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.

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

Livewire & Comets State League games & a few updates

Livewires 6-1 win
Comets 8-0 win

I'm not going to go into a great deal of detail here. The girls played with a great deal of heart and character and while the weather was extremely uncomfortable. They did not let it impact them while they were on the field. I only counted one real break down during the day when we failed to clear the ball and gave up a goal when we had a number of opportunities to do so.

One of the things that we have been focusing on in practice since the Hurricane cup has been finishing when were inside the 18 as well as taking shots off the drop. The scoring was very balanced. We scored off break aways, drops from the mid field and more importantly we have been scoring off the set plays from corners and free kicks. We have 3 set plays we run during corner kicks. Each set play has several variations but we scored of each of the set plays.

I think one could argue how competitive our competition was, however, we were able to execute both offensively and defensively against an opponent that was giving us their all.

I really like how the Livewires play. They played hard and never quit. We did a great job as a team of owning the middle which allowed us to control both games. But we did it with more than just our center mids. Paige and Ellen probably played the strongest games I have seen our forwards play. They put so much pressure on the opponents defenders that they struggled to clear the ball cleanly and many times picked their pockets creating break aways or setting up our outsides for runs. This is what we have been working on for a long time and have had different levels of success during the fall but they ran it perfectly during these games. They mixed it up real well and made great passes. Just an over all complete game.

Our outside mids and defenders ran real well also. They did a great job of setting up the over laps for each other and we crossed the ball well inside the 18.

Defensively everyone played very smart and with a great deal of hustle. I like our defensive movement right now. We are moving very well without the ball and starting our movement two to three passes away working to get in position. This is how we are able to pass the ball around the back. Its also helping us stretch the defense so that we can work in our transition game. The girls are getting more and more comfortable with doing this.

I put alot of restrictions on the girls during these two games, in the past when I had put on restrictions we struggled keeping possession of the ball but during these games they did very well of working the ball and then making it happen once they had the ok to attack.

Were one week in to our two week break. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the break but staying active if possible. I ran into Mango and AJ at the Tiger game and they wore me out about not seeing them for a week . I am also getting occasional text messages from a player or two and I know they are staying in touch with each other.

Were working on trying to decide on the team Christmas party so we will have that shortly. The girls also want to do a team building at Fast Lane so we may combine the two.

We finally have the warm ups ordered, this has been a difficult process to work through with the club. Thanks to a donation from Tina the warm ups are paid for. The only thing we will need to pay for will be the embroidery which is going to be about $30 per set Mark is trying to see if we can get it cheaper but were not having much luck. We are going to get the names and the team name on the Jackets with the #'s on the pants.

We will send a note out on the specifics when we have them.
We should also have our long sleeve jerseys in the next week or so. A big thank you to Jay and Michelle for the sponsorship for these. We will have them just in time for the January and February league games.

Mark and I are working on the Spring schedule. I want to get that to you as soon as possible so you can plan.

I will begin working on the fall summary as well as player evals which we will do during the December practices.

More to come as I get caught up.
thanks
Doug

Clorox Cup Tournament Champions

First Sorry for this being late.

1-1 Tie vs. Bartlesville
7-0 win against ASC Electra
8-0 win against Thunder Egypt
7-0 win in the finals against NWAL Blue

We didn't play up due to having to complete our state league game against ASC Electra.

We came in and took care of business. Individually the girls played with confidence.

While these types of games didn't push us physically or tactically. While we came out and played a little sloppy in the first game. The weather really equalized us. The girls did a great job of over coming many obstacles they couldn't control and did what they had to do to get the tie.

We knew to get into the finals we had to get shut outs and get our goal differential max. They did exactly what they had to do and left little doubt about what the out come of the games would be.

These types of games help us work on our movement without the ball, keeping possession and using our heads. When I put restrictions on such as 10 passes before they can shoot or only shooting out side the 18 or have to score by header only. It forces the girls to keep possession which is really alot more work because it forces them to find that next pass before they have the ball or move into position.

In short...
The girls showed just how much they have improved and continue to show we will need to work hard to find the most competitive venues as we can.

LRFC State League Game 3-0 win

The girls worked hard the last two weeks getting ready for this game. We have been moving very well tactically all fall. I feel what has made games closer or caused some losses has been some sloppy individual play sporadically during games. Technically the focus these last few weeks has been on individual execution and not just going through the motions. Tactically the stress has been on everyone playing with a defensive mind set first, winning possession of the ball than quickly making the change from defense to offense. When we have our attackers working back helping to pressure the middle third of the field we put a lot of pressure on teams no matter how good they are. Which we saw against TSC a few weeks ago. We did that very well today.


I thought we played a much sharper game as a team today. When we lost possession of the ball we kept constant pressure on the ball which prevented LRFC from making consistent clean passes. We did allow a few shots on goal in the first half but I don't think anything that was really a threat or caused me to have a great deal of concern. I think the expectation from everyone is that we should not only see but as I tell the girls allow some deep pushes into our deep third. As long as we stay composed, keep our defensive shape and movement it actually allows us to make some great transitions back to the attack and we did that very well today. We scored our first goal off of a great defensive transition.

When this transition began our defenders made a great pass up to Paige at half field. Instead of trying to dribble through the defenders to the goal (which she could have done) she instinctively knew TW should be running down the outside and made essentially a blind pass through the open lane and placed it right where it needed to be. TW was running and beat the outside defender to the ball and carried on to the goal. (This is that chemistry piece that comes over time of just having that feel of where your teammate would be).

We have also been working on finishing these types of runs with defenders hanging on us, pulling on us, etc, which is what we have experienced in the premier league and at the high levels of play. This time TW fought off a defender trying to push her off the ball, kept her balance and had a strong finish with our first goal.

Defensively our center defenders are doing a better job of recognizing situations and making decisions of when to give up depth to prevent pushes or hold the line and set up the off sides trap. They are also getting much better of using each other to kill attacks by not only talking but using depth and width as well as just clearing the ball so we can reset defensively instead of trying to make a difficult turn with the ball. I thought our goalies played one of their strongest games. They moved well, made the stops they needed to make and then transitioned us back on the attack so that we kept possession of the ball.

So the half time score was 1-0. At this point although we had controlled a major portion of the first half. LRFC was still playing a decent game but I could see they were starting to fatigue. In the second half we won their kick off and then worked in a decent shot on goal to start the half. This kind of deflated them a little. Shortly after that AD took a deep run and cross that started a big pressure run on the goal. The ball went back and forth inside and around the box. The goalie made several saves but she wasn't able to get possession of the ball. The defenders were making stops but they couldn't get a clean clear out of the box. We've done this a number of times against several teams the last few matches but those resulted in the defense eventually clearing the ball. This time we kept the pressure up, moved well, used our bodies to gain position and eventually knocked the ball in. However, the ref didn't give us the goal right away and then called a defensive hand ball before the goal was made giving us a PK. AD stepped up and made a great shot.

Our third goal was almost identical to the second only this time when we started our pressure on the goal Ellen was in position to finish.

I dont want to leave out the mids. Today they played a very strong game. They worked hard and owned the middle. A much better job of rotating the field and keeping their spacing. We still need to work on our offensive depth though. Its a tough position, they will get there.

The last 15 minutes of the game we kept strong pressure on the ball, when we had possession we worked the ball and field very well. Solid passing, solid movement just a much sharper effort. I kept our player lineup rotations going which allowed us to stay fresh. LRFC's fatigue could really be seen in the last 15 minutes of the game they were also a little flat on their attempts to win the ball as a group.

Overall a great follow up to our last game back during the Capital City Cup.

We have the Clorox Cup this coming weekend. It probably will not be as strong as any of the tournaments or matches we have played this year but it is a title we need to defend. The challenge for the girls is these are all games we should win and we need to maintain our level play against teams that are not as competitive.

Doug

Hurricane Cup Summary

When I received the initial invite to be in this invite only bracket back in August I thought it would be a good measuring stick for us to see just how much separation there was between us and some of the top teams in the region. While we didn't have the win/loss results that we all wanted I saw many positives as well as things we will need to spend more time on.

While I tend to talk mostly about things we need to work on during these summaries. I will try and focus in on some positives at the same time. As a side note I wrote each game summary immediately after each event so it will be my immediate perspective rather than from memory.

Hurricane Rhein 3-1 loss
We came out a little tentative to start the game. We knew they had some great speed at the top and they exposed us a few times right of the bat until we adjusted with our center defenders by giving up some depth when they set up to play the long ball.

Disappointingly we gave up our first goal on a corner where we were just standing & watching. I don't know if everyone was expecting Paulina to catch it & she was expecting them to clear the ball it was just a break down.
After that we started playing with a little more confidence and we were able to put them on their heals a little and put a little pressure on them but we just couldn't get off any shots on goal. I'm not sure on the stats but we did get out shot I think 7-1 in the first half.

They also out played us on the 50-50 balls in the first half and our passing was pretty poor. We took too many touches and tried doing to many 1v1 moves. Once we started playing possession, knocking the ball around and thinking defensively we did much better. I told the girls before the game our goal was to get perhaps 5-6 chances on goal and not to be concerned if we don't get many opportunities. I also wanted them to get use to having another team press us because it really helps with our transition game which is our strength.

What I want to stress more is the need to work on everyone being more defensive minded with everyone trying to win the ball first and waiting until we win the vs. half getting the ball and the other half waiting to take off down the field. This will prevent us from having players unmarked when the other teams are transitioning against us.

The second goal we gave up was just a fluke off a funny bounce. The girl misskicked the ball and when Emma went to pick up the slow roller it hit a bump or rock and just went over her head.

We scored quickly after that on a great transition. Great movement, working the ball up the field by passing and we did a great job of following. I'm not sure but I think it was Tayler and Hope on that combo but I think 6-7 passes were strung together on that play. The score was 2-1 at that time and we were doing a good back and forth with them.

The third goal we gave up was just a bad decision. When we are in the box with the ball being pressured by #s we just have to clear the ball and set up defensively against the corner . We've talked a lot about this. We cant try and turn with the ball in our box when we are out numbered.

Tactically we knew what to do and our field position and movement wasn't too bad during this game. Our execution could have been better with passing and touch. The positive of it was this was an extremely good team. Going into this tournament they are the favorite to win it all.

Things I want to work after this game. Our touch was a little rough as a team during this game. . How much are we practicing at home? On finishing we are still taking too many touches before we shoot. Were working on this.

I still want to see more shots from our mids. Our shots off crosses have dropped so we need to get back on that focus. When we took them deep and crossed we were very dangerous. The challenge again will be to have our mids take shots from the middle so that we are not so predictable on the outside.

It may have been a 3-1 loss but we never gave up and we did not have any major let downs. After the game their coach really complemented the girls and wants to get together to play some more.

2-0 loss to Toro Booyah.

Let's say with their B team cheering in my ear it didn't start me off in a good mood it was difficult for me to stay focused so I applaud the girls for shutting it out as well as they did. It did fire up the Booyah team though.

We knew what to expect from Booyah. They have good team speed and worked the ball well. The first goal we gave up I still can't believe it went in or how it when. They followed with a second goal on a pretty good cross and follow. We were just a step off from preventing the goal. This is an example of body positioning we've been working on for long time. Our back side who had the player marked needed to start getting body position and running the backside out of position as they were working down the field vs. waiting until the ball was passed to get position.

As we continue to play at the higher levels we have to pick up our level of play away from and without the ball. ( That's a coaching piece), it will come from repetition and accountability of execution.

Booyah has improved since last year but we were right there with them. The second half we played with a great deal of heart and pushed ourselves to step up our individual game. We forced Booyah to start making poor passes, we forced them into clearing the ball and they were really getting wore down. They had girls wanting off the field due to exhaustion. We are playing the down sized 30 minute halves which doesn't play well to our strength of conditioning.

I thought we played a more complete game tonight. Again we had some great opportunities to get back in this game but we didn't capitalize when we should have. We had several break aways that we took one too many touches or took a bad dribble or touch which killed the run but lastly we just need to shoot the perfect shot isn't always going to be there. Oh yeah, I don't complain a lot about the refs but this lady was terrible. (enough said)


3-2 loss to Glavin.
If you couldn't tell from the sideline or from what the girls may have told you I was a bit upset about our total team execution during this game. Glavin was not the best team we played in this tournament but they worked hard and we had some terrible break downs during the first half.

I got on the girls for not following our team tactics and for not giving a complete effort on the execution of our team team tactics. ( going through the motions)

They came out with a little more focus and really put a great deal of pressure on Glavin. We tied the game up 2-2 by the middle of the second half and we were really putting them on their heals.

The girls did a better job of everyone working to the ball. This was a physical team not quite to the technical level of the other teams but they were aggressive. I don't want to say they were cheap but it was as close as you can get.

We did everything we could do in this game but once again put the ball in the goal. We had some great transitions and some great individual efforts. Obviously finishing under pressure is going to be a focus.

We gave up a goal on a almost half field shot with 10 seconds to go. Not quite the way you want to loose a game. This was a very up and down frustrating game. The challenge will be to get them fired up for this last game. We are going to be playing a very good TSC White team. If we come out flat or down they will give us a good thumping. They beat Glavin 5-1 and they beat us 3-1 back in August a week after we got back from Sweden.


TSC White 0-0 Tie

While I would have like to have gone home with a win this was a great way to end the tournament. The girls played one of the best games they have played. We had TSC on the defensive almost 80% of the game.

TSC is always physical and this game was no different than any we have had before with them. I warned the girls before the game to expect a brawl and it was.

It was a very good team effort from everyone. We had some great defensive efforts and we attacked very well. As expected when you play a very good team they had some opportunities but we played a great bend but don't break defense. As expected a majority of our opportunities came off a transition. We also created many opportunities when everyone made the effort to play defense first. We won allot more balls, put allot of pressure on them, forcing bad decisions, bad passes and allot of miss kicks.

While we didn't win and the "fail to finish" monster was present again. I really liked the effort and execution during this game. It took a lot of character to come out for this last game after loosing the first three and not give up.

Summary:

I would say overall a very competitive weekend. Every game was a battle and their was no give me's.
I watched the Torah Booyah & the Hurricanes play their last game. Booyah controlled the ball a majority of the game and it was 0-0 at half. Like us Booyah had chances but just couldn't create a shot. When the break aways finally happened for the Hurricanes they went down and scored and won 2-0. We love to attack and its our strength. But its a defensive mind set that is going to win us games at this level. We have to have everyone playing with the intent to win the ball first and then when an opportunity opens up we have to attack hard. That is soccer at the next level. When we fail to play that way and expect to attack attack attack, these good teams will be able to over come that approach.

A big thank you to Anna Beffor for guest playing with us. We don't use guest players often and it spoke volumes about our girls. They took her right under their wing and supported her as if she was one of their own. I thank you parents for showing being kind to her family and providing support for them during this as well. It was fun to watch her tenacity against those players twice her size and she played very well with the girls.

Up next is LRFC Blue on Nov 1 here at home, we will be fired up for this one.

Capital City Cup

Sorry it took to get this summary in.




This was a very mixed results tournament for us. Obviously we experienced some frustration as a team by struggling to put the ball in the goal. Through out all the matches we owned a majority of the shots on goal vs. our opponents but by not finishing we lost a game and made the rest much closer than what they needed to be.





LRFC 0-1 loss.


This game really set the tone for the whole tournament. The girls controlled the ball for close to 90% of this game. I think we had to have out shot them 20- to 2 or 3. The goal we gave up on the corner was a culmination of mistakes. We made a mistake on possession then failed to get back and attempt to win the ball which forced a corner. We then did a poor job of judging the ball and they had a player in the right place to head in the goal.

One thing I will be working on with the girls is resetting the ball when we have it pressed down in the attacking third. When the defense is packed in with numbers we cant keep forcing shots. We have to be able to pull the ball back to spread the defense to find an opening.



A very disappointing loss. The good thing is that LRFC asked me two days prior to the tournament to not have this game count towards any of our league games, which I agreed to. We have our rematch with LRFC on November 1st with out state league game here. Needless to say I will make sure we are more than geared up for this game.





2-1 win over Hurricanes


A very tough and physical game. The girls came out hot with a focus that in order to get back at LRFC we had to win all our games. We scored our first goal within about 2 minutes of the start of the game and the second shortly there after due to a penalty in the box. We had a number of chances in the first half to put 2 or 3 more goals in and just did not finish. The second half picked up right where the first left off. While we had a number of shots on goal I think we about 4 or 5 more legit opportunities that we should have capitalized on. The goal we gave up was due to a defensive break down and a really good shot on goal. I attempted to rotate our formation a number of times. We tend to struggle a little defensively when we drop to a 1-3-4-2 with a sweeper in the back. The girls do adjust back very well when we go back to a 4 or 5 flat in the back. We will keep working on this formation as we have to be able to run with a sweeper when we match up the top teams.





Thunder Black 96 1-1 tie


This was a tough little team. I had tried the 1-3-4-2 formation again and we just struggled with being able to rotate and mark with a sweeper in back. This team did a nice job with the one touch give n goes up through the middle and it exposed us for awhile. When we adjusted back to our 4 flat back we took control of the game again, but we struggled on finishing. We had a whole bunch of opportunities and we either made one too many passes or just fluffed the ball up for a shot. We did a better job of winning the ball in the middle during the second half of this game and I have to give the girls credit for never letting up.



One caution I want to put to the parent side line is staying positive with the girls. This complaint came from the girls. I realize we all are looking for a win and we all were getting frustrated by the lack of scoring execution on the field but fighting with the girls is not going to help. They also see the little gestures, etc. They cant get it from both sidelines and need some support from the parents side.



Parents should also expect the other team to push us and get shots on goal. As we continue to play higher level of play this is going to happen. I really would like to see more of it at times, we are a very good transition team and we have better scoring opportunities when teams push the ball in on us.



We also go a little luck by getting to play in the finals. The girls played some solid defense and only allowing 1 goal against some of these types of teams is pretty good.


2-1 win in the finals.

The finals really was a frustrating game to watch. The score could have easily been about 5 or 6 to 1. We have to finish. We did so many good things tactically and the small defensive break down was really pretty minor compared to the good things we did tactically. I wont dwell anymore on this.


My focus in practice these last two weeks has been on keeping possession, resetting the game, watching our defensive shape and position as well as keeping the intensity level high.



This weekend I want to level set everyone from an expectation standpoint. If we can minimize our mistakes and finish when our opportunities develop we will be fine. I dont anticipate us to have has many opportunities as we had this last tournament so when they do develop it will be imperative for us to capitalize on them.

Again sorry to take so long to get the blog up.

Region 3 Premier League - Louisanna

We just completed our final long road trip for our region league games. Thank you all for your support. Exposing the girls to the top notch competition in the region is really helping them improve their team game and individual game as well.



Game 1 a 1-0 loss to Mandeville

I think everyone has heard about this game. The girls really controlled this game from the beginning to the end. The score was tied 0-0 at the half but we had really taken it to them both tactically and physically. They were tired and the coach really let them have it about what he felt was a lack of effort. The second half picked right back up, but about 7 minutes into the half we had just a small mix up and found ourselves out numbered on a short break away and gave up a easy goal. For the next 28 minutes the girls gave a really good effort. Obviously out shooting them 27 or so to 4 we had alot of really good opportunities and we came so close a number of times. This was really a disappointing loss.



The girls did a great job of winning the 50-50 balls and finding the passing lanes. We worked the middle and the outside much better than we did vs. Mississippi.

I challenged the girls to see who could take their individual game to the next level. I asked them who could be a difference maker. Individually we played a much better game both mentally and physically.
Tactically we have been focusing on the tempo of our game and being able to time our runs better. I thought they really did a much better job of this.
The girls really played a very good game. I thought our forwards pressed much harder than they had in previous games and really played with some heart. Our center mids did a much better job of keeping their spacing between each other and were able to control the field alot better. They created well and took shots when they had to.
The outside mids had a strong showing. We are doing a better job of coming back and winning balls in the middle with our outside mids. Defensively we rotated formations quite a bit to keep the attack off balance and our defenders did a great job of this. They are doing a great job of recognizing formations and how to react to them.

Game 2 Lafreniere Sting 3-0 win
This team was a very quality team. They had great field presence, passed the ball well and knew how to play possession soccer.
Athletically they matched up fairly well with us, however, the girls played with a great deal of intensity. The girls really frustrated the other coach as we continually won a majority of the 50-50 balls as well as coming from behind to win balls.
I don't think we played as well tactically as we did the night before. When we did get pressed we forced a few passes that kept us from getting scoring opportunities. We did manage several legitimate chances to score. We actually had a shot off a corner that I really thought the goalie was all the way in the goal when she caught it but we didn't get the call. So I thought here we go again. Once we did get the first goal in we seemed to play a little more relaxed and then did a much better job of playing a controlled tempo game.


We switched formations quite a bit during this game and went with a single forward. Our forwards really had to work hard. A great example is when Paige pressed the goalie hard on a shot one of our mids took and as the goalie dropped the ball Paige was there to pick her pocket for our second goal.

As we took the 2-0 lead into the half we talked about not letting up and playing more of a possession type game. I went to a 1-4-4-1 formation to start the half. I felt going with a sweeper would make us less vulnerable to the through balls. The other coach did a pretty good job of adjusting to it and it actually pushed us further into our own third vs what I intended for it to do. They pushed us pretty hard for about 10 minutes. Although they did not get any real clean shots off we did get a questionable hand ball call on us just outside the 18. They had a great shot for their only goal of the game off of the penalty kick.

I then switched us back to a 4 flat in the back that forced their attackers higher up the field. I really think our middle defenders prefer playing this formation. Our outside defenders then stepped up and really took away the outside attack they were using to try and create opportunities.
Our center and outside mids did a great job of stepping up and winning the balls in the middle and put so much pressure on the other side they could not gain possession of the ball.
I think we out shot them in this game 21 or so to 3 or 4.

Overall a pretty solid weekend of play. The girls are really starting to recognize and apply the things we are working on. I've really thought when we have played to our ability and minimized the mistakes we have been right in every game we have played for the league.
The Capital City Cup should be challenging with the Hurricanes, LRFC and a solid 96 Thunder team and then we should have an extremely challenging weekend at the Hurricane Cup so some good soccer yet to come for the remaining part of the fall season.

Our goal has been to take our level of play to the next level, which is very tough to do, but the effort and desire are there and I think the girls are making great strides right now.

Let me know your thoughts on doing the premier league.
thanks
Doug

Mississippi Premier Games

First a thank you to the van drivers and riders. We had a lot of fun in Van#1 and I could see (when Rob was close enough) that Van #2 was enjoying themselves as well.


Also in an unrelated item a big thank you to Tom D. He scored a big one for all the men out there by remembering his anniversary when it just happened to slip Vicki D's mind. I am glad that I was present to enjoy it first hand Sunday morning. Happy 23rd!!


The weather was really a non event for us. We encountered some rain and wind just as we were leaving Jackson for about 20 minutes and that was it. We were a bit concerned about fuel availability so to error on the side of caution we took on fuel each time we stopped but the fuel piece really was a non event as well.


Now on to the games.

We had two focus items going into this weekend.
1) Do a better job of keeping possession of the ball and minimizing the unforced turn overs.

2) Work on becoming more physically and mentally tough. I talked about this a great deal before the first game.
I define the physical toughness as being able to play through the bumps and bruises that take place during a game. Being able to handle the collisions and to keep playing on. At this level the physical play will continue to be a part of the game.
The mental toughness piece is being able to play through the individual adversities and learning to deal with what I call the "gamesmanship" part of the game. An adversity could be defined as getting knocked around and not getting the call from the ref or getting beat by an opponent in a 1v1 situation and keeping the desire to keep going. The 'Gamesmanship" is the grabbing of jerseys or arms or the slight nudge or hit after a play or when the ref isn't looking. I wouldn't call it dirty play but its a part of the game at this level that some players use to intimidate the opponent.


Game 1 vs. Gulf Coast United loss 2-1


According to this team's web site they are ranked #1 in Mississippi, #3 in region III and 15th nationally. I really thought that after a 9 hour car drive to come out and play a team of this caliber the way we did spoke volumes as to how far our game has come.


The girls came out fired up and it was a back and forth game most of the half. We gave up a goal on a defensive mistake in the first half to go into half down 1-0. But aside from that we played a pretty solid half. The girls were able to change defensive formations on the fly without any confusion and it helped us set up off sides trap all night. We had some pretty solid play individually with our defenders and goalies in this game. When the other team did get break aways, the defenders kept enough pressure on the ball that it did not allow a clean shot on goal or a tactical advantage on a crossing pass. I was disappointed in our transition game though. Normally this is one of our strengths and we only took advantage of it occasionally. We did have our chances offensively in the first half, we just need to pull the trigger when we are in the box and not wait for the "perfect" shot. We also need to be more aggressive on going after the ball once we are inside the other teams box.
The girls passed the ball very well in this game. We dropped the ball back several times to reset the offense and our defenders and mids did a great job of dropping to give depth and spreading to give width without being told, they moved pretty well without the ball.

The goal we gave up early in the second half was just a brief defensive break down between our mids and defenders another 10 second mistake. They pushed us pretty hard for about the next 15 minutes. Our defenders really stepped up their effort. Mango and Ashley had some great stops. Kate had to fight off about 4 or 5 big break aways in a row. I think Kate's gutsy effort really helped inspire the girls. She was tired and hurting and kept going until I was finally able to sub her out. We then attacked very hard after this and got our goal with about 10 minutes left in the game. In the last 10 minutes we kept them on their heals but they did a good job of clearing the ball and keeping us out.

A very solid game. it was a lot of fun to watch.

Game 2 : 3-1 loss against Mississippi Fire

To put it very simply not one of our best showings. This team was not as good as the other team we just played poorly. Perhaps the long van rides finally caught up to us on Sunday.
Tactically we did fine, the field position and movement were just how it needed to be. But we were not winning the 50-50 balls and about 10 minutes into the game we just went flat. We were getting beat to the ball and we were making very poor passes and most of the time directly to the other team. It's not that they were taking away passing lanes we just did a very poor job and it wasn't just one or two players it was everyone.
This would be the need to work on our mental and physical toughness and in this game it really made it self known by some of the efforts that took place. Enough said on this though I addressed it.
The first goal we gave up I really question. The other team had a corner that we had not cleared. They kicked it directly to Emma but the A.R.said she was in the goal when she caught it. I think her feet may have been but I don't think the ball ever crossed the line. After that we just never got our act fully together for the rest of that half. He wasn't the best A.R. we have ever had. Even the LRFC parents got on him.

In the second half we had two player errors that allowed two break away goals. We didnt let it get us to down but offensively we really only mounted 3 or 4 solid attacks in the second half but we were able to put in a goal on a cross to TW midway through the half.

We talk a great deal about wins and losses. But our big focus is really on improving our game. I really think doing this league is the right thing to do to prepare us for the next level. While it would be great to get over that hump and put a up "W" I do like how we are starting to execute both as a team and individually.

I do get a little concerned about the girls mental well being when we loose a few games in row like this, it's not something that happens to us very often. It does however, level set us to know that we have to keep working and that we are not on the top yet.

Tactically I wont be adding any more new things this season. We are going to work on execution of what we have learned and consistency.

Overall I would grade out Saturday as an A- and Sunday as a C+.

I will be sending some notes on plans for our next trip in the next day or so.

Practice Tuesday & Thursday at 6 pm at Sugar Creek. Sunday is still up in the air as to where we can practice.

Thanks
Doug

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