We got the season started with an early game at Freedom Park for the U10 Boys #2 (we need a name for this team) and the conditions were pretty good considering how bad that field has been in the past. The sun was shinning and it was warmish and the boys showed up ready to play. What I expected from this team based on what I had seen in practice was that they would have lots of energy, that they'd be willing to take and give a lot of contact to stay with the ball and that they'd be very communicative on the field. I was delighted to see all of that and more in this game. While their energy level was very high they were actually playing with a fair amount of organization, maintaining effective spacing most of the game. They were generally playing with good skill and patience on the ball and with good anticipation off the ball. And as expected, there was a lot of good communication on the field too. These boys are really comfortable playing with each other and will probably develop some really effective cooperative play very quickly. Given their potential I may consider devoting a tiny bit of team practice time to working on that sort of thing as a way of improving their field awareness generally. Maybe. I don't want to stray too far away from our season curriculum of deceptive dribbling skills since I was really impressed with the amount of quality ball control I saw and I'm anxious to push them to build on their skills.
I think the team we faced may have been mistakenly placed in the wrong division. Prior to the formation of the league schedules I requested that our team be placed in the middle division of the U10 age group, assuming that their would be three divisions. That's where we ended up but I don't think the team we played should have been in this division. They clearly had a couple of players with little or no playing experience and that game was a little rough for them. I know at least one parent on the other side was complaining loudly about some of the contact they were seeing and from their perspective it may have looked like our boys were playing too rough. That's not what I saw. We did commit some fouls but they were of the honest sort, the kind of unintentional tripping and pushing you get when two players are both contesting hard for the ball. Nothing malicious. I really like that all of our players are comfortable with that level of contact and that gives us a foundation to work on in terms of technique. If players are willing to accept and even initiate a little contact I can teach them how to use that to possess the ball more effectively and how to efficiently dispossess an opponent, hopefully without committing a foul.
In any case, for us this was the right team to face in our first game. I had asked Owen to set a very clear example right from the start by using every skill he had and staying completely committed to dribbling the ball and then to shoot early and often. I told him that if it turned out that the other team could play a little defense we'd modify our approach as necessary but initially it should be dribble, dribble, dribble. As it was they were giving us plenty of space to work and so the other boys all were doing the same as Owen and using their dribbling skills. My job as the season progresses will be to convince them to remain committed to that style of play even when we face teams with more experienced players who have a better sense of how to close down on defense.
So, some quick observations about their individual play:
>Lucas Y. was solid in as our first keeper and had two or three really good punts. (note: I will always be requiring my keepers to punt, even if they aren't good at it yet) Once he got out on the field Lucas scored almost immediately and played with excellent skill and energy. His touch on the ball gets softer all the time.
>Lucas F. surprises me every time I see him get on a good run. He's easily the most comical of the group and at practice it can take a little while to get him focused. But in the game Saturday he had a couple of really outstanding runs to goal where he demonstrated a really skillful dribbling style that will be a great foundation for him going forward. He seems to like to move into traffic leading with his left shoulder and carrying the ball a bit behind and to his right so that he's sort of skipping and dragging the ball, shielding it all the while. In one of those runs he made he ran past two opponents doing nothing more complicated than that shielding dribble. Very effective.
>Luke had a great game in so far as he was very solid as a defender and he struck the ball solidly most of the time. He had a good sense of where to be most of the game too. I do need to work with him though on getting comfortable with trapping the ball and moving with it at his feet. This is something we'll work on in team practices a lot; make your first touch smart and soft, get control and move into space.
>Cole is right now the player most willing to execute more complicated deceptive moves and he's comfortable with pulling the ball under and behind himself. That's big because some of those moves we teach require you to lose sight of the ball momentarily and to sometimes turn your back to the goal or the opponent and most kids aren't comfortable with any of that. His willingness to be really crafty, even in traffic, gives him an excellent advantage.
>Oliver is, like Luke, more comfortable kicking the ball rather than trapping and dribbling but that's in game situations. At practice he's very comfortable attempting to dribble and has a good touch on the ball. He was very effective in this game and had some excellent touches. I'll just keep talking to him about being more stingy with the ball. Passing is fine and it's an essential component of higher level soccer. But a good player passes the ball as a way to get it to the goal, not because they want to get rid of it. So for all of my players the first phase is the selfish "it's my ball" phase. That being said, I did see some very smart, positive passes in this game and Oliver and Luke were two of the standouts in that regard. I won't discourage passing and when it's of good quality I'll cheer like everyone else. I'm just going to be asking my players to possess the ball as long as they can and to be willing to test their skills. A well placed pass is a beautiful thing but beating an opponent one on one is slightly more beautiful.
>Which brings us to Will, who is clearly our ball hog. I say that as a compliment of course. Will has a wonderfully simple natural dribbling style. Nothing fancy or particularly deceptive. His strength is that he's willing to be very close to his opponents knowing that he doesn't have to run away from them but rather he just has to keep them from touching the ball. His best run of the game came late in the second half. He picked up the ball at midfield and immediately saw the open space between the defense and the right touch line (bench side). He cut to that space with three defenders approaching from within five yards of him. His cut move took him to the right of the first defender and then, just as he had cleared that first kid, he cut back to the left to split the other two defenders and beat them both by simply delicately touching the ball between their feet. He went on in for a shot and I think he scored. That was so wonderful to see him actually cut into the traffic rather than just running away from it. That's a way of using good ball control skills that I'd like everyone to be comfortable with.
Great first game. I'm really looking forward to working with this team.
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