Teachable Moments

     The final season game for Girl Power was a great one.  The CSA squad we faced were tougher and more engaged than they had been in our first meeting and it seemed to me that their coach had prepared them better for our "style" of play.  The CSA players were anticipating that we'd be keeping our dribble when ever possible so they were coming in fast and challenging hard for most of the game and from what I could hear of their coach's instructions that is what he'd been preparing them to do.  When you face a team that likes to dribble more than pass that's the right way to go.  Fortunately for our girls they have recently become so much better at taking up good supporting positions away from the ball that every time a CSA player made a good tackle or steal one of our other girls was there to pick up the ball and press forward again.  The final result was 2-0 Girl Power and we definitely created many more chances on goal than they did but it was an exciting game that felt close the whole way.
     Ashley had the first goal for us and it was kind of textbook.  I can't remember which of our players was on the ball, Anna or Abby I think, but in any case one of the girls had taken the ball up field and cut diagonally to their right.  A few yards out from the goal line she crossed the ball beautifully in a situation where two teammates, one being Ashley, were actually strung out across the penalty line in just the right position to take advantage of a crossing ball.  As the ball came to Smashley she was right in front of the keeper.  She smartly let it pass her a step and then, running to her left, took one controlling touch then popped the ball into the net with her left foot.  This was a scene the team recreated many times throughout the game.  One player would lead with the ball while two more would track along roughly parallel.  Meanwhile our two defenders would flow as a unit to the side of the field where the ball was, one of them pressing up behind the ball to be close enough to help the attack, the other moving into the middle of the field in a high position.  It was very smart play and the girls were demonstrating it in every combination of players. 
     The insurance goal came late in the game courtesy of Hailey and it was really a matter of pure skill and determination.  In the second half our girls had done a great job again of continuously pressing the ball into the CSA squads final third and usually into the right corner.  At one point Zoe was doggedly maintaining possession while basically trapped in the corner and then somehow managed to get the ball out to Hay.  With what seemed like just three little touches Hailey sliced through three defenders and easily passed the ball into the net.  It looked sort of effortless really.
      The girls played some really excellent defense in this game too.  In the first half Ava got caught in a 1v1 and it looked certain that CSA would score.  Ava charged out of goal to close the space and as the CSA player took the shot Scout managed to lay out to her right a bit and get a hand on the ball.  Even so the ball was still headed for the goal and amazingly Ashley, who had been sprinting to catch up to the play, was able to run past Ava and get to the ball before it crossed the line.  She spun and drove the ball out of the box with a strong kick just like a pro center-back.  Then in the second half with Smashley stuck in a similar 1v1 situation where it looked for sure that CSA would score Abby came out of nowhere to run the ball off the attacker's foot.  It was a perfectly timed diagonal run for Abby and not only did she prevent the shot but she ended up with the ball and got turned around to bring it up the right side for a counter.  It was a very high energy day for the girls as well as a day of really smart team play and honestly I think that if we'd had Olivia too we'd have managed a couple more goals.
    There were also two excellent teachable moments in the game that I want to point out.  The first involved Hailey in a situation where Anna was doing some fabulous work bringing the ball up the left side of the pitch.  As she engaged the first defender I could see that while Hailey was tracking her in the middle of the field she was also lagging behind too far, just jogging along rather than sprinting into the penalty area.  I called out to her to hustle and she gave me a bit of a look.  Then Anna managed to beat two defenders in the corner and cross the ball beautifully right to the penalty spot...and Hailey was about six steps late.  As she turned back up field to rejoin the defense she glanced over at me with an "okay, I get it" look.  That recognition on her part that she had missed an opportunity was, I think, a lesson for Hailey as to what I mean when I'm constantly harping on "anticipation". 
     The second moment occurred for Emily.  As I mentioned in my last post, Emily has developed a very fiery attitude on the field lately which is great but sometimes that emotion can actually distract you from seeing opportunities.  Emily was having a great game Saturday and I could tell she really wanted to get to goal.  At one point in the second half Legs was carrying the ball up the left side near the bench and managed to win a 1v1 and as she turned into the open space you could see that she knew how close the goal was.  A second CSA player caught up to Emily coming from the center of the field and stole the ball, carrying it toward the touch line.  At that point Emily lost her temper a bit and blindly chased after the CSA player.  Emily was pressing the girl so hard from behind, really looking to make contact rather than focusing on the ball, that the CSA player was able to easily shield the ball and spin back into the center of the field.  Emily ended up stuck between the touch line and the CSA player, who, once she got clear of Emily, did just what you'd expect her to do.  She looked up to make a pass rather than continue dribbling.  The pass she attempted was a weak roller right along the eighteen.  If Emily had been thinking there rather than reacting emotionally she'd have anticipated that turn to the center of the field and been in a position to intercept that pass for an easy shot.  As she was angrily chasing the CSA player initially I called to Emily to "focus on the ball, please" and once that weak pass rolled wide open in front of goal Emily could see what she'd missed.  Like Hailey, she turned and looked at me, a bit sheepishly, as if to admit that she got it.  I think that moment will stick with her.

Perspective

     The oldest player on our Girl Power squad is now one hundred and eight months old.  This means that the last three months of soccer represent more than 1% of her total life experience.  In most contexts 1% of anything doesn't seem like a significant amount but think of how long three months is if you've only been alive for one hundred and five months.  Think of how many things you would be doing in those three months that would be completely new to you, how many new experiences you'd be having and how much you'd be learning.  When you're eight or nine years old one soccer season is a long time.
     It's easy to lose that perspective when you see a group of young athletes consistently performing at such a high level.  I'll admit that given how well Girl Power have been playing I went into this tournament weekend expecting a good outcome and the actual results were a little jarring.  I think the girls played well enough to win each game but they made some mistakes that allowed their opponents some easy goals.  Those mistakes were hard to watch and seemed totally uncharacteristic of the way this team has been playing and that's why it's so important to maintain perspective.  For a coach or parent watching the games those situations where the team made mistakes all seemed like easy problems to solve.  It's easy to think "how did they mess that up?"  But then I remember how little actual experience they have, how every game is filled with new situations, new problems to solve.  Seen from that perspective every game, even the losses, are valuable and I've got to remember that my job is to teach them how to play but when the whistle blows the game is theirs.  They've got to experience it all, the good games and the bad ones, for themselves.
     So, that tournament is behind us.  They played better than they did in Gatlinburg.  Scoring two goals in each game is nothing to sneeze at.  Their individual dribbling skills were excellent with each player showing many times how cool headed they've become in tight situations.  Their cooperative play as a team was impressive too, particularly their ability to rotate positions.
     What most teams are looking for in terms of cooperative play is obviously passing but where our girls are so precocious is in their ability to change positions immediately.  One of them picks the ball up in our third and takes off up the touchline and then a teammate drops into position to cover on defense.  In this weekend's games we saw it over and over again and it was so fluid and effortless. Other coaches notice and point it out to their teams.
      As for cooperative passing, we are seeing it more and more and my job now is just to be sure that they don't go in for that too much.  I want to continue to see them winning at least one 1v1 every time they get the ball.  Once they clear that first defender passing or keeping the ball is their choice but I'm going to continue to insist that they all continue to develop and test their dribbling skills.
     With only one game left in their first season of select I want to devote a few paragraphs to each player summarizing where I see them in terms of their development.  Pardon me for going on a bit long and wandering from topic to topic too.

Abby
Abby's a player who came to the game from the start with a strong desire to be on the ball and so teaching her to be a clever dribbler was easy.  Dribbling is what she wants to do and she'll try any trick or fake you show her.  Then she works diligently on the moves she likes and before you know it they've become second nature to her.
Last season it was a bit comical to watch her as she dodged defenders for what seemed like minutes at a stretch without actually making much progress up field.  She was great at keeping the ball away from them by moving laterally and making quick ball-shielding changes of direction but she rarely saw the openings she was creating for herself.   Now though she sees those openings and has really lived up to her nickname.  She knows how to use a move to gain a step and then turn the corner headed up field toward goal.  Bye bye.  She's learned how to anticipate and jump over tackles too and that's made her a more resilient or stout player.  Finally, she's definitely got a good strike on the ball.  Abby has always had good ball striking technique, just not much power.  Lately though she's coming into the ball faster and putting some heat on it.

Anna
Given Anna's relative speed I have to say I'm really delighted with how in love with dribbling she is.  She's got a couple of moves she favors and has worked at them to the point that she can pull them off when the pressure is on and still find space for a getaway.  I think when she was first finding her ability to possess the ball back in the spring she was a little surprised by how it was working but now she's supremely confident.  I see her in a crowd of opponents with the ball at her feet and her body language clearly says that she thinks she's going to get away with the ball.  I love that.  And as everyone has seen, Sugar Anne is really the first player to get a sense of how to distribute the ball effectively from within that sort of double or triple coverage.
As for her strike on the ball, Anna has come a lot farther than some of the girls in that she was a committed "toe-baller" last season.  Now she's got excellent technique and a lot of strength.  We should expect to see plenty of goals from her over the next few seasons.
Anna's real achievement over the last season though is that she's developed into a really devoted participant in training sessions.  I don't expect any player in this age group to actually be "serious" at practice.  I expect a certain level of goofiness and all I ask of the team is that we all agree we will have fun...playing soccer, nothing else.  I'm lucky in that the whole team has adopted a good attitude toward training, mainly I think because they are simply in love with the game.  I'd point to Anna though as a particularly gratifying example of a player whose love for the game has led them to a certain level of commitment, even calmness within the game.

Ashley
Smashley has always been the athlete, the player with speed, strength and a killer natural strike on the ball.  There have been times where to me she looked even a little embarrassed by her strength, seemingly concerned that she might hurt someone.  When the game is on though she goes full tilt and is tough as nails.  At some point last season though that great speed of hers started to become less of an advantage as we faced bigger and more experienced opponents.  Over the last few months I've repeatedly asked her to try to throw in a simple change of pace move, a little stop and go, so that she could really take advantage of her speed.  Get the defender chasing you at full speed, pull up quick, and then as they over-run you you take off again gaining a few steps.  We've talked about it and talked about it.  I've demonstrated it repeatedly.  Finally this weekend there it was, that stop and go move, and it was masterful.  It's just a subtle tap on the ball to slow it down then a little "I'm sorry, did you want this?" shoulder shrug and away she goes as the defender has to spin awkwardly to catch up.  Of course she's still got that power too and whenever she gets past a defender into open space near the goal Ron and I both kind of duck a little in sympathy with whoever might be in her shooting path.  Sometimes I even yell "look out!"

Ava
I gave Ava the nickname Scout because since U4 she's always been a player who naturally drifts toward the back of the field, both to protect our goal and to have the field in front of her.  From those early days of Girl Power in U6 she would "scout out" the open side of the field and then when she received a loose ball in her own half she'd dash right or left to out flank the beehive of kids.
Last season Ava's ability to cover on defense while still being a constant threat to bring the ball up with blazing speed and lead the attack made her the MVP of many a game.
Now she's our own Ali Krieger or Meghan Kingenberg, a defender with speed and skill who does so much more than tackle attacking players.  Ava has always been a diligent worker at practice, striving to master whatever skill we're working on.  Now though she's got a few moves that she not only can execute but can really make work for her.  Like most of the girls she developed facility with some of our deceptive dribbling skills early on without really having the guile, the willingness to trick another player, that you need to make those skills work.  As she showed this past weekend though, she's tricky now.  If you bite on her first move and chase the ball she'll make you pay.

Eileen
My dear little Beanie has always been the most laid back of players.  She loves being part of the team and during our car rides to games she'll sometimes describe to me the big future that Girl Power has ahead of them.  You know, like playing in the Olympics and World Cup. She knows what their entrance to the field will be like...what music and what sort of fireworks. She likes the performance aspect of playing so naturally she likes using the dribble skills she's learned.  We all remember her last spring regularly making a big show of dribbling backwards toward goal to get open space then doing her little spin to dodge around her opponent and get loose.   At first it was funny and then it was a little maddening.  As Zoe said once, "you don't have to dribble that far back."  I'm glad she started doing that though as the other girls caught on pretty quickly and began using that tactic too.  You don't see other teams doing that in their own half.  It's either straight ahead or kick it out.
One thing with Eileen though is that while she loves putting on a show she's always been a little skeptical of the intensity of the games like she sometimes thinks it's all a bit silly.  She's not as naturally competitive as the rest of the girls so it's been wonderful to have her side by side with this group of players.  I love that as a group they know how to leave a game behind, win or lose, just forget it and move on.  But while they are actually playing?  It's game on!  Little by little Eileen has been learning from her teammates to embrace that intensity and she's got a bit of a swagger now.

Emily
Intensity is also what defines the transformation of Emily into "Legs".  I was thrilled to have Emily join the team as she was school mates with Eileen and I could see she was an athlete.  But early on it was hard to gauge just how interested in playing she actually was.  Now though she's kind of bull dog out there.  When the first game ended Sunday and she'd been denied a scoring opportunity despite putting on a real dribbling clinic she seemed genuinely furious.  I liked seeing that and I think that emotional commitment will drive her to improve her skills.
Legs gives the impression of being one of the girliest of the girls but when she's headed into a 50/50 for a ball it's elbows up and full speed ahead.  Last season her best move was a sort of maradonna spin that was all her own but now she's more frequently using that cruyff turn we work on and that's really significant as it's a move that involves getting low over the ball and, in 50/50 situations, inviting contact.  Some of the best tackles of the tournament were Emily's as she used that cruyff to simultaneously step across her opponent's path, hip check them (in a very lady like way, to be sure), and whisk the ball away.
One thing I'm always looking for with players is some aspect of their natural talent that can serve as a foundation for their skill development, some ability or tendency that I can work with to help them get into the technical details of the game.  One thing I talk with players about occasionally is that when they are receiving the ball in a situation where they aren't under immediate pressure their first touch can actually be their first deceptive move.  That is, as the ball comes to them they can stay square to it to let the opponent think they are going to just trap the ball but then at the critical moment they take a smart touch to one side or another using their opponent's momentum against them.  Emily is the expert practitioner of this skill and she usually incorporates a very deceptive shrug or hop into this that really throws opponents off.  As the ball gets to her Emily sort of rises up on her toes as if to trap but then lets the ball come up under her knees and drops back down and into a sprint to the left or right of the nearest opponent.  It's deceptively graceful and she gets it to work over and over again.
Emily has been working hard on her shooting stroke too and it shows.

Hailey
Hay Hay, full of guile.
We've all seen the con-man's trick where a ball is hidden under one of three bowls and then with a great deal of sliding and swirling about the fellow get's his mark to loose track of the ball.  Compare that to a more subtle magicians trick, something like making a coin seem to disappear in mid-air.  The con-man's trick requires a lot of energy and movement, the magician's trick is all about misdirection as she convinces you, with just the subtlest gesture of the other hand, to look away from the hand holding the coin.  While you're looking the wrong way the coin goes in a pocket.  Voila.
Every player on the squad, including Hailey, has worked hard to master a few basic dribble skills; not just be able to do them but really master them.  Most of those skills work by moving the ball quickly and taking advantage of your opponent's momentum.  You take them to the right then move back left.  The concept is simple but the execution often involves some very difficult movements with the ball and requires energy and speed to be effective.  But what if you can get that opponent to move to the right with just a slight dip of your shoulders, a subtle tip of your head?  That's Hay Hay.  Hailey has for as long as I can remember had a gift for knowing how to actually deceive an opponent.  She just recognizes deception as being part of the game and that's been a huge advantage for her.  I've written here before about my experience that many players, as much as they want to get to goal, are actually a bit shy about being deceptive.  Not Hailey.  Over and over again you see Hay Hay dribble straight toward an opponent, touch the ball with the outside of her right toe to her right then quickly tuck the ball back to the left with the inside of that same toe.  The ball barely moves a foot laterally but this subtle move is effective for Hailey 90% of the time and it works so well simply because as she takes that first touch to the right everything about her body language is saying to the opponent "I am going to your left".   The way her head tilts, the way she shifts her weight to her right...from the opponent's side of the ball it must look like an unambiguous commitment to go that way...but then she doesn't.  Slowly, I hope, all the girls are learning this dark art of deception, this ability to misdirect your opponent.  Zoe is probably the closest behind Hay in this.
Hay's great improvement this season is her ball striking.  Like many of the girls she has been a toe-baller for a long time and only recently did the level of competition force them all to devote some serious effort to developing a stronger strike.  For Hailey it's not just a good shooting stroke.  She's got a pretty good dead ball stroke (goal kicks, free kicks, etc.) too and I know that's taken some work.

Olivia
It takes a very narrow focus on the technique of striking the ball to improve.  Whether they are conscious of it or not, in order to develop a consistently good shooting stroke a player has to learn to feel their strike, to understand what part of their foot is contacting the ball and what the posture of the rest of their body is when they make a good strike.  They've got to learn to learn from the feedback of hitting the ball.  You've seen them all before practices, aimlessly whacking the ball into an empty goal.  I yell "no toe balls"; they roll their eyes and do it again.  All they are focused on is the sight of the ball rolling into the net.  But when the competition get's tougher and now you've got to put some real heat on the ball and be able to hit it from odd angles and when you can't rely on getting a running start headed straight toward the goal, well now you've got to learn a new way to do it or forget about scoring.  When I talk to the girls about ball striking I tell them that when practicing solo don't think about where the ball goes, think about what you feel when you strike the ball.  Learn what if feels like to hit it solidly and focus on that, keep trying to replicate that.
As with the dribble skills, learning to strike the ball is an experience that allows a player to also learn what it feels like to learn, what it feels like to go through the process of mastering a new skill.  That's incredibly valuable and gives them the confidence over the long term to believe "if it can be learned I can learn it too."  For many players what gets in the way of their experiencing this is their impatience to just get out their and play the game.  They just want to play so bad that all the details about technique and tactics are just noise.  The game is out their on the field not here on the sideline with the coach so everything coach says sounds like...well, think Charlie Brown's teacher.
When I first got the opportunity to work with Olivia I could see she was the type of player who had great natural gifts for the game but who also was so impatient to actually play that most of our practice work would strike her as boring and unrelated to the game.  Joining Girl Power has done her a world of good as it put her in a position where despite her athleticism she wasn't the strongest player on the squad.  To catch up she's had to learn how to focus on technique and to take the technical work seriously enough to notice her own ability to improve.  Now she gets full advantage out of that athleticism of hers.  Livy has amazing speed and (finally!) a powerful stroke but her greatest asset is her ability to play in tight space, to deftly control the ball then take off into open space.  Her preferred move is her own version of the Puskas and she improvises on it by varying the amount of hesitation she takes before dashing off with her getaway touch.  An experienced defender might not necessarily bite on the first touch away from a Puskas and so they are right there with you as you try to escape.  What I've been seeing Livy do is recognize when a defender has stuck close to her and in that case she lets the ball slow down a bit to draw them in closer and then takes off.  I teach the Puskas as a 1-2-3 beat move and Olivia has learned on her own how to add a fourth beat.
Livy's vision is impressive too and I see her leading the way along with Anna in finding teammates with smart passes.
All of her technical advances aside though, for Olivia her greatest achievement of this past season is that she's become firmly ensconced as a member of the team.  It was a scary transition for her to move from the Tigers to Girl Power and I know she was tentative at first.  Now though?  She's just one of the knuckleheads...a gifted competitor who approaches the game with creativity and toughness.

Zoe
Back in the winter I was worried about Zö.  Like many players that I've coached she's so anxious to play that the work of training is hard to get into and sometimes seems unrelated to the game.  Consider the basic ball control work that we do at nearly every practice, those toe-taps and foundations.  To most players new to training those drills seem completely pointless, perhaps designed specifically to embarrass them.  This past winter when we began our pre season training Zoe still hadn't mastered either of those two drills and I could tell she was becoming more and more self-conscious about it.  I just kept telling her to work on it and be cool, you'll get it.  Well now not only is she as masterful a toe-tapper as anyone else, she's also become an extremely dedicated, almost "no-nonsense" participant in our training.  Two weeks ago we were working on a variation on a move that they already know and I was so impressed with how committed Zö was to getting it right and then she was the first player I saw who actually tried to pull it off in a game.
Zoe's balance has improved dramatically over the last few months and she's much more sturdy.  She's always been tough and unafraid of contact but she hasn't always been able to keep to her feet when going into contact.  Now though she's jumping over tackles left and right while keeping the ball.  She's got a shambling dribble style, full of step overs and scissor moves, hesitations and then quick starts.  It can look inelegant at times but it's always effective.  Now who is it that she reminds me of?  Maybe this guy? https://youtu.be/0Q7ZAnCFzI0

Sorry to have gone on so long.  I'm so proud of these girls.

Big Weekend for Girl Power and Now the Dreaded "Tallys"

     Three games in three days for Girl Power and the first thing I have to say is "Wow, the weather."  Friday night was a warm, clear evening; the perfect weather for playing into the twilight.  Saturday we found ourselves in a cow pasture, playing a game that was as rough as a rodeo but the weather again was fantastic with bright sunshine and a cool breeze.  Luckily we were upwind from the grazing cattle.   And finally, a most excellent Sunday.  I started the day with a round of golf (75, tying my lowest round ever, thank you very much) then in the beautiful, crystalline sunshine of an amazing autumn afternoon I watched my girls play a game in which they were in full possession of all their soccer powers.  They were graceful, creative, brilliant and tough.  The ref was excellent.  The other team was gracious and their field was good.  What a day.
     The performance by the squad on Sunday was a real crescendo as they dominated the game in a way that no opposing team could complain about.  While they were aggressive in winning the ball they weren't overly so and for the most part kept their elbows to themselves.  It was their skills and their cool headedness that won the game for them as they possessed the ball for at least 80% of the game.  It was their ever developing cooperative play, especially in running what I've called "the Legends overlap", that got the opposing coach's attention.   A real "overlap" in soccer is sort of like a pick-and-roll where one player moves forward with the ball then dishes the ball deftly to a teammate who is "overlapping" their path. So, rather than being a long pass, it is usually just a little touch that deceives the opposition as they don't see that second player coming in to pick up the ball.  The Legends overlap is a somewhat accidental version of this tactic.  Obviously our players are always trying to dribble forward and win all the 1v1s they face but what usually happens is that as they persist in dribbling they pick up a second and then a third defender to the point where the path to goal does become impassable.  What drives other teams crazy though is that with a Legends squad there is usually one of our other players chasing right behind our player with the ball so when the defense knocks the ball loose then that second Legends player picks it up and starts the dribble dance all over.  The girls had this overlap working yesterday and I overheard the other coach commenting on it to his team.  "See how that girl was their to support her teammate and got the ball as soon as it came loose."
     After Saturday's game I spoke to the team about the need for all of them to realize how important playing defense is.  Up to that point there had always been a lot of grousing about being "stuck" in defense, most of the girls apparently seeing it as a sort of punishment or at best a secondary and unimportant role on the field.  Obviously the reality is that your defense is where your offense starts.  You regain possession of the ball in your own half and begin moving back up field with it.  Our defenders aren't there just to clear the ball out, they are there to initiate our attack.  So, on Saturday I asked the girls to please refrain from complaining about being in defense and to make an effort to see while on the field how important the role of defender is and how active a role it is.  We went over all of this again on Sunday pre-game and I think the subsequent performance demonstrated that the team had reached a new understanding of how the various parts or positions on the field can fit together.
     While Emily has been our leader in terms of developing an ease of communication on the field it was Olivia who led the way in Sunday's game in terms of making that defender or fullback position a dynamic one.  Not only was she stopping the other team's runs over and over but then she would immediately get into her dribble and find space, usually headed for a run up the touch line.  Once there she'd either keep taking space or make a beautiful pass to whichever forward teammate was waiting further up the pitch.  She looked like a pro.  Best of all, I think the other players were seeing the work Olivia was doing and they were learning from it.  Most of the training we do is incremental; little steps, building up repetition by repetition a player's confidence with a particular skill.  But sometimes what you need is a cognitive leap, a moment where all the little technical stuff suddenly falls into a larger context, a broader understanding of the field space and the ways they can cover it as a cohesive and cooperative unit rather than as individuals.  Maybe we had one of those leaps yesterday...we'll see.

     As promised, I reviewed Coach Ron's clip board work and with a few amendments here are the "Tallys" from the Sunday game.

Hailey led the scoring on the tally sheet with two goals in, multiple shots and three attempts at the "double move" or skill combinations that we were looking for in this game.  I was very happy to see every player attempt that sort of "double" at least once.  My goal in focusing on that is to get them to move more laterally from touchline to touchline rather than automatically running straight ahead into the defense.  As we saw in Saturday's game, sometimes the other team is just faster than you so running into them is ineffective no matter how good your moves are.  What I told the girls before the game is that I want them to use these double move combos so that they get more of a feel for how they can draw the defender with them and get them to chase the ball out of their position.  We saw some great examples of just that sort of thing.
     Even though she didn't score as high on the tally, Ava was clearly the most en fuego player of the match.  Her second goal was Messi-esque in it's delicacy as she wove through every defender they had to get face to face with the keeper.  As the goalie lunged forward for the ball Ava cleverly shifted it from her right to her left and with a deft tap she passed it into the net right under the keeper's outstretched hand.  Cool as the other side of the pillow.
     Ashley's goal was an impressive blast and a perfect exclamation point on a really great game for her.  She was dominant on her side of the field.
     Abby came up big for us in goal as she was the only keeper who faced a serious attack.  She had one punt that was at least thirty yards too.  Yikes!
     Anna has been very strong for us on attack recently, especially with some really spectacular passes.  She had one on Friday that showed amazing vision.  But on Sunday her contribution was really some stout play in defense.  She maintained great position on attacking players and then swiped the ball off their feet like a thief over and over again, getting our own attack re-started.
     Zoe's energy, along with Ava, in the first quarter of the game really set the tone for us.  It sort of knocked the other team on their heels and I don't think they ever recovered.  Zoe is just so persistent and tough.
     Emily had another great game of communicating and rotating positions smartly.  She had some very good runs too, coming all the way from our own box into the midfield and capped those with brilliant touches to lead teammates into shooting opportunities.
     Eileen played like herself again and I couldn't have been happier or prouder.  I try really hard not to over-coach her (dad/coach syndrome) so when she's gone through a period recently where she seems tentative on the field I've tried to be patient.  To see her back to herself, making those great deceptive first touches to switch fields while in defense and delivering those impressive free kicks and corners, well, I've got to crow a little bit.
     All the girls played with great skill and energy and our success was the result of all of that, not just the play of any one or two girls.  The tally sheet can look lopsided or even unfair sometimes but it's just a way to motivate and then measure for a few particular areas of interest to me.  In the heat of the game Coach Ron and I miss some things too so the tally sheet doesn't reflect anyone's overall performance.
    

Lessons Learned

     My Girl Power squad played in a tournament in Gatlinburg this Labor Day weekend and it was a great experience for everyone.  They had the opportunity to play against some fine competition on some really beautiful fields while also getting a three-night sleepover, parents and siblings included.  Thanks to the suggestion of our team manager we did the crazy thing and stayed all together in one huge house and it was simply delightful.  I try to mention frequently that I feel lucky to be coaching such a great group of kids but I need to also note that I'm lucky to know this group of parents.  What a lovely, good-humored and generous group of people!  Just hanging out with them at our chalet rental for meals was tremendous fun and we got to watch our kids play a sport we all love!  That was probably the best vacation I've ever had.
     We had three games over two days and the squad enjoyed themselves, embracing the atmosphere of pressure that comes with playing in a tournament rather than being overawed by it.  A crowded field complex on a tournament day is exciting, with parents cheering the games in action and teams walking around in their colors.  The intensity of it leaves you itching to play.  My girls jumped right into it and were their usual goofy selves but they were also displaying a developing sense of discipline and awareness of their own accomplishment.   They know they can hang with good teams and I'm proud of the fact that while they were excited to play they enjoyed the event for what it was...just another chance to play the game together.
     Our first game was a bit of a blow-out with the other team dropping ten on us, unanswered too.  The opponent we faced was a Knoxville team and they showed a lot of the typical qualities of well experienced teams: they were physical and aggressive, winning most of the 50/50 balls and pursuing us relentlessly.  I did see quite a few uncalled fouls in the first half and I (and the players) could hear the parents side complaining loudly to the referee.  But there was only one foul I saw that I'd call dirty.  It was a two handed push from behind and was actually egregious enough to deserve a card.  The referee seemed oblivious.    
     By halftime my team's mood was a bit down and their main complaint was that they felt they were getting hacked a lot.  My response to the team was simple.  "I can't change referees mid-game.  We've got to finish with this one even if he's missing a lot of stuff.  In this game right now the other team can get away with whatever the referee lets them get away with.  Play through it."  Ashley's response was interesting.  "Can we do it too?"  My reply was a definitive "No."  I went on to explain that I don't want to see them play that way because to me that sort of thing is just lazy and undisciplined.  Consider the example of the girl who committed the two handed push I mentioned above.  The reason she resorted to that sort of thing was that she was in a bad position.  She'd let one of our girls get past her and was now shielded off the ball so she responded petulantly.  I don't want that from my team.  I want my players to learn how to not get into a position where they are shielded off the ball.  I'm constantly admonishing them to think their way around the field, to anticipate and maintain an advantageous position.  If you get beat then hustle back to go at the ball again.  Pushing from behind though, that's letting the infantile part of your brain get the better of you, irrationally demanding that the reality of the situation be what you want it to be.  Just like a toddler, right?  A mature, disciplined player takes the situation for what it is and responds with skill and intellect.
     I'll admit that I am attempting in all of my training work with my teams to foster an attitude in them that reflects my own vision of an ideal player:  be cool headed, don't let emotion make you irrational or indecisive but at the same time do bring an intensity of focus to the game and be insistent about possessing the ball; be relentless on defense and energetic on attack without "running down hill";  be patient and take the long path to goal; trust your teammates.  Sometimes it may appear that my approach to my teams, especially while on the sideline during a game, is soft.  I do want them to play skillfully and with a joyful, creative flair.   But make no mistake, my goal is also to develop players who are disciplined, even cold blooded in their pursuit of victory.  So, when I discourage hacking and that sort of thing it is because I feel that ultimately, against a truly skilled and disciplined team that kind of undisciplined play is ineffective.  I'm not trying to teach our girls to just "take it" when hacking teams are dishing it out.  Rather, I want Girl Power to be the team that takes advantage of a hacking team and that lack of discipline.  I want our girls to gracefully disassemble our opponents.
     In the second half of that first game the girls came out and competed well with more energy and resolve.  They got into their groove and played with the skills they have and that's what I wanted to see.   In our team meeting afterwards I asked them what it was about the other team that made them so successful and of course "they fouled us a lot" was the first answer,  Then it was "they passed the ball a lot" and even "they took more shots" which is hard to argue with.  I told the girls that from my perspective on the sidelines it appeared that the real difference was that the other team had a much better first touch on the ball than we did.  They were very efficient with the ball, never wasting a touch by clumsily kicking it away.  That takes focus and a commitment to the importance of every touch you get.  I assured our girls that while they generally work hard at practice the drills we run for "first touch", like "hot corners" tend to be the ones that they lose interest in most quickly.  You can't expect to play skillfully in a game if you don't work at it in training.  "Remember that at our next practice" I said and left it at that.
     So we won the next one and tied the last game, missing the final by one goal on a tie breaker (goals allowed).  From a coaching point of view I felt good about getting the opportunity to guide the team through two very important "lessons" about the game: one, take the game you get, including the referee and figure out how to play through it;  two, having a good touch is critical so take it seriously in training.   After that it was all just fun, as it should be.  I used to come to practices with a plan that included, like, ten teaching points.  Now I look to just get them going through their dribble progressions, getting their touches on the ball and if I get one cogent teaching point in through the energetic din then it's been a good session.  Patience.

     As it turned out I had an opportunity to learn something at the tournament too.  I feel that my strengths as a coach are mostly on the training pitch.  As a sideline coach I don't like to yell a lot so I'm not much of a game manager.  However, there was a situation in our final game where, in retrospect, I realize that the girls really could have been helped by some guidance from me.  It was a free kick situation that I think even the ref would admit he screwed up.  In any case while I did question the ref's call and tried to get an explanation from him I then failed to give any guidance to the team as to how to deal with the situation as it was.  I was caught up in arguing with the official about what I thought the situation should be rather than helping the team to deal with the reality in front of them, which, by the way, was still an easy scoring opportunity.  I'll be looking for the next opportunity to get that sort of thing right.

Rec Season Kick-Off!

    The Juniors led the way this past Saturday, facing a Blessed Sacrament side on an unusually shaggy Children's Home field.  We had seen some really fine play from this group towards the end of last season but going into the fall season I was concerned about how they would adjust to the loss of two strong players in Evan and Zach who had aged up a year and moved over to the select squad.  Clearly I had no reason to be concerned.  Our newest teammates, Louis, Carter and Landon stepped in and made an impact right away while our returning players carried on like veterans, with skill and intensity but also with a very evident familiarity with the pressure of competition.
    The outcome was a satisfying 3-3 draw with the Juniors dominating possession of the ball for the entire game.  At the end of last season we were just starting to see the boys learn to use their developing skills in a more thoughtful or purposeful way, dribbling to find a path to goal rather than simply to keep possession.  This Saturday's game was even a step beyond what we'd seen in the spring, with players like Damon, Riley and Pierce finding that they can impose themselves on the opposition.  Riley in particular was a revelation in this game.  He was weaving in and out of traffic with amazing speed, refusing to be denied a path to goal.  The first shot he took, while a bit wide of the goal, was a stunning blast that sent a warning to the other team, "this kid has a foot!"  Moments later he delivered on that promise and buried one in the net from near the edge of the penalty area with a beautifully powerful stroke.
     We had goals from Parker and Carter too and both of those were beautiful efforts.  In Landon's first game with the squad he produced some fine saves in keeper and some very impressive punts too.
     I have to say the thing that impressed me most about the game was the level of energy throughout and the intense commitment to keeping the ball that the boys showed.  Damon, Louis, Riley and Colin seemed always to be on the ball or always pestering their opponent to regain it.  After the first six or seven minutes of the game it became apparent that, typical of Legends style soccer, the ball wasn't going to be going out of bounds very often and so subbing in players would be a challenge for the BSS coach.  He seemed a little put off by that.  Early in the game the Juniors really had the run of the field as the other team got winded, being forced to defend for so long with no stoppage of play.  That's Legends soccer though.  When you aren't just wildly booting the ball around it stays in bounds most of the time and the other team has to work harder.  It's not a tactic exactly, just a nice consequence of the way we ask our teams to play.
     Finally, you may have seen some glimpses of a passing attack developing with this team.  It will be fun to watch that evolve over the course of the season but I'd remind everyone that I want to see that aspect of the game develop naturally for the team.  I want it to be their own idea, their own creation to begin finding passing opportunities and I will continue to pressure them to dribble first and to win their 1v1s.  What I want to see is passing that is part of the overall attack, not passing that happens just to get out of a pressure situation; cool-headed, game-dominating passing rather than panicked passing.  With that in mind I'd remind everyone that while you should cheer for them as loud as possible, please resist the urge to yell out any specific instructions, other than "run faster".  That one I'm okay with.

     The second game of the day saw the Beechwood Boys taking on a huge squad from St. Agnes.  They must of have had twelve kids total.  So, of course, this turns out to be a day where we have no subs ourselves.  At game time we had six players so we'd have to manage to play the whole fifty minutes with no rest.  Our reputation proceeds us though and the other coach seemed giddy at the possibility that an easy win against a Legends team might be in hand.  In retrospect I think perhaps that coach might have come over and offered us the loan of one of his players.  He didn't, though and the game was probably a bit tense for him as it looked for most of the time like we might handle them anyway, subs or no.
     We started the game with Quinn in as keeper and I asked him to play with a very active "sweeper keeper" mentality in the position meaning that he should play high off his goal line and very aggressively advance on the ball when it was still outside the penalty area.  This would allow his full-backs in turn to play high up the field too.  It's a dangerous gamble because you can end up in some unwinnable one-on-one situations but if it works it keeps the ball and most of the other team in their own half, reducing the amount of running your team has to do.  Quinn pulled it off, coming out quickly for every ball he could reach and then distributing smartly to his teammates. 
     My other advice to the team was to remember to cover for each other on the field, to rotate positions when necessary to give each other a rest.  They did that very well most of the game and remained fairly fresh throughout.  I'm not sure how it looked from the parents' side of the field but to me it looked like our boys were actually pressing the St. Agnes team hard for most of the game.  Holden was amazingly fierce on the attack, showing an amazing confidence in his skills.  Matthew really impressed me in his first game with his excellent field awareness.  He's got the instincts of a natural mid-fielder and made some really lovely passes out of the middle to find his teammates. 
     Anes, Cole, Lucas and Quinn were trying to develop a unified attack throughout the game and I was really impressed at how they stayed aware of each other and looked for opportunities to cooperate.  In the end the final score of 2-4 in favor of St. Agnes was a victory for our boys.  They gave a magnificent effort in a situation where they might easily have packed it in at half time.   We had plenty of chances and plenty of shots on goal and the game might easily have gone the other way.  These Beechwood Boys are fierce competitors.
    

Some video from Saturday's titanic clash thanks to Coach Chris. 

I was really happy with how the scrimmage went.  It was just what our girls needed...a game against a skillful and physical team.  I thought they held their own very well.

Pre Season Work

The Stripes.

     Something happened to the U11 boys a couple of weeks ago.  We played in Richmond against a fine MUSA squad and despite taking a loss our boys suddenly seemed to find themselves as a team.  They played with a high level of energy and ,most importantly for me, with a high level of accountability.  That is, they played like they wanted to cover for each other, to do their various jobs for each other.  There was good communication and cooperation on the field and their was a generally relaxed attitude amongst the squad.  They were having fun playing.
     Coming into the games this past weekend, one of which was a rematch with MUSA, I was really hopeful that they would carry that attitude into competition again and they did not disappoint.  At the Saturday game vs MUSA on our home field the boys were full of energy and ready to play.  Both teams played beautifully and the result was a truly enjoyable game.  The goal keeping performances alone were spectacular.
     Then on Sunday we headed to Lexington to play on a really awful field (sorry CSC but it's true) and again the Stripes played beautiful, high energy soccer with an excellent combination of skill and cooperation.  They took a tough 2-3 loss but within minutes of the game ending their mood was great.  They knew they'd played well and that the game itself was a fun, energetic match full of quality play from both sides.
     I'm hoping that the team has turned a corner and we'll keep seeing this sort of play from them.  Coach Ben helped me capture some video from both games and I've roughly edited together some highlights.  Enjoy.

An Interesting Experiment

     The video above shows just a few highlights from the game the Girl Power squad had against Ludlow this past Saturday.  As you can see, the Ludlow team had a significant size advantage and yet that didn't slow our girls down. In the video you see some excellent ball work from Hailey, Eileen and Ava.  I wanted to particularly isolate the little move that Ava executes to split two defenders, a simple toe-tap then foundation touch combo that takes her through two players who are almost standing shoulder to shoulder.  That's a clip that I'd love for every player in our club to see as it demonstrates so clearly why our simple practice routine of doing toe-taps and foundations is more than just an aerobic exercise or even, as I'm sure some players see it, a kind of punishment.  Without hesitation Ava smoothly uses the two types of touch on the ball that we've practiced so often and gracefully creates an opening allowing her to leave two defenders completely behind.
     At the end of the clip you hear me saying "No, no" because Ava cut the ball back to the center rather than continuing to take the open space available along the touch line.  But when I watched the video myself I realized that you can see her just peeking up from the ball enough to see Hailey open in the middle and so while her pass wasn't hit well her intentions were good.  Her decision to pass there probably wasn't the best one for that situation but it wasn't an unreasonable one either and it clearly shows Ava was quickly seeing more than one possible way to advance the ball toward goal.  That's what we're looking for, that level of comfort over the ball that allows a player to consider, or better yet, instinctively feel the various opportunities on the field, the various paths leading to goal.
     Going into our next game, a match Wednesday evening with ISC, I was thinking about the extent to which the girls have been showing some tendency toward cooperative play.  I began wondering whether it would be useful to introduce them to at least one simple tactical concept, not in order to develop a tactical passing attack for the team but rather to take advantage of the fact that the team as a whole seems at the moment to be developing their field awareness just as rapidly as their ball skills.  What I had in mind was to show them a simple "wall pass" or "give and go" just before the game simply as a way to push them to continue expanding their field awareness.  A goal I've been setting for all of my teams lately is to have them show me some sort of fake or feint while dribbling, from an extravagant fake shot to a subtle head fake, anything where they intentionally try to freeze a defender or get them off balance.  Well, with that in mind I thought that a wall pass is a cooperative sort of deception where two players are working together to put a defender off balance.  If the girls could understand this concept then using it would require them to assess a broader situation on the field than just the position of the ball and the next defender ahead of them.  Again, I wanted to simply try showing them the basic concept just to see how they'd respond to it.  An experiment if you will.
     So, in pregame warm-ups Coach Ron and I did a quick demo.  The girls all seemed to clearly understand the idea of the "give and go" and when I told them that an attempt to execute this play would get both players involved two points on the "tally sheet", as Ashley calls it, they were all jumping with anticipation, noisily choosing partners to make their attempt with once the game started.  And then something interesting happened.
     The ISC team we played, as always seems to be the case with ISC, was loaded with big players.  I know we're a U8 team playing in U10 but still the size disparity continues to shock me and yet the girls seemed unconcerned.  They began pressing ISC back into their own eighteen immediately and spent most of the game there.  Coach Ron was furiously at work with the clip-board marking points for moves and shots  but as the minutes passed and the score mounted he never got to make a mark for a wall pass.  Nothing even close.  At half time I complimented the girls on the quality of their play so far;  diligent, stubborn ball possession with flourishes of brilliant skill;  tireless effort, especially in recovering the ball;  etc.  Then I very gently reminded them about that give and go play.  Will anyone try it in the second half, I asked.  Again they were very excited in their response.  Yes, I'm gonna do it, most of them replied.
     The second half came and went without a single attempt to use that give and go play.  The final score was 8-1 Girl Power with two additional goals taken back due to offsides and at least another eight shots on frame that got stopped.  In other words a dominating performance and an interesting outcome to my experiment.  The girls were completely open to the possibility of executing some passing but in real game situations the individual ball skills they've worked so hard to develop serve them so well that there is rarely sufficient pressure on them to where passing seems like a necessary option.  My conclusion:  I can teach them passing tactics, but at this point I'd have to force them to use those tactics in games since the way they like to play, which is to win all the 1v1s they see between them and the goal, is working so well for them.  Well I'm not going to do that.
     One final note:  I have found that using the game assessment sheet, the one on Coach Ron's clipboard, really helps to focus the players' efforts.  But I'm not sure the players themselves appreciate it.  As Ashley put it after the game "I don't like them talleys."

Delightful performance from the Beechwood Boys

     This past Saturday the Beechwood Boys played at Erlanger Lions, easily the smallest field in the whole league.  That's a field that encourages a kick-fest type of soccer but the boys resisted that and played very skillfully with a wonderful touch on the ball throughout the game.  The result was a win, finally.  The best part of the whole game was the end though.  The boys were thrilled to have won, of course, but not overly so.  To me it seemed that they had a very relaxed "just another game" sort of attitude afterwards.
     The primary task I set for the team in this game was to show me that they could execute some sort of "fake" or feint to get the opposing player to freeze.  I told them it could be something flashy like a full on fake-shot or something as subtle as a little head-fake.  Well they dove into that assignment with gusto and I was seeing some very good deceptive dribbling throughout the game and from every player.  The video below shows Lucas pulling off a very nice little hesitation move that freezes the opposing player in place just long enough for Lucas to get by.  From there on in the video you see Lucas perform a very crisp Cruyff turn and then attempt that same move again.  Luke is playing off of Lucas at the perfect distance to be supporting without interfering and the result is something I think of as a typical "Legends overlap", that is, an accidental but very effective exchange of the ball.  Lucas isn't passing the ball to Luke as in a real overlap but Luke is anticipating that Lucas might lose possession and so he's in position to pick the ball up if that happens.  The result, splitting the defenders, is no less effective for being somewhat unplanned.   Along with all the fundamental ball skills they need, the ability to understand situations and anticipate the flow of the game is a critical component of effective cooperative play.  In this instance we see one Legends player smartly anticipating that his teammate will play like a Legends player, that is, Luke knows that Lucas is going to keep trying to dribble through until they take the ball from him so he positions himself to be ready for when that finally happens.

     Of course Luke does the same thing Lucas was trying to do and stubbornly attempts to dribble through everyone without ever looking up for a pass.  Good.  Luckily when he does lose the ball Lucas is there to cut off the shot attempt from the other team.  Energetic, supportive play.
     The rest of the video shows a great run from Oliver who had one of our goals in this game (Luke had the other two).  This run isn't the goal but it shows how hard Ollie is working and how smartly he's anticipating the possibilities. 

A note to my U10s.

Parents,

    I'm seeing the same things you are seeing in so far as other teams pass the ball more than we do and are thus more successful at moving the ball quickly into shooting range.  But try to see things from my perspective for a moment, from a perspective of player development rather than one of game outcomes, and I think you'll appreciate the progress that these teams are making.  They don't pass often and so they do miss some opportunities.  They try to dribble rather than clearing the ball out from the danger areas in front of our goal and so they concede some easy goals to the other team.  They execute dribble moves that actually take them backwards sometimes giving up two or three yards only to lose the ball and so they've conceded field position to the other team.  I know you all see it too.  They dribble, dribble, dribble...doing some crazy play-behind or spin move, gaining barely any space at all, stumbling along hardly making any progress up field and then (of course!) they lose the ball again and the other team is off and running.  If they are successful and stumble through the other team's entire defense and find themselves in shooting range they don't see the obvious passing opportunity but rather they stubbornly try to take one more touch and get the shot for themselves.  In short, they fail and fail and fail again.  They fail like crazy.  They fail everywhere on the field.  At both ends and in every imaginable situation they fail repeatedly...and they do so fearlessly!  Beautifully!  Gloriously!  They fail without being defeated, without giving up.  They fail and then they charge in to take another chance.  They want the ball.  

     How many of you played baseball or softball as a kid, maybe just at school?   Do any of you remember standing in right field thinking "please, don't hit it out here"?  Many of the boys on these teams, when I first met them were players I would assess as being somewhat timid on the field, as being perpetual second stringers who look to get rid of the ball rather than face the pressure of being the one who takes charge, the one who dominates and charges forward.  And now!?  They're ball hogs, rarely showing any hesitation to get the ball and get to work trying to dribble around everyone in their path.  Now they're the kid who wants to play shortstop, who says in his head "yeah, hit it to me".   Is passing up field more effective?  In the long run, yes, obviously, and that aspect of the game is a beautiful thing too.  At this age though, is passing also easier on a team, on individual players?  You're damn right it is!  And look at your boys, doing the hard work of learning how to dribble, how to be a creator of space and opportunities.  Look at how hard they work!  And look at how they love it.  I don't know what they say about the games on the ride home, if anything.  But I can tell you that their attitude in the games and on the sidelines is excellent.  They're relaxed and joking with each other, giving each other the business about this or that like a group of locker room veterans, enjoying themselves thoroughly.  They're a pleasure to be around.

Take away the pressure to win now.  Take away the concern over the score and make the game about how they each as individual players challenge themselves in a game and see how they relax and throw themselves into the joy of it.  And then think of how valuable that same frame of mind will be to them in other aspects of their life, in school work in particular.  Aren't there situations in their schoolwork where they complain and hesitate because they fear the work and the possibility of failure?  But look at how they are learning a different attitude, at least in regards to soccer where they are learning to think "Hard work?  Failure?  Well that's just part of it.  Let's get on with it then."

Passing will come.  For some of the boys passing opportunities are something they already see and try to take advantage of.  I'll encourage that sort of creativity too when I see it.  They'll get stronger and develop better shooting strokes.  They'll get faster.  Wins will come too.  For now, though...patience.

Girl Power U10 Debut.

     We had a really good training session Monday evening that included four rounds of 1v1 games at 3:30 each.  That's a pretty strenuous workout and I was really happy with the level of effort and the quality of play I was seeing from the team.   They worked very hard during the technical part of the session and, always game to play, the girls were enjoying themselves thoroughly in the 1v1s, with lots of laughter and plenty of ribbing about nutmegs and successful moves.
     After such a good session I was really anxious to see them get to play the next night in their first U10 game but the weather forecast was dreadful and so my mood later that night and most of the day Tuesday was a bit sour.  Miraculously though with the field at Boone draining well and the forecast suddenly changing for the better we got cleared to play and under threatening but ultimately benign skies Girl Power took to the field as a U10 team.
     I knew that Coach Oertel's team had changed a bit since the fall season.  He lost some of his older players and had picked up some girls new to Legends, a couple of those being true U8 players like our girls.  Speaking to Girl Power after Monday training I had reminded them that what we expect when we play, especially against older players, is that we'll get fouled a lot and that's just part of the deal when you play the way we do.  If you are always trying to possess the ball for long runs you're going to be in a lot of situations where you get hacked.  What do we do, I asked them.  "We deal with it" was the reply from Ashley.  And it's as simple as that.  Going forward I'm sure we will see plenty of hacking from other teams on our NKSL schedule but that's not what we saw from Coach Oertel's Legends.  His team was working hard to play skillfully and I was impressed with their level of commitment to that.  No kickball from them, just fundamental soccer; trap, possess, dribble.  They played like a Legends squad and the result was a really enjoyable, high quality game.  It is really thrilling to see so much talent on all of our Legends teams.  The next few years are going to be a blast!

     Now, as for the Girl Power performance, we have to start the game review by noting that while every one of our girls played beautifully and with a tremendous level of energy and persistence it was our two youngest players, Olivia and Hailey who led the scoring with a brace of goals each.  I think both of Olivia's were the culmination of long runs from break-away situations.  Her patience in each case was brilliant as she held her shot until she got well into the penalty area despite having one or two defenders on her heels.  For Hailey, one of those goals was in a similar sort of counter-attack situation but her first was a brilliantly woven run through three defenders, back and forth in the penalty area.  She was coming from the keepers left and lost the ball once before doggedly running it down and taking it back.  When she finally broke past that last defender she sized things up then made a deft touch to the keepers right and into the low corner.  Just a beautiful shot.
     Girl Power created a lot of chances in the first half and they were regularly testing the other keeper, but Coach Oertel's girl really stood on her head out there for a while, blocking every shot we took.  I'm sorry I don't know her name because that was a performance to remember.  The number of chances the girls had in the first half was really a result of two things.  First there was the unbelievable tenacity of Ava and Zoe as they covered the midfield, tracking down every lose ball or harassing the other team every time they started to get a run going.  With those two combining that tenaciousness to recover the ball with the smartness of their touches once they have the ball, their knack for finding the open side of the field, our attack during that first half was usually flowing right out of our work on defense.  Secondly, there was the team's persistence when we had the ball.  Abby was the leader in this respect, dribbling the opposing defenders into exhaustion.  Near the end of the first half, as Abby was dribbling in and out of the defense along the touch line for the what seemed like the twentieth time, I figured she had to be just gassed.  But no, she just kept spinning with the ball, showing it then pulling it out of reach until, yet again, she turned the last defender around and was clear into space and headed to goal.  With her strike on the ball having become so much more powerful lately it's remarkable that she didn't score.  More testimony to the quality of their keeper I guess.
     The team had worked on a Cruyff/Left Pull-Back combo at training the night before and I think every one of the girls tried to pull it off in the game.  That commitment to dribbling into and out of tight spots is so effective because it really wears a defense out and our girls were totally committed last night.  They are all so hungry for that goal that they just won't give up on the ball when they are in striking distance.
     One aspect of the work we've done as a team over the last eight months that has now come to full fruition is the comfort level of all of the girls with dribbling back toward our own goal when necessary to find space.  I feel that's a critical step in their development both in terms of their technical competency and their overall field awareness.  You see them now being more aware of where the open space is and what opportunities are there to be exploited as they become more instinctively attentive to where everyone is on the field.  At one point though, after watching Eileen and then Ava repeatedly take the ball way back, like fifteen yards back, I was standing on the sideline about to send Zoe in and I said to her "I know it's taken a while for you all to get comfortable carrying the ball backwards when necessary but..."  Zoe finished my sentence for me.  "But we don't need to do it all the time, right?"  Right.
     The chances kept coming in the second half and Ashley managed a goal, a beautifully placed chip to the keepers left that showed great patience and awareness.  Ashley had been in position for several shots in both halves and was really seeing the flow of the game well.  Late in the second half she found Emily twice with nice crossing passes right into the six yard box.  Emily wasn't able to get past the keeper either time but her vision in those cases, getting into the right spot while remaining on-side, was really good.  Emily had some wonderful runs in both halves and I was particularly impressed with a moment in the first half where she managed to beat two defenders by using the simplest little hesitation move, something I imagine all the girls have seen Hay-hay use many times.  Emily was in full stride with her dribble then as she got to within three yards of the next defenders she stepped on the ball and hesitated about a half  second, just long enough for them to start to commit to coming in for the ball and that's when she took off.  She was two yards past them before they got turned around.  That is deceptive dribbling at it's purest.
     Finally, I have to mention the play of the game.  There were so many great moments for our girls, so much skillful play, but the stand out for me was in response to that last run Coach Oertel's girls made.  It was a clean counter-attack break away with one of their best players, Jenny, getting a good five yard head start on our last defender.  Jenny has excellent touch on the ball, good speed and a great nose for the goal but unfortunately for her that last Girl Power defender was our little Scout.  Ava ran her down like a cheetah after a gazelle and having covered our entire half of the field she caught Jenny about two yards into the penalty box and with a simple touch knocked the ball off Jenny's foot and safely out of bounds, going down in the effort.  Unbelievable!  Just unbelievable!
    

U10 Kick-off! What to look for as the season goes forward.

     Saturday was the season opener for our younger U10 boys team (in my schedule I've been referring to them as "the juniors").  With only one practice together to build on I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of play from the team Saturday evening.  Prior to the game I talked with the team just a bit about what I'd be looking for in the game and I'd like to elaborate on that here for the sake of helping our team parents to understand how I work with my teams.
     If you haven't already heard, the focus of all Legends training sessions will be the development of each player's ball control skills with a constant emphasis on deceptive dribbling skills or "moves" as we call them.  A typical Legends practice will involve only activities that have players getting lots of repeated touches on the ball.  We avoid any type of drill that has players standing in line for long periods of time and we will rarely if ever spend time working on passing or other tactical aspects of the game.  The reason for this is a simple one:  learning how to be an effective dribbler is a time intensive process for most players and so we need to devote as much of our practice time to that as possible.  We proceed under the assumption that all of our players can learn to be attacking players capable of penetrating defenses with good dribbling technique.  Every practice and every game is an opportunity to work on the set of skills an attacking, goal scoring player needs.
     As the season goes on I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to discuss how our Legends approach differs from how other clubs, even at the select level, train their players.  For right now let me give you a brief summary of what a typical Legends practice will look like.
     First we'll begin with ten to fifteen minutes of warm-up involving some sort of game that has players running a lot, usually with a ball.  Some sort of "tag" is our go to for this warm-up period.
Next we'll have fifteen minutes of skill work involving basic ball-touch techniques such as toe-taps and foundations.  From there we'll work into some specific sort of dribbling skill or "move" and have the players practice it first in a no pressure situation where they can figure out the details.  Then we'll put them in a smaller space and give them a set time period in which to complete that "move" as many times as possible.  So, at that point we're adding a little pressure.
     Finally we'll end every practice with at least twenty minutes of 1v1 play.  If you haven't seen a Legends 1v1 session, be prepared.  It's crazy.  We play all of the players on the field at the same time, paired up into separate 1v1 matches played simultaneously.  It's crowded and chaotic so there's some very game-like pressure put on them.  We play games of two or three minute duration then re-pair the players and go again and again until we're out of time.  We'll include certain rules in the games to encourage the players to use the moves we've been practicing such as "you can't score until you do your Puskas move".  We also play the game as "make-it-take-it" which means that if you score a goal you get the ball back and get to go again.  As a defender, the only way to get the ball is to take it.  You can't just wait for your opponent to score so that it's then "your turn".
     That's about it for a typical session.  Then when we get to game days my instruction to the team will also be focused on their use of those "moves".  I'll be trying every week to make it clear to them that I'm not concerned at all about the game outcome.  Rather, what I'm looking for is to see them using their skills in game situations.  That does not mean that I want them to not care if we win or lose.  I always want my players to be motivated by a desire to compete hard and win but I need them to feel comfortable with trying new things in games, with attempting to use the skills they are developing in pressure situation.  The best way I can do that is to convince them that making mistakes in the games is a good thing, it's part of the process for them of growing into better players.  Don't be afraid to fail.
     I want to end by noting that I was very impressed by the level of skill and frequency of attempts to play skillfully that I saw Saturday.  Obviously the score got lopsided but the boys never got down.  Every time the other team scored they just ran to the circle for another kick-off and that's all you can want from them.  They play for the fun of it and my job is just to help them have even more fun by playing the game with skill and creativity.

Girl Power Strong in Academy Debut!

    

Legends U9 Academy, Spring 2015

     What a great day for two games and a Girl Power debut in the Academy!  Thanks to everyone for dealing with the traffic hassles to get to Lexington for our season opener.  The girls had a great time and they played so beautifully, showing no signs of being overwhelmed by the new level of competition.
     Of the two LFC teams we faced, the first was considered by their Academy director to be their least experienced team.  That showed as they did have trouble dealing with the level of skill Girl Power brought to the game.  As usual we were seeing opposing players get frustrated with our ability to possess the ball for long stretches.  Using their ball control skills Girl Power really dictates the pace of play even if it appears sometimes that the other team is playing frantically, fouling our girls repeatedly to get to the ball.  Of course the girls were talking to me on the sidelines about that fouling but as I explained to them, they've got to expect to see a lot of that as usually other teams don't know how to respond to our style of play other than to start grabbing at us from behind.  So long as they have to foul us from behind like that I know we've got them where we want them...on the wrong side of the ball.  This issue of fouls and poor officiating will continue to be something they have to learn to deal with and my goal will be to instill in them a certain sense of indifference to it.  So long as all we have to deal with is an occasional high elbow or shirt-grab from behind I'll be happy to see the girls just play through it and so I'll try to maintain a very even temper in my responses on the sideline, both to what happens on the field and to how the referee deals with that.
     Anyway, the girls were annoyed by the physical play of LFC but they were not intimidated.  That team had a serious height advantage on us but our girls handled the situation with their usual energy and creativity.  If we were keeping score, and we don't at Academy dates, I imagine the result would show that we had dominated the game, although I can't say for sure as the score may have been six to nothing or maybe not...who knows;)
    As for the second game, I have to tell you that I heard from Coach Ben that the team we faced in that one is the one that LFC considers their number one group.  And yet, our girls controlled that game throughout too, again, through skillful ball control, and an amazing combination of patience and tenacity.  They were patient as they probed the LFC defense over and over again, 1v1, looking for an opening and resisting the urge to just kick it and run.  They did this even though the team they were facing was physically imposing, aggressive and, to some degree, skillful.  Girl Power were tenacious in that they never conceded possession and never allowed them a clean break-away or counter attack.  Zoe personally must have chased down their lead runner six or seven times, deftly taking the ball off them running straight into our own goal before making a quick turn out to safety.  Man, she must have been annoying the heck out of them.  She's the most tenacious defender I've ever coached.  And how many times did you see one of our players confidently dribble out of trouble in our penalty area by crossing our own goal?  Does that make you nervous?  Of course it does, but it also demonstrates their confidence in their skills and I love it.
     On the flipside you could see how our girls can wear another team out.  From my spot on the other side I noticed so many instances in the first half of the second game where LFC players would pursue one of our girls for five yards or so and then just give up.  Again, it's about skillful ball control.  Keeping the ball tight under pressure is hard work but the payoff is that defending against that sort of control is even harder work and when Abby or Anna or Ava have pulled and spun and faked a few times in a row most defenders are just worn out and they back off.
     Jokes about score keeping aside, that one ended in a tie and I couldn't be happier with that.  We had them down for 3/4 of the game and the quality of our goals was spectacular including left footed shots from Olivia and Abby.  That gave Olivia a hat trick on the day and Abby had two total in that second game.  I'm really happy that Olivia has been able to jump in with the team with such grace.  Everyone played beautifully and I could isolate moments for every player showing their skillful play.  The thing is though that they all play so skillfully now that every touch on the ball is a highlight.  Seriously.  Coach Ben talked to the LFC director and she was just stunned at the quality of our players' skills.  That's how the Legends girls roll.
  
     The girls sounded a bit nervous before the start of the first game, asking me a couple of times how old the girls on the other team were.  I made the mistake of saying, "Oh, they're all just like you, you know, eight year olds."  "We're not all eight!" Ashley protested.  "Yeah, I'm not eight yet and Abby's not eight!"  Emily chimed in.  Then I remembered that Olivia isn't eight until June.  And of course Hailey just sort of glared at me.  "Okay", I said, "they're a little older."  "But you guys are pretty good.  I think you can handle it."  Their body language and expressions made it clear that they were grousing about the age difference just as a way to pass the time before the ref whistled them onto the field for kick-off.  The fact was that they were itching to play and they knew they'd be fine.   And were they ever.
    

Hat Trick for Ava in Great Season Closer for Girl Power

     Just a quick note on one of the best games I've ever seen the girls play.  We were short a couple of players today and we were facing the Flyers, one of the two toughest opponents in the league.  We played with no sub the entire game but my girls were skillful, tough and tireless.  Despite getting down 4-7 in the first half they managed to collect themselves and hold the Flyers to only one goal in the second half while pouring in another six goals themselves for a thrilling 10-8 win.
     Ava was the star of the game with an impressive hat trick of goals, every one of them hard earned.  Her touch on the ball was beautiful today and she was especially effective using her first touch to get well into space before anyone could close on her.  But if you only saw the goals she had then you missed the real brilliance in Ava's play today.  She broke away from the ball and got open in space for passes or looped back off the attack to cover in defense so many times that she had really gotten the other team's coaches' attention by the end of the game.  Late in the first half I could hear the two coaches on the other bench remarking on Ava, saying how amazing it was the way she was breaking so smartly off the ball and reacting to the run of play.  She looked like a seasoned pro, an attacking center back who is always annoyingly involved in the attack, giving the opposing defense one more player to mark.  Then just when the other team gets away on a break, there's Ava, exasperatingly goal-side of the ball when they thought they were in the clear.  She was really fantastically poised and in control the whole game and she brought that against a team that's capable of some very physical play.
     Everyone else on Girl Power felt that sort of physical pressure from the Flyers too.  High elbows, shirt grabbing, palms in the face and plenty of two-handed leverage on the walls.  I even saw a few "picks" being set!  But Girl Power just took it all in stride and put their faith in their skills.  That's what I always want to see from them.  Their skillfulness and their confidence in what they can do gives them a fairly cool attitude as a team and when they face pressure I want them to respond by being even cooler.  I was so proud of how they came out in the second half and played the way they know how to play.
     This game saw all of the girls picking up their field awareness and except for a few lapses late in the game they all were moving smartly around the field, attacking then covering, without being rooted in any one position.  Ava's the leader in this regard as I noted but we saw so much great total field play from everyone else too.  Zoe in particular brings a level of energy and toughness to protecting the goal and then combines that with a fearless willingness to dribble out rather than kicking.
    Ashley was playing with as good a touch on the ball as I've ever seen from her when facing a tough opponent.  She was getting her foot up on top of the ball for more control and softer touch and it paid off in goals and chances.  Eileen put on a clinic showing us all how you dribble out of trouble, including one amazing sequence where she took on four defenders in a row, all within a space of about ten square feet, beating them all to get into the open.
     Olivia was holding down the defensive duties for us in the first half, no instructions from me.  In the second half she stayed high in a striker position, floating up and back along the right side, again with no instruction from me.  The girls had simply agreed on their own at half time to rotate positions.  They figured it out.  Olivia found herself then in the position to have multiple shots on goal and put one of them in.
     Abby came out in the second half on fire and played with more of a punishing sort of intensity than we usually see from her.  Most games she's like Christen Press; effortless skill, cleanly zig-zagging, almost un-foulable.  Today she was like Abby Wambach; imperious with lightning quick finish.
     Finally there was Hailey, standing on her head for a near shut out in the second half.  And the punts!?  Wow!  She nearly booted one of them to the attacking line in the other team's half!  Her touch on the ball while in the field in the first half was fabulous and on one run she made just the most graceful little step over move, not so much a fake but as a sudden change of direction.  Just beautiful.
    It was great game technically but it was also a real statement for the team in terms of their heart and determination.  They were in a tough spot and they came out and imposed their will on the other team, staying true to their style of play.  Well done Girl Power.