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.
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