That was a pretty good game for our girls. They played with a real commitment to their skills and with a growing ability to be aware of their surroundings. We're still defending against ourselves a bit but given the way we dominate possession we're usually committing those mistakes in the other team's half and usually in their penalty area. The fact that all of our goals were put in from within the penalty area or even the goal box indicates the extent to which our girls rely on dribbling. They are always trying to bring the ball right into the goal with their dribble and they're tenacious. While they do end up getting in each others way, sometimes their crowding the ball also has the affect of containing the ball. Since the other team is usually just trying to kick the ball away all they do is kick it into our next closest player. So, in a way, we're like a basketball team that really works at getting offensive rebounds. The girls keep pressing until eventually the ball comes lose with a little space to work then its a simple tap in.
I saw them making an effort to use aspects of the more complicated deceptive moves they've been working on in training including some fake shots. That's great to see and it gives us a good foundation to work from moving forward. I also saw a lot of very smart play away from the ball. As I mentioned in a post a while back, I want them to understand that when you don't have the ball it doesn't mean you aren't doing anything. You need to anticipate and play actively off the ball. Right now Ava has the best sense of how to do this as she tends to break quickly ahead and at an angle from her teammate with the ball providing a real passing option or at least drawing a defender's attention. More than once on Saturday I saw Ava get more than ten yards out from the ball, really opening the field. I think the other girls see the value in creating that kind of space or at least they're aware that I want them to create that space. But for most of them their sense of scale is skewed by their own perspective so that the space that they give a teammate may be only a yard or two. To us it still looks like they're crowding but to them it probably feels like they're more than far enough away. I tried to point out to the other girls the way that Ava commits to really getting well out into the open when she's off the ball on an attack. Hopefully they'll start to develop that same sense of field-scale that Ava has and so open things up a bit more.
So this brings me to what I have in mind as a goal for our work at practice and in games this season. As a group the girls have started to move beyond being a collection of good dribblers who aren't normally aware of their teammates on the field. That's that initial "ball-hog" stage that is a necessary part of the process. Now they are more aware of each other and more conscious of their team "style" as it were. They know they are all trying to play the same sort of possess and dribble game and they're beginning to figure out on their own how to support each other in different situations. I do think at this point we can begin to make some real progress in helping them all understand how to work effectively together. At half-time yesterday I tried to point out the way Ava was getting clear of the scrum so quickly and I asked them all to think about how they could help a teammate who was dribbling the ball. They each offered a different answer: get to the side, get behind, get out front, get open, etc. I replied that the answer could be different in every situation so "your job is to use your eyes to see what's going on and make a good decision." I said to them, I can't tell you what the right thing to do is because it will depend on the situation but I can tell you that if you use your eyes to see what's happening you'll probably know what to do. That's something I've said to them in some form before but Saturday I got the impression that it really made sense to them. When I said "there's no right answer, it's up to you to figure it out" they all seemed to pause for a moment really thinking about that.
At team practices then we'll spend time re-enforcing the skill work they have been doing but we'll also try to play some games that will help them to get a better feel for the space on the field. I'm not thinking so much of passing as I am of supporting. By support I mean they way you maintain space between you and a teammate in order to help them either on the attack or in defense. Right now they mostly maintain space because I'm telling them to but I'm seeing more and more smart spacing where they are realizing on their own how to be at an effective distance. So, that's our theme for the season to go along with their dribbling skills: how to play off the ball.
Some quick highlights from Saturday:
>Multiple goals from Hailey H. and Ashley. They both are very stubborn about moving toward the goal and with their good ball control that usually works fine. Rather than dribbling around defenders they usually manage, especially in crowds, to simply push past them while dragging the ball along. They both attempted the Puskas though with pretty good fake shot moves to start it off.
>Hailey B. had another goal and I expect now she'll be wanting one every game. Her speed is excellent and I've just got to get her comfortable with combining that speed with a move. Right now she makes a good cut to get to one side of a defender but then just tries to run away from them rather than cutting back to really get behind them. So, something concrete to work on as her skills continue to improve.
>Abby was, again, showing her willingness to change directions dramatically while dribbling. She'll even turn her back and move away from the goal when necessary. She managed at least one goal too.
>Zoe is so fast with the ball that my only concern with her is to get her to have a softer touch. If she can go fast while keeping the ball close she'll be deadly. As it is she's constantly disrupting the other team's efforts to get any sort of attack going.
>In contrast, Eileen was showing that good touch she has throughout the game and now I've just to convince her to go a bit faster with the ball. She did manage a goal though with a strong left footer from a few yards out.
>Finally there was Ava. I've already mentioned her play off the ball. She also had some very good runs with the ball and was using her skills very effectively. But her best moments were the two corner kicks she took. I'd noticed at practice that she was really improving her shooting stroke dramatically so I wanted her to take at least one corner so we could see how she'd handle that. Man, was it impressive. She jumped through the first one like a seasoned striker; all shoe laces right on the back of the ball. Her second corner was even better as she adjusted her angle to get under the ball a bit and lift it to head-height. Beautiful! If they'd scored on that one I'd have had to go over and apologize to the other coach. And to think these girls all have another two seasons of U8. Look out!
Well done ladies. We just love to watch you play so...thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment