The U8 boys' game Sunday morning reminded me a lot of the U8 girls' game in that while the players had had two weeks off they came into this game playing better than ever. And like the girls, the most obvious area of improvement was in their field awareness and their spacing. The amount of ball-chasing and crowding that we were seeing was dramatically reduced from last game and there was a lot of very thoughtful play away from the ball with players smartly anticipating the action.
In terms of skillful dribbling, there was plenty of that too. Tate was literally slaloming down the field, cutting back and forth between players like a skier angling through the gates. He now has a wonderful patience and confidence with the ball to go along with his crushing strike. Diego was also using his quick cutting skills to weave in and out of the traffic and had much better success in this game in his ability to avoid being tripped. Plus he made some awesome tackles, taking the ball off the other team and leaving them in a heap! His keeper work in the second half was brilliant too.
Micah was another premier dribbler in this game and he had two really remarkable turns on the ball, one in each half, where he executed combinations of cuts and spin-turns to get himself out of the corner and back toward the goal. And in each instance his tempo was dynamic. He would slow down and let the defender come in then quickly make his turn and then go. Micah had a very strong goal in this game too so this game may have been a real break-out performance for him.
The other boys all played very well too. Jackson H. really had his best day in terms of having good ball control to go with his speed. His vision was great too and he made some brilliant passes. Jackson P. was all energy in this game but with much more of a sense of how to position himself off the ball. His touches were very thoughtful throughout the game, especially his last one where he drove the ball deep into the other half with seconds to go to hold the other team off.
Bilal started the game in keeper and his cool-headedness is his strongest asset. Whether he takes the ball with his hands or comes out to take control with his feet he is always calm and confident. I'm amazed by that as so many kids are really afraid of the keeper position because they see it as a position where you are just doomed to fail no matter how well you play. Bilal, though, has a great sense of how the keeper is essentially the start of the offensive attack. I know he sometimes seems to hold the ball too long, especially when he's got it at his feet out of the box, but that is a great place to start from in training him to play the position. Better to start out being too bold than being too timid.
Finally, Louis was having another great game and his first touch was really good in this game. He played the entire field with great anticipation, sometimes moving up to attack then quickly falling back to defend. His confidence with his dribble was very good too throughout the game.
The U10 boys' game was a thriller too but it ended in defeat and it was, frankly, had to take. They worked really hard the whole game and they gave it all they had. There were many highlights but right now my heart just isn't in it. I need to think about this one a bit.
I can say that the boys all agreed that the play of the game was Will's goal-saving bicycle kick. I wish I'd caught that on video.
My thanks to Wyatt and Nathan for coming out to cover for Joe and Kaleb.
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