Homework!

Olivia joins Girl Power for "The Big Game"

     You might have noticed that I had a clipboard in my hand the entire game Thursday as Girl Power faced TC Fire for the second time.  I was using a "Match Analysis" form to track player performance throughout the game.  You can see it there on the left.  The basic idea is that I choose a small set of skills or tasks that I want to see the players execute during the game and I keep track of their performance by awarding points for each attempt, whether they're successful or not.
     Using the form will take some getting used to.  As you can see I continued to mark points in the "First Half" section throughout the game.  You can also easily see that I probably missed a lot.  It's simply not possible that Zoe and Olivia's scores reflect their actual performance.  They were both great in this game.  Even if I do get the hang of keeping track of games this way I'm not sure I'll like it in the long run.  I felt like I was too busy keeping score to do what I normally do on the bench which is to engage the players there with me in a running conversation about what we're seeing on the field.  The clipboard and pencil kind of cramped my style.
     I do have to admit though that this method had an immediate affect on the girls.  You could clearly see that they were attempting to accumulate points by executing the moves and skills I had listed for them.  Sometimes that probably took them out of the game in a way and probably caused us to either give up goals or miss opportunities to score them.  Even if that is the case though they did play better against the Fire than in the last game.  On score alone, 12-6 this time compared to 13-5 last time, they improved.  They were also much more casual about the loss this time and clearly enjoyed the game despite the outcome.  They knew they had played well but had simply faced a very tough opponent.  
     Personally, I was nervous about this game all day Thursday.  I thought after our last game with TC Fire that we could have won despite the score because we seemed to possess the ball so much more and we allowed them so many easy goals when our defense fell apart.  And of course I couldn't help but be aware of the league standings.  If we beat them we'd win the league.  I think that as it turned out, using the Match Analysis form was actually as important for me as it was for the team as it allowed me to focus on the small details of their individual performances rather than the game outcome.  Rather than arriving at the game and trying to cram hours of coaching into a four minute pre-game talk, rather than trying to tell them how they could win if they would do this and this and this and...instead of that I spent a few minutes showing them the form on the clipboard and talking with them about the items on the "to do" list.  They were excited about it and they ran onto the field in great spirits, ready to go.
     Of course Girl Power still wanted to win and they played really hard.  They were aggressive and tough against a skillful opponent that played with a high level of intensity throughout the game.  That level of intensity on TC Fire's side is something we can take as a compliment.  The Fire played to the end like they thought we were still threatening to catch them.  They never acted like they thought they'd put Girl Power away. 
     I do think the use of the match analysis form was a good thing for the girls.  I certainly saw something new from everyone in terms of their effort to use moves that they hadn't tried before or use moves in combinations.  So here are the game highlights for me:

-Anna is top of the list with a beautiful "step-over" move that she pulled off, with pace, while squared up on two defenders.  Simply awesome.
-Zoe played fiercely in the field as she always does and she really sets the tone for the team in terms of being very casual about the intensity level of the other team.  She's not very impressed by high-elbows anymore.  Her big moment though was that one-handed stop she made while in at keeper.  The Fire had put in at least four of their goals with high shots like that and it was great to see one of our keepers slap one away.
-Next up is Ashley who finally took my advice and put her foot on top of the ball a few times in an effort to change direction and pace.  I'd pointed out to her that her first touch on the ball was always great but her second was usually a little too firm and so she gives the ball away too often.  I asked her to get back in the game and try using some sort of change of pace move, like a stop-hop or puskas, when she got past the first defender.  That way she would be able to slow the ball down to set up the next defender.  She went in and made it work beautifully the first time.
-Abby and Hailey, as you can see in the photo, were vying for the most points.  You'd expect Abby to score high as she loves using her skills more than she loves scoring goals.  In this game she was using her pull-back-play-behind and puskas so smoothly that the other team was getting very frustrated with her.  Hailey was mostly doing pull-backs and double pull-backs in the midfield but then still sticking with her amazingly deft cut moves when she headed toward the goal.  She did however have a couple of runs where she headed into the left corner and managed to get turned back into open space by using a pull-back or cruyff.  That's what I'm looking for from Hailey, an expansion of her repertoire.
-Ava played wonderfully throughout the game and frustrated her number one fan a few times by fearlessly carrying the ball across our own goal to get into space.  Her solo effort goal was just fantastic.
-Emily was, as usual, spinning and spinning throughout the game.  She and Eileen both seemed really keen on getting those points for dribbling out of our own half.  In her first turn on the field Emily was the epitome of what I think if as our "rotation" style of play.  She would collect the ball in our defensive end then dribble up field, winning a couple of 1v1's in a row.  Then when she finally lost the ball she'd hustle back to start again in the defensive half.   And all of the girls were working in that rotation form so we played much better defense than in our previous meeting with this team.
-Finally, I'm so glad we had Olivia with us.  She played beautifully with great patience and a deft touch.  She brings speed to the team too and I can't wait to see her get into position to show everyone that powerful right foot of hers.

Legends players can be strong in ways you wouldn't expect.

     Yesterday I filled in for Coach Gibson as his U8 boys took on a T&C team that seemed to have been hand selected for their birth dates.  Big kids.
     I was really thrilled with how our boys just went at them with no regard for their size.  I saw some really excellent efforts to play skillfully from every player.  Just little flashes but they're on the right path and all the minutes of experience they get, even in games like this will add up eventually.
     Late in the first half I had Johnny Yeager on the bench with me and I was enjoying his running commentary on the game.  While listening to Johnny I apparently missed an incident on the field where our player Ian got hit by the ball.  The referee came toward the bench and said "coach, you might want to get number four off...he got hit...you know...and he's looking a little green."  I waved for Ian to come off and by the way he was sort of bent over as he ran I had a pretty good idea where he got hit.
    He seemed okay once he caught his breath and I joked with him a bit, saying "you're not gonna throw up in here on the bench are you?  Cause if you are I'm getting out of here."  He grinned and said, no, he'd be alright.
     Johnny took my joke a bit more seriously though.  "I was sick last week" he said.  "And I felt one time like I was gonna throw up.  It got up to here."  At that point he touched his hand to his adam's apple.  "And then I just pushed it back down."  Totally deadpan.  Just a sort of wide-eyed  yep-that's-how-I did-it look on his face.
     "So you were gonna throw up but you swallowed it back down?"
     "Yeah" he replied.  Ian was right behind Johnny and he's looking at me with an expression that says "oooh, no, what?"
     "You sir, are a man!" I say.
     "Yes" he says then he turns his attention back to the game.  Outstanding.