Spring Elite Memphis

Although it was a bit breezy it was nice to have a weekend where the weather was a bit friendlier for both the players and the fans watching.

We were the top seed going into this tournament and the favorite to win. I really thought from a competitive standpoint that the teams were above mid tier but not near the level we had seen at the premier league. So I felt pretty good about our ability to win this tournament. I really felt if we came out with some intensity, worked to be first to the ball and were able to keep control and possession we could play our style of game vs. our opponents.

1-1 tie vs. Redoubt FC from Chattanooga

I felt we had a pretty good warm up and were ready to play. Redoubt was not the most skilled team we have played but they were physical, had good size and they played with a lot of hustle. I think we were out hustled the first 8-10 minutes of the game but we still were able to string passes together and created some opportunities to score. We struggled though taking clean shots even though we had the goalie out of position several times but we couldn’t put on in. the half ended at 0-0 but I think we had really controlled the game to that point.

Redoubt pressured the ball very aggressively which made them very susceptible to fakes and faints in 1v1 situations as well as give n goes and over laps. Our half time strategy was to set up the over laps and put pressure on the goal with crosses. I was very disappointed in that we failed to execute this one time in the second half even though we had numerous opportunities.

The ball very seldom crossed the center line but Redoubt was able to secure a corner and put in the first goal of the game in. During that play we were clearly on our heals watching and they took advantage of this. This might have rattled us a little and could have been part of the reason for our lack of execution.
The girls played on though and put some great pressure on the goal to secure a goal and a tie about mid way through the final half. We had quite a few opportunities to win this game after that and just failed to finish.
I think we played well enough to win this game but we were just off a little on our passes. The field was fast and I think that lead to the pace of our passes being just a bit long. We finished strong but I think we were all disappointed that we tied that match.

2-0 win over Tupelo
I thought Tupelo was the better technical team versus Redoubt and we controlled this game from start to finish. I didn’t get the shot break down on this game but it had to have been very lopsided maybe 19-2. There was not a lot we couldn’t do or didn’t do besides put the ball in the goal. Several times we pulled the goalie out dribbled past her and then shot wide of the goal.

We were already up 1-0 and just had to shut out Tupelo to make the semi-finals. Based on the short halves and going into the wind I decided to try and play a possession game. Tupelo had one of the most athletic and talented goalies we have seen. Close to 6 foot tall and she could move and when she took a goal kick or punt it really took off. One would have thought with the wind and this behind you it would have been tough for us. It was really one of the more lob sided halves we have played. We did a great job of winning every ball and controlling the game to include the punts and goal kicks. Because we went with a single forward I rotated them every 4-5 minutes and told them they had to give it all because they had to work both sides of the field. Our forwards did a great job. They hustled and put a great deal of pressure on the defenders as they tried to win the ball. Their defenders couldn’t get clean passes or ball clears up the field and our mids were just waiting on the ball. Our defenders did a great job of stepping up and penetrating when they had to. Hard to complain about a 2-0 win it just felt like it should have been a wider spread.

Semis loss to Polaris Soccer club in PKs

The first 10 minutes of this match was really a feel out by both teams a little back and forth but no real threats by either. I think we then took over the first half and really put a lot of pressure on them. We were winning every ball and putting them on their heals. The only shot they got in the first half resulted in a goal. I viewed it as a break down at several levels. It wasn’t a great penetration, it wasn’t a great shot. Our defenders and goalie were just watching waiting for the other to clear or pick up the ball. They had a forward hungry enough just to follow and take advantage of the situation. Up to that point that hadn’t really done a great deal of anything to make me concerned about how the outcome of the match would be.
I can’t really remember what we discussed at half but the girls came out fired up. We took their kick off and went down and scored in about 1:45 of the second half and it didn’t slow down from there. We played one of our most dominating halves we have every played. Great ball control, solid passing, movement, etc. In total we probably took 15 shots on goal and also had 7 corners during this half alone. I struggle to think how we didn’t score more than 1 goal. They had 1 shot on goal the second half.
During the over time we took another 5 shots on goal and had 1 more corner versus zero for them. Unfortunately this took us into penalty kicks to determine the winner of this match which then takes a very lob sided game and turns into anyone can win. How do you take 24 shots on goal with 8 corners and only score 1 goal?
Ever since our lost to Thunder Italy in the finals of a tournament 3 years ago to PK’s, I’ve tried to be very disciplined about practicing these at the end of practices. Shame on me for being a little lax on these the last few weeks during practices for not practicing them.
Loosing the PK shoot out 3-2 was a heart breaker. This is our first loss of the spring season. Clearly a loss caused by coaching and not player effort.

As I mentioned in my email the other day we out shot our opponents in these 3 games 49-8 and we only scored a total of 4 goals out of 49 attempts. Clearly a very poor ratio and one I take full ownership of. This ratio needs to get closer to 1 goal out of every 3-4 attempts versus 1 out of every 11.
We will focus on game like scenarios with heavy pressure on our shot takers and following our shots in. A few things I want to sharpen on our field tactics but clearly finishing needs to be our focus. I think traditionally this is contrary to what most team have to be focused on. I think on the positive side it’s the easiest to address. It takes a great deal of time, work and chemistry to address field movement, passing and control and many times it fails to be consistent. If I had to guess why we are struggling I think it would have to be mostly on that they are over thinking their shots right now. I’ve put a great deal of focus on correcting bad form and technique that it appears that its not natural for everyone when its time to shoot. It appears that its going through their mind on what they need to be doing to set up for the shot versus it being second nature and just shooting.
However, I really like where we are from a field presence stand point. If we come out with the right mind set and attitude both as a team and individually we can play on the field with anyone. So right now our focus is on finishing.

Share your thoughts with me as well as everyone. That’s the part about a blog that makes it a blog.

Your thoughts
Doug

Dial Cup Summary

A very solid performance over the weekend. Two very different days of weather and two very different days of opponents. The weather was very nice on Saturday. A warm 71 but a bit windy. Sunday that weather turned to under 40 and with the wind being twice as nasty it made for a very uncomfortable day of soccer.



Game 1 5-0 win over Nixa Extreme

Game 2 8-1 win over 96 Comets

Game 3 2-0 win over TSC Red

Finals 5-1 win over Tulsa Nationals



I'm not going to go into game by game detail on this tournament.

Although we have played some more competitive teams over the year the teams in our division were ones that if we came out complacent or with our heads in the clouds we could have some very difficult games. So to put it very simply the main goal was to come in by position and (TCB) Take Care of Business.

To compound my concern as a coach we were very thin due to injuries. Paige was out for the entire weekend. AD, TW, Meagan & Kate all had nagging leg injuries that kept them from being 100%.

Overall the girls played very well. Each position and player took their game to the next level during this game. Great movement, the girls are starting to recognize situations and are moving two to three passes before they get the ball. They starting to understand when to pass to open space and when to pass to feet. When to find the open player and when to try and take the ball 1v1 or set up 2v2.
There were just so many next level things. We put our selves in good position in games early that in many cases we were able to use the games as high level practices. I put in many restrictions during games and in one I played with a player down to put more pressure on the girls.

We scored off set plays on corners and throw ins. I think we had two scores off headers as well. Defensively we played very strong. We gave up two goals all weekend out scoring our opponents through the 4 games 20-2. One goal we gave up was on a direct free kick and the other was just a mental break down. We played very aggressively I cant think of to many 50-50 balls that we did not win. Although we played with a great deal of pressure it was controlled.

Things we need to work on.
It wasn't until I put the restrictions on that the girls would pull the ball back to reset. They are getting better at doing this by being able to move and see 2 or three passes ahead. I want them to work at knowing that when a defense if packed in that its a good time to pull the ball out to stretch the defense and allow us to make another run.

The set plays are getting much better. We have quite a few different plays now. I want them to work on perfecting the set up and execution of the plays.

Short summary and not quite to the detail of the previous.
I would like to know your thoughts.

Doug

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

TSC White Friendly

TSC White Game 0-1 loss
This being our third match against TSC in this season we have a pretty good feel for each others game. I knew going into the game they were going to try and run the seems down the middle they new we were going to work the outside on the attack. Our game plan going in was to have our middle defenders give up more depth and not try to set up the off sides traps. I also told the girls to expect some deep penetration at times and the best way to over come this would be to play hard out of the back or when we cleared the ball and gained possession we had to push up quickly.
On the attack I really challenged our midfielders to penetrate in order to put pressure on the middle since they would be over playing the outside on us. As well as to take shots out side the 18 in order to put pressure on the goal.
Individually I thought TSC did a better job of going after and winning the 50-50 balls. Although the game was not as physical as the past games we have played we did play very tentative for a majority of the game.
I also thought TSC did a better job of timing their passes. We took one too many touches at times before make the open field pass. That one extra touch either resulted in an opportunity being killed because the defense recovered or a turn over because we telegraphed the pass.

The goal we gave up was a real break down from the thrown in from out of bounds down to the in ability to clear the ball. TSC did a great job of keeping the pressure going at the right time. We had a chances a few times in the second half to duplicate this same thing to TSC but we failed to keep the pressure on and finish. (We are working on this).

By position I thought our forwards worked pretty hard during the match. They did a much better job of pressuring the defenders and preventing them from making clean passes when the defenders cleared. We do need to work on our forwards continually moving and rotating to the right defender. Since we focus on the second and third runs with our forwards instead of the breakaways we need to work on our under laps and given gos. But I would grade our forward as a B+ for this game.

I knew TSC would be marking our outside mids and try to take them out of the game. Our outside mids need to recognize this and use the over lap runs from our outside defenders. This will keep the defense more honest and open the game back up for our outside. We did have quite a few out side seem openings but failed to get them the ball. They had a few good runs but I want to see them take more shots from the outside. Over all a B for them.

The Center mids worked pretty hard against some talented mids from TSC. Our mids worked real hard to penetrate but at times worked more east and west instead of north and south. They did a better job against WSC of rotating the field but we struggled with playing 360 degrees when we needed to. Of all our positions I did think our center mids did a better job of challenging and winning the 50-50 balls. So I will give them a B+

Outside defenders struggled a little to get into the game the first few minutes but then came on pretty strong. I thought Meagan, Kate and Donut worked pretty hard in this game. They made good over lap runs and a solid job of playing cover defense. They did make some attempts from the outside but the shots were pretty rough. We still need to work on getting width and depth before the ball is heading in their direction. So I will give them a B+

Center defenders played much better this game than we did our last game. Good job of coming in the from the 2nd defender role and we gave up great depth to kill penetration. I would have liked to seen a better job of using the goalie when killing the through lane passes but attempts were made. At times we work harder than when we need to when killing a run. A B as well.

Goalies did get a lot of action but not too bad. I still want them in the game more managing the business vs me. Not too bad a job of getting the ball to feet when they did get a shot on them. B for the goalies.

If this were a boxing match I would have given the first half to TSC and the second half to us. I think we out shot them in the second half 5 or 6 to 2.

Over all not too bad for our first match of the spring. With the weather warming and our eventual return back to sugar creek some of the bugs will work out.

WSC summary will come tomorrow.
thanks
Doug

Blog update

I should have updates shortly