"I have failed over and over again...and that is why I will succeed."

     The Haunted Classic event in Beavercreek this past weekend was unequivocally a great experience for Girl Power even though the team's run there ended in heartbreaking fashion.  Despite dire advance reports the fields were in good enough condition, the weather was perfect and the referee crews we got were consistently competent.  And of course the girls played beautifully throughout the weekend, not only playing as skillfully as always but also taking some noticeable steps forward in their development as individuals and as a team.
     After their third game and before we learned one way or the other of our chances for advancing to the final I met with them to get my two coaching points in (that's a limit they make me stick to).  The girls were a little giddy, still high from the quality of their performance in the game, and a couple of players had to try to calm the rest down.  "Be quiet" someone said, "he's got to do that talking thing."  I surprised them by saying simply "I've only got one coaching point for you...I'm as proud of you as I could be."  Their reaction, silence followed by a group "awwww" showed me that they knew they really had played well, that they'd set a new standard for themselves.  They had gone into that game knowing they needed a shutout to have any chance of advancing and they delivered, playing their best, most organized defense of the whole season while still maintaining a vigorous attack that netted four goal.  What better feeling is there than knowing that you have to put everything you've been working on in training on the line and be perfect for 50 minutes and then going out and actually executing!?  They earned that post game moment of elation.
     Everyone knows how things went after that.  We ended up in a PK shootout with another team to get into the final and we lost.  Their keeper was amazing and all of their shooters were cool and efficient.  My girls hadn't been in that situation before but they handled it well.  Natalie bravely volunteered to be the keeper and she did all she could although not a single shot taken was really in range for her to realistically make a stop.  The shooters I chose, based simply on my estimation of which of them has the most consistent technique on deadball kicks, all struck the ball solidly but only one of them could find the net.
     So when the referee blew his whistle to end it the girls were shocked at first and then after the hand shakes and "good games" there were some bitter and bitterly earned tears.  They'd given each other everything they had and earned their chance but in this weird tie-breaker situation, which an enraged Beanie described as "not even soccer", their chance was over in what seemed like an instant.  They'd earned the right to be devestated so I didn't try to talk them out of that.  I'm sure everyone else had the same experience Eileen and I did.  As angry as she was right then, by the time we'd had some lunch and were half way home it was all in the past, just another competition, another chapter in the story.
     The previous tournament the team had played in, as a U9 squad in Columbus in the spring, was a dramatically different experience.  Not only did the team play poorly that weekend but their anger and disappointment at the overall result was, to my perception, more drama than genuinely earned anguish.  I wrote about my thoughts on that at the time but then felt uncomfortable sharing what I had written.  Reading it back to myself then, the tone of anger and disappointment was unmistakable so I shelved it.  Keep in mind that we were in the middle of a dominating league performance and I was very anxious to see the girls perform well in the Columbus tournament.  At that time though I was also feeling that our training sessions weren't going as well as they could and I was feeling that the work rate, the seriousness, of our training sessions was falling off.
     Anyway, here's a bit of what I wrote after that Columbus weekend:

     It's endlessly fascinating to me how differently a coach's perception of a game can be from the way the players or the parents are seeing it.  Our first game in the Columbus tournament was a great example of this.  For the players their conversation or rather complaints after the game were all about how rough the other team was and how awful the referee was.  They seemed to feel that we had the game in hand but it was snatched away by a combination of "dirty" play and poor officiating.  I had seen some physical play, some foul calls missed maybe.  I had seen at least two blown off-sides calls.  But for all of those, let's say ten incidents total, I probably saw forty instances in the game where one of our players made a technical or mental error.  Bad first touch, lazy effort away from the ball, failure to look up and see passing opportunities that were better than your dribbling path.  Failures to execute on set plays like goal-kicks and throw-ins.  Failures to cooperate and support each other.  In short, it was clear to me that the roughness of the other team and the referee's competence had very little to do with the game's result.  Our fate was in our hands and we dropped it.
     Now I'm not necessarily complaining about how the girls played.  They make mistakes and hopefully we learn from those and I have no expectation at this point that they should always play their most glittering soccer.  Some days you just don't have it.  My concern is that they may fall into a habit of looking for excuses after games when no excuse is necessary.  We played poorly--the end--learn then move on.  And by "learn" I mean assess your performance honestly, your individual performance and the team's performance.  If there was a play where you feel you got fouled and yet the referee didn't call it, as you're licking your wounds ask yourself this:  was it a situation where a few moments earlier you might have been able to make a smarter move to get into space?  Was it a situation where you might have passed the ball off and avoided that pressure altogether?
     All of this got me to thinking about the amount of emotional energy players put into the games, particularly their losses, and how that compares to the amount of energy in the form of focus and effort that they put into training.  I'd ask every player this question: Does your emotional commitment in games match your commitment in training?  Or are the two out of balance?  In other words, what I'd like the players to come to realize is that if they come out on the short side in a game and they're upset they need to ask themselves is that emotional energy balanced by the knowledge that they really gave it their all at training throughout the season?  If you aren't a particularly disciplined practice player, like maybe you know how to look disciplined and sort of fake your way through without really zeroing in on your technique, without mindfully struggling to improve, then what gives you the right to be all emotionally crazy on game day?  Did you earn that?  If you don't train as though winning is really important then how can you complain after a loss as though you think winning is really important?  I guess that's the take-away for me, that players must earn the right to feel really disappointed at a loss.  If you don't give it everything in practice then it's silly to let yourself get so overwrought after a game.

       
     This season has been a different story.  Generally the team's effort in training has been excellent and I do see very real and remarkable improvement in many areas of their fundamental skills.  Ball striking is a great example and I'm really pleased with the general quality of the team in that regard. I'm really happy with the consistent level of their dribbling technique, even in games and under pressure.  Their communication skills have improved dramatically and they are just in general playing ever more cohesively as a team.  And most importantly they are playing with a very high level of commitment to each other.  I see many instances in games or training where they are talking with each other about how they are performing, even demanding more of each other.  And of course that has led to their new pre-match rallying cry:  "Who do you play for?...I play for you!"
     So in contrast to that Columbus performance I felt that at the Haunted they played with much more heart, with much more commitment to play through fouls and to play to the whistle.  There was virtually no complaining about the officiating and the complaints about fouls from opponents that I did hear were usually framed in the context of a boast like "did you see what she was doing to me?...and I dribbled around her anyway!?"  Every player showed at some point during the weekend their hard earned skill with the ball and as a team they played in a beautiful free flowing and creative style, demonstrating once again that they are Proper Footballers.  When that PK shootout on Sunday ended and we were headed home I felt that our girls had earned their tears, their anger and disappointment.  I also knew that the next time they stood, toes on the circle waiting for the whistle to blow, their minds and hearts would be fully occupied with the game at hand.

New Posts and Old Posts

     Even as I keep posting at the new NKY Fusion FC "Field Notes" blog I want to keep my personal blog going just for the sake of keeping access to all of my old posts open.  I've moved everything from the old Coach Pat's blog to this new one and everything going back to the earliest days at NKYA are available here in the archives.

Playing into the Open

     In my last post from the indoor season I wrote about the Girl Power squad making progress in learning how to "move the postage stamp".  As I noted there the girls have all become more than competent at maintaining possession individually and they'd begun developing some understanding of how to use that skill to first hold the ball then pass to a teammate so that they can possess the ball as a group.  Some coaches call this progression "skill, space, release": use skill to possess the ball then move into space to find an option to release or pass the ball to a teammate.
     Girl Power have become very good at playing this "skill, space, release" game now with every player having two or three really reliable 1v1 moves that can get them into space and they have all improved dramatically in their ability not only to see each other on the field but also to assess what their teammate is seeing.  That last bit, the ability to visualize quickly what the field looks like from someone else's perspective, is a hugely important development and I'm thrilled to be seeing this already from our girls.  What I'm talking about here is not merely the ability to see when a teammate is open but also the ability to see how they can get open, what the possibilities of a situation are.  Sometimes passing is foot to foot.  You see a teammate standing in open space unmarked and you pass the ball directly to them.  But sometimes you pass the ball into space so as to break the mark on a teammate.  If I see you marked closely on your right by another player but you've got open space to your left I pass the ball into that space so that you can run onto it.  I pass you open, which is a phrase you hear a lot when the ESPN analysts are discussing quarterback prospects.  Can they only hit open targets or do they have the mental acuity to see opportunities to throw a receiver into the open space.
     Here's an example of that type of cooperative play from a recent training session.  We had eight players on hand Monday so at the end I set the pug goals up to let them play 4v4.  But I also added a rule that each team had to keep two defenders and two attackers on either side of the field, so in the first few minutes Hailey and Ashley were together as attackers and they could not chase back into their own half, they had to stay "up".  Their teammates could only defend and not bring the ball "up" past the half line.  My goal was to force them into more 1v1 and 1v2 situations with the ball and to give them an opportunity to discover the value of the  "drop" passing we occasionally work on.  So right at the start of the game we get an example of the sort of visualization that I'm talking about when Hailey drives the ball into the right corner then does a very deft cruyff to slide back up the line and gain space from the nearest defender, Eileen.  As she turns back to the center of the field Hailey looks up and sees Ashley out near the center of the field with Anna marking her to the inside, that is, on the ball side.  Hailey then turns her shoulders a bit to face a spot about four yards out from goal, totally empty space, and she hits a perfect pass, square to that spot, and as she does so she says loud enough for everyone to hear "you better make this".  Apparently she was talking to Ashley and apparently Ashley was already anticipating the pass as she broke away from Anna on Hailey's touch and was able to simply walk the ball into the goal.  That was some showtime-level play.
     Of course you saw that same sort of play on display Saturday afternoon as Abby managed two goals off of some really brilliant "through" ball passes.  The first was from Ava and it was just perfect and I want you to take a moment to think about what happened there.  Ava saw that 1) there was an open lane for her to put the ball into space behind the other team's defenders, and 2) that Abby was running full speed toward those defenders.  In a fraction of a second she put that all together and slotted the ball to just the right spot and then Abby just had to do what great strikers do...finish.  I'm happy to say we've got a squad full of determined, even mule-headed, finishers right now so a well served pass rarely goes unused.
     All this talk of tactical passing aside though, don't forget what it was that got us here.  It was that attention to individual ball skill and that is still critical.  Olivia got our first goal and it was the result of a box to box run in which she beat at least three defenders 1v1.  Ashley's goal was also a long run and to get into finishing position she split the two defenders with a beautifully delicate touch.  In the opening minutes of the game it looked like it would be a very close affair but once the girls started getting their skills on things opened up.  By the second half we were seeing some beautiful individual skill on display (Anna's maradonna was killer) and you've got to keep in mind how important that is in terms of the team's ability to both generate scoring opportunities and to defend by limiting the other side's ability to possess the ball.  The way I described the team when they were still playing U8 rec is as true now as then: they defend by possessing the ball and not letting you have it.
   

Moving the Postage Stamp

     The typical training set-up we use at Legends is sometimes referred to as "playing on a postage stamp" in that we often try to restrict the amount of space in which all of our exercises take place.  For instance, when we play our 1v1 game we always put the goals close together to close the field space down and make the area as crowded as possible.  Lately we have even been playing some 1v1 games in the box soccer courts including a simple "keep away" game.   As I noted in my last post, playing keep away with my players is a technique I've used for a while as a way to introduce them to ball control, not only as a particular set of skills but as a way of playing the game.  With the whole "postage stamp" mode of training what we're doing initially is getting players to focus less on just moving the ball towards goal as fast as possible (kicking and running) and learn to focus more on their ability to keep the ball close even as other players are challenging them for it, that is, to be able to play keep away.
     But keep away is just the first stage of the player's development.  At that point you've got players who can control the ball for five or ten seconds at a time in a space about the size of one of our box soccer courts (your postage stamp).  If they create scoring opportunities it's a matter of an individual winning multiple 1v1s to get to goal.  Or it may be one player after another advancing the ball a little, losing it to a defender, then having a teammate pick it up who then wins another 1v1, and so on but there is no real coordinated team play, no real passing.  At this point I'm just trying to get them not to fight each other for the ball.  This is where Girl Power was about one year ago.
     The next stage comes when they really do start to understand how to maintain a useful space away from the ball when a teammate is dribbling.  At that point they start seeing passing opportunities as a natural option and they begin experimenting with that.  So when that happens the postage stamp gets a bit bigger, maybe the size of the penalty area now.  That's where Girl Power have been for a few months.  In a lot of field conditions against most teams that ability to just keep control in a smallish space long enough to find a good pass to a nearby teammate usually results in that teammate breaking free for a fairly straightforward shooting opportunity.
     But what if the field is a big one or the surface is slow?  And what if the other team has defenders who know better than to hang back and wait for you to dribble into them?  Well, then you have trouble getting the ball out of that postage stamp-sized area and that's what we saw with the girls a couple of weeks ago when they played on the large field at T&C.  They were great at possessing the ball and they were even passing a bit but they just couldn't get the ball out of our own half.
     The reason for their trouble in that game was simply that while they were all doing their best to dribble and win space and then doing a pretty good job of finding a teammate for a pass when they needed too, eventually the ball would find it's way to the player farthest up field whose only support would be someone behind them.  At that point the only way forward was going solo as none of our players off the ball would react quickly enough to the opportunity and get open up front for a through ball or at least to draw some defensive attention.
     So, our girls can keep the ball away from you 1v1 in a little space and they can play as a unit and keep possession in a slightly bigger space but in certain situations they get stuck in that smallish space and can't get to goal.  In describing the next stage of our team development to the girls in practice last week I told them that they need to learn how to take that little space they are so good at playing in and move it up the field.  We did some drills to emphasize that and going into our last indoor game the coaching phrase I kept using was "move the little space up the field."
     We didn't actually see much of an effort to move the postage stamp in that game but the girls were all enthusiastic about the idea, Ava in particular, and right now I'm happy just to have it sort of in the back of their minds.  And there were a few hints of something new on the horizon.  Most of the girls, when they were playing out of the defensive third were clearly looking to win their first 1v1 and then dish the ball as the next defender closed on them.  There were also a lot of really nice through ball passes from midfield leading a running player into a shooting opportunity.
     Their excellent dribbling skills combined with all of these new-found cooperative skills allowed the girls to overcome a 0-3 first half deficit.  They were down 1-4 in the second half and went on an unanswered 6 goal run for a final score of  7-4.  We'll keep working on moving the postage stamp and hopefully this season we're going to see them developing a sense of how to work as a group to capitalize on their individual ball control strength.
   

Foundations

     Back when I first started working with the group of players who would become Girl Power* one of my favorite ways to warm up the team at the start of training or before games was to play keep-away. I'd take off with the ball and challenge the whole team to try and take it away from me.  The kids always loved it and it gave me an opportunity to introduce them to the idea that soccer is a game of dribbling as opposed to "kicking and running".  I would do my best to keep the ball very close to me and to keep possession while never simply running away from the kids.  If one of the players did get the ball from me it was gratifying to see some of them emulate me and try to dribble and control the ball rather than just kick it.  

    Over time I began to introduce my players to fundamental ball control exercises like "toe-taps" and "foundations" (bells) and I regularly noticed that for many players these exercises felt silly and pointless, unrelated to the game.  To convince players that it was worth their effort to apply themselves to becoming competent at toe-taps and foundations I would challenge them to steal the ball from me in a 1v1 game of keep-away.  Before we started I might explain to the whole group "I'll dribble to keep the ball but only using toe-taps" or "only using foundation touches and we'll see if they can get if from me."  By doing that regularly I was able to convince most players that the fundamental skills we were learning from just those two exercises were skills they could use effectively in games, skills that would make them better at the game they loved.

     As we progress through learning different change of direction moves and deceptive techniques those two control skills, controlling the ball with your toes (toe-taps) or with your instep (foundations), turn out to be the fundamental touches that most of our 1v1 moves are built from.   Below are some video clips from a recent Girl Power game in which I've isolated aspects of their game that demonstrate how important those fundamental control touches are, how they just show up everywhere in a game.

Above you see Abby stealing the ball cleanly out of the reach of an opponent by using a little instep chop or "foundation" touch.

This video also shows the value of the "foundation" or bells touch as Hailey deftly makes a little right-left move that completely bamboozles her opponent.  I can remember clearly how frustrated all the girls were with learning "foundations" and yet here it is helping them get to goal.

In this clip you see Ava using a move that we practice until the team is sick of it, the Cruyff turn.  It's a move that builds directly off of that foundation instep touch and here you see Ava using it to escape from a player who is a good head taller than her.  Also note that Ava's confidence in this skill after so much practice allows her to dribble directly at our own goal in order to set her opponent up for the deceptive turn.

I wanted to include one example of some very heads-up passing too as the ability to look up and see opportunities even before the ball comes to you is something that requires the confidence you develop from being comfortable with the ball at your feet.  In this case Ava isn't concerned about the tight spot she's about to be in with the ball.  Rather she's only thinking of the next move, how to get the ball to Hailey. 

Finally, here is that "foundations" based Cruyff turn again, this time from Zoe.  It's as smooth as can be and that's the result of hundreds of repetitions so that now Zoe can execute this skill without thinking about it.

*Girl Power parents should remember that it was originally "Girl Power Plus Micah" and if you haven't noticed Micah lately at Legends you need to be on the lookout for him.  He's become an amazing player.

Resilience

   Before the Girl Power game this past Saturday I put two "restrictions" in place for the team.  Firstly, any of them playing keeper would only be allowed to throw the ball.  No punts.  Secondly, during the second half I would expect each player at some point to dribble the ball into the other team's final third then take the ball back out past the half line before being allowed to turn back toward goal to find a shot.
    Part of my reasoning for restricting the punting is that I wanted to force them while in as keepers to have to think more about how to get the ball out in a way that would re-start our attack.  Once a player has developed a good punt then it becomes their automatic go-to skill whenever they get their hands on the ball.  And why not?  They know it's impressive and it seems to be what their teammates and the crowd want, right?  But a punt can be just a very long turn over if it's not placed thoughtfully and so by taking that tool away in this game I hoped to force both the keeper and the field players to find other ways to solve the problem of how to get the ball out.
     My thinking in asking players to dribble in then out of the attacking half was similarly based on a need to force players to experience the game in a particular way.  I'd watched a couple of USWNT games and one Premier League game recently where the team with the better skills and attacking tactics was managing to produce a lot of shooting opportunities but no goals for long periods of the game.  It was a game between Everton and West Bromwich Albion of the English Premier League that really got me thinking about this.  Everton had ball possession for an overwhelming 70% of the game and took an astounding 33 shots on goal without scoring even once.  West Brom on the other hand managed one goal on a corner kick early in the game and held that lead to the end.
     What I noticed watching that game was that while Everton had gotten into a beautiful rhythm, attacking West Brom's goal in wave after wave, West Brom had also developed a rhythm in their defense and were stoutly absorbing the Everton attack.  It began to look like a sort of football version of the rope-a-dope.
     Later in the week I saw a USWNT Olympic qualifier vs Mexico in which they seemed to be having the same issue.  They possessed the ball and attacked furiously while the other team simply absorbed the pressure, never trying to mount much of an attack of their own.  The US team finally broke through and it seemed to me that what changed for them was that they altered the tempo of the game just slightly by actually bypassing a few shooting opportunities and bringing the ball back out into midfield to begin their attack again.  By doing this the US Women were able to patiently draw the defending team out just enough to create some space in front of goal.  They managed one goal but it was enough and Mexico were certainly the toughest side they faced before meeting Canada in the final.
     So, what I hoped to achieve by having players double up on their dribbling work by going in then out of the other half wasn't just to force them to increase the number of 1v1s they could face.  Rather my main goal was to get them to realize that they can use their skills and the whole field space to alter the tempo of the game and that one player who moves the ball thoughtfully and with some patience can move the other team's defense around to our advantage.  As good as Girl Power has become at creating opportunities for shots they are still often moving at a break-neck pace as they approach goal.  While I don't want them to cut back on the quantity of shots they take I'd like them to slow down enough to take the extra touches necessary to increase the quality of the shots they take.  By taking 'extra touches' I mean that they often make a great move to win an opening but then rush into that space so fast, even recklessly, that they aren't able to get off a good shot.
     As it turned out our opponent on Saturday gave us exactly the sort of game I was describing.  In the first minute of play Abby threw every move at them she had and I think I could hear the other Coach groaning.  Everyone else on the squad was anxious to show their moves too and I saw some really jaw dropping stuff.  At one point early on Zoe did a pull-and-play-behind at full running stride so smooth and fast that I suspect the opposing player who was on her may have thought Zoe simply evaporated with the ball.  In response to all this ball control skill the other team was mostly kicking at the ball.  To her credit, the other Coach was repeatedly pleading with her team to dribble more but only getting a positive response from one player.  Girl Power managed at least 60% ball possession and took an insane 36 shots with an impressive 19 of those being on frame.  But with 1:29 left to play only 4 of those had found the net and we were down 5-4.
     Late in the second half the other team had managed to equalize and then take a one goal lead thanks to that one committed ball hog they had.  As we took the kick-off after she put in goal number five I was concerned that our girls were a bit shell-shocked.  I could see them all look up at the clock and I was worried they might panic but at the whistle they took a good small touch, one player to another, moving the ball laterally to Ashley.  As she dribbled past our bench I called out to her "there's time, take it easy and find your shot".  Ashley had been having a great game showing some of her best dribbling work this session and she was sure footed this time as she moved into the corner on the keeper's right.  She drove right into the defender on that side then pulled the ball back out and turned toward the center.  One soft touch to set it up and she blasted the ball high and into the top corner, far post.  As cool as you please and with time to spare.
     At about the 1:00 mark the other team took their places around the ball to kick-off.  One player was on the ball but her nearest teammates were three yards or more to either side.  What happened next was truly amazing and shows the way Girl Power are developing not only their ball skills but their game IQ.  With the one opposing player standing over the ball for kick-off and no one else close by to take a short pass I hear Hailey and Olivia both call to their teammates "they're just going to kick it."  I think they both sounded a bit incredulous, like, "wow, they're just going to give us the ball"  which is exactly what they did as their center player tried to toe poke the ball straight through our front line.  I think Hailey ended up making the final run along the wall to the keeper's left and after digging the ball out of the corner she got it across the goal to Ashley who tried to put it right back in.  The keeper deflected it but Olivia was waiting about two yards out and tapped it in for the winner with only seconds left.
     It was a thrilling ending and what impressed me the most was that while the girls were playing energetically in those final moments they were also playing with confidence and self-assurance.  There wasn't enough time left for a lot of chances but there was time left for two or three attempts and Girl Power played like they knew that was enough.
     My plan to get them to dribble in and out of the attacking half didn't work out as the pace of the game in the second half kind of took over but the way the game ended was the right lesson in itself.  It showed them that they can play with urgency without being in a panic, that they can play skillfully even when time is limited.
     The restriction on the keeper punting was a success I think in that it did put a lot of pressure on our keepers and defenders.  The keepers had to assess and think a bit before distributing the ball and the defenders had to be moving to stay available.  I know that seeing our players play the ball at their feet out of our own third of the field can be stressful but we'll probably keep that rule in place the remainder of the session.

Poise

Girl Power faced a familiar opponent Saturday evening, the NKSA Cheeths.  We played them in two friendly matches in the fall and while we won both games I could clearly see the NKSA squad growing in confidence during that second match.  When we ran into them at the fall tournament they were a team transformed, playing with a high energy level and a lot of discipline.  They got the best of us in that tournament match despite the fact that we had so much more ball possession during the game.
     Thinking about that last match later I came to the conclusion that all of that ball possession was a result of the individual skills of our players, which is what we train for.  But in a game situation where a strong team gets a goal up on us early my squad's response is based on that same individual skill.  That is, they each as individuals pick up their intensity while at the same time becoming less coordinated as a group.  Each girl goes out there and does what they've trained so hard to do.  They attack the ball, get possession and then attempt to dribble penetrate.  Against less experienced or less organized squads the Girl Power's level of individual competence leads to wave after wave of patient but relentless attack generating a lot of shooting opportunities.
     In that fall tourney game against the Cheetahs we met an opponent who had learned how to keep a disciplined shape on the field and as a result when one of our players would eventually lose the ball after attempting yet another 1v1 the NKSA players were more often in an advantageous position to capitalize.  As their lead grew our girls' level of intensity increased to becoming nearly frantic and that only added to NKSA's advantage.  Our girls began wandering and then actively chasing toward the ball, leaving more and more empty space around the field so that, again, when one of our players lost the ball on the dribble after valiantly pressing through defenders (and their own teammates) the Cheetah player who picked up that turnover was often looking at an open path to goal.  Their final goal of the game was a dagger, a rocket off the powerful right foot of Cheetah leader Jolie (she's a real player and fun to watch).  She had picked up a lost ball from Anna I think near the center circle then sprinted diagonally toward the corner on her right.  Just as Ava threatened to catch her Jolie let loose a blast from the eighteen cutting back across to the far post.  Frozen at the near post Eileen didn't have a chance of getting to that one.
     Playing indoor on the small field at T&C the conditions can be favorable to a team that plays the ball over the top a lot, that is, with long passing from the back and a "clear it out" defensive mentality.  Saturday evening that proved to be the case as the Cheetas got out to an early lead even as Girl Power were, as usual, putting on a show of individual skills.  This game, I thought, might go the same way that last one did.  But something happened twice in the opening minutes that in retrospect I can see indicated that we would see a new level of confident team play from Girl Power.  In the first run of play after kick-off the Cheetahs managed to boot the ball down into our left corner.  Ava had plenty of time to get to the ball and trap it cleanly and then she did something that was so remarkable and yet so very "Scout" like.  Looking up from the ball and quickly assessing her options Ava turned toward her defensive partner Olivia and made a smart pass right through the box to the other side of the field.  It may have looked risky at the time but in reality Ava made exactly the right choice.  Olivia was wide open and the Cheetahs were all lined up on Ava's side of the field.  Olivia had an open path to the midfield with the ball and most importantly she was ready for the pass.  Ava did that again a few minutes later and this time it was at Olivia's prompting who was calling out "square" to her.  I could hear the groan/moan from the bleachers, the murmurs of "oh no, not that way" but again it worked beautifully.      By that time, despite the energy with which the Cheetahs were pressing, Girl Power started to settle in and started to feel their strength.  Their body language was casual and confident. Suddenly they were not only dribbling brilliantly but they were communicating, mostly in the correct specific terms we've been working on, and we started seeing some beautiful passing to compliment their 1v1 skills.  Suddenly our girls were playing with a disciplined shape, but not a rigid formation as most teams attempt.  Rather they flow about the field now, ever more aware of their shared responsibilities.  As the play of Ava and later Emily and Eileen in defense showed they feel free to find different ways to solve the problems encountered in defense, solutions that keep our defense and attack connected, one leading directly into the other.  The way I've described this style of play that we've been working toward is "rotation" and in Saturday evening's game they were masterful in executing it.
     I say masterful in this instance because of the confidence, the ease with which they rotate and cover for each other now.  And they do so in a way that is actually deceptive to other teams.  At one point in the first half, with the teams tied now on three or four apiece, there was a run of play where Olivia I think trapped a long, aimless, ball that came into her corner and began dribbling out into the open space the other team was giving her.  Her defense mate, Eileen had just made a similar run from the other side and so as Olivia struck up-field our half was empty save for Emily in goal.  I could hear the tone of the other coach's voice change as he pleaded for his girls to challenge Olivia quickly.  He could see the opportunity that had opened up and wanted them to take it.  But before Olivia had even taken on her first 1v1 just past the half line Emily smartly read the situation and called out for someone to get back.  Keep in mind this is while we still have possession.  Eileen shouted back with a supportive "I got ya" and looped back into a central defensive position.  When she did that I could hear the disappointment in the other coach's voice, realizing they'd missed their chance.  Our girls did that the whole game; freely attacking space from the back; smartly rotating to cover.  And they weren't just covering to defend the goal, to simply block the shots.  They were playing to recover the ball and attack again.
     Late in the game Ava made another one of her smart outlet passes having trapped the ball against the wall near our goal.  She saw that a pass to Olivia in goal was not an option and neither was dribbling out across the box which was crowded with Cheetahs.  But she did see Eileen to her right up the wall so she made a quick pass to her.  Eileen then did the Legends thing which is she tried to dribble out of a tight spot despite being double and then triple covered.  Back and forth she played the ball using her pull-and-play-behind, dragging her opponents with her until eventually they just sort of got tired of it and left her an opening so she could split two of them and get headed up field.  Her long pass up for Hailey was a bit strong but eventually that play led to a goal for Abby. That run of play demonstrated the important difference between what Eileen and the other girls had been doing in defense and the way other teams, the Cheetahs included, deal with balls in their own third.  After Eileen got the ball up toward Hailey she chased after her to be there for a drop.  Hailey dug the ball out of the corner, trying to get off a shot or get the ball to Abby who was waiting far post.  The ball ping-ponged around in the Cheetah's third for twenty seconds or so with Eileen moving into the corner as Hailey moved toward the penalty spot.   With Cheetah players frantically trying with each touch to clear the ball out they were only managing to give us the ball back over and over.  Eventually a rebound off of one of their defenders fell to Abby's foot and she calmly chipped it over the keeper's left shoulder high into the corner of the goal to put the game away.
     The difference in the attitudes of the teams toward defending is that when Eileen or Ava or any of them trap the ball and attempt to dribble out or find a smart pass they are defending to create offense.  But a team that clears the ball as their default defensive option is defending only in hopes of regrouping and their players are in a mode where thinking about how to solve the problem the actual moment presents is not required or even encouraged.
     I watch enough pro soccer to know that being able to clear the ball is an essential skill for good defenders and every week I'll see some amazingly acrobatic turn made by a defender who is running full speed toward his own goal and yet manages to spin and boot the ball thirty yards back up field.  But what you also see from good defenders on good teams is that they only clear the ball when they are unsure of their other options.  So those players are expected to be able to assess the situations they are in on the fly and find their best way forward rather than acting in some automatic fashion.  I know that our girls can put themselves in some precarious situations by dribbling out of the back but don't think that I'm encouraging them to do that because I think it's the best strategy for a team.  Rather I think it's the best strategy for a coach who wants to put his players in a situation where they are free to feel the power of their skills and to creatively solve the problems they see in front of them.

     So now some highlights.
     Emily was strong in goal the first quarter including a stop made with one foot as she did the full "splits".   Cat-like!
     Abby was stringing combinations together with really remarkable effect and now she's adding in this new found power on her shooting stroke.  Guess the box soccer thing is working.
     Anna, despite having recently had some serious dental surgery, was gliding through defenders with those silky step-over/scissor combinations she loves.  And in this game she was smartly getting into position on the weak side of the goal when off the ball too.  As a result she had a couple of nice "clean up" goals.
      Ava was playing with her usual stellar field awareness.  Her first touches into space and her passing were brilliant.
     Hailey was hard pressed in this game with the Cheetahs being less susceptible to her subtle feints than other teams.  She seemed to adjust to that going into the second half and began adding more of an irresistible pause to her fakes and lunges and so she started drawing her defenders more off balance.
     Olivia was tentative the first few minutes about dribbling out from the back.  She made some brilliant through-ball passes in that first quarter though and by the second quarter and into the second half she was taking full advantage of the space in front of her to dribble up and take her chances.  She was brilliant in keeper to with some really excellent outlet throws (defense flowing into offense).
     Ashley was having a hard time initially finding the feel for playing effectively away from the ball.  By the second half though she seems to have had an epiphany and began smartly moving quickly to either a central or far-post position when one of her teammates had the ball on a wing.  As a result she got a lot of chances on goal.
     Eileen's new found speed and confidence continues to impress.  She's a firecracker!