Express Cup Tournament

We knew going into this weekend that we may not see teams that were as technically or tactically skilled as we have seen through premier league. However, we were not going to under estimate anyone as we knew they would come out and play hard especially our friends from Fort Smith. We knew that they had brought in 5 or 6 girls from Bryant and that beating us would really complete their season.
My focus in practice leading up to this tournament had been to focus on the set plays. One of our struggles during premier league had been our ability to capitalize on set plays. Set plays being defined as a corner kick; throw ins, free kicks or PKs. We scored a total of 12 goals over 4 games and 5 of those 12 goals came off set plays. Four goals came off corners and one off a throw in play. So almost 50% of our goals came off of set plays opportunities, I only wish I would have kept track of how many opportunities we had in total as this is a trend I want to keep going in an upward direction. We had a couple PKs that we did not convert so we will keep working on those.

I told the girls before our first game that I wasn’t too wrapped up on winning by blow outs this weekend rather I gave them two goals for each game which was (1) win every 50-50 ball and (2) play more aggressively. I wanted to get a few more whistles against us to validate our increased aggressive play.

In our first game against the Fury it was exactly the type of game that I thought we were going to have. Fury is not the most technical team but they are very physical and play hard. The wind and the really poor field conditions equalized the game very quickly. We are very technical pass oriented team and those conditions made it very difficult for us to string passes together, get good first touches and to capitalize on through balls. I give credit to the girls for making their own calls on the set plays this game. We had some opportunities to score on a few break away runs but shot right at the goalie. So it was the set plays that won the game for us.

The wind picked up during the first Fort Smith game on Saturday and I won’t dwell on the field but it hampered our game plan. Many times the game resembled a kick ball match. When we had the wind I wanted our mid fielders to hold the ball a little longer to penetrate the middle as I anticipated them over playing us to the outside, which they were. However, our mid fielders struggled to get a solid first touch which gave Fort Smith enough time for their double teams to collapse on them and prevent us from making solid passes outside. I attempted to adjust by having both our inside and outside mid fields take shots from further out and then play for the rebound. We didn’t do it as consistently as we should have and we didn’t really capitalize on these opportunities. The wind did help us on a corner by taking the ball into the net which turned out to be the game winner. The break away chances we did get we again shot right at the goalie and we weren’t able to convert the PK.

During the second half the wind made it very difficult to put anything together. The long through balls were there but each time we attempted a through pass the wind held it up and allowed the defense to get back in place. The girls recognized the runs we just couldn’t connect. You may have noticed that I eventually pulled our forwards out and went with an extra defender and an extra mid fielder to help us keep possession on our side of the field. My thoughts then were to just pack in the defense and not give up a score. I think if Fort Smith would have taken more shots from outside the 18 they could have exposed us as our defenders were struggling with judging the ball against the wind so we got lucky and made it out with a 1-0 win.

Our Sunday morning game against OSC (?) was one that allowed us to work on a few things. Since we were already in the finals and I knew we were probably a little under matched I rotated a lot in order to keep everyone as fresh as possible. The wind blew across this field and so there was not an advantage or disadvantage to the wind in this game. The field was also in much better shape so we had a truer role to the ball and we were able to string passes together much better than Saturday. I restricted to 10 passes in the first half after we went up 2-0 and then early in the second when we went up 4-0. The girls snuck one in when I wasn’t looking and after 6-0 I finally told them no more shooting. That was with about 10 minutes left. I had thought about pulling players off but I wanted to work on resetting the ball and working the field so that they could recognize opportunities.

By position we pretty much owned this game. Our mid fielders and defenders pretty well owned the ball. I saw some good over lap runs with shots taken outside the 18. We have a few set plays that we run on the field during normal play. I challenged the girls to recognize when the opportunities came about and to try and run the play. They recognized the play maybe 5 out of the 20 times the opportunity came about and were able to actually run or attempt to run the play 3 times. So we will work on this. As an FYI the play is called Lightning and essentially it has our defenders or center midfielders passing directly to our forwards who then play an angled pass back to our center mid fielders who then search for the open lane to our outside mid fielders who are running. I don’t want to run it too much as then the girls become robotic and fail to think creatively during a free flowing game.

Finals: 2-1win vs. Fort Smith

Although you may have seen me get a little emotional with the refs in this game I really wasnt as worked up as I appeared to be. My intent was to use this as a developmental game for the girls from the start. We need to mature in our mental preparation and this was the game I used to work on it.
They did the entire pre-warm up on their own. I chose not to be involved and told them that. In the pre game talk I got on them for goofing around and told them they need to adjust their attitudes and to become more serious athletes. They just can’t turn it on and off depending on whether they are on the field or not. They have to be in tune before and during the game. I really got on Tayler for clowning around and then made them determine the line up and to get them selves ready to play.
During the match I thought we did a really good job of controlling the ball and tempo of the game. Fort Smith took the same approach by trying to double the ball in the middle and play man on the outside. Initially they pressured the mid fielders pretty well but as the game wore on we really worked them and our center mid fielders had their way. We had some great outside runs and put a lot of pressure on the goal. Their goalie played one of the best games I have ever seen an individual player play. She saved probably 4 or 5 shots that should have been goals and had it not been for her great individual effort they would have been.
I thought the rotation and defensive recognition was much better in this game by our back line versus the rest of the weekend. We did a little better job of judging the wind and only had a few pushes that caused some real concern. We still need to work on some recognition and decisions in the back but a much stronger game by our back line.
The only goal we gave up all weekend was due to a break down of a number of things. I won’t go into a great deal of detail other than we have discussed it with our goalie and defenders who were involved.
I got some flak over my meeting with the ref during the game. I knew very early that this ref could be influenced very easily. While he made bad calls both ways I wanted to get my influence in. The call was really very minor but he didn’t make the call until after 30 seconds of the incident which was influenced by Rusty. When he came over I told him he was making home town calls he told me he didn’t care who won and I told him that I didn’t believe him. He did not tell me to sit down I actually did that on my own. A few minutes after that I saw Rusty and the A.R. laughing it up so then I got on her and told Rusty to wait and see what kind of home town refs I have at our tournament. I did it to let the A.R. know I didn’t think she was doing a very good job. She got the hint. Rusty got mad. I don’t work the refs all the time but this crew needed some influence.
Overall a good match. Fort Smith played with some heart in both games that I hadnt seen them with in a while.

I think in the end what surprised me the most about this game is that when it was over, there was not real excitement by our girls. No jumping and cheering that they had won another tournament. I don’t think they are getting immune to it I think they knew they had to come in and take care of business and they did.
I thought about it on the way home and when I was putting the trophy away I counted to see how many tournaments we had brought home trophies from. I am in the middle of my third year as head coach. I began when these girls were U12s, since then this team has won first in 17 tournaments and placed as finalist in another 3 tournaments for a total of 20. I didn’t realize it was that many in such a short amount of time.

Our next tournament will be our home tournament the first weekend in April followed by our last Premier League game at home vs LRFC and in state bragging rights. We have one State League game left against the Arkansas Rush team. Thus far we are undefeated and have allowed only 1 goal in state league play out scoring our opponents 33-1.

A good start to the spring season.
thanks
Doug