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!
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