Coach Eric's U8 boys were playing immediately after Girl Power on Saturday morning so he was able to stand on the sidelines with me for the girl's game. Hanging out on the sideline with another Legends coach, observing our players at work and discussing what we're seeing...I really enjoy that opportunity. In this case it was fun because while Eric knows all the girls, he hadn't seen most of them play in a while. His surprise at how dramatically they were improving was very gratifying and confirms what I've been thinking as I watch them play. They're at a stage right now where they are building on their skills and experience very rapidly, leaping forward every game.
This week they found themselves facing a BSS team that had thirteen players on the squad. Ridiculous. We had only one sub with Zoe being out and it was hot and humid but our girls showed that in addition to having a lot of skill they're also very fit and so they handled this game easily. They dominated possession of the ball as always and rose to the challenges that I set for them to keep trying their moves and winning their one-v-ones. There was still too much ball chasing but I'm just accepting that it will take a while for them to work through that.
There were two highlights I want to mention. One was the second of Hailey's goals that was a simply beautiful little chip shot. She had dribbled past a couple of defenders and still had one in front of her slightly to her right about seven yards out from goal. Eric and I were both watching and when she got to that one-v-one with the last defender I'm quite sure she looked up, saw where the defender and the goalie were and very intentionally hit a delicate chip just to the defender's right and out of the keeper's reach. She looked as cool as could be, a real killer. I believe Eric's comment was "whoa".
The other highlight of note was a run that Abby made where she wove in and out of the entire BSS team to get to goal, literally beating every one of them one-v-one. Great stuff obviously and something you'd want any player to have the confidence and skill to do, right? Even if your player was on the other team you'd want them to see that and learn from it, be excited by it and want to emulate it, right? So if you're the coach of the other team that's got to be a great teachable moment, right? Well, what we heard the BSS coach say was "girls, she just beat all five of you at once" in a tone of voice that was unmistakably demeaning. If you ever hear me talking to this team that way fire me immediately.
More on this in my next post.
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