Premier League Games VS. Alabama

0-1-1

BUSA - Loss 0-4

Huntsville - Tie 2-2



The one thing I have been telling the girls about playing in premier league is it will come down to mistakes. The team can that make the fewest and the team that can take advantage of the other teams mistakes will win.


The other thing is that we win as a team and we loose as a team. The last thing is you can expect a gold medal result with a bronze medal effort or preparation.


We are going to adjust our defensive formation which should allow us to handle teams that have talented speedy forwards. The BUSA forwards were very talented and were very difficult to handle in 1 v 1 situations. The mistakes we made were very minor and in most situations our speed and athleticism would have allowed us to recover. We learned several lessons defensively in that game.

Going into the game our goal was to win more balls with our center and outside mids. I think for 70% of the game we did that. We played a better second half and never gave up. I was really excited about the effort.
Tactically we did a better job of keeping possession and trying to work the ball. We still made some needless turn overs that cost us some opportunities. BUSA took some risk by doubling teaming the ball and put alot of zone pressure on us. If we could have handled it better we would have had some great results.
This is almost a repeat of last weeks game against TSC. Handling and adjusting to pressure is going to be one of our top preparation priorities going forward.


I thought in the second game that we really took it the Samba team right from the opening whistle. The main goal of this game was to continue to win balls and minimize the turnovers. We won a majority of the balls and I think the ball may have only crossed on to our side of the field 4 or 5 times each half. We are still plagued by the unforced turnovers though. Some of it due to some individual skill work that we will have to address. Primarily first touch and opening with the ball properly to set up the next pass. Secondly being able to read and make the pass without taking more than two touches. I thought a lot of these issues were being caused by reacting to high pressure but I am seeing its happening with minimal pressure as well. Everyone needs to be working at home on touch and handling the ball. I have talked to the girls about this.

A few mistakes again cost us some goals that we normally should not have given up. I agree the first goal was a very questionable off sides call but we still should have played until the whistle came. We are still going to work with our defenders on when to turn with the ball, when to use the goalie and when to clear the ball.

If you include the shots off of corners we out shot this Huntsville team I believe 27 or 28 to 5. Great effort at the end to squeeze out the tie with 1 minute left. There was just a cap on the goal. The girls conditioning really played out well in this game. I think we caught them way off guard when the game started. They knew we lost 4-0 to BUSA who I believe they only lost 2-1 or 1-0 to and coming off a 4-1 win over LRFC they thought they were going to take it to us as well.

I really believe playing in this league is the right thing to do for this teams development. It is helping me evaluate the girls both individually and as a team on what we need to focus on.

So here is what we will be working on in preparation for our next league games:

Forwards - winning balls and playing the ball in the direction they can see. Turning when the opportunities exist ( which the mids should tell them). They are rotating fine but we need to keep more in the middle and next to the last defender so we can pressure the sweeper or goalie more.

Outside mids: Letting the ball do more of the work off of passes vs doing Indian runs all the time. Making sure we are in position on the backside on the crossing shots. Listen for the over lap calls and staying in position once the run comes. Winning more balls in the middle vs. trying to cherry pick.

Inside Mids: keeping the proper depth and width. Talking to our forwards and making the calls. Opening up with the ball properly and changing the field when needed. Being patient and dropping the ball to reset if nothing is there. Taking the shots outside the 18 to keep the goalies honest.

Center defenders: Using the body instead of stabbing at the ball to win through balls. Getting and keeping depth when we start to rotate or when we need to support the mid's or outside defenders. Heading the goal kicks and goalie punts. Using the goalie at the right times.

Outside defenders: getting depth and width on ball rotations. not being mechanical on rotating the ball around find the center mid if the outside is not there or sending the ball when needed. Keep finding the over laps or run through. Marking down field on the attack.

Goalies: getting loud and providing direction. use your feet more. Keep your head up and find the right pass vs. just throwing or kicking the ball away with no pressure.

This is a lot but we have the drills to accomplish what we want. We had a very strong practice Monday night.

next practice will be Thursday at the regular time.
call with questions
Doug