player up at the last minute. It can be crazy. But even with all the administrative house-keeping we still did get to play some soccer. So how did it go?
What I saw from the U4 team was impressive. Hunter and William have definitely both made a leap into a more focused awareness of the game. They were relentless in their attack and the next step for them is to little by little gain peripheral vision and awareness so that they can work as a team rather than only as individuals. But they are off to a tremendous start and they will be a great influence on the rest of the team. Will Z. joined the team and his precociousness is a welcome addition. He has that singular focus on getting the ball into the net that every player needs. Most kids probably show that sort of focus when playing at home with mom and dad but then can't seem to find it at their first actual game. But our other teammates did get off to a good start too with varying levels of participation and with no flameouts. That is a great thing. So long as the kids are on the field and at least enjoying running around we're good. Their awareness of the game will come with time. Thanks to all the parents for their patience with the initial craziness of week one and many thanks to Mike Seng for taking charge of the team so I could help out with the Black team for this week.
The new U6 Sharks are a wonderful mix of talents and their first game together was a good one. Returning from the previous Sharks group are Ashley, Jagger, Karolyn, Ava, Austin and Luke. They were joined by former Bears Micah, Eileen, Jackson and Zychik and by a long-lost teammate from the Summer session, Carson, who announced his return with a beautiful goal. Carson jumps right in as the teams best combination of aggression and skill and I know his lead will be one the others will follow. He wants the ball and when he gets it he's cool headed.
In this game I could see Jackson, whose game is usually all speed, making strides in slowing down enough to control the ball. He had a couple of great runs where he kept the ball in front of himself and pushed through his opponents toward the goal. Ashley was also expanding her game this week by putting the skills she has to work in the actual game situation. She's still a little shy when someone else has the ball but she is improving every week. Zychik was solid as ever in at keeper and highlighted his own good work with some balletic flourishes. He has style!
Ava and Micah had the two standout highlights of the week. Ava has such good field awareness and anticipation that she can't help but constantly be in motion, darting back and forth across the field in an effort to always stay ahead of the ball. At one point in the game when she did get up ahead of the ball into the other team's side she was loudly calling back to Zychik for a pass. "Send it all the way up" she yelled. Just amazing. Then there was Micah, who drove up into the left corner with the ball and in a moment of brilliant calm actually stopped with his foot on the ball and looked up and around to find a teammate. He was cool as he could be and made a smart pass to the center that Ashley nearly put in the net. That was also amazing. That's the stuff we want to see, those signs that their awareness of the game is expanding. They would have managed a nice draw but for the last second goal by Owen of the green team that was one of the best shots I've ever seen. Great game Sharks!
Despite some significant changes to their roster the U8 Sharks started the session off with a nice win. Elizabeth had a beautiful goal that came as a result of her dogged efforts to get rebounds in the middle. Then as a game capper Sam E. put one in too after several great attempts. While we lost Addie, Nathan, Kaleb, Jaden and Connor this session we did pick up Drew, a great player with a huge right foot and a growing confidence in his ball control skills. Drew and Owen very effectively held down the defensive duties in the first two quarters allowing the other Sharks the time to work the ball around in offense the way we like to see. They were talking, staying spaced and making some smart passes. Most importantly, they were trusting their skills and trying to possess the ball rather than booting it. That's what I want to see, regardless of the score. Sam E. was amazingly tenacious in his attempts to move with the ball and in the end was successful, getting several good shots off. Sam A. was following that lead and in the final quarter showed some really cool-headed ball skills in the mid-field. And the passing! There was so much good passing, especially some very smart field-switching passes that really opened up the other team's defense.
Sam, Sam and Austin did the keeper work for us and did so admirably. We needed that as we lost a few good keepers this session, especially Kaleb who now leads the team the Sharks faced. Kaleb was joined in this game by his sister Karolyn who is now the sixth of the U6 Sharks to precociously make the leap to U8. And she played well in her U8 opener.
A big highlight of the game for me was a little play Zachary made that might easily have gone unnoticed. Zach was a little shy in the first two quarters but in the third he loosened up and started taking some chances by streaking up into the other team's end when he saw an opportunity. On one of those runs he ended up in the left corner with the ball. The other team gave him just a bit of space and time and Zach took advantage of that. He was facing the wall with the goal on his right and the ball at his feet. He seemed to be about to start dribbling toward the goal when I saw him glance out toward the eighteen (the top of the penalty arc) and he clearly saw Elizabeth standing out there wide open so he quickly blasted the ball off the wall in front of him, intentionally rebounding it out to Elizabeth. That was so heads-up and yet executed so casually that I just went crazy. Developing that sort of presence of mind in games is such an enormous step for the kids that you can't praise them enough for it when you see it. And it isn't an enormous step simply because it's that sort of play that will lead to goals which will lead to wins. Rather, that development is critical because it means the kids are beginning to experience the game as it's played by a team. That feeling of executing your attack as a unit, sometimes wordlessly, is so thrilling it is what I think really gets kids hooked on team sports. So, big steps for the Sharks this game. I think having a smaller roster was definitely beneficial too. See you all at practice next Saturday.
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