TFC Blue Cup Summary

Sorry it took so long to post and it may be just a bit too long. But here goes.

Preface

I am pretty confident that if you ask every player what our focus has been since the beginning of the season it would be two things. Pace of play and possession. These are two things tactically and technically that require a great deal of continuous repetition.

I attribute a great deal of our success as a team over the years to the amount of preparation (practice time) and the numbers of repetitions that we are able get in as a team. (Thank you parents)

The three weeks leading up to this tournament had its opportunities with getting quality practice sessions in. Illness, injuries (Paige), weather and conflicts with school events made it pretty difficult. So my first concern going into this tournament was the lack of full team practice sessions.

My second concern was the lack this fall of an on going competitive schedule. When I look at our schedule each year I try to build on our level of competition through the season in order to create some momentum towards the end. Aside from Plano and the Hurricane Cup we didn’t have many really competitive formats that tested the girls this fall.

In the competitive formats that we did have we played well but not as consistent as we should have each game. When you play the less competitive teams you can get away with a few lapses during the game, but when you play really good teams you have to be consistent from beginning to end, with minimal mistakes. I think everyone remembers the TSC White meltdown.

Now contrary to what I said above, when we scrimmaged the 93 Comets a few weeks ago I was really pleased with how well the girls played. I thought we had played one of the most complete matches we had played in a while. That 3-2 win really created some strong momentum and confidence. In the practices leading up to that match, pace of play really became our priority. Our movement with and with out the ball really showed how much it had improved in this scrimmage.

I could also sense during the indoor matches against the older age groups that the girls were gaining momentum and confidence. I think Jakob Nilsson said it best after one of the matches against the U18s when he said our girls were playing a very chippy or feisty style game. I could tell then that our game was starting to peak.

So my final concern was hoping that they could continue to peak and not have any let downs before or during the tournament.

TFC Blue Cup Tournament:

Pool Play Summary

TFC Blue 2-0 Win

Solar Blue 1-0 Win

Dallas Texans White 0-0 Tie

I don’t think the scores during pool play really indicate how well the girls played to include the tie that we had.

In our first match against TFC Blue I think we surprised them. I don’t think they were expecting us to come out at the pace we did. They had a really good keeper and the girls put her to work. I think we must have taken about 10-12 shots in the first half and the goalie made some really good saves. Sara got our first goal off a corner kick from AD midway through the half and Tayler followed up with our second on a nice give n go combination from Ellen shortly after.

During the second half the girls played with the same intensity and with the wind to our backs in the second half, TFC only mounted a few penetrations into our half of the field. Defensively our defenders played a much smarter game. TFC had two really strong outside attackers who had good speed and knew how to work the ball. They were able to get past our defenders one on one a few times but the defenders did a much better job of stepping across and picking up the penetration with the center defender coming across and the defender who got beat dropping back into second defender position vs. trying to race the attacker back. They also started using the keepers more to help clear the ball.

Overall I thought a pretty strong showing for an early game on the road.

In our second match the girls played just as well. We had a few opportunities in the first half but again a really athletic goalie. The girls had her diving all over the place. Ellen, AD and Madison took some really quality shots but she was able to knock those shots away time and time again.

At half time the coach from the other team realized they were having difficulties getting possession of the ball and decided to try something we had not seen before. He put everyone but one player back on defense and as they were able to win the ball they tried to send a long ball so that their one player could go one on one to the goal. She had speed with decent skills so I think they had used this tactic before. We were able to corral her when they were able to get a send in and our midfield won a majority of the balls that kept them from really putting in a solid threat, but with all those defenders it was tough to really create a good opening for us as well.

With about 10 minutes left in the game we were awarded a free kick about 30 yards out after a foul. Tayler put a good ball up but the goalie was there to knock it down. However, Lauren Cowgur followed and as the ball hit the ground she was able to catch the rebound with a header into the goal. That turned out to be the game winner for us and really secure our spot into the semis.

A few things about this game showed we really need to sharpen up our set plays again. The lack of repetition did show here. We didn’t execute well on corners or free kicks during this tournament.

In our final pool game against the Dallas Texans White we once again faced an opponent who packed in the defense. This team needed a win to move on and we needed no less than a tie to win the bracket. So they were coming out to play and once again another team who tried to play the long ball and let their fast forwards win one v one match ups. We didn’t put in any goals this match but we had our chances. Meagan, Kate and Donut helped us put some good pressure on the goal with over laps and give n goes and our outside mid fielders were making some really good rungs. I really thought we should have had a few goals in this match but we just couldn’t find the back of the net. We had some good openings and were able to get 1v1 situations with the goalie, but we kicked the ball directly back to the goalie each time.

Over all a decent match for us but a good call out on the need to continue to work on finishing. The Tie allowed us to win the bracket and kept them from moving on as the wild card.

ASG West Gold Semi Finals match 3-1 win.

This team won the Memphis Spring Elite Tournament last April. We almost saw them in the finals there but we lost the PK shoot out to the other Dallas team in the semi finals and never got a chance to play them. This team has played in and won competitive tournaments like this one.

We started out really flat the first 10 minutes or so in this game. ASG was playing as the faster team when the game started and had the momentum going. I was getting on several players due to the lack of effort that was impacting our over all team play.

In the previous three games we had only given up 1 corner kick in total. In the first 10 minutes vs. ASG we had given up at least three and on their third corner we finally gave up the first and only goal of the tournament. Initially it looked like we were going to be able to clear the ball, it almost seemed like slow motion as the ball moved past everyone and the last attacker was able to get a clean shot and put it in the goal.

The forwards for ASG were very fast and worked very well with each other. They had some good give n go plays and our middle defenders and center mid fields were really being put to the test. They also had some really good speed on the outside and were able to get some deep runs. Our outside defenders got beat a few times and then started backing off the high pressure that we normally play with, thus giving up too much ground to ASG. To about the 20 minute mark of the first half ASG was the better team.

One of our tactics through this tournament was to go into the wind the first half of every game in order to get that added pressure during the second half when the other team was a bit winded. To this point it hadn’t hurt us but in this math we gave up our first goal and the other team was really putting the pressure on us. I had hoped just to hold them off the rest of the half, settle down and try to get something going when we had the wind to our backs.

The girls, however, had something else in mind and around the 25-minute mark Tayler took the ball deep into the corner and sent a cross towards the goal. Madison was in the right place as the backside trailer and caught the ball on her left foot in mid air for a nice goal. That got us a little momentum as about 5 minutes later Sara weaved in and got our second goal to give us 2-1 lead at half.

At half time I think the girls knew although we had the lead that they didn’t play one of their better halves of soccer. I think they expected me to really get on them at half time as they came in with their heads hanging and for the first time in the tournament the bench was quiet.

Instead of getting on them, which I guess I could have easily done, I told them this was why we were here. I told them I love playing these types of games and they should too. We were being pushed very hard and we were being challenged by a very good team and that they were stepping up to the challenge.

I told our outside defenders to step up and take on those fast attackers and not to give up so much ground. Yes they got beat a couple times but they can’t back down. We needed them and the inside defenders and mid fielders to play a more aggressive second half. They all stepped up to the challenge and played a much better second half of the game.

The second half game plan was to give the girls 20 minutes with our attacking formation or until we got a goal, I was then going to pull back a forward and go with an extra defender and move to a defensive heavy formation and to play for the win the last 20 minutes.

Right about the 20-minute mark I had the extra defender on the line ready to sub in for a forward when Tayler was able to get past the back defensive row and put in a goal in the corner to give us a 3-1 lead. I then went to a 1-4-4-1 to give us more defensive numbers in the back and instructed the girls to clear the ball long. The girls played a sound defensive game the last 20 minutes and we found ourselves in the finals I think to a lot of people’s surprise.

Finals Dallas Sting Royal 2-0 win.

We last played the Sting at the Plano Labor Day Tournament and lost 1-0 in pool play. We knew going into the game it was going to be good match.

I told the girls before this game that they had played pretty well to this point but the one thing our game was lacking was emotion. We had something to prove to this team and they had to do it on the field.

The other coach had the same game plan with the wind that we had and for the first time in the tournament we had the wind in the first half. The wind was also picking up so it was going to be a difference maker in this game especially at the end. For about the first 15 minutes of the game it was back and forth with no real attacks by either team. In our normal set I have Tayler playing a low forward, which helps us win balls in the middle but who ever is playing that spot also has to drag behind the high forward to help us get numbers on the attack.

Periodically we have teams that mark players during games in this one the other coach had marked Tayler with two players. Aside from having two players on Tayler it also put extra players for them in the midfield so I switched Ellen and Tayler and put Tayler up to the high forward, which pulled those marking players to the back line. I don’t think the other coach caught on to the switch until the second half.

By doing this I knew it would give us numbers back in the mid field but without knowing, it also opened up our low forward spot. Tayler and Ellen were able to start working give n goes in the middle and as soon as Tayler would touch the ball on top they would converge on her leaving Ellen wide open to the goal. The challenge would be if Tayler could get her the ball. Ellen had a couple openings but couldn’t get a clean shot to the goalie. Finally at about the half way point of the first half they hooked up on a good give n go and Ellen finally put a bullet in the back corner that this goalie wasn’t going to stop. This gave us a 1-0 lead at half time.

The first 5 minutes of the second half Sting came out pretty strong and with the wind to their backs, we knew we were still in a dogfight. They putting enough pressure on us that I had to go right away to our defensive formation to help us battle against them and the wind. At about 25 minutes into the second half Tayler got past the last line on a through ball and beat the goalie one on one to give us a 2-0 lead. Two more times she had similar chances against the goalie but put it right back to her. I guess she needed a closer game. We were able to do this because the other coach moved a defender forward to help get numbers on the goal leaving him short in back after we scored the second goal. Our mid fielders and defenders were able to keep possession through this and gave us through balls that kept the pressure on and sealed our 2-0 win.

My overall summary of the tournament is that I see good progress on our focus items. Which has been pace of play and possession. The girls are moving well, passing well and recognizing different game situations and finding different ways to react to them and they are doing it as a team. The overall team consistency has improved as well. Tactically we still need to work on our outside mid fielders rotating on getting heels to the outside line when the ball rotates to their side. A few times we got bunched up due to not doing this. Defensively we need to keep working on our cover defense and using the second defender and goalie when we are under high pressure outside the 18. Our keepers are playing a much smarter game but we still need to work on knowing when to send and when to roll out to a defender.

Technically it was a pretty sound tournament. A few times the first touch got rough but that was due to the girls trying to not settle the ball at their feet when they are under pressure. They are doing a great job of knowing when to dribble out of pressure to make a good pass and when to first touch a pass. A few times when they were penetrating they took too many touches without shooting or dropping the ball off but I thought the control was very good.

I also want them to know when they should hold the ball at their feet and when to keep it moving so that the defense does not have time react and set up. There are times when we need to do this in order to freeze the defender to set up an over lap or under lap so we will need to continue to work on the different game situations and when to one or the other.

I'll be sending January practice times out in the next few days and a few other notes as well.

Good Tournament.

Doug

2009 Clorox Cup

We knew going into this tournament that it probably wouldn't match up to Plano in regards the level of competition.

So the challenge would be to validate the level of separation. I told the girls we weren't going to measure it by the score either. We have occasionally played down to lesser teams or gotten completely out of our game by trying to do nothing but score goals.

The girls did a great job of playing to our pace. As a whole you could see a difference technically by player. We had better touch, we passed much sharper, The girls did a really good job of knowing when to pass to feet or into space.
I had one of the refs say to me that it seemed we always had someone in the right place at the right time. What this tells me is that the girls did a really good job of beginning their movement two to three passes away. They did a great job of keeping defensive and offensive shape.

Saturday in both games the girls did a great job of forcing our pace on the other teams. I saw several players again push their individual game which just started everyone to start feeding of this momentum. But we stayed in our game. The girls built on what we did in Plano. Great job of keeping possession, working different parts of our attack and we transitioned back and forth with greater consistency on Saturday.
With AJ being out we had to work with players in different roles. It was fun to see those players succeed in their new roles. Some things we need to help them with but everyone did really well.

Sunday it was a challenge to keep playing at our pace in the morning. The girls started to get a little frustrated by not scoring on opportunities that should have been really easy goals. I think their was about probably 5 or 6 attempts where we were 1 on 1 with the goalie and either kicked it wide or right to the goalie. I guess in the long run this was a good thing turning in a 11-0 score would have not been very sportsman like although I wanted to.

The game against Carrera was just what we needed to end the tournament. They were a very athletic group with some real quality players. They won a tournament in St. Louis last week so they were very confident and ready to come here and do the same. I really challenged the girls in this game to come out very hard and we did. We attacked so hard to begin the game it was hard for them to get organized. Again a few goals we should have completed in this half that we didn't.
At the half I told the girls not to be over confident. I said if I were the Carrera coach i would be really challenging my team to come out hard and try to get back in the game. So we had to come out hard to prevent that from happening. Carrera really played with a lot of heart in the 2nd half. I would say a more even match in the 2nd half. We had some great chances but Carrera fought through it with some great effort.
The goal we gave up was a reminder of our Plano Tournament. We had a breakdown again that again resulted in giving up a goal. We were pretty fortunate in the 2nd half. A bad call on a breakaway that I thought was a great save resulted in a PK that Emily stopped. Emily had a few great efforts on other shots this half as well.

I think the girls enjoyed this game alot more as well. Its a greater sense of accomplishment to end the tournament against this type of opponent.

Great job this weekend.
Thoughts?

Doug

Plano Labor Day Tournament

If your player’s desire is to play soccer at the next level, then these types of formats are the best place to not only measure how they match up to the best players but it also helps them develop their game as well.
Last fall we got our first taste of top level competition during premier league and we competed fairly well but there still existed a gap that kept me from feeling completely confident that we were ready to compete at the top level.
As we prepared for the regional tournament last spring I could see that we were starting to take our game to a new level. When we finally played in Frisco we came out with a 2-2 tie to the North Carolina State champs a 2-1 loss to the South Texas State champs who beat us 9-0 the previous time we met and then a 2-0 loss to the eventual National runner up CASL team from North Carolina.
I came out with a better feel for what we needed to prepare for and its been a large piece of our focus this fall.

It was really odd in that we had similar results this time as we did at the regional tournament, a 2-2 tie, 1-0 loss and a 2-0 loss. I really felt in each game we could or should have won. So to leave without making it out of pool play was a bit of a let down for everyone, especially when the girls put forth the effort that they did into each game.

However, here are the positives of the tournament. Individually I saw several players begin to take their game to a new level both as soccer players and as competitive athletes.

As a team our pace of play really caught a few teams off guard, which allowed us to attack extremely well. I felt we did a really good job of stringing passes together to create opportunity, which means we played possession with intent behind it versus just keeping the ball. We had numerous legitimate opportunities to score in these matches and in a number of different ways. The girls did a really good job of mixing up our game. We had a number of long ball and seam chances. We had a large number of overlap, under lap and combination opportunities. The girls did just a great job of recognizing the different things we have been working on. The bad part of this is that we didn’t finish as well as we could or should have. Obviously, I take a lot of ownership for this failure as a coach.

I think in all 3 games we controlled the game roughly 85% of the time. When you play at this level of competition if you can keep control 55% of the time you should be able to win. It’s those minutes that we don’t have the ball that really makes a difference; you have to make smart decisions defensively. Your going to play teams that all have great attacking players so we have to execute both as a unit and as an individual because their will be one v one situations. In both situations we broke down, we didn’t transition back defensively as a unit very well leaving ourselves vulnerable in 1 v 1 situations and then we broke down in these situations as well. This allowed our opponents to get numbers or 1v1 break away runs with them ending up getting goals which should have been prevented.
Even though we had some defensive break downs that resulted in us giving up some goals, we still didn’t put the ball in the goal which we also need to do to win matches.
This team has always played hard but I saw some real passion come out this weekend. I’ve talked about this before but I don’t think a player getting on top of another about how they are not pulling their weight is a bad thing. It shows me they really want to win. I’ve talked to the girls about this before. If your teammate is getting on you then instead of getting defensive you need to think about what they are saying and change what you are doing.
I really enjoyed the tournament.
I would really like to hear everyone’s thoughts on playing in these type of formats.

Weekend Jamboree

Here is how the scores for the Jamboree finished

NWAL Black 6 FT Smith Express 2
TSC Red 4 NWAL 96 0
NWAL Black 6 NWAL 94 2
Ft Smith 3 TSC Red 0
NWAL Black 6 TSC Red 0
NWAL 94 1 Ft Smith Express 0
NWAL 94 4 TSC Red 1
Ft Smith 2 NWAL 96 0



I gave the girls two challenges this weekend. I felt last weekend that we lacked some emotion or passion in how we played. So the first challenge was to get themselves charged up emotionally for our games on Saturday. You always have to be up when you play a state rival.

We've been working a number of things tactically that the girls must begin to recognize in order to compete at the next level. So the second challenge was to apply what they have been working on in game conditions.

The girls did very well against Fort Smith and the 94's when it game to the first challenge. Those things that I attribute to the emotional part of the game we did very well. Such as winning a majority of all the 50-50 balls. Playing with hustle and working together as a team. (Heart / Hustle / Discipline) which is what defines our team.

The girls moved the ball pretty well for this early in the season. The girls stringed passes together very well and they had several one touch combinations. So that tells me the movement was pretty good with and without the ball. The positioning on the field was very fluid and really kept Fort Smith as well as the 94's off balance to the point that they struggled to recognize what we were doing. Obviously when you put up 6 goals you have to feel good about how we finished as a team. There were a few times we should have put the ball in but the ball either went wide or high. Several attempts at headers on crosses during both games. Very exciting to see.

The second challenge the girls fell short on. Its not that I want them to completely change their style of game. But in order to keep the higher level teams off balance their are certain things tactically they have to or need to recognize and we had numerous chances to execute those tactics this weekend and we struggled with being disciplined enough to do the runs and passes in order to execute the tactic.

Defensively not too bad. We are still working on some positioning and some decision making but overall the defense is moving in the right direction. The goals we gave up were some pretty basic break downs at the wrong time. I think we can over come those mistakes very easily so we will work on it. The goalies didn't get a great deal of work this weekend but both Emily and Paulina had a few nice saves and some decent set ups to play out of the back.

You could probably tell I wasn't to happy about our game today. When we put that first goal in after 50 seconds the girls got the off to the races mind set instead of trying to apply what we've been working on. The girls came back in the second half with the right attitude and mind set and took care of business. Still a great application of challenge one but we failed on challenge two again. Quite a few nice combinations, solid runs and some gutsy efforts during this match. Hard to complain about a 6-0 win. But I would have liked to have seen some more disciplined efforts tactically and there was a lack of hustle in the first half.

Overall a good weekend. I like the direction we are moving down.

Good job
Doug

State Cup Summary

Winning all three games 3-0 and winning our third straight championship and for the third straight state tournament not giving up a goal its very hard to say we did not play well.

However, I would say that this was probably not our best showing as a team. I'll try to explain as we go.
In our first game against Searcy, Searcy came out ready to play which I think caught us a little off guard at first. In the first 10 minutes Searcy was the more aggressive team and won a majority of the 50-50 balls. Even though we were not into the game yet mentally, I think instinct and skill allowed the girls to keep Searcy at bay until we got into the game mentally.


I do think this was our best game of the tournament. After we started to click we played fairly well. We looked sharp on the set plays catching Searcy unprepared on almost every corner or free kick. What we failed to do was to take advantage of the situations. Even though we put in 3 goals we really had opportunities to put in about 4 others as well.


In game two LRFC came out with a different game plan. They came out very physical and I think were focused on trying to be the aggressor. Scoring the first goal in the first few minutes didn't really give us any momentum. In fact I thought our play was a bit complacent. We sat on our heals a great deal instead of going to the ball. We had an attacking mind set but forgot that we needed to get possession first before we can attack. We really struggled to string passes together and our play looked sloppy.

In the second half after the coach threw his fit about having to play two games in one day it inspired the girls to come out and play a much more aggressive game. Ellen made a great one v one move to get a solid goal followed a few minutes later by TWs savy little in and out goal to give us a quick 3-0 lead early in the second half. This pretty well took the wind out of LRFCs sails. I then went to a defensive set by pulling off a forward and going with an extra defender to protect the win. I must give the girls credit here as we changed formations quite a bit to keep LRFC off guard and the girls adjusted without issue. I also changed up positions during the game to try and get a few mis matches going and the girls did very well with this. A sign they are maturing in their game.

LRFC scouted our set plays though and we did not adjust very well. A bit sloppy on our set play execution.

The girls did what they had to do to put themselves in the drivers seat for a third straight title the first day so good job so far.

Sunday's game against Searcy was definitely a brawl. Searcy once again came out as the aggressor. After getting our first goal mid way through the first half I then went back to the defensive set to protect the shut out win. I knew if we got the win and shut out Searcy we automatically had the state title. Searcy didn't give up though but really couldn't string any type of play together to put a real threat on the goal. We occasionally had some break away opportunities but couldn't secure a goal. In the last 10 minutes though we put in two more quick goals to secure another 3-0 shut out. Searcy really put forth a better individual effort than we did. It says a lot that the girls can come out and play an average game and still win 3-0.

I think if I reflect back on how I was preparing the team for the state cup it was very evident that I was preparing them to peak after state cup. Generally you condition very tough up until the week before an event. A good rule of thumb is up into the last week before an event you back off the stamina type training and work on the quick burst efforts in order to dial up the pace of play. I don't think I would have done it differently though. I don't think I would ever look past an opponent but one tends to know their team and their opponents.

We played well enough to win our third straight title. We will start working to peak during regionals. Ive seen the initial list of teams and I dont see anyone yet that we cannot play with.
We are physically ready but the tough part will be to be mentally prepared to play and execute.