During this week's practice sessions the players had worked on a move that is particularly useful for drawing a defender out away from their goal so that you can then cut back past them so I had asked all of my players to be sure they made an effort to use that skill at least once during their games. I'm happy to say they all did it and it seemed for some of them to really kick up their confidence. Most players, myself included, can't help but feel tension when they are in possession of the ball. One way to put it is that you feel hunted. You have the ball and everyone else wants it so they are literally coming after you. The attitude we hope to instill in Legends players is that when you have the ball you aren't the hunted, rather you're the hunter. If you have the ball you are in control of the situation and you can use the ball to tempt, trick and even force opposition players into mistakes. Drew W. is our leading exemplar of that sort of confident predatory style of play. Over and over again he uses the other player's anxiousness to get the ball against them and yesterday he found the goal four times in just one half played. When Drew had to leave at the half to get to a baseball game some of the parents on the other team seemed relieved. That was premature on their part as the remaining Legends continued to find the goal often, all of them showing enormous confidence in their ability to possess the ball.
By having my players dribble the ball back up field a few steps and allow the defender to chase them before they make that sudden cut move back I wanted them all to get comfortable with the idea of taking control of the situation. You could see in the games yesterday that they are getting it and in both the U10 Boys games and in the Girl Power game they totally dominated possession of the ball. What you see in a lot of our games, especially with Girl Power, is that other teams, even the ones with some skilled players, expect the game to have a kind of flow of shared ball possession, like the teams are basically taking turns playing offense then defense. But what Girl Power demonstrates week after week is that the ball belongs to them all the time. Even when you have it it's still our ball and we're coming to get it!
For the U10 Boys this week's game was an amazing improvement over the previous week. They played with much more energy and more anticipation, rarely giving the other team the luxury of even a few unchallenged steps with the ball. We need that confidence every week, even against stronger teams. Overall the team's ball possession skills were so effective that in the second half, with no subs, we were actually able to play for stretches with only five players on the field. I hope I can keep them playing with this level of energy for the remainder of the season.
Here are some highlights for the boys:
>Drew S. played with a beautiful touch on the ball all day. He's kind of where Conner was a few months back. His touch is great and he's confident he can shield the other players off the ball and now he just needs to add in a burst of speed into space to be instantly more effective.
>Conner was indeed bursting more confidently into space and by the end of the game he seemed to have realized that his first move was often creating that space so a second move wasn't necessary. Of course his preferred step is still the Maradonna!
>Kaleb executed a stop hop and play that was so graceful and effective that I wouldn't be surprised if the defender he was facing has still not found his shoes. He put in a few goals too and a couple of beautifully placed corners, one of which earned us a goal.
>Drew W. was his usual combination of strength and grace, weaving in and out of traffic and, most importantly, clearly seeing the way the situation would open for him one and even two defenders ahead. Love that ability to anticipate.
>In a great example of anticipation Will at one point made a nice little dink pass to Drew W. as he ran towards him then continued his run in a sort of overlap to get open on the right sideline. At that point Drew didn't need to pass off to him but that Will anticipated how that might open things up was brilliant. His goal keeping was stellar too. Just fierce to smother the ball!
>Braden was great in as keeper too and was especially efficient in his outlet punts too, getting them all out very quickly. Once on the field he showed some very good skill including a well executed Cruyff turn.
For Girl Power yesterday's game was another goal scoring bonanza. Ava, Anna, Hailey H. and Ashley all scored for us and everyone else had their chances with our girls maintaining possession of the ball for something close to 90% of the game. They play with great grace and skill with their possession of the ball always being purposeful and when they do occasionally lose the ball they swarm to re-possess with an unnerving fierceness. And I think that, more than just their crazy skills, is what throws other teams off. Our girls don't run into opposition players to kick the ball away, rather they always move in close rapidly to regain possession. They steal the ball. Most teams are used to playing a version of the game where the ball sort of pin-balls around the field from one cluster of players to another and eventually someone gets lucky and puts one in. Girl Power goes to the ball with the intention of coming away with it into open space. No pin-balling or volley balling or kick-balling. Just beautiful football and with the attitude, as I mentioned above, that the ball belongs to them at all times.
As for their highlights...well the whole game was a highlight reel and the other coach and the referee sitting on the side were both sort of dumbfounded by what they were seeing. At one point late in the game Ava executed a beautiful Maradonna for the sixth or seventh time and it carried her right into the open space in front of the goal. As she made that turn the other coach said "she really likes that move" and his tone of voice told me that while he meant it as a compliment he was also tired of seeing her beat his defenders with it. I think by the end the other coach, his players and their parents were all very tired of seeing the Girl Power squad. I never get tired of them.
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