Meh

Meh /me/

informal, exclamation
1. expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm. "Meh. I'm not impressed so far"
adjective
1. uninspiring; unexceptional. "a lot of his movies are … meh"

It has been some time since I sat down and put pen to paper about my favorite group of players, Fusion FC Lightning. I have had at least a dozen started and unfinished items, which I shorten up and then pass along to the parents directly. After this past Saturday though, I believe it is definitely appropriate to give them a public shout out as even in their “Meh” kind of outings, they are still making improvements and showing resolve and solidarity as a team where they would not have before. 

Saturday started weird. A day that appeared it was going to warm up and resulted in cold, windy conditions and saw players digging through each other’s bags to find clothing to put on. Karolyn ended up with Makayla’s shirt and Anna’s pants. Warm-ups were a little off, but nothing out of the ordinary…meh. My daughter warned me so maybe my fault, but I did tell Lightning this team moved up 4 divisions from last season, which should not be an issue as they all know (and I said that day) they should always play every team as if it’s the best team they’ll ever play each time they hit the pitch…meh. Match started well, decent ball movement and 1v1 battles for space nothing impressive or inspiring…meh…and we ended the half at 0-0…meh. Second half is where most things started to play out and "Meh" disappeared.

About 4 minutes in we had a corner kick, good ball placement by Caitlyn, but keeper got it. Everyone retreated, a little brainfart, midfield had their backs to the keeper and weren’t moving with the other team, good punt, no coordinated organization with midfield and backs and in less than 30 seconds from corner kick set up, Lightning was down 0-1. 

It’s in these situations they have tended to buckle, get worried, get on each other, over commit, or do too much. They didn’t do any of that. Kick off came, Karolyn drove straight down toward the goal and for the next 4 minutes they had it in the other team’s end except for one moment where it popped into our end and our Keeper, at that time, Ellis with no hesitation from the prior goal aggressively moved out of the penalty box to help her defenders push the play back to the attacking end. We grabbed a second corner kick and I believe for the first time this season connected on that set piece play. Karolyn drove a shot off another perfect placement by Caitlyn between the 6-yard box and the 18 right toward the back-line defender for a deflection and, not for the first time this season, Makayla cleaned up the trash (I think I have a new nickname for her now). 1-1. 

For the next 7 minutes we had shots on goal by Makayla, Caitlyn, Colby and Bella. Our opponent struggled to get past our middle third. Then they had one penetrating opportunity, which we defended well and moved the play out wide and randomly, unfortunately was immediately put back on goal by a nice chip to hit the opposite post. 1-2. Down again and fifteen minutes left.

Again, no folding, no complaints, ball back up to center and a drive toward goal with a shot by Lillian deflected out for a third corner. Ball up by Caitlyn and just missing a curve into the far corner. 9 more minutes pass, Lightning is still highly composed, moving the ball, they have a couple close calls, but Kelsey stayed poised in goal moving out aggressively as needed and then with 7 minutes left, a fourth corner for Lightning.

Another good placement, ball slides through and our outside defender Countsy has slid up to collect the ball through for a shot, but nothing doing. Counter attack ensues, Countsy does a good job recovering from being down in the attacking third to defend, ball pushes through for a shot, Kelsey with a save but it deflects. The ball lies loose in front of the goal for a second, but the defense and back line was organized this time for Anna and Caitlyn to collect and punch it out wide and out of bounds; 5 ½ minutes to go.

Well defended throw, Bella covered the weak side of the field to collect the ball as it came through. She takes it up field, Ellis makes the forward parallel run and as Bella crosses into the middle attacking half, she places a nice through ball onto Ellis’s feet who then makes the run into the corner (doesn't seem like much, unless you knew where Ellis's game vision was last season and Bella's trust of her teammates was, this was something). Bella doesn’t stop her movement forward (Coach Ben's mantra "never ask when to start moving, ask when to stop"), she follows in a paced walk towards center and back to her left side space as Ellis works off multiple defenders for a crossing pass into the middle near the 18. No one has picked Bella up who crashes into the centering ball. 2-2. Five minutes left.

No shots or defensive third penetration for over 5 minutes and with two minutes remaining, off a Countsy goal kick, Karolyn chips a one timer to Caitlyn driving back down into the attacking corner and suddenly trapped, Caitlyn professionally places a ball off the defender for a Lightning throw in. Like her corners, she places the throw into the 6-yard box. It is defended well and moves out slightly past the 18 where Ellis (coaching points learned and implemented, keeping depth with her strikers) has been roaming at center mid. She one touches to Makayla in her outside right mid role. Makayla takes a shot, which is toe deflected out…Lightning corner kick number five, 1 ½ to go.

Corner is up, through the middle where Bella has made the low run from the outside unobstructed, sliding past the far post defender to place it on a one timer into the net. 3-2. Unrelenting they continued the attack from the kick off for one more minute to complete the match.

Coach takeaways:

What I learned myself after having a chance to watch the match again on video is that Lightning’s “Meh” is actually pretty good. It is them stepping towards treating every game in a highly professional manner, really absorbing and implementing what they are being taught (which is sometimes hard to see among distracted 11 and 12 year olds 😊), knowing they can continue to work the game even when they are down, even multiple times, and be successful as a group.

My highlight of the match wasn't on the field. No, not all those great set piece goals or the composure, but what happened on the bench.  We have 4 goalies; they take turns. I was ready to pull Karolyn to suit up. Behind me, Kelsey says, "Coach Ben, I'll take keeper." I said you already played and it's her turn. Kelsey says, "It's okay, Karolyn's touch is looking really great up there (as a a striker), she should stay there and help the team out." WOW, that was truly awesome. Players on the bench watching the game.

Well done my Lightning ladies and apologies for the long-time lapse!

U8ttitude

Fusion FC U8 kids finally got to play some games this weekend and all the practices before the season showed up in each match played. U8 boys Rattlesnakes and U8 girls Green and U8 Girls Grey put on a display of skill and vision Coach Suli, Jeff and I did not expect and a nice downpour during both girls games made the day wet, but even better for them.

I must preface by saying how much the local rec league (NKSL) is being progressive toward kid development by putting in a midfield playout line on goal kicks and not allowing shooting until teams get into the attacking half, which pushes a lot of teams to learn how to possess the ball and play our from the back. This being said...

The U8 Boys Rattlesnakes opened things up early in the morning in a back and forth match against a group of boys who may have actually been trained by the Cobra Kai. It was a match of brute force ankle chopping versus persistent skill. The boys gave into the kickball in the middle of the match, but we placed a three touch requirement on them before doing anything else and it seemed to calm them back down. Some of my favorite highlights from the match were:

-A nice in the air corner kick and one touch on the knee by Owen B in front of the goal for the score. Not sure I have ever seen that in U8 play. I asked Owen if he meant to do that and he of course with a head shake said, "Yes!"...hmmmm :-)
-Cody B chasing down a ball to his defensive corner and performing a run over between the legs to turn and change direction back to the field of play rather than letting the ball go out.
-Hugh R moving up the parent sideline and yelling "Square-Square!" when he saw his teammate get the ball in the center of the field.
-Jameson C performing a two touch double pull back 8 yards from his goal and figuratively "breaking the ankles" of the opposing team so nicely, they fell to the ground.

What was the actual score result? I wasn't really sure, but the parents were having a good time using the Club's new team tool to post game items and I believe we ended on the minus side by one at 6-7, which tells me...competitive game? Check! Lots of scoring chances? Check! Lots of individual skill and a few non-taught pieces of team work? Check! Well done Rattlesnakes!

The girls teams played across town from each other at the same time, which is fine, except we were missing a few players. There are only 13 total between two teams for 5v5 play so it was a more than a little hairy for Grey when they started their match with only 3 players against the other team's bench of 9. Grace, Emma, and Alyssa apparently had no issue with it and before long Coach Suli had to ask the girls to work more and more on their skill work and touches as those three little ones had about half a dozen in the net and the other team had none. They finished playing the match with Brooklyn at 4v5 and managed the game in stride. While the score result is only a tally marker at this age for treats from grandma and grandpa, the true result was a team down players did not sit back on their heels, but put themselves forward in attack mode without a care.

Green seemed like seasoned veterans in their match. The rain was intense for a while and I was worried some would shut down, but by the second half, every player had done the push run over between the legs move and worked on their carryover dribbling so I began asking them to try a skill move we had not yet worked on to see if they would take the chance to try something new with only a minute or two instruction on the sideline. I don't believe anyone was able to complete it, but the number of unintended pullback and push forward moves with the ball was fun to watch. Afterwards, my first question is always, "did you have fun?", "YES!", then I asked, "are you cold?" and the response to that was a resounding "NO!"

Result for both girls matches? Experience of difficult playing conditions? Check! Lots of scoring opportunities? Check! Skill, skill and more skill? Check! Smiling faces afterwards? Check! Great work to the U8 ladies!

I would like to thank the club where the girls played. They had multiple games going on that day. The field next to us was setting up a team tent and since they weren't scheduled to play for a bit, they moved the tent to our field and set it up between both teams so the girls could keep out of the rain when they weren't playing. Was any animosity seen between teams? Nope, only kid giggles and trying to shake water off the sides of the tent and one of the girls from the other team showing me how she could also do the run over move, awesome. :-)

Coach Ben! It's okay I got it!

I have started and stopped a dozen or so posts over the last year because like everyone else we just have a lot going on and on top of that I have been all into helping build our new club, but now it's time to get back to it.

Monday 4/24, U11 Lightning had a friendly, which ended up being a very professional and competitive match.  Lightning played very well and it was the third of such well played matches in as many days.  I'm not sure if it was the turning of a corner, but it certainly is a great trend.

The group has been on a new journey, one which I have them working to stretch their soccer brains to begin seeing more than just themselves and one maybe two fixed possibilities in front of them.  I am asking them to start taking a look at what may be based on their own creation as a group and boy has it been messy.

They have been working diligently to implement just as they did when we began to get them to stop seeing the end result and trust in their ability to deceptively move the ball, but be totally okay when it fails.  Unfortunately, these great kids are trying to please to a fault and began forgetting all of their foundation work, which helped them get to where they are now.  The new effort took its toll on them, they lost their way as a group, started fracturing, blaming and discounting each other behind their teammates' backs.

It has been tough going from growth into a successful group over several years of tough work to being one goal on the short end every game, but in the last two weeks we regrouped and renewed with a commitment to each other and an understanding we are all still learning and will all still continue to make mistakes.  Only trust in each other will elevate them and allow them to grow now.  It was forced upon them by Coach Kyle and I along with some pretty serious consequences for poor supportive behavior, but with the knowledge this would help them once they grew up and left the world of soccer behind.  They were super mature about, which already spoke volumes about where they were to where they are now.

Our last three matches have shown they believe in what we talked about.  They got back to basics and had so many great moments to support it, I had to reign them in before they got lost.

Saturday we came out super strong and pushed ahead quickly, but they lacked the ability to maintain the same energy in the second half and the other squad tied it up with about ten minutes to go.  It would have been the first win of the season and both goals happened on just one of our four goalies watches.  I talked to them the next day about the effort to finish, I would have done so right afterward, but they had a better moment to celebrate.  After the first goal to bring to 2-1, Kelsey our keeper got a little frazzled, I told her it was fine to stay strong, then the second goal hit and the game ended seconds later.  Kelsey was tears, marching off the field vowing to never play keeper again.

The team two weeks ago would have hung their heads and probably had a look or two as if it was her fault, but without a beat as she hit the sideline, and before shaking the other team's hands, each and every one of the Lightning girls propped her up with supportive words and phrases, "It's not your fault", "It's okay.", "It had to get through all of us to get to you." and more, along with a few hugs.  Our game end talk was awesome and you could feel the energy preparing them for the next match.

The next day we met up with a team we had previously had a 0-0 draw against and still the top team in our division.  Lightning came out with a dominant performance and so many great opportunities.  The other team Sky was defensively tough, it looked like another 0-0 draw was in our future, but a near last minute goal took us down.  The game was a complete full match effort, no giving up or letting down.  Again no disappointment or heads down, Lightning knew they played very well each and every one of them...although there may have been a few miffed "whatevers" to a missed handball call leading up to the other team's goal.  :-)

We ended our run where I began, with that competitive friendly.  You'd expect a team who by all appearances from their record would be one you'd want to compete against for a comfy win, but not the team which has been running these last two weeks.  A final outstanding performance before a well deserved eleven day break.  Renewed confidence in their 1v1 skills opened up many great opportunities for cooperative play.  The renewed trust in each other allowed them to take those 1v1 chances and put opportunities into space for their teammates to play; all of what we had been working on, but with them not knowing it was happening.  One of these occurred when Karolyn who normally plays back line got the call to be a forward.  She took the ball into the right attacking end corner and took two defenders with her.  It left the center space above the 18 wide open.  Karolyn saw an opportunity as her center mid Maryah came through and placed the ball into her feet where Maryah had a nice chip shot, which fell behind the keepers head for the goal.

It was still a very close match and the score was again 2-1 Lightning, as it had been just two days before, when the culmination of the current team build we were on happened during the middle of the second half.  One of our center backs at the time Anna was making a great run through the center of the field and no one was rotating back to cover for her. I looked for the center mid Maryah and began asking for her to retreat.  Before I even get a full sentence out, I hear our teary eyed goalie from the other day belt out, "Coach Ben! It's okay I got it!" Kelsey had recognized the run, Anna's center back role empty and our center mid Maryah's role supporting the run and shifted from the right mid role to cover.

Nothing symbolized how far Lightning's soccer brains have come than a player overcoming serious challenges to not retreat in upon herself, have the comfort and confidence to put herself in a near last girl defensive role and to yell out to her coach in a match, which was at a disturbingly similar point as the earlier one.

Great job Lightning and great run so far.  Looking forward to seeing where we go from here!

Rewarding Effort

Linking up a post from our club's new Field Journal. http://nkyfusionfc.com/rewarding-effort/

Endings

​Long Memorial Day weekend of soccer with my girls is over and the forced end to a ton of time put forth into the long-term growth of a great group of girls. A few are leaving who can't and won't be replaced so I look forward to the coming fall when we'll take everyone else and build something new.

Lightning Storm and Lightning Strike put it all out there knowing this was the end of something built slowly over the last three years, something done with purpose and dedication to grow every player into their own force on the field.  I have always said these are kids who came with whatever they had as raw or naturally gifted as they may have been in the beginning to end up being something no teams we played against understood.  Some appreciated it, some disdained, some thought it was a gimmick, but now as these girls have begun implementing it along with the other more visible aspects of the game, such as passing and tactics, it is clear it is no gimmick and it is a huge offensive and defensive advantage to have independent decision makers who can identify a wide array of opportunities for themselves and their teammates.

They were never placed into defined roles on the field and thus have a mental advantage on their age related peers understanding what to do whenever/wherever they may end up in the course of a match, assigned or due to player movement.  I can sit down and explain new ideas to them and they quickly latch on to them because they have moved past the point of being afraid of trying new things.

The size of their opponents is no barrier now as they all understand brains and skill are more mighty than brawn.  They too all know eventually they will catch up to the big kids and that physical advantage will disappear as well.

Unfortunately, I know I disappeared as well from this space as I spent a lot of time this season and pre-season beginning posts and never getting them out there.  Most of my waking and sleeping hours have been spent thinking of the future of my eighteen U10 Lighting girls, eight U8 Stars girls and their nine training mates from Coach Brad's, and eleven U12 Fusion boys and girls and their training mates from other teams due to the age rule insanity placed upon us as youth coaches.  It is a terrible thing to feel your family being stripped away and dismantled.

My hope is all will land on their feet with other good soccer families, but for them to know the door is always open to get feedback and help from this coach.

A Storm of Lightning Strikes to finish out the season

The picture above is what would seem to be a goal celebration, but that’s our team’s goalie right behind them.  It wasn’t a goal scoring celebration, it was a goal saving celebration.  It highlights Lightning Storm and Lightning Strike’s growth this season as a group. 

The U10 Select girls’ goals for the season were communication and role responsibilities.  Certainly, we pushed them hard on learning new deceptive skills and began working on high touch ball movement work between players to level up their offensive and defensive awareness, but every drill in training we asked them to talk to one another, before each game we asked them to not only warm up their bodies, but their voices as well and in every game opportunity we pushed them to move up and down and back and forth across the field to stay with the direction of play and assume specific responsibilities when they were off the ball.

I am happy to say they nailed it.

The photo above captures how these girls have gone from watching the game, and thinking someone else will take care of a problem for them, to anticipating what’s going to happen and taking care of what they are owners of on the field.  In this particular instance, a quick counter attack by the opposing team resulted in one defender moving to the corner to intercept the play while the other defender shifted to center along with the goalie who moved toward the post nearest the play.  

The initial defender was beat so the second defender moved in to intercept, which left the middle open for a second attacker who moved into the space.  It was a clear easy goal opportunity, which the attacker with the ball took and moved the ball to center to surprise the goalie who had her back to the play.  The shot came off and you could hear the goal cheers starting, but out of nowhere the second defender had quickly turned and flew in to punch the ball right off the top of the goal line to the far side of the field and out of bounds.  Cheers quickly switched from one side to the other.

This ownership of the space and awareness of the game is a critical leap for girls who last spring (4 ½ months ago) were content with the game primarily being just them and the ball for as long as they could have it and then once it was gone, well, it was up to the next person to have their chance.

We saw this ownership and awareness blossom all season long as players on both Storm and Strike began intuitively swapping space as play shifted allowing a back player, who had the ball moving toward them, to make quick counter attacks while the top player moved past them settled into a defensive role.  It was noticed by quite a few opposing coaches because it was always as if we had an available defender on any change of possession.

This past weekend during our final season tournament Storm and Strike put it all on display and Coach David and I couldn't have been prouder of the results of the Lightning group and each player.  It showcased to teams in upper divisions and in other clubs, who had not heard of us, what the future holds.  When we return in the spring, we’ll enjoy the knowledge that when we show up in our colors, stake down our tent…and take up most of the sidelines with our cadre of supporters…those other teams and clubs will have already been talking about us.

Capping off the season

The fall season is coming to a screeching halt this weekend with the teams I have coached or worked with having their final training sessions and games and it is always pleasing to see the looks of disappointment on their faces when you tell them.

I can say for certain, every player I have worked with is a better player in some form over the last three months we have been together.  As we have said in the past, at the club, for these young players, their development changes by leaps and bounds in the matter of a small period, which for adults seems like the blink of an eye and sometimes we don’t always see the changes as they happen.  I recap after each game with parents calling out so many little things I see, which are different week to week for each player and parents consistently ask, “How do you see all of that?”  Simple answer is, I am watching.

I believe Coach Pat highlighted it all in good manner again with his statement about his U9 group,

“…our Girl Power squad is now one hundred and eight months old.  This means that the last three months of soccer represent more than 1% of her total life experience.  In most contexts 1% of anything doesn't seem like a significant amount but think of how long three months is if you've only been alive for one hundred and five months.  Think of how many things you would be doing in those three months that would be completely new to you, how many new experiences you'd be having and how much you'd be learning.  When you're eight or nine years old one soccer season is a long time.”

NKLegends SC Blog - Perspective

For the U8 group under Coach Brad and me, it has been eye opening for them to be the two teams who were just turning 6 and played in the lowest division of recreational play last spring (D4).  They were annihilated continuously and this season, only a few months after spring, they are going around their peers with Maradonas, Stop Hops, and carryover dribbling, as if they standing still.

For the U9 Academy and U10 Jrs, it was all about lots of new faces and watching them all erase, then embrace confident and deceptive ball skills.  Their enjoyment of the game increased and more times than not, for the U10 Jrs, they were asking me at the end what the score was and if they won.  They had no idea because they were enjoying themselves too much.

For the U12 Jrs, there were also a bunch of new faces, but many old ones.  The old ones had the skill background, but had to come to grips with whole new teams and work to understand one another while continuing to master individual skills and spatial awareness.  Their biggest realization was they were now old enough to understand they could learn and apply new concepts about the latter at the same time.

Each of these groups will have some time off, but I can’t to see what they have in store for next season.