I try to be very disciplined with all of my teams about showing as little interest in game scores as seems plausible. I don't try to discourage the kids from caring about the score. Rather, I'm just trying to reassure them that my appraisal of their performance is never based on the game outcome. I like the score to be their business, as it were, and for them to think that I'm really paying attention to other things most of the time and that I'm not caught up in the score the way they are. During the game when I have the chance to talk to them I'm focusing on things like their effort to actually use their skills or to stick to some basic principle that we've talked about before the game started. But I'm like anybody else and I like to win so sometimes it's hard for me to keep the girls from seeing that I'm caught up in the game as much as they are. Thursday's game was one of those times.
It took a few minutes for the girls to get their feet under them but once they did they played beautifully. Prior to the start of the game I'd spoken to the team about making an effort to really be aware of where your teammates are so that we aren't getting in each others' way and crowding the ball so often. When a team does that they leave so much of the field open that it's easy for their opponent to basically get lucky with a few long kicks and next thing you know they have the ball in your penalty area.
Well, early on our girls were chasing and crowding the ball thoughtlessly and the other team was able to take advantage of that with three quick goals. Girl Power! turned it around though and with some leadership from Ava, Hajar, Abby and Ashley they began to take charge of the game by maintaining possession of the ball and using their dribbling skills to move rather than just kicking at it.
Ava is so fearless when it comes to having the ball in a tight spot. She peeks up to see where the opposition is then makes her move into the open...it's fantastic, if I can just get her to really take off once she sees that opening. Hajar has that really good quick step when she clears a defender, a real speed burst. For her the next step is to follow that quick step into the next defender and then the next. Right now she tends to hesitate to follow the ball into the next line of defenders.
Abby is my rule-follower and if I tell the girls that they need to use their dribble skills to take "the long way" around the defenders rather than simply trying to rush past them, Abby is the one to do it...over and over again. Her deceptive dribbling is really impressive and she's so persistent. And finally, in this group it was Ashley who really made the breakthrough when she showed the other girls that if you challenged the other team early for the ball you could win it away from them. She was tough as nails Thursday night, stealing the ball off the foot of the other team's biggest players repeatedly.
Our two other leaders on the attack were Hailey H. and Kelsey who were turning into an impressive double threat. They weren't exactly running give-and-go plays but they were definitely aware of each other and maintaining a nice space between as one or the other brought the ball up-field. That intentional spacing frequently put one of them in the position to get a rebound after the other had taken a shot. I talked to them about how they were working together. Hopefully they could feel it too and will build on that experience. Hailey is the better dribbler right now as she is able to turn quickly and keep the ball with her. Kelsey still wants to go in a straight line to the goal most of the time but that's understandable as she has such a strong kick.
Erin had a great game and is easily the most talkative (in a good way) of the team. She always calls out for passes and in this game she was doing much better at being in a position where a pass would make sense. She took a ball to the face at one point and set a great example for the team by staying in the game. Hailey B. improved dramatically as the game went on and by the end her touches on the ball were much smarter and she was showing very good awareness of where she was on the field. Maya was improving throughout the game too. She is gaining more confidence in her dribble step every game and hopefully she will build up some momentum on one of these runs and realize she can take the ball all the way in if she tries.
In the second half, when the team was really dominating the game, Avery went in as keeper and was rock-solid. Next time she's in there I'll encourage her to try some punting. With Avery in the goal Eileen was able to play in the field the second half and I'm very proud of how far she's come and the level of confidence she's showing.
All in all a very good game that I hope was a valuable learning experience for the girls. They played with real toughness and determination and found that they could come back against a physically bigger team and even hold the lead for a while. So, why did I get as caught up in the score as the girls were? I've become accustomed to seeing the value of any game as a learning experience for my players, even games where my team is getting thumped. We keep working on what we want to work on and playing the way we think is best and eventually the scores will take care of themselves. But sometimes when I hear not only the parents on the other team but the coaches too encouraging their players to play sloppy, ugly, kick-ball style soccer I can, I admit, start to feel like a win for the Legends would be a very good thing...for everyone involved. Every practice, every game, every single touch on the ball that one of my players gets is too valuable to waste so you'll never hear me encouraging my players to "kick the ball!" I want them to try to get control, make a move and beat the person in front of them then attack the goal.
I'm also sure that most of you were noticing that the other team did play with some discipline in so far as their defenders were consistently staying in the defensive third. Seeing our girls playing with less shape in terms of positioning must be frustrating. But there is a method to my intentional refusal to talk to the players about "staying in your position." I'm going to take a little time to think about this some more and then discuss it here.
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